Just as Derek Chaplin decided to ignore the anomalies and go straight to Port Hedland, about two nautical miles from the Pass, two submarines floated silently below the surface, with only their periscopes out of the water, observing the fleet of the Perth Expeditionary Force. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

These are the latest submarines produced by Lanfang, numbered H-01 and H-07, "H" is the abbreviation of Port Hedland, and this number only exists in the secret archives of the Admiralty of Lanfang, in Port Hedland, the two submarines are referred to as "Boat One" and "Boat Seven" respectively.

Inside the bridge of Boat No. 1, Submarine Force Commander Mark Franklin was observing, and his adjutant Leon Christopher was in charge of the record.

"At one o'clock in the afternoon of the 22nd, the Pas Expeditionary Force fleet passed through the fourth observation point, there was nothing unusual in the fleet, all 17 ships were in the fleet, the speed was about 15 knots, and the course remained the same, if they maintained this speed, then it is estimated that at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, the Pas Expeditionary Force fleet will arrive at Port Hedland." Mark watched as he reported the data to Leon.

If the Paz Expeditionary Force fleet had only warships, then the speed of this fleet might be much faster, but because of the escort, even destroyers that could easily run more than 25 knots could now only maintain a cruising speed of 15 knots.

Twenty minutes later, as the expeditionary fleet vanished, Mark ordered the engine to be started and moved to the next observation point.

"Sir, we don't need to be so careful, these rookies are defenseless at all, and I even doubt that if we mobilize half of our submarines, we can send these broken ships to the bottom of the sea with just one attack." Leon put away his pen and notebook, his demeanor and tone of voice were relatively relaxed.

Marc and Lyon were originally members of the German Navy's submarine force, but after the World War, the German Navy was forced to scuttle all its submarines, and Marc and Lyon retired from the German Navy and returned home.

At one point, Marc and Lyon thought that they would never have anything to do with the navy again in their lives, but it didn't take long for the German Admiralty to send them a letter asking if they were interested in going to Lanfang and becoming part of Lanfang's navy.

Marc and Lyon did not hesitate for too long, and after a long conversation with an officer of the German Admiralty, Marc and Leon came all the way from Germany to Lanfang, successfully joined the Lanfang Naval Force, and with their excellent professionalism, they became a professional force in the Lanfang Naval Force.

Whether it was Cam Ranh Bay or Port Hedland, in fact, Mark always remembered the words of the naval officer: maybe one day, you will have the opportunity to return to the German Navy, and then you will go straight to active duty without any adaptation.

It is because of this belief that Mark is able to persevere.

"Keep your guard and don't underestimate your opponent, or you're bound to pay the price." Mark ignored Leon's suggestion, which is why Mark would have become commander of the submarine force, and Leon was only an adjutant.

"I don't mean to underestimate them, just because they don't deserve my attention." Leon didn't realize his mistake and followed Mark down the narrow passage back to the command room.

No matter how large the tonnage, the space in the submarine is always limited, so whether it is the bridge or the command room, the space is not very large, and even including the passage, it can only allow one person to pass, if there are two people walking opposite each other, then one of them must be avoided.

"There is a problem that must be paid attention to, if we sink this fleet as quickly as possible, then it will be a wake-up call to the British, and then it will not be these broken ships, but battleships that will cover the sky and the sun, do you think even if we go all out, how many can we sink?" As a submarine commander, Mark has enough patience and is still careful to teach.

Submariners are the most patient in the world, staying in the cramped and depressive submarine all day long, no fresh food, no fresh air, and even at any time may die at the bottom of the sea because of some accidents, if there is no excellent psychological quality, I am afraid that just getting into this iron shell can make many people crazy.

Unlike other navies, if a submarine is attacked, it is most likely to be sunk, and almost no one can get a chance to escape, so in Lanfang, the treatment of submariners is the highest among all arms, and the pilots of carrier-based aircraft have a fight.

Mark is right, Australia is still a member of the British Commonwealth, if Port Hedland is too good in the battle with Pass, then the British will definitely think that someone is involved in this war, and then both the Australian government and even the United Kingdom will send naval fleets from the mainland, and then Mark's submarine force will have nothing to hide.

Submarines are indeed a very sharp weapon, but they can only be used to the greatest extent in certain situations, if the British bring in enough destroyers, then Mark can only avoid Hedland Harbor far away, let alone frontal combat, even the chance of a sneak attack is estimated to be very small.

