Elegantly picked up the delicate Ming Yongle blue and white dragon pattern tea cup in front of him, and gently opened the floating leaf petals floating on the water surface with the lid of the cup, and the familiar jasmine fragrance wafted in the air to refresh people's hearts.

Xu Jun narrowed his eyes slightly, took a sip of sweet tea, and the long-lost feeling of comfort made him take a long breath.

The young Imperial ducái put down his teacup and leaned back against the soft backrest of the ornate chair.

"The Prinz Eugen was torpedoed by a destroyer of the British Royal Navy. Weirle, are you familiar with torpedoes? ”

Xu Jun's eyes glanced at the chief staff member sitting on the sofa on the side, the wise chief of staff was now clumsily learning Xu Jun's action just now, and the teacup lid skimmed the leaves floating on the tea.

Wehrle has always been very curious about those things that come from the mysterious East, and the skillful and natural movements of His Excellency the Führer just now should be the etiquette of the Oriental when drinking this aromatic drink, which looks quite elegant, and the studious chief of staff must of course practice it himself.

"Oh? Torpedo? ”

Wehrle raised his brow slightly, raised his head and thought for a moment, and then replied categorically.

"I don't understand it at all. My Führer. ”

After saying that, the chief of staff began to lower his head again and continue his practice of skimming tea leaves.

"Are you familiar? Major Sorens, ah, by the way, of course you will be familiar with it, you are a naval officer. ”

Xu Jun smiled and said to a young naval major standing upright at his desk.

"Yes, Führer, I'm familiar with that weapon."

The young major replied respectfully, standing in front of the Imperial Führer, who was as young as he was, he looked a little reserved.

"Well, the topic seems to have diverged away, continue to report. Where did you get to that? Oh...... Yes, the Prinz Eugen was torpedoed. So how did she escape that catastrophe? Xu Jun asked with a smile.

"My Führer, this question is a bit ...... Wonderful......" replied the Lieutenant Admiral respectfully.

In the turquoise blue waters of the North Atlantic, more than a dozen snow-white wakes are rapidly approaching the massive hull of the Prinz Eugen.

The afternoon sun shines through the billowing smoke of gunpowder in the sky, shining on the sparkling sea, and those beautiful feathery wakes shimmer with a charming glow.

But in the eyes of the German naval officers who stood on the tall bridge of the Prinz Eugen, those pearly glitters were clearly the light of the blade of the Grim Reaper's sickle, and these feather-white trails concealed destruction and death.

The Prinz Eugen was doomed, and that was the common answer that popped into the hearts of all German naval officers when they saw this scene.

There was no time to dodge, no space to dodge, and the officers could only watch as the wings of the Grim Reaper approached them.

The torpedo had approached one hundred and fifty meters, and at this time, the sailors on the deck also noticed the approaching death, and an exclamation suddenly rang out on the deck.

Feng. Captain Hertz stared at the scene in front of him in pain, his heart now full of reproach and remorse for himself.

He made an unforgivable mistake and blinded himself with the pride of being the captain of a heavy cruiser, forgetting that the consequences of despising any enemy on the battlefield could bring him the precious experience that his ancestors had bought with the blood of their ancestors.

During the Norwegian Campaign, his own battleship was bombarded to pieces by the British Royal Navy's guns, and the scene resurfaced to Von. In front of Hertz's eyes, is that scene going to be repeated in front of his eyes again?

The faces of the more than thirty sailors who had died in that battle flashed lightning before his eyes, and he had sworn to make the British pay for their blood, but now, instead of avenging anyone, he might have lost more young lives, Feng. Hertz felt like his heart was being wrenched by a knife.

"Captain!"

The first mate's shout put Feng. Hertz dragged back from his thoughts.

"There's no time to dodge!"

Feng. Hertz suddenly came to his senses, he was still responsible for the captain of this battleship, and as long as he was the captain of this battleship, he would be responsible for all the crew of this battleship.

"Immediately sound the collision report, order the bilge personnel to immediately prepare to retreat, and the deck personnel to find their own concealment!"

Feng. Hertz commanded loudly.

"Yes, Captain!"

The first mate rushed to the intercom at a rapid pace. The piercing sound of collision immediately echoed over the battleship.

The sailors on the deck sped to their nearest shelter and cabin, most of whom had no idea what was happening.

The strict training played a role at this time, and the sailors skillfully followed the steps of the usual training, and carried out the captain's orders quickly and orderly.

"It's too late!"

Feng. Hertz stood on the bridge lookout and watched the four snow-white wakes scurry like lightning against the smooth bulwarks of the Prinz Eugen, while the sailors on the deck were still scurrying around.

