August 29, 1938. Wiping the sweat from his head, a German sailor, shirtless, stood on the deck, looking at the calm ocean and smoking a cigarette comfortably. Behind him, two soldiers sat on 88mm anti-aircraft guns, boredom blowing the sea breeze and feeling the familiar smell of the sea.

This is a U-boat ocean-going submarine of the German army, and the failure rate is very low because of the maturity of the technology. It is suitable for long-distance sneak attack operations in the ocean, and can even dive all the way to the east coast of the United States to lay mines or pick up spies. Of course, it has a total of 6 torpedo tubes in the front 4 and 2 in the rear, so it is more convenient to do the old business of attacking merchant ships.

This fleet was the German submarine detachment sent by Germany to Australia, and these ten submarines were escorted by a German cruiser detachment along the way across the hot equator to the northern hemisphere. On the equator, the fleet also performed a traditional equatorial crossing ceremony.

According to the custom of the regions near the equator, the old sailors were to disguise themselves as the hope of the sea and the queen. Then the disguised figures held a ceremony on deck U-307. THE CAPTAIN OF SUBMARINE 307 WORE AN OLD PIRATE CAPTAIN'S OUTFIT AND EVEN CARRIED A MEDIEVAL COMMAND KNIFE, SIMILAR TO TODAY'S COSPLAY, AND THE GERMAN SAILORS WORE A VARIETY OF CLOTHES AND DRESSED THEMSELVES WITH ALL SORTS OF THINGS.

Some people dressed up as kings, crowns were folded from paper, and sailors used the roots of brooms as beards. These people are dressed as Aquaman, Godfathers, and even the Virgin Mary, and they are just as hilarious as the monsters in Halloween. The captain and the first mate's assistants also put on local straw skirts at this time and dressed themselves up as women.

The recruits were then forced to swallow foul-smelling pills in laughter, cleansed themselves with a cocktail of milk, salt water and fuel, shaved their faces, cut their hair, and wiped off the dust from head to toe before they were allowed to enter the southern hemisphere cleanly.

Even at such a relaxed moment, the officers and soldiers did not dare to relax their vigilance. Only half of the officers and men participated in the ceremony, and the remaining half remained in the cabin ready to fight. But in the waters of the South Atlantic, this was completely redundant, and the British fleet here was no longer large, and the seas were full of American and German merchant ships. What's more, when it was on the equator, this German submarine formation was escorted by cruisers and destroyers, and the radar on it could detect incoming aircraft at a distance of 100 kilometers.

The Germans now had nearly 350 submarines, a size that made Dönitz proud of his peers. After a series of improvements, German submarines made extensive use of mature technology, and at one time allowed the sailing rate to reach an astonishing level. Dönitz has 200 combat-ready submarines, of which about 100 are deployed in the North Atlantic, more than 70 are hunting in the Arctic Ocean, and the remaining 20 submarines are on combat duty in the Mediterranean Sea and Gibraltar.

The remaining 10 ships, according to the plan, will be sent to Australia, where they will carry out attack combat missions against the Japanese Navy. But everyone knew that the German fleet was just for show. However, this fleet also had its own mission, that is, to reserve its own experience for German missions in the oceans.

On each submarine, 10 technicians are assigned to replace the original sailors, who are responsible for keeping the submarine in good operation at all times as on-board testers and maintenance personnel. More engineers and maintenance personnel are on board the ship, and they will provide a higher level of repair services for the submarine.

Along the way, they practiced ocean-going voyages and tested some new equipment on the submarine, including a passive radar monitor to detect radar waves fired by the other side and provide passive radar warning to the submarine. There is also a small radar system, which can detect sky targets up to 70 kilometers away, and although it is very reliable, it is enough to provide a safer diving environment for submarines.

These installations were prepared for expeditions to the Pacific Ocean, because, after all, the Japanese naval aviation was impressive, and Accardo did not want these sent submarines to be threatened by Japanese aircraft. Of course, there is also a submarine with a streamlined ship island installed to test whether the noise reduction under water is as good as expected.

The Germans invented an underwater snorkel that allowed the submarine to stay underwater for a considerable period of time, and although it would expel black exhaust gases and stir up a lot of waves, it did allow the submarine to use a more powerful diesel engine as a forward power while diving.

