"Unthinkable, unimaginable! 4500 meters, which is probably the farthest hit distance of a torpedo so far! ”

On board the U-34, suspended at a depth of 10 meters, the 31-year-old German submarine commander, Lieutenant Wasel Furstmann, clenched his fists with irrepressible excitement. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Info learned the good news of the torpedo three shots and two hits, and the crew high-fived each other. The young team had only been formed for four months, and after 16 weeks of arduous and rigorous training, everyone had a lot of confidence when they set out of Wilhelmshaven on 2 August, but their first war journey had not been smooth since they sailed out of Wilhelmshaven on 2 August. After Britain declared war on Germany and before the Battle of Jutland broke out, the German submarines sent to the northern seas were mainly on reconnaissance and alert in accordance with the deployment of the Submarine Command, and they could not attack unless they found an excellent opportunity.

At Jutland, the German High Seas Fleet inflicted a surprise blow on the superior British Grand Fleet, and on the day of the end of the battle, the German submarine group ambushed south of Scapa Bay attacked the retreating British capital ship group and sank the epoch-making battleship "Dreadnought". Not only did the U-34 miss the feast because it was targeted by a British patrol gunboat, but the British Navy stepped up its vigilant patrols around Scarpa Bay in the following days, and on August 9, the U-34 spent 13 hours underwater to avoid British anti-submarine patrol ships. Considering that the U-25 submarine was originally designed to dive for only four hours, even if it was suspended, the oxygen and electricity on board the boat were only enough for eight hours, and Fursterman and his brave crew endured the torment of the turbid air and oppressive atmosphere, exhausted the compressed air in the boat, and finally used the emergency reserve of oxygen regenerator, so that they narrowly survived. On 12 August, Furstman met the British fleet transporting the "big man" to Scappaflo from the sea, but this time he was still on guard by the enemy. For 11 days, they fired only four torpedoes and sank one armed tug and one small cargo ship. The U-31 who sank the Dreadnought has returned to Germany, enjoying the honor of being a hero, while Furstmann and his crew are still patiently waiting for their own Teutonic Forest.

On the night of 12 August, U-34 and several other German submarines were instructed to mine the waters southeast of Scapa Bay in cooperation with two German Navy mine-laying cruisers, the Nautilus and the Albatross. The starry night sky provided excellent convenience for the German ships to determine their orientation, and the German Navy Staff had already divided the huge North Sea into small squares, and the U-34 was connected with the designated minelayer at the appointed time and place. In order to cover their mine-laying, the U-34 was ready to sacrifice itself at any time to lure the British patrol ships, but in the process of more than 4 hours of mine-laying, not a single British ship visited this sea area a little far away from Scappaflo, and the two professional German mine-laying cruisers were able to calmly drop more than 600 anchor mines!

After completing their mission, the "Nautilus" and "Albatross" left the scene at full speed, and several German submarines scattered around the minefield. After daybreak, the British patrol ships swept in unusually, because of the shallow draft, even if they sailed through the minefield, they would not trigger these German anchor mines set at a large depth, which led to the scene when the British fleet broke into the minefield and damaged three ships in a row. However, when the British fleet stopped in the minefield in order to avoid losses, the surrounding German submarines were constrained by the activities of British seaplanes and escort ships on the one hand, and on the other hand, they were worried that they would accidentally trigger those terrible anchor mines if they approached the minefield, so they had to wait for the opportunity in the outer waters. Soon after, the British Navy's minesweepers arrived from Scapa Flow, and they carefully cleared a way for the main fleet, and the dozen or so large warships of the British Navy were able to slowly withdraw from the minefield. Seeing that the opportunity to make a contribution was about to slip away, Lieutenant Fursterman decided to take a risk, he ordered the crew to set the speed of the torpedo at 30 knots and the depth to 7 meters, calculated the advance for a slow-moving target at a distance of 4,500 meters, and then fired three torpedoes in unison - the submarine had four 500 mm torpedo tubes in the bow, but only three U-34s were available due to technical failures.

In the joyful atmosphere, Lieutenant Furstman did not fall into a state of self-forgetfulness, his gaze quickly returned to the sea, and after a while, only to hear his tone turn from hot to cold, and the smile on his face instantly converged: "We have discovered that the enemy ship is coming towards us!" Fast! Put away the periscope and dive down to 40 meters! ”

Without the reminder and urging of the officers and non-commissioned officers, all the crew members immediately returned to their combat positions, and the huge submarine suddenly became silent, and the only sound of the motor and the sound of the water was in people's ears. With the filling of the water tank, the submarine began to dive, but the process had only just begun, and the explosion of shells was heard on the surface of the sea. It sounded close at hand, and there was a slight tremor on the submarine, but after accumulating some combat experience, the crew was no longer as frightened as they had been at the beginning, and they waited calmly with expressions, as long as the submarine continued to dive, the small-caliber naval guns of the British patrol ships would only play a role in making noise.

