It is true that the German Navy's submarine forces did not perform well in the later stages of the war, but this did not mean that the U-boats were certain to die when they encountered Allied destroyers. The most primitive tactics of diving, sitting on the bottom, and waiting are often helpless for the Allied sonars, and limited depth charges can only carry out limited attacks in a limited range. In the vast oceans, the greatest threat to the German underwater hunters were anti-submarine patrol aircraft, which were neither equipped with sonar nor depth charges. After discovering the target, they only need to attack before the opponent can fully dive, and use cannons and aerial bombs to make some fatal holes in the hull of the U-boat, so that these ferocious undersea killers can lose their normal diving ability and stay on the surface...... After sitting on the bottom in the relatively shallow waters of the southern part of the Skagerrak Strait, all the power machinery on the submarine was shut down, and the inner compartment of the submarine was as silent and oppressive as in the forward trenches that had been shelled. Every once in a while, Motchig would turn on the flashlight and look at his watch, and more people would go into a different hibernation like Lynn, forgetting the passage of time, forgetting the pain of the body and the fear of the soul, turning himself into a part of his surroundings, into a breathing cold metal, pretending to be completely indifferent to the roar of time near and far, sometimes strong and sometimes weak.

It may take three or four hours, maybe less, from the time the submarine engines all shut down to the restart of the motor turbines, but it is as long as a century for most people. Finally, the slight roar of the motors and engines sounded, and the once-frozen time began to flow again, and the lifeless inner compartment of the submarine gradually came back to life. About a quarter of an hour later, the diesel engine on the submarine was activated, and the mechanical noise was still deafening, but it was nothing after the suffocating atmosphere of the last days.

There was no celebration of survival, and the crew naturally returned to their previous order, with the two crew members on duty in the aft torpedo compartment on standby, and the second lieutenant busily moving from cabin to cabin, dispatching personnel according to the rotation arrangement, and making full use of his amazing memory. When the danger was lifted, the submarine rose back to the surface, the roar of the diesel engine smoothed out, and the jolting of the hull increased, but Lynn fell into a groggy sleep without deliberately nervous or relaxed. He dreamed of many strange people - the huge Zenith in "Battlestar", the Black Knight in "Star Wars", and the cute little guy in "ET Alien", as if he was in a science fiction time and space, all of which were imaginary. The picture finally came down to a huge saucer-shaped flying machine, and when it rose to the ground with a blinding aura, the black and white Iron Cross logo was so striking that Lynn suddenly felt a sense of pride and pleasure that he had never felt before, as if every enemy in the past would bow down in fear...... "Hey, Sergeant!" Sergeant Gargo! ”

Hearing this familiar voice, Lynn suddenly opened his eyes, as if he had forcibly detached from the dream, and the position of his temples on both sides was strangely heavy. Through the wall lamp that had been turned on again after the diesel engine had been activated, he saw the blurred face of Wolfrum, and the second lieutenant standing behind him.

"Sergeant, are you alright?" Wolfrum's tone was still so concerned, and when the second lieutenant saw that he had woken up, he said, "I don't want to disturb your dreams, sergeant, but it's time for the rotation!" ”

Lynn wanted to rub her face with both hands to refresh herself as soon as possible and then get up and go to the command module, but as soon as her right hand moved, her shoulder position hurt, and she immediately grinned "uh".

"The wound hurts?" Wolfrum hurriedly asked.

Lynn didn't know how to describe it, but subconsciously shook her head and stood up with her left hand on the bulkhead. But his head was like a stick, so heavy that he could barely lift it, and when he turned to walk towards the hatch, his steps were more like those of a deeply drunk man. In the process, he tried to keep his body and legs balanced, but to no avail. When he finally lifted his leg to step over the hatch, his body fell back irretrievably. The hands stretched out to both sides were obviously touching the frame of the hatch, but they were so clumsy that they couldn't hold on to it!

Fortunately, Wolfrum followed behind uneasily, and he quickly stepped out to help, but at this time, Lynn's body was like a hemp bag full of potatoes, and after losing support, he fell hard and almost fell down with him.

"Sir, what's wrong with you?" Wolfrum exclaimed, and Frederick, who was also in the aft cabin, hurriedly stepped forward to help. After laying Lynn flat, Wolfrum rested the back of his hand on his forehead and felt it: "It's hot, it's a fever!" ”

Seeing that Lynn was still struggling and wanted to get up, the second lieutenant who turned around and came back immediately stopped him and said, "Sergeant Gargo, you rest here first, and I'll ask the medic to come and check on you!" ”

At this time, his consciousness was a little more sober, and Lynn felt more and more panicked, some parts of his body seemed to be out of his control, and his voice was a little unexpectedly hoarse: "Uh...... Good! I ......"

