The first step in the wolf pack tactic is to use the various submarines scattered across the sea to detect the enemy's convoy of convoys.

The breadth of the sea is unimaginable, for example, even in later generations, it is difficult to find the enemy's aircraft carrier formation, and in this era, it is also difficult to find a transport fleet.

Therefore, it is necessary to engage in submarine sea tactics, arrange some submarines to patrol the other party's possible passages, and once discovered, immediately notify other submarines, and everyone will go up together to surround them!

At this time, under the telegram of the U-107 submarine, five or six submarines in the vicinity were hurrying towards the direction of its report.

Bering Sea, the waters off Attu Island.

"The Soviets were so clever that we had most of our submarines blown up." On the U-107 submarine, Captain Günther Heisler said.

The Arctic route, which is still used by the Soviets, is, after all, the most effective route to support them, and the only way to do it is through the Bering Strait.

The Soviets have deployed most of their limited anti-submarine ships near the Bering Strait, and some anti-submarine planes are also waiting nearby with anti-submarine deep bombs, and they can get help from American anti-submarine planes at any time.

Under these circumstances, the danger of German submarines attacking the Bering Strait increased greatly, so they had no choice but to retreat and patrol the waters of the Bering Sea in search of traces of the fleet.

When departing from the west coast of the United States, they had to cross the Aleutian Islands, and generally the most economical route was to cross near Unimac Island in the easternmost part, but the Soviets went around in a big circle, rounding the westernmost part of the archipelago and going back again.

Such a circumambulation was very particular, and the main German submarines, that is, the submarines patrolling the eastern part of the Bering Sea, were bypassed.

And the U-107 submarine was also cruising towards the eastern part of the Bering Sea, passing near the island of Attu, when the formation was discovered.

At this time, Heisler was in the periscope, looking at the fleet.

Many cargo ships are brand new, this is a free ship manufactured by the United States in accordance with industrial standards, with a displacement of 7,000 tons and a speed of only a dozen knots.

Throughout World War II, the United States built nearly 3,000 freeships in 18 dockyards, fully demonstrating the industrial heritage of the United States.

And now, the support for the Soviet Union is also sparing no effort, if the United States does not give the Soviet Union a blood transfusion, then the Soviet Union will definitely be defeated. Therefore, the United States supported the Soviet Union's Liberty ships, and there were dozens of them at every turn.

Now this fleet is composed of more than 30 free ships, and it is mighty.

At the same time, in order to protect this fleet, the Soviet Union also used six warships to escort the entire formation.

At the forefront is the Anger-class destroyer Vigilant, a destroyer with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, which is the hometown of the Soviet Far East Fleet, and this warship is also the backbone of the Soviet Navy, with nearly 30 ships built before and after, and a large amount of equipment.

Two 25,000-horsepower steam engines can allow the entire warship to soar to a high speed of 40 knots, and under normal circumstances, its cruising speed is about 15 knots, and now, it is sailing slowly at 10 knots in order to be able to keep up with the cargo ships.

On the bridge, the bearded captain Boris was carefully observing the sea with a telescope.

"Did you find anything in the sonar room?" Boris asked.

This kind of Fury-class destroyer originally did not have detection equipment for submarines, but now their main task is anti-submarine, so in recent times, these warships have been installed with submarine detectors provided by the United States (ASDIC, this is the British term, and later they were all called sonar, and now it is still called sonar. ）

Although they took a new detour, Boris was still quite careful, and for him, getting the entire cargo ship safely to its destination was his most difficult task.

"No, everything is fine underwater." The first mate Isakov on the side said: "Captain, you are too careful, this sea area, there should be nothing, our biggest threat is the Arctic route after crossing the Bering Strait." ”

Since the first attack, almost every attack they have encountered has been on the Arctic route, so it is said that now they do not need to make a detour at all, Isakov is very puzzled.

"yes, but we're not going to go through the Bering Strait this time." Only now did Boris finally tell the most confidential information: "We will no longer take the Arctic route, and for maximum safety, we will continue to sail westward, unload at the Soviet port in the Far East, and then transport our supplies by rail." ”

The Arctic route was too dangerous, and although the Soviet crews were not afraid of sacrifice, they had to face the reality that the losses on the Arctic route were too great for them to bear, so they could not take any more risks.

Transporting supplies directly to the Far East and then transporting them by rail!

Railway? Hearing his words, Isakov's mouth immediately opened wide: "Is this so okay? The Far Eastern Railway was already quite heavy, and there was simply no extra capacity to transport so many supplies! ”

At present, the Far East is the rear of the Soviets, and after several wars, the Western Front has suffered heavy losses, and the Soviet Union has constantly mobilized the troops of the Eastern Front.

This has already overwhelmed the railways of the Far East, so many supplies can only be transported by sea, by rail, it is simply impossible.

"We don't need to worry about it, we need to keep it secret to avoid being discovered." "We pass through the southern waters of the Kamchatka Peninsula, go north into the Sea of Okhotsk, and then pass through the Tatar Strait to the port of Sovets," Boris said. ”

This route is still far away, and it is the closest to go directly to the strait in the northern part of Hokkaido, but that may be discovered by the islanders, so in order to keep it secret, they decided to make some trouble.

They really avoided most of the threats by such a route, and the huge German submarines were all set up in ambush in the Bering Sea, and they were doomed to wait in vain, if it wasn't for the U-107 that happened to run into it, maybe they would have found nothing.

However, the Soviets were even more unfortunate, and if they had known that the Germans had already built a submarine base on a small island in northern Hokkaido, they would probably not have chosen this Far Eastern route anyway.

This is simply self-defeating and self-inflicted.

In the middle of the formation, on a free ship, a sailor lies on the side of the ship, looking at the sea in the distance with a high-magnification maritime telescope.

They were already frightened by the German submarines, and as long as the idle and bored crew members would observe the sea as lookouts.