In the vast Indian Ocean, a fleet is sailing southwest, this is the N-1 fleet. The fleet is composed of 23 merchant ships and 3 warships. They set out from Calcutta and prepared to go to the mainland Liverpool.
Loaded with a large number of goods needed locally.
Speaking of which, there is a reason for the formation of this fleet. Because after the war broke out, Italian submarines were extremely active in the Indian Ocean, causing heavy losses to British and French ships, and the British Empire accounted for 80% of the ships lost. (From
After the war broke out, the East African submarine fleet recorded a total of 970,000 tons of ships sunk.)
Although the British Empire had a large number of merchant ships (the total tonnage of merchant ships was more than 20 million tons), the total tonnage of British shipbuilding per year at this time was only 2.4 million tons. It can be said that the number of sinkings of the submarine force in East Africa alone increased the annual shipbuilding industry of the British Empire.
60% of production capacity has been offset. If there were more submarine attacks, wouldn't the British Empire still be shut down in a few months?
Therefore, in order to target submarine attacks, the Royal Navy, as the main responsible party, came up with many ideas, such as sending out camouflaged submarine hunting ships to look for opportunities to kill these annoying Italian submarines. However, this only treats the symptoms, not the root cause, and it is easy to be attacked many times.
To find out, of course, the most important thing is to quickly develop means to detect and attack submarines.
However, these all take time, and now there is a method that can be used immediately to reduce the loss of merchant ships. Mathematicians have given the Royal Navy the answer, which is to concentrate merchant ships and protect them by warships.
According to calculations by mathematicians, the method of concentrating merchant ships and moving forward protected by warships has a much higher chance of survival than the method of merchant ships transporting themselves.
As for the mathematician's method, the Royal Navy tried it out and formed the first escort fleet, which was the N-1 fleet. The commander of the fleet was Kip, the commander of the First Destroyer Squadron of the Far East Fleet.
Major Seeler.
Of course, sending an experienced officer to take command also shows how seriously the Navy attaches importance to this.
At this time, Major Kipsile was on the flagship cruiser Narcissus, observing the surrounding movements. As the commander of the escort formation, Major Kipsile's cautious character was the main reason why the Navy selected him.
At this time, Major Kipsiler, who had observed the surroundings, put down his telescope and said, "Order each ship to send additional lookouts. We are now in the attack range of Italian submarines. We must pay attention to carefully observe any suspicious situations. In addition, continue to execute the lights.
According to the regulations, except for the navigation lights, other lights are not allowed to be turned on. Anyone who violates the order will be punished with espionage."
Major Kipsil, who was worthy of being cautious, raised the vigilance of the fleet to the highest level.
But what he didn't know was that his fleet had already been targeted. At the left rear of the N-1 fleet, a submarine periscope was sticking out of the water, observing the N-1 fleet.
This is the submarine U27 that has been following them for two days. At this time, the captain Claudio is carefully observing every move of the N-1 fleet.
"You are really cautious. It seems that you really have to wait for others to arrive."
In the past two days since he met the N-1 fleet, Claudio had observed it many times. As a result, the other party was very cautious. He did not dare to get too close for fear of alerting the enemy, so he could only wait for his teammates to arrive.
One more thing, the current Italian submarine force has learned a simplified version of the Sea Wolf tactic. Because of the different times, it is impossible to completely reproduce Dönitz's tactics. Of course, the core idea of the tactic can be learned by the Italian Navy. After all, a ship
How can a submarine's solo combat be compared to team combat?
And Claudio followed for two days in a row just to wait for his teammates to arrive. How could he not be able to accommodate such a large fleet in one submarine? Naturally, he wanted to make friends.
"Send a telegram to the other boats later and tell them to launch operations tonight."
"As you command, Captain."
Claudio didn't want to wait any longer. He had been looking at such a big piece of fat in his mouth for two days and he could bear it.
Of course, he didn't make this decision rashly, but his teammates were about to arrive.
At this time, after the fleet had gone far, Claudio and the others also surfaced, and then slowly followed the fleet.
Although the C-27 submarine only has a top speed of 14 knots, the merchant ship has a slower speed of only 10 knots. This is considered to be a submarine-infested area and the speed is increased. Otherwise, the speed of seven or eight knots is normal.
As for why they don't speed up, they have to cross most of the Indian Ocean, and there are only three or four ports that can supply supplies along the way, so they must save fuel.
Time passed slowly while we were on the road. The sun had already set, and a full moon appeared in the sky with twinkling stars. It was a beautiful night sky scene.
However, although the night sky is beautiful, it also contains hidden dangers.
At this time, the N-1 fleet was sailing forward under the cover of night. Except for the navigation lights at the stern, all the ships in the queue were using no lights, but the bright moonlight still reflected the outlines of each ship.