"Lynn, what's wrong with you?" Captain Motchig also came over and asked with concern.

Lynn's eyes were barely open, but he felt helpless about his state, and he opened his mouth and uttered a few syllables that he couldn't even hear clearly.

"Sir, he's got a fever!"

As he replied, Wolfrum got up and brought the blanket, spread it out beside Lynn, and worked with Frederick to move it to the blanket and cover it with his own, before taking out the kettle and unscrewing the lid to feed Lynn.

"It can't be a wound infection!" Frederick said worriedly.

"Quite possibly!" Wolfrum replied, "Later, the paramedics on the boat will come and ask him to use some anti-inflammatory medicine!" ”

Lynn felt a little clearer when he drank the cold water in his mouth, but before he swallowed the water, his stomach churned uncontrollably, and soon he vomited it all in one go.

When Lynn had vomited, Wolfrum patiently fed him a sip of water, then screwed the lid of the kettle, turned to Motchig and said, "Sir, the air on the boat is not very good, it is very bad for healing, I wish we could go ashore sooner!" ”

"I'm afraid it's going to take a few more days!" Motchige replied in a low voice.

Although he was in a top-heavy and uncomfortable state, Lynn heard every word of his companions clearly, and he wanted to join the discussion, but the last of his body's strength was also dissipated in the vomiting just now, and he could only lie helpless like a puddle of mud.

After a while, the paramedics on the boat arrived. He touched Lynn's forehead with his hand, then took a general look at the wounds on his shoulders and legs with a flashlight, and quickly judged, "The wound is infected!" ”

Next, Lynn heard the soft sound of the medicine box turning over and the injection container being opened, and the feeling of pins and needles soon came from her arm, but she didn't feel any pain at all, but she really didn't have the strength to open her eyes again. Immediately afterwards, I heard the medical soldier say to others: "This is an anti-inflammatory drug, take one tablet now, and take another tablet in 24 hours, as long as the fever is gone, there should be no problem!" Also, other injured people should pay attention to wound cleaning, counting him, there are already six people on the boat who are experiencing uncomfortable symptoms due to wound infection! ”

Feeling that his companions were feeding him anti-inflammatory pills, Lynn consciously cooperated with them, but his body was becoming more and more disobedient, and the heaviness of his head drove chaos to "devour" his mind. Gradually, he only retained the last bit of lucid thought in his heart, and vaguely heard others talking. He knew that in this era, as long as it was not an army that was extremely short of medicines, wound infections were no longer the number one killer that took the lives of soldiers, so he would definitely be able to get better, and he would definitely be able to ...... With this faint thought, Lynn fell asleep for the nth time, but he did not expect that he would sleep for a long time, and during the coma, this submarine with a special mission would experience some twists and turns.

At dawn, in the nearshore waters at the northwestern end of the Skagerrak Strait, near the Norwegian port of Kristiansand, U-boat with the board number "396" quietly surfaced. As Norwegian territorial waters, it became a "green passage" for German ships and submarines after the German occupation of Norway in the summer of 1940, but this good old age no longer existed by 1945. At this time, the entire Skagerrak Strait was under the watchful eye of Allied ships and aircraft, and German submarines had difficulty moving at night, and even more so during the day.

After the submarine surfaced, the officers who climbed into the conning tower cabin held binoculars one by one and watched the sea and air in the distance as if they were facing a great enemy, and some of the crew members were also waiting for the deck guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, while others were led by technical non-commissioned officers to rush to repair the snorkels located next to the conning tower cabin -- the early submarines were not equipped with similar equipment, but in the face of the increasing air anti-submarine forces of the Allies, the snorkels became an indispensable tool for the German submarines to sail during the day. As if by the favor of the heavens, the sea area was still foggy until 9 a.m., and the German crew was able to repair the snorkel that had failed during the night voyage. After completing the repairs, the U-396, which was already marked "missing" in the rosters of the German Navy, continued to sail to the northwest. At dusk on April 30, it arrived at the waters near the Norwegian port of Stavanger, and then adjusted its course and drove due north along the Norwegian coastline; In the early morning of May 1, the Allied ship was spotted off the coast of Norway, and although the U-boat was in a very advantageous position at the time of the encounter, it did not make any attempt to attack, but quickly dived into deep water to evade. At dusk, the submarine sailed over the Bergen Sea and, receiving a message from the Allied radio that "Hitler had died in Berlin", continued to drive north without heeding; On May 2, the defenders of Berlin announced their surrender, and the news immediately spread to the world by radio, and the death of the Reich Führer and the fall of Berlin made the Third Reich, which had borne the heavy weight of the two fronts, finally begin the final collapse, and a large number of German troops on the front began to break through to the west in an organized manner.

(To be continued)