"Battleship—I don't want to have that experience again." Hearing Mark's explanation, Leon immediately shuddered.

Lyon had participated in the harassment of the British Atlantic transport line in the world war, and it was quite smooth at first, Lyon's unit had a lot of gains, sinking many British and French merchant ships, but with the British attaching importance to the escort work, and the Americans entered the war, Lyon's unit became more and more difficult, and even had an extreme situation where they could not find any opportunity for a whole month, and many submarine captains launched attacks on merchant ships escorted by the army because of their patience. In the end, no matter how many merchant ships they can sink, all that awaits those submarines is the icy bottom of the sea.

The feeling of helplessness to watch the enemy's merchant ship slip away at the slowest speed is maddening.

"Then we'll get around them until they're in Port Hedland, and then we'll stick the bag in again." Although a little unwilling, Leon is still able to obey the overall situation.

"yes, that's what we do." Mark casually wrote in the captain's logbook what he had just observed.

"I really hope that the coastal defense forces don't behave so well, if they use those shore defense guns to sink all these broken ships, then we will be busy in vain." Leon had anticipation of the war that was about to break out, and the soldiers, they always did.

Port Hedland is still defensive, although the largest caliber of shore defense guns is only 150 mm, but it is somewhat defensive.

Generally speaking, the naval fleet will not take the initiative to attack a port guarded by shore defense batteries, even if the guns on the warships are relatively large, have a longer range and greater power, the fleet commander will avoid artillery battles with the shore defense batteries to reduce losses, at this time it is the right step to choose other landing sites and send the army ashore to cooperate with the naval attack.

However, this does not apply to the war that is about to break out, the artillerymen of Port Hedland are not very professional, and the commander of the Paz Expeditionary Force fleet is not a serious naval background, and it is difficult to say what kind of fight will be made between them.

In any case, there will be no shortage of opportunities for the submarine force in Port Hedland to be in the limelight, as the only fleet in Port Hedland, even if the shore defense battery can repel the attack of the Paz Expeditionary Force, it will need the submarine force to finish up in order to achieve the plan of annihilating the Path Expeditionary Force.

"It's impossible, even if the artillerymen are extraordinary, Chen will put the Paz people into Port Hedland, otherwise that turtle will not be realized." Mark's Chinese is not very sharp, and his mastery of idioms needs to be improved.

"Catch a turtle in an urn." Lyon's Chinese is good, and although the tone is not very accurate, at least it can be repeated.

"Yes, that's the word, a very vivid description." Mark didn't care about his Chinese level, as long as he could reach the level of daily conversation, and Mark had already made up his mind to return to Germany anyway.

After the German Admiralty issued an initiative to go to Lanfang, about 40,000 former German naval officers went to Lanfang to join the Lanfang naval force.

In order to attract these high-tech talents, the Lanfang government has indeed made a bloody investment, and the daily supplies are all beyond the norm, not to mention, it is also very generous in terms of treatment and benefits, at least compared with the previous German Admiralty, the Lanfang Admiralty can indeed be described as generous.

The former German Admiralty was not bad, and the treatment of the submarine force was not discounted, but that was only before the war, when the war broke out, the entire German material shortage began, which naturally affected the submarine force, even if the German Admiralty paid attention to these submariners, it was ultimately reduced in the supply of materials, which made many of the already spoiled naval soldiers very dissatisfied, in the later part of the war, the Navy in the port of Kiel had recently broken out in an uprising to protest against the injustice of the German Admiralty.

There will be a gap, even if it is the German Navy before the World War, because of the richness of the material is also compared with the Lanfang Admiralty, in comparison, many former German Navy no longer plan to return to Germany, they directly apply to join the Lanfang nationality, and even take their families to Lanfang, completely become part of the Lanfang Navy.

Mark once had a heartbeat, but in the end, it was customary loyalty that prevailed, Mark also wanted to contribute to Germany, as long as Germany needed it, Mark would definitely return to Germany, so Mark didn't pay much attention to Chinese, which is in stark contrast to Lyon, who has spent a lot of thought on Chinese recently.

Well, even if Leon wants to join Lan Fang's nationality, at least for now, Leon and Mark are still comrades-in-arms.

Beneath the vast expanse of the sea, the two submarines gradually accelerated, and after reaching a maximum speed of 17 knots, the two submarines circled around and headed directly for Port Hedland, where more submarines awaited their rendezvous.

(To be continued.) )