Throughout the two world wars, the prestige of German submarines has often led people to overlook the submarine forces of other naval powers, and coincidentally, the German navy did not regard submarines as its core strength at the outbreak of the two wars, and the number and quality of submarines they possessed were not superior to their main rivals. www.biquge.info As the war progressed, the German Navy's plan to use the surface fleet to seize sea power gradually fell through, so the hope of victory was pinned on the submarine force, and the submarine was built by surprise during the war, both times the British fell into a submarine crisis, but they fell short, leaving a classic example and endless regrets.

As a result of Natsuki's influence and intervention, by August 1914, the German Navy had a sizable and technologically advanced submarine force, but this was still not enough to match the submarine forces of Britain and France at the same time - at the beginning of the war, Britain and France had 73 and 79 submarines respectively, excluding those experimental boats that were not effective in actual combat, and the Allied Allies had more than twice as many submarine forces as the Allies. If the surface ships of the Allied powers could not shrink, the submarines of the Allied countries would naturally not have many opportunities to perform, and if the Allied navies had seized the initiative and made frequent attacks, the situation would naturally be very different from history.

Returning to the waters of the northwestern Netherlands, there was no explosion on the ship "Regent Louitport", which was hit by three British torpedoes, which at least gave the crew a chance to carry out damage management and emergency repairs. In order to prevent the second attack of the sneak attackers, 10 large torpedo boats circled around it, and the other 5 cruised back and forth in the sea on its starboard side, and dropped special anti-submarine bombs on suspicious positions -- this secret weapon was only installed in the German Navy at the outbreak of war, and they were divided into two types, 45 kg and 100 kg, with a depth of between 20 and 100 meters. Each large torpedo boat of the 1913 class could carry 20-40 barrel-shaped anti-submarine bombs, which were dropped through improvised slides at the stern. Theoretically, they can cause some damage to the hull of the submarine as long as they explode within 50 meters of the submarine.

In the Battle of Jutland, a total of three detachments of German large torpedo boats with the main fleet were equipped with anti-submarine bombs, but the British submarines did not show anything in this heavyweight naval battle. It was not until the German fleet returned to the waters of the Helgoland Bay that a British submarine spotted them and tried to attack, only to be besieged by several German escort ships, and managed to escape with excellent breath-holding skills. This time, the German Navy sent a mixed fleet to escort large torpedo boats of the 1911 or 1913 class, which had a large displacement and good seaworthiness, and each of them was equipped with underwater listening equipment and a number of anti-submarine bombs, so that it had a certain anti-submarine combat capability.

Even so, the German naval officers and men were nervous and anxious about their situation, as reflected in the chaotic explosion of anti-submarine bombs.

By the time Natsuki and Gord returned to the King's battle bridge, Scheer had ordered all large ships except the Regent Louisport to sail east away from the sea so as not to suffer further losses from the British submarine attack.

When he met the chief of staff of the fleet, Scheer's first words were: "The situation does not seem to be good. ”

Natsuki calmly comforted, "The situation may not be as bad as we thought. ”

In the eyes of others, the age and mentality of these two people seem to be misplaced.

Schell, who was entrusted with the important task by the Kaiser, obviously blamed himself: "We have been here for a long time, so that the British Admiralty has time to send submarines to attack, and if we continue to drag on like this, I am afraid that more British submarines will gather in this area." In the unlikely event that the 'Regent' is sunk, all our efforts on this voyage will be in vain. ”

Although Natsuki is worried about this situation, he always believes that optimism and positive thinking are more conducive to getting out of trouble than negative disappointment.

"I designed the Caesar-class battleships, and I am well aware of their survivability, and a 533 mm caliber fired by a destroyer and a 450 mm caliber bald torpedo fired by two submarines cannot cause fatal wounds."

Natsuki couldn't let Sher get rid of the burden in his heart, but he was able to use his composure to calm his emotions. Seeing that his old partner was so confident, he decisively stopped chattering like Xianglin's sister-in-law, and thought about it: "We must find ways to cover the return of the 'Regent' to the port." ”

"That's right, that's our priority tonight." Natsuki affirmed.

Regaining his normal mind, Scheer's mind turned quickly: "Then we can either keep an appropriate distance and directly cover its withdrawal, or take the initiative to attack and distract the enemy." ”

Natsuki glanced at each other, no need to ask, they knew each other's thoughts.

Now the German Navy is overwhelming its opponents in terms of momentum, but compared with hard power, even according to the battle damage data judged by the German side, the main fleet of the German Navy only has a slight advantage, such a delicate situation, unless it is a last resort, this mixed fleet should take a relatively steady route to avoid excessive risks.