"It's over!"

Feng. Hertz couldn't help but close his eyes, he couldn't bear to see the sight of the bloody horror that was coming.

It was a British heavy anti-ship torpedo, and it looked like it was supposed to be the MK7 type, but maybe it was the older MK5 type, which of course didn't matter.

The key lies in the attack power of the British torpedoes, because the torpedo manufacturing bureau of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, which has deep pockets, stuffed a full 340 kilograms of high-energy ZHA medicine into the hard warhead of the iron guy six or seven meters long.

What kind of concept is this, the destructive power of 340 kilograms of high-energy zha medicine is enough to raze an ordinary block, or to demolish a sturdy four-story building in an instant.

A single large torpedo could easily blow a 5,000-ton unarmored civilian merchant ship in two, or make a hole in any battleship that was less than the strength of a battleship's armor, ranging from falling into a car to falling into a fleet of tanks, depending on the tonnage of the victim and the thickness of the armor.

At the beginning of the war, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Royal Oak suffered four torpedoes in Scarpa Bay became history, and the German G7E electric torpedo was only loaded with 200 kg of ZHA, so you can imagine how terrible the destructive power of this 340-kilogram charge torpedo would be after hitting.

The German pocket battleship Lützov was still lying on the slipway in Kiel, unable to move, and she was only hit by a British torpedo, which almost broke off on the spot.

Feng. Hertz could not imagine what would happen to a dozen of these torpedoes hitting Prince Eugen, who was only a heavy cruiser with only 82 mm of broadside armor.

What is even more pitiful is that even this broadside armor belt only reaches about half a meter below the waterline, and a little deeper there is no protection other than a thin hull, and the torpedo attack is precisely there.

Although Feng. Hertz was confident in the sturdiness of the German battleship and its meticulous watertight design, but he had absolutely no confidence that he would survive more than two torpedoes, especially the dense crowd in front of him.

Feng. Hertz closed his eyes tightly, waiting for the moment when he was hit by a torpedo.

But after several seconds, nothing happened, no vibrations, no explosions, not even a scream or exclamation.

Feng. Hertz opened his eyes in confusion, and what appeared in his sight was the dumbfounded faces of his subordinates looking at the sea.

"What's going on?"

Feng. Hertz followed his men's gaze toward the water on the side of the gunwale, and the wake of the British torpedo caught his eye again, and four snow-white wakes were close at hand, rushing towards the bulwark like lightning as he had seen before.

But the next sight made Feng. Hertz understood why his men were showing that dementia, because he was also in a state of shock at that moment.

The wake extended to the side of the bulwark and disappeared...... Subsequently, nothing happened.

Feng. Hertz watched in amazement, unable to believe his eyes.

He could clearly see the glamorous foam trail crashing against the bulwark, and then being smashed to pieces by the waves raised by the battleship's sailing, but there was no sign of being hit.

"What's going on......"

Feng. Hertz had never encountered anything like it, nor had he heard of anything like it, and he and his group of officers were completely confused.

"Come and see, the torpedoes have all gone through, all through the bottom of the ship, haha......"

Suddenly, a loud cry came from the other side of the bridge. Feng. Hertz and his men quickly turned their heads to see the heroic Major Randolph standing on the lookout on the other side of the bridge, waving his arms as usual in his coolest gesture.

The naval officers sped toward the bridge on the other side and looked out into the water.

Indeed, more than a dozen torpedo trails were rushing in the distance, and they looked like torpedoes fired by the Prinz Eugen itself.

"The British set the torpedo wrong."

The first mate, who was the first to react, couldn't help but cheer loudly.

"Those stupid Britons almost scared me to death."

"Oh my God, I've never found the British so cute. If it weren't for their mistakes, I can't imagine what would have happened to us. ”

"How can you be wrong? This shouldn't be happening. ”

"Go ask the Englishmen. Don't you regret that you didn't get blown up to the sky, stupid, go back to your post. ”

The officers were full of emotion about what was happening in front of them, but they didn't notice that the captain's face became more and more ugly.

"All of them went back to their posts, and immediately prepared for battle. The target, the two British destroyers, ordered the turret to open fire. ”

Feng. Hertz roared and gave a barrage of orders to the men who had just escaped and were congratulating each other.

He was now a little annoyed that the Royal Navy's unsuccessful torpedo attack had finally restored the captain to the form he had had been in during the Norwegian campaign.

Feng. For the first time, Hertz exposed his true colors to all his subordinates, the shrewd, tough, cunning, and ruthless Von. Admiral Hertz.

The British torpedo raid made him feel extremely angry, and he thought that he almost caused a tragedy because of his mistake, Feng. Hertz was angry.

