Admiral Mantan, the commander of the [Yegong River], learned of the clashes on the Franco-Siamese border half an hour before the departure of the ship, and the Bangkok command did not inform them of the situation of the battle, but only told them to pay careful attention when they returned.

At that time, the coastal defense ship was docked in Nakhon Thamon on the Malay Peninsula, carrying seventy officer trainees from the Royal Naval Academy.

Fearing that the officers and students would make trouble on the ship because of their enthusiasm, the captain did not inform the students of the war, and as a result, it became one of Colonel Mantan's most unforgivable crimes in the post-war court-martial.

The Yegong River could have stayed in the port of Luokun, but because he was worried that the sea area would be blockaded by the French fleet, Colonel Mantan still insisted on setting sail according to the original plan. The voyage was smooth at first, with no French warships encountered on the sea, except for the busy merchant ships, and the captain judged that the French Far East Fleet might not be ready to attack, because the European colonies were usually sluggish in the event of an unexpected incident because of the distance from the mainland.

After lunch, the deck was scorched hot under the scorching sun, except for the officers and lookouts on the bridge, the off-duty sailors and students took refuge in the cabins, opened the portholes and ventilation systems to prepare for a nap, because the home port of Bangkok could be reached before dinner, and the atmosphere on the ship was very peaceful and calm.

At about half past one in the afternoon, the lookout post on the mast spotted an unknown ship in the southwest direction of the ship, and was rapidly approaching the ship. The first mate, who was drowsy, was immediately frightened, he was one of the few officers and men on the ship who knew about it, and the first mate hurriedly notified the captain who was resting through the ship's phone, asking if he wanted to raise the alarm and prepare for battle.

Captain Mantan showed the coolness of a naval officer, and he immediately rejected the first mate's suggestion to sound the alarm. It turned out that the captain was right, this was indeed a false alarm, the unidentified warship was another naval training ship [Phra Luan Wang] sailing out of Pattani, and she also received a telegram from the naval headquarters, and was speeding back to the port of Bangkok at this time.

Although it was an old British R-class destroyer, its speed was much faster than that of the newly built coastal defense ship [Yegonghe].

Because of its dislike that the other party's speed was too slow, the [Paluan Wang] refused the request of the [Yegong River] to form a formation and sail together, and the destroyer swept past the side of the [Yegong River] at a speed of 25 knots, and soon left the coastal defense ship far behind.

[Yegong River] could only continue to cruise at a speed of nine knots, completing her last voyage alone.

At 2:15 p.m., when the temperature was at its highest of the day, the two lookouts on the top of the bridge had no shelter, and their heads were already dizzy from the sun, and they could only rely on constant drinking water to cool down.

"Look what's that? Dolphins? First Class Sailor Naron wiped the sweat from his hands on his uniform and lifted the heavy high-powered telescope again.

"What did you find?" Lonnie, a sailor from the same squad, asked with a water bottle.

"There's a flash of white over there, and now I can't see it." Naron pointed to the sea in the distance.

"Oh, maybe it's a dolphin, do you still need water?" Lonnie shook the kettle.

"Save some drinks, there's still half an hour before you can change shifts." Naron said with a smile to his companion.

"It's a [Yegonghe]-class coastal defense ship." In the command cabin of the U106, Captain Wang handed the identification manual to Captain Robin.

"Fifteen degrees to the right rudder, two-thirds of the two-thirds of the two-car, heading to two hundred and seventy." Robin glanced at the manual, then gave the order to turn.

"This is a new type of coastal defense ship, armed with four 120-millimeter guns, and there is no anti-submarine armament." Igor marked the position and course of the Yegong River on the chart.

"We only have one chance, King, and let your men take a closer look." Robin spoke to several Navy lieutenants in the corner of the command cabin.

"Yes, Captain." Captain Wang took the lead and agreed loudly.

The [Yegong River] lost its last chance to escape, and no one knew that it was less than two thousand meters away from it, and a fierce steel shark was quietly approaching it.

"It's time." Robin looked at the nautical clock on the bulkhead, turned and climbed the escalator to the conning tower enclosure.

"Keep course, Igor." The captain sat down in his dedicated seat inside the enclosure, and then opened the cover on the protective shell of the attack periscope.

"The periscope is in place, Captain." The first mate raised his head and reported loudly.

"Okay, let me see..."Robin put on his battle cap and his eyes were on the periscope.

"She's right there, pretty fellow, facing us on the side, 700 at a distance, heading zero sixty, and speeding nine knots." Robin reported the target parameters, and the first mate entered the data into the torpedo computer.

It is a complex mechanical device that automatically calculates the steering angle required after the torpedo is discharged by inputting the course speed of the boat and the target. At that time, submarines were most accustomed to using direct-sailing torpedoes, which needed to calculate a front angle when attacking moving targets, and the torpedo computer greatly reduced the time consumed by manual calculations, and there would be no calculation errors, wasting valuable attack opportunities in vain.

In order to improve the hit rate, German submarines often fired multiple salvos and used torpedoes to lay a death fan, but even then they often missed for various reasons.

