The sonar of the American destroyer USS Cassin Young suddenly shouted into the microphone: "The torpedo tubes are filled with water!" ”

"Are you sure?" The voice of the captain of the Kasin Young immediately came from the speaker, the captains of some destroyers in the US Navy have already encountered German submarines in escort battles, but there are too many destroyers in the US Navy, and there are still a considerable number of captains who have no actual combat experience in anti-submarine warfare.

But the Cassin Young did not evade it at all, and the captain thought of confirming the situation first.

Fortunately, submarines generally do not take the time to attack low-value targets such as destroyers, after all, it takes too long for submarines to reload their torpedoes, and they have to leave their torpedoes to the big ships.

The sonar crew of the Kassinyan replied to the captain with a frown: "I ...... Not particularly sure...... Because the sound is far away, and it is in front of us. ”

At this time, the Anglo-American fleet was in an anti-submarine formation, and destroyers or light cruisers were placed in positions suitable for torpedo attacks near the big ships, and the Cassin Young was just in front of the right side of the fleet's flagship.

The captain was silent for a moment on the loudspeaker, and then the whole ship's radio rang out: "All the crew members who are not on duty go to the deck to look for torpedo tracks, torpedoes are coming from ahead of us, and whoever finds the track will be rewarded with additional shore leave." ”

After the broadcast ended, the sound of people running in the corridor of the ship outside the door could be faintly heard - the sonar soldiers realized that the door to the sonar room was not closed. Of course, the Cassin Young class itself does not have a special soundproof sonar room, and even if the door is closed, there will still be sound coming in.

**

At this time, on the deck, all the people who did not have a combat position ran to the side of the ship -- if the destroyer was only in a state of submarine warfare, there would still be quite a lot of people who were not on duty, after all, all that was needed for submarine warfare was the steering department, the engine, sonar, and the deep bomb, and the anti-aircraft machine gunners on the deck had nothing to do, and although the main gun crew asked to standby, in fact it was enough time for the submarine to float up and run back, after all, the destroyer was so big, as long as one person was left to turn the gun body according to the order at any time.

So now, everybody is fighting for that extra day of vacation.

Suddenly, the soldiers in the bow spotted the torpedo on the starboard side, and they shouted to convey the location of the torpedo to the bridge.

Soon, the bridge ordered the main and secondary guns to fire on the torpedo, and although the torpedo could not hit any ship by any means, the captain of the Kassinyan apparently thought that he should still do his duty to destroy the torpedo approaching the fleet.

After a round of shelling, the torpedo was finally detonated, and the rising column of water was blown by the strong wind on the sea surface towards the Cassin Young and landed on the faces of the crew.

"The soldiers who were the first to spot the torpedo all get an extra day off, so keep up the good work and look for the other torpedoes! Keep your eyes open! German electric torpedoes do not leave a noticeable track, but the bubbles created by the agitation of the propellers can still be seen, staring at you! ”

In fact, the trajectory of electro-operated torpedoes is very difficult to identify, especially when attacking large warships, and the torpedo is generally at a deeper depth, so it is more difficult to detect by observation posts on the surface - and it is also more difficult to be detonated by escort ships with small-caliber guns.

The fact that the Kasinyan had to shoot so many rounds to detonate the torpedo very close to its own side shows how deep the torpedo fired by the Germans was - anyway, the bottom of a little guy like the Cassin Young would not have been able to trigger the fuse, and the torpedo would have safely passed through the bottom of the Kassinyan.

Suddenly, the crew in the aft of the Kassinyan shouted: "Torpedo found!" Hair ......"

The high-pitched shouts suddenly disappeared.

The others didn't know why, but they all ran to the sharp-eyed guy who had spotted the torpedo, and stood on either side of him and looked in the direction of his finger.

"Oh my God...... "Is there something wrong with my eyes?" muttered one of them. That thing seems to be turning a corner......"

The torpedoes sailed very close to the Cassinyan, less than a chain (a unit often used by sailors), so it was quite easy to identify the moving minebody in the water as long as you focused on staring.

The torpedo was indeed turning, and it made an elliptical trajectory towards the battleship Tennessee, which was escorted by the Cassin Young.

"Damn it......" There was a lieutenant mixed in the crowd, who probably knew a little bit about the principles of anti-submarine warfare, "Isn't this angle the same as when a German submarine grabs the best position and then fires?" ”

When the second lieutenant said this, the others suddenly realized this, and began to shout with the second lieutenant that the Tennessee would change course.

**

In fact, at this time, the captain of the Cassin Young had already informed the Tennessee of the torpedo turn, although the captain of Tennessee felt that the crew of the Cassin Young had mistaken the larger fish as a torpedo, but he still immediately ordered to evade.

The Kassinyan began to turn in the direction of the reported torpedo attack.

This has two advantages, the first is that it can reduce the projection length of the torpedo that can hit as quickly as possible, and compared with turning in the same direction as the torpedo, facing the direction of the torpedo can make the threat of the torpedo faster - in this way, as long as the turn survives the moment of staggering with the torpedo, even if it escapes, no matter how maneuvering, there will be no problem, and after turning in the other direction, you have to worry about whether you will turn your head and be hit by the torpedo that has been avoided, because the battleship is a thing of tens of thousands of tons, It is impossible to stop the rudder and immediately stop steering, not to mention that it will take more than ten seconds for the rudder to come back.