"Order all ships to increase speed from eight knots to ten knots."
At this time, on the Narcissus, Major Kipsiler, the fleet commander, always felt that something was wrong. This must be his sixth sense. Although he did not notice anything at this time, he still planned to increase the speed for safety reasons.
stand up.
It was a bit dangerous to increase the speed at night, but he still decided to do it at this time.
Darkness does provide cover for the fleet, but if it is discovered, it will provide cover for the enemy.
"Hey, the speed has increased."
Captain Claudio, who had been staring at the opponent at this time, discovered that the fleet's speed had increased.
But it was useless at this time, because four submarines were already in place and the attack was about to begin.
At this time, the C-27 had moved to a position one thousand meters away from the fleet, and the other three submarines had also moved one to two kilometers away from the fleet.
"Report, the torpedoes have been loaded."
At this time, Claudio calmed down his inner excitement and issued an order. "Send a telegram and tell other boats that we are about to launch an attack."
Then he took the calculation tool and quickly calculated it in his combat notebook.
After completing the calculations, he issued the combat order. "Order the torpedoes to be set to 35 knots, at a depth of four meters, and fired in sequence."
Following Claudio's order, three rumbling sounds were heard in the submarine, which was the sound of torpedoes being launched.
I saw three white lines heading straight towards the three leading merchant ships, but due to the cover of the night, the originally obvious traces were not conspicuous at all.
After launching three torpedoes, all the officers and soldiers of C-27 were waiting.
Then three explosions sounded, and the officers and soldiers cheered in unison. This was a total hit. How could this not make people happy?
As for the fleet, when there were three loud noises in succession, Major Kipsile felt nervous. It must have been attacked by a submarine.
"Ask immediately where they were attacked from. In addition, have the Wasp and Reef prepare for anti-submarine warfare immediately."
At this time, the officers and soldiers on the Narcissus were also making anti-submarine preparations. However, unlike the depth bombs we are familiar with, the anti-submarine work at this time was to hang a special bomb with a rope and put it into the water.
Drag the battleship to attack the submarine by touching it.
Although this method seems a bit unbelievable, it is indeed the best method at present. It is better than bombarding the water with naval guns.
The merchant ship that was attacked at the same time also reported the location of the submarine.
Just as Major Kipsil was about to order the Wasp and Reef to attack the opponent's submarine, he only heard three more explosions, which came from the second half of the fleet.
"No, the enemy has more than one submarine."
This result made Major Kipsiler feel completely unhappy. "Order all ships to drive at maximum speed, we..."
"Boom, boom."
Suddenly there were two loud explosions, which came from the front half of the fleet, directly interrupting his words.
"Go and send the report quickly, let the transport ship leave quickly, and our three warships will stay."
Major Kipsile, who was interrupted by the explosion of the attack, roared angrily at the still confused communications staff officer. This also shows how nervous this person was.
Just as the transport ship was about to speed up and escape from this death zone, three more explosions were heard.
At this time, Major Kipsil could not sit still. The sound of explosions alone showed that there were at least four submarines here.
"Modify the order so that the Wasp and the transport ship go first, while we and the Reef stay to deal with the enemy."
At this time, one after another ships were attacked, causing the fleet's transport ships to panic. After all, they were civilians and had never experienced such a tragic situation. Although there were orders from Major Kipsil, some captains had their own ideas.
.This resulted in a chaos of ships in the fleet that had not yet been attacked.
"Boom", two merchant ships collided in a panic.
There were also ships that turned on their lights. Although this avoided collisions, it also attracted attention like bright lights.
"Boom!"
A torpedo hit it accurately.
Seeing the fleet in chaos, Major Kipsil, as the commander, saw it and became anxious in his heart.
"Let them retreat first and retreat to the southwest."
Maybe Major Kipsil's words worked, or maybe the merchant ships finally recovered from the chaos. At this time, the fleet that had lost nearly half of the fleet finally picked up the speed, and they ran to the southwest at a speed of 14 knots.
.
The Italian submarine officers and soldiers who were originally preparing to launch a second attack had no choice but to give up the attack.
But they are not in a hurry, because the road ahead is still long and they still have a chance.
Three days later, at Victoria Harbor in the Seychelles, two warships arrived with four merchant ships.
He reported the news of the attack to London through a large radio station in Seychelles.
Of the N-1 fleet consisting of 23 merchant ships and 3 warships, only six ships were left, with a loss of 140,000 tons. In addition, more than 3 million pounds worth of cargo on board also sank into the sea. This shocked London who received the news.
This also caused some people in the Navy to question the role of formation escort. However, with the strong support of the highly respected Marshal Fisher in the Navy, formation escort continued to be implemented.
Sorry, the chapter that was supposed to be updated yesterday has not been written until now. Thank you all for your continued support.