However, this time the U106 has approached within a kilometer of the target, and there is rarely a possibility of a torpedo attack at this distance.

This is also because this coastal defense ship does not have any anti-submarine capabilities, it does not even have a basic listening device, and it is impossible to detect submarines sailing underwater except by searching with the naked eye. The opponent she met again was a veteran of the battlefield with rich combat experience, and from the moment she was targeted by the U106, she had already lost the opportunity to escape.

"The torpedo tube hatch is open." The co-captain reported aloud.

This is the most critical moment, because the air squeezed out when the torpedo tube enters the water can easily reveal the whereabouts of the submarine.

"Torpedo tube No. 1, launch. Torpedo tube No. 2, launch, torpedo tube No. 3, launch. Robin ordered decisively and loudly.

At the captain's command, there were several muffled pops from the bow torpedo compartment of the submarine, and if you were on the scene, you could hear the torpedo rubbing against the rails in the tube.

The piston that locked the tail of the torpedo was pushed by high-pressure gas, pushing the heavy torpedo coated with lubricating oil on the shell more than seven meters long out of the launch tube at a speed of 15 meters per second, and the torpedo engine was immediately activated, pushing the torpedo towards the target at a rapid pace. The piston is retracted into the launch tube along the bottom rail, and the high-pressure gas in the launch tube is also retracted into the submarine by a special pipe.

The whole launch process was completed in one second, in order to control the balance of the hull at the moment of launch, some sailors had to enter the bow torpedo compartment at the same time as the launch, so as to prevent the bow from suddenly rising due to the sudden loss of the weight of the launched torpedo, and the bow suddenly rising due to the increase in buoyancy, which would be fatal on the battlefield.

After the bow ballast tank was filled and balanced, the extra sailors returned to their original posts, and the officers and men of the bow torpedo tank began the next round of reloading.

"Put away the periscope! The right rudder is fifteen degrees and dives to twenty-five meters. "Although the other side does not have anti-submarine equipment in the data, the U106 still carried out evasive maneuvers in accordance with the regulations.

"Fifteen seconds left to reach the target." Igor had a stopwatch in his hand, and everyone in the command cabin waited with bated breath.

"The first shot...."Before the first mate's words fell, a dull roar came from the sea outside the boat, followed by another sound, and after five or six seconds, a third explosion was heard, and a cheer suddenly rang out in the U106 boat.

"Three hits, congratulations, captain." Igor shook his hand and gave Robin a playful military salute.

"It was a perfect attack, worthy of the trump card of the German Navy, and it was an eye-opener for us." Captain Wang and other government officials also stepped forward to congratulate him.

"Fifteen degrees on the left side, one-third of the full speed of the two cars, up to periscope depth." Robin smiled and saluted the first officer, then ordered loudly.

"Periscope depth, captain." The third-level value is more official and looks at the depth gauge and reports.

"Raise the periscope."

"Yes, sir, raise the periscope." The silver main periscope quickly rose from the guide shaft, and Robin stepped forward to open the folding handle.

The Yegong River was attacked by three German electric torpedoes in succession, but the lookout did not notice a faint torpedo track on the water until the moment before the torpedo hit, and before the two soldiers could figure out what it was, the torpedo had already hit the hull directly below the bridge.

The torpedo immediately blew up a five-meter-square piece of the ship's hull, and the shock wave destroyed all the compartments under the bridge, and Colonel Mantan, who was resting in the captain's room, was immediately seriously wounded, and the explosion triggered a column of water that exceeded the top of the ship's mast.

Before the huge column of water could descend, the second torpedo arrived, and this torpedo hit the power compartment, the bulkhead of the ship without armor protection, like aluminum foil in front of the 200-kilogram charge, the hull was blown open a large seven-meter-long crack, and within a few seconds the sea water had reached the knees of the surviving officers and soldiers.

But the nightmare of the [Yegong River] was not over at this time, and when the surviving sailors in the power compartment were struggling to save themselves, a third-party torpedo hit the stern of the ship, giving the poor coastal defense ship the final blow. This torpedo destroyed the hull structure of the stern of the coastal defense ship, and the entire stern completely broke off from the hull from the front of the No. 4 main gun.

The huge column of water receded into the sea, and the warship, which was only 1,300 tons, began to sink rapidly.

The ship's crew was almost defenseless when attacked, most of them were still taking a sweet nap in the hammocks in the bow of the warship, and when the hull sank rapidly, the open vents and portholes accelerated the rate of water ingress, and as a result, only a few lucky ones escaped from the ship out of the more than 90 Siamese naval officers and men in the bow.

When Robin began to look through the periscope, he found that the entire deck of the warship had sunk below the water's surface, and only half of the bridge was still exposed.

U106 waited in the water for a while, and after discovering that there was no danger, the captain ordered the submarine to float and at the same time ordered the crew to go to the deck to prepare to save the Siamese naval officers and sailors who had fallen overboard.

PS: Thank you for your support, continue to ask for votes and recommendations. (To be continued.) )