For him, the attack brought him another great humiliation in his military career, and he had to make amends for his mistakes with his actions, cleansing them of the shame they had inflicted on him with the blood of his enemies.

Although he still did not understand why the British torpedoes were wrong, it did not matter, and he did not want to know why, the only thing he knew now was that the British had to pay for such behavior.

Feng. Hertz stared coldly at the two British destroyers who were maneuvering to escape the fire of the German battleships.

In the eyes of his subordinates, the captain who had always made them a little unaccustomed to it suddenly seemed to be a different person, that serious demeanor, and the determined and cold gaze in his eyes......

The subordinates couldn't help but secretly begin to reposition the young colonel in their hearts, looking at Feng. The chilling ferocity in Hertz's eyes, many people began to mourn for the officers and men of the two destroyers who had almost killed them just now, and it seemed that they were dead.

"Christian, this is a battleship that Lady Luck cares for, and it has unparalleled good fortune. So, you must make her a part of the great battleships in history, otherwise you will be so sorry for her. ”

Randolph walked slowly to Feng. Hertz said as he patted the captain on the shoulder from behind him.

"I don't know if I'm worthy to continue to ride her on the sea, this time I made a fatal mistake, and the Admiralty will definitely punish me."

"It doesn't matter, I'll explain it to the Führer. However, even if you are punished in the future, you are still the captain of her ship, and you will be responsible for her, remember that this is the first battle of the Prinz Eugen. ”

"Understood, Randolph, thank you."

"All the secondary guns opened fire, tearing those two destroyers apart. All the commanders followed me into the armored conning tower, and the rest of the staff stuck to their posts. Gentlemen! If one day the Prinz Eugen goes down in the annals of naval history, we will be proud to tell others that we are members of that battleship, and for that day to come, let us fight this first battle and let the British taste the wrath of this battleship. ”

"Yes! Sir! All the officers and soldiers present replied with a roar.

"Oh, I see, but I still don't understand, why didn't any other warship warn the Prinz Eugen at that time, didn't they all find the British firing torpedoes? Also, why would the British make a mistake? ”

Xu Jun asked lightly after taking a sip of fragrant jasmine tea.

"This, my Führer, sounds stupid.

Commander Lütjans explained in this report that it was assigned to our 1st and 2nd destroyer fleets when the targets were assigned first.

At that time, no one thought that the two ships would rush directly like this, and everyone thought that the other side would deal with the two inconspicuous destroyers, and everyone's attention was on the cruisers in the British fleet, and the two destroyers would take advantage of the loophole.

In his report, Commander Lütjans expressed his willingness to take full responsibility for this mistake.

In fact, not only did not a single battleship find that the British destroyer had fired a torpedo, but not a single battleship knew that the Prinz Eugen had been torpedoed until the end of the battle, because the other warships did not see the torpedo trail fired at the Prinz Eugen from beginning to end.

It was only at the end of the battle that everyone found out about this when the destroyer fleet and the Prinz Eugen submitted their reports.

The group of torpedoes passed through the bottom of the Prinz Eugen and was hit by the First Destroyer, which had caught up from behind the flank, and they did not know where the torpedoes had come from, and the result was very chaotic.

According to their records, they avoided all the torpedo hits, and at first they thought it was a British submarine, but they were really nervous for a while, if they had known that the torpedo had passed through the bottom of Prince Eugen's ship, the destroyer would not even have to dodge.

As for why the British had set the wrong depth, according to the confession of the only surviving bridge crew on the two destroyers, the sailor was the herald on the Avenger. According to the sailor's confession and our analysis afterwards, we finally felt that this was the case.

The two destroyers were originally going to attack the two battleships Scharnhorst, but for some unknown reason they suddenly changed their target to the heavy cruiser Prince Eugen.

Probably because of nervousness, the British forgot to modify the original depth and fired the torpedo.

It is also possible that they misjudged the Prince Eugen for a Scharnhorst-class battleship, knowing that the heavy cruiser was really like a battleship.

Such miscalculations are quite normal in the high-speed movement of a destroyer, let alone in that state of tension.

The Scharnhorst class has a draft of 10 meters, while the Prince Eugen has a draft of only 6 meters, a difference of four meters. ”

"Oh, I see, hehe. Sure enough, it's a legendary lucky battleship. ”

Xu Jun smiled and muttered.

"Huh?"

Weierle, who was sipping tea on the side, raised his head and asked suspiciously.

"Führer, the legendary ...... you said earlier"

"It's nothing, Your Excellency the Chief of Staff, just casually, hehe."

The Führer smiled and waved the teacup in his hand to the Chief of Staff.

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