At this time, Lieutenant Commander Adolf von Trota, Scheer's chief of staff, analyzed: "Judging from the reconnaissance reports during the day, there is no British ship group activity in the northern seas, but it is not ruled out that the British may send a lightning strike fleet at night." In the eastern seas is the British Channel Fleet, which departs from Portsmouth and, at cruising speed, sails out of the Strait of Dover after midnight and arrives at our present position by noon tomorrow. If you're sailing at full speed, you can arrive here early in the morning...... The key now is the 'Regent's injuries and the damage repairs. ”

Golder interjected, "If the 'Regent' can't sail under his own power, we'll either send a capital ship to tow it, or wait here for the tugboat." If nothing else, the big tugboats will arrive tomorrow at noon. ”

"Actually, we should have removed it by towing it a long time ago." Lieutenant Colonel von Trotta said with regret: "Both 'Caesar' and 'De Fllinger' had enough motivation to tow. ”

Natsuki frowned slightly, firstly, he didn't like hindsight, and secondly, he used the capital ship to tow the capital ship, both of which could only sail slowly, and if they ran into a British submarine, they would be an excellent target for torpedo attacks.

For similar considerations to Natsuki, Scheer did not answer, but instead instructed the communications officer to send a signal to the "Regent of Luitport" about the damage to the ship's hull and the emergency repair of the damage management. After a while, the dreadnought, which had bad luck, replied: At present, 5 watertight compartments are leaking and flooding, and the water ingress has been controlled, the water inflow is about 1,100 tons, the hull is tilted 2 degrees, the power system has not been damaged, and it can try to sail slowly.

The situation was clearly better than Scheer had feared, and he turned his unwavering trust to Natsuki.

When the wind was blowing on the deck, Natsuki had already thought about his back, and he said unhurriedly: "If you're lucky, the 'Regent' will have entered Yad Bay by this time tomorrow, and even if the British Channel Fleet keeps going fast, it will be possible to catch up with us in Helgoland Bay." If we're unlucky, we'll have to buy some extra time for the Regent. ”

Scheer lowered his head and walked back and forth a few steps: "Your Highness thinks...... Was our luck good or bad this time? ”

Natsuki replied, "Maybe it's because of the smell of blood, but what happened to the 'Regent' makes me think that the goddess of victory will not deliberately favor us this time." ”

"But what war isn't made up of killings?" Lieutenant Colonel von Trotta asked rhetorically.

There was no point in arguing about the subject, and Schell quickly made up his mind to have two old battleships, four armored cruisers, two light cruisers, six high-speed torpedo boat carriers, the aircraft carrier "Bismarck", and more than half of the large torpedo boats form a direct support fleet to cover the return of the "Regent of Luitport", while the four capital ships "King", "Caesar", "De Fllinger", and "Goeben" turned around and headed west with the five best light cruisers and nine large torpedo boats.

The main ships of the German mixed fleet quickly departed in light cavalry, and the old battleships "Braunschweig" and "Pomerania" and the armored cruisers "Longne", "York", "Prince Adalbert" and "Friedrich Karl" sailed in the northern seas, and with the support of six high-speed torpedo boat carriers, this combat formation was strong enough to repel the medium-sized British mine-strike ship group, and the light cruisers and large torpedo boats provided close protection for the "Regent Louitpol". It didn't take long for the British submarine, which had escaped the frenzied retaliation of the German escort ships, to quietly surface, and at this time only one large German ship was left in its sight, and it was already out of torpedo range. Due to the fact that the submarine had been in the submarine for a long time and had little power left, the British submarine commander still decided to take the risk and pursue the wounded German battleship in an afloat state because the submarine had been in a position of submarine!

On the calm sea, the roar of Vickers diesel engines can be heard from afar. The E-class submarine was the latest model to be equipped by the British Navy at the outbreak of war, with a surface speed of 15 nautical miles, a range of 3,000 nautical miles at 10 knots, five 450 mm torpedo tubes and one 76 mm deck gun, and 10 torpedoes. The young British commander was confident of the success of his previous attack, and he stared at the German battleship in the distance from the bridge, the black silhouette of which exuded a charming allure in the moonlight. With no debris on the surface, he judged that the two torpedoes that had previously hit the target had failed to cause fatal damage, but the German battleship was not invulnerable, and he was convinced that he could send it to the bottom of the sea with one more hard blow, thus becoming the first British submarine commander to sink a German capital ship.

Before the good wishes could be realized, the shadow of danger had quietly descended. A large German torpedo boat that swept its tail in the area behind the "Regent of Louispold" found a strange floating object on the sparkling sea, and in order to prevent the cunning attacker from escaping again, it used radio communication to call for its companions, and four German torpedo boats surrounded it from different directions, and then suddenly turned on the searchlight, so that the British submarine was completely exposed, and the shells fired by the 105 and 88 mm naval guns rained down around it, and in the blink of an eye, it was bruised all over the body. The British submarine knew that it was invincible, so it hurriedly dived and fired two torpedoes in front of it in an attempt to interfere with the other side, but it was already a duck in the mouth of several German torpedo boats, and they swarmed up and threw anti-submarine bombs at the location of the British submarine.

(End of chapter)