Chapter 586 Operation Sea Lion 8

"Quick, quick, fire flares! Prepare hedgehog depth charges and depth charges! Those guys driving submarines are very timid, and they will dive when they see flares. I know this best!" Knight Otto von Kretschmer, the captain of the Z38 destroyer, loudly ordered to fire flares.

Otto von Kretschmer, a former ace U-boat captain and one of the many aces of the German submarine force, who has won a lot of medals and was knighted, successfully "passed the level" a few months ago and was upgraded to the captain of the 1936 Type A destroyer Z38.

According to Imperial Marshal Hessmann, this is the highest honor that can be awarded to an ace U-boat captain! Because this ace U-boat captain and his comrades were so capable that they destroyed all the enemy's ships, they had to change their careers to become destroyer captains.

This is of course a joke, but it also makes sense. Because there are not many British merchant ships on the surface of the North Atlantic that need to be sunk by German U-boats. On the contrary, the number of British and American submarines operating underwater is increasing!

The offensive and defensive situation of the Battle of the Atlantic has changed! Now it is the turn of the former ace U-boat captains to experience the power of British submarines.

"Boom boom boom!"

After several flares were fired, Kretschmer looked at the pale scene on the sea illuminated by the flares and suddenly thought of a very strange question. Those British submarine captains who commanded submarines to ambush in the Strait of Dover might have been destroyer captains 12 months ago, and might have used depth charges to attack the U-boats they commanded...

"Flames, we're about to be discovered! Dive urgently!" Lieutenant Colonel McIntyre, who wore the Victoria Cross on his chest, was really frightened by the flares fired randomly by the German destroyers. This British naval lieutenant colonel who was in charge of commanding an S-class submarine was really a destroyer captain at the beginning of the war. At that time, he, like many destroyer captains who had recently switched to submarines, fought hard in the Atlantic and fought desperately with the evil German submarines.

But just when the British destroyers and German submarines were in a stalemate, the damn Ju88 and Italian hunchback aircraft joined the battle, and there were also "Long-legged Fokker" (referring to Fokker Zero) escorts. As a result, a 500-kilogram bomb sank Lieutenant Colonel McIntyre's destroyer and seriously injured him in the hospital.

When he finally recovered and was discharged from the hospital, the Royal Navy had no extra destroyers for him to command. Moreover, the battleships of Germany, France and Italy were already rampaging in the Atlantic Ocean