The clever submarine commanders quickly mastered this new technology, and they redrafted the technical code of submarine warfare, changing the navigation specification to "sail with a snorkel at night, which can effectively reduce the probability of the submarine being detected." ”

This submarine fleet parted ways at the equator with one of the German missile destroyers and one cruiser protecting them. The submarine flotilla and several supply ships, as well as three British destroyers in the north, continued southward, while German cruisers and destroyers returned to the Mediterranean Sea to take part in anti-submarine escort missions.

There is only one of Germany's two new missile destroyers left, and it has proved that the use of liquid-fuel missiles at sea is a very dangerous thing, although an ultra-long-range attack brought forward the history of human use of missiles to 1938, but a few months later, because of a refueling accident, a German missile destroyer exploded, and finally because of the damage, it was released from active service.

Facts have proved that blindly raising the scientific and technological content of weapons for the sake of counting jù is a completely wrong act, which will lead to the defect of stability due to immature technology. The Germans went back to the old ways and began to wholeheartedly begin to build new automatic artillery cruisers to replace the immature missile destroyers.

On this voyage, due to the lack of overseas supply bases, the Germans did not choose to make a detour to southern Africa, then pass through the British-controlled Indian Ocean, and eventually bypass the Japanese-controlled Malacca region and enter the Pacific region to fight. Instead, the opposite route was taken.

The entire German submarine detachment was to sail south, eventually to the southern part of South America, where they would receive supplies in Argentina before sailing directly to Australia from the relative safety of the region. Argentina, as a South American country, has always maintained good diplomatic relations with the German Third Reich in Accardo, and it was very convenient for the German fleet to be resupplied there. (There was a historical statement that Hitler fled to Argentina, which shows how close the relationship between Germany and Argentina was at that time.)

The German sailors, who had taken turns ashore in Argentina and had a happy time, were already sailing through the waves in the southeast Pacific Ocean at this moment. Their target was Australia, the "territory" of their allies, a piece of land that was being invaded by enemy Japan. They went there to fight, to show the determination of the Third Reich to survive the world, and to soothe the fragile hearts of Britain in the north.

The sea breeze was blowing in everyone's faces, the submarine captain standing on the bridge in the middle of the ship lowered his binoculars, and a northern British destroyer in the distance sent a signal of safety, it seemed that the Americans had no intention of preventing the Germans from entering the Pacific to fight. In fact, Roosevelt had received a report of the presence of the German Navy in Argentina a day earlier, and intelligence indicated that the Germans wanted to enter the Pacific through southern South America. Roosevelt immediately sent a telegram to Nimitz, ordering him not to provoke this fleet from the Third Reich.

In fact, Nimitz really did not have the energy to take care of this fleet from Germany, he had about a hundred destroyers in his hands, dozens of cruisers, plus a few battleships that had just been repaired, and the only two aircraft carriers that were now in fruition, the Yorktown and the Raider (if you did the math, the Langley was barely a seaplane carrier) - such a fleet was still overstretched against Japan, and he certainly would not be idle to find trouble with the Germans.

Now Nimitz is more interested in the light aircraft carrier Independence, which the United States is hurrying to build, and once several aircraft carriers of this class join active service, then the US Navy can at least have the strength to fight the Japanese Navy. But now, Dönitz could only watch as the Japanese prepared to attack Oahu and were at a loss for what to do.

"It seems that the Americans are not going to intercept us, and it seems that they have not provided our intelligence to King England. The German submarine captain said with a smile as he lit a cigar for himself. He got a lot of good stuff in Argentina, and cigars were one of them. Generally speaking, the captain of the North Atlantic mission comes out to smoke after the submarine surfaces is a very luxurious pleasure, but because most of the submarine is sailing on the surface of the water during this mission, the captain does not show that suffocated expression at this moment.

"I heard that we will be in Australia in a month, and I wonder if the people there will welcome us. The first mate leaned against the railing, enjoying the cool feeling of the sea breeze, and said, "I heard that a merchant ship sent before is about to arrive at the port there, and they will send us the results of the negotiation when the time comes." ”

"Nobody is sick, is she?" was the question he had asked the most recently, and every day every crew member had to take their temperature and eat all kinds of unpalatable dried fruits under the supervision of the officers to replenish their vitamins.

"One qiē is normal. The first mate replied, "It seems that our luck is really good." ”