Since the sinking of the Dreadnought by a German submarine, the British Navy has devoted almost all of its light ships to anti-submarine patrols, cruising around Scarpa Bay day and night, witnessing the sinking and damage of torpedoes fired by their own ships on German submarines, only sinking one German submarine on August 9, and capturing a group of German crew members floating at sea on August 11 who claimed that the submarine had sunk due to a malfunction. The British Navy, which had been roaming the oceans for hundreds of years, was naturally unwilling to sit idly by, and before developing a real depth charge, they tried various ways to deal with it: bombarding the location of German submarines with large-caliber naval guns, throwing bombs equipped with waterproof fuses into the water, and using shells equipped with special time-delay fuses.

Watching his escort ships search for the traces of German submarines like a swarm of headless flies, Sir Bailey on the bridge of the "Thunderbolt" looked lifeless, and his originally resolute eyes turned into stagnant water. A few hours earlier, as the fleet sailed through the waterway of Scarpa Bay, he looked up at the British naval flag fluttering in the sun, and vowed to himself that if he could turn the tide of battle on LinkedIn, even if he gave his life before victory was like Nelson. At that time, he never imagined that this fleet with still combat strength and morale would be trapped on his doorstep in such a way, and at the critical moment, the naval intelligence, which had been highly regarded before the war, could not play any role, and the Germans carried out their battle plans as they pleased, even in a whimsical manner, and the British navy became the heavy cavalry of Béla IV, unable to play to its strengths in front of the Mongol archers, and gradually weakened its superiority and finally became a complete defeat.

The minefield laid by the Germans completely surprised the British Navy, but the explosion of the "Hercules" was not without warning, when it was torpedoed, there happened to be a seaplane nearby, although the pilot did not observe the periscope of the submarine, but realized that there were several torpedo trails on the sea, he hurriedly issued a warning, the mothership "Ergardine" received the radio signal from the aircraft, and immediately notified the "Hercules" to evade with a flag signal, at the same time, the British pilots tried to reduce the flight altitude, The sudden swing of the wings attracted the attention of its own ships, but the "Hercules" was evacuating the minefield at a slow speed of 6 knots, and by the time the ship's personnel realized that a torpedo was coming, it was too late.

As the second ship of the Giant-class, the waterline armor of the "Hercules" has been strengthened to a certain extent compared with the "Dreadnought" and the Palerophon-class, and the design of the internal mine-protection compartment is also more advanced, but it was firmly hit by two G-type torpedoes this time, and the powerful explosion tore two cracks in the lower part of its main armor belt. Realizing that his battleship was in danger of capsizing, the captain of the ship, Colonel Acheson, ordered the evacuation to be accelerated, and the command ship of the minesweeper formation hurriedly dispatched four minesweepers to clear the way for the "Hercules", and two destroyers and three gunboats to protect it tightly, but these measures ultimately failed to save the fate of the iron giant. At 1:12 p.m. on August 13, the "Hercules" triggered an anchor mine laid by the German Navy during the voyage, and this mine containing 450 kilograms of high explosives instantly blew up half of its bow, and the ammunition depot full of shells and propellant packs avoided being detonated due to water in the bilge. Due to the sharp deterioration of the hull ingress, 15 minutes later, the British capital ship, which had missed the Battle of Jutland due to mechanical problems, sank 15 nautical miles from Scapaflo Naval Base, killing 46 of the 718 crew and seriously wounding 17, while the rest of the officers and men were safely evacuated.

More than an hour later, the British super-dreadnought "Emperor", which had been seriously damaged by a mine, staggered back to Scapafolo Naval Base, where all the dry and floating docks were crammed to repair damaged ships in the Battle of Jutland, and it had to find a dock at a depth of 12 meters, so that even if the ship's cabin was broken and out of control, the battleship could still sink to the bottom of the sea to wait for repairs.

Witnessing such a sad scene, King George V, who insisted on waiting for the triumphant return of the fleet at Scappaflo, was suddenly distracted. The king, known for his fortitude and tenacity, went to the Naval Hospital that day to visit the crew wounded in the rush to repair the leak, but did not return to the docks to inspect his dilapidated fleet. On this afternoon of British despair, Sir Bailey finally saved the fleet he had commanded from the abyss of disaster, and the "Thunderbolt", "Conqueror", "St. Vincent", "Agincoot", and "Ireland" were undamaged, and the Edward VII class, which was regarded as a "quasi-dreadnought", was still 5 ships ready for battle. Upon returning to the Scapa Bay anchorage, they were ordered to burn up the steam and prepare for the attack, but before they could be ordered to strike again, Sir Bailey suffered a heart attack and was taken to the hospital, where his life was in danger, but he could not continue to serve as fleet commander.

(End of chapter)