The second is that the bow part is not a protective area, even if it is missed, it will not affect the survival of the battleship, even if the entire bow is filled with water, the protective area of the battleship still has enough reserve buoyancy, and the mine in the bow has less impact on the balance of the battleship, if the torpedo hits the side of the guide zhì side leakage, then the battleship will be in trouble. In addition, there is basically no part of the bow that affects the operation, unlike the stern, which is very likely to damage the steering mechanism and propeller if hit by a torpedo.

In short, the Tennessee began to turn in the right direction, but the position that the Cassin Young now occupies is one of the legendary best firing positions, and after being occupied, the battleship's position is very awkward: if you don't dodge, you will definitely be hit, and if you dodge it, you can avoid the basic face, or in other words, the battleship is just doing its best to avoid the attack of the submarine that occupies a good position.

Therefore, the best response is not how to dodge the attack that the enemy has already launched, but not to allow the enemy to occupy a good position.

It was a full two minutes after the Cassin Young reported the strange turn of the torpedo that the hull of the Tennessee slowly turned around at a small angle.

Originally, the old ship was driving slowly, and this steering speed dropped a lot, so that the Kassinyan had to slow down in order to maintain the formation.

At this moment, a column of water rose at the front of the Tennessee hull, near the A turret.

"Oh my God." The captain, who was watching from the bridge of the Kassinyan, muttered, "That has already blown up the armored zone, right?" ”

Before he could finish speaking, a second column of water rose in the middle of the Tennessee hull.

The sound of the underwater explosion was rather dull, like thunder.

At this time, the first mate slapped the captain on the shoulder.

"The light signal given to us by the escort detachment!"

The captain of the Cassin Young immediately turned his head to look at the light cruiser of the Atlanta, who was serving as the lead ship of the escort detachment.

"Your ship immediately went out to search for the attacking German submarine. Helmsman, full left rudder! Let's go find this opponent who uses a torpedo that can turn. All the ship's owners are in combat positions...... No, only the engine, depth shell and main gun crew are in combat positions, and everyone else is staring at me for a periscope! That damn German bastard must be appreciating the damage their new weapon does. ”

After speaking, the captain looked back at the Tennessee, the speed of the battleship has obviously slowed down, it seems that the hull is very tightly flooded, otherwise no one will slow down when there are enemy submarines around.

You must know that the rudder efficiency of a battleship is often affected by the speed of the cruise, and the average battleship will have a speed that is most suitable for steering, at this time it has the smallest spin diameter and spin time. But obviously, the speed of the Tennessee is definitely lower than this optimal maneuvering speed now.

The more its speed decreases, the more difficult it will be to steer and the easier it will be to be targeted by the enemy.

"Damn." The captain of the Kassinyan cursed, "Is this going to be our pot...... No, that's my pot, shit, I'm going to get that German bastard out! Otherwise, we'll all have to get out of the navy! Sonar soldiers! ”

**

Inside the U571 boat.

"Cut the guidance cable." Although he hadn't seen the torpedo hit yet, Captain Erich sensed something, and he felt that it was time for his submarine to dive, "dive at full speed and sit on the ground." ”

At Erich's command, the deck of the submarine began to tilt forward, and the submarine's motors were pushing the submarine to the bottom with all their might.

"Can you hit this attack range?" While diving, the technical sergeant major asked Erich.

"They say that this is an oxygen torpedo, and the range is much longer than our electric torpedo, and then you can only trust what the people in the technical department say."

As soon as the words fell, everyone in the submarine heard a muffled sound from outside the hull. Coming through the hull, the sound sounded like someone was letting out a fart.

But the old churro crew of the U571 was all too familiar with this sound, and it must have been a torpedo hitting the target.

"It's not bad to get a shot." As soon as Erich finished speaking, a second muffled sound was heard again.

There were small cheers from inside the boat.

Suddenly, the sonar man's report came from the microphone tube leading to the sonar room: "The propeller tone is approaching from five o'clock, it's a destroyer." ”

The cabin, which had just been full of joy, immediately became solemn, everyone stopped celebrating, closed their mouths, and for a moment the whole cabin could only hear the sound of breathing.

Erich slightly turned on the sonar player set up in the command module and played the sound heard by the sonar in the command module at the lowest volume.

The roar of the destroyer's engines was very clear.

All looked up at the ceiling of the submarine's compartment, although they knew that the destroyer was not yet over their heads.

Although the Mediterranean Sea has an average water depth of thousands of meters, U571 is fighting on the continental shelf of the Bull Nice Strait, and the bottom is only sixty or seventy meters deep. With guò sonar, they can hear the engine sound more and more clearly.

Everyone had only one thought at this point: don't throw deep bombs.

But it backfired, and the explosion of the first deep bullet shook everyone's ears.

But soon everyone realized that the deep bullet had landed far away.

Soon, though, the explosion approached.

Finally the submarine shook like a swing, and its hull let out a terrifying scream.

The technical sergeant major had been counting the number of deep rounds, and by the time they reached the 38th, the line in front of the command module was broken, and a small but powerful stream of water was ejected outward.

Erich was completely unmoved, knowing that his men would deal with this little problem quickly.

After the explosion of the fortieth deep bomb, the surroundings fell silent.

"When they see that there is no oil floating up, they will definitely come and throw it again."

"They'll have to throw it again." Technical Sergeant Major said, "But I don't rule out the possibility that other ships will come over." ”

"No, they're worried that there are other U-boats with wire-guided torpedoes around, and they won't send too many ships out of the protective circle."

"Anyway, just wait for the enemy." Erich took a deep breath, "At least we can live in peace for a while until the enemy puts the depth charges in the warehouse on top of the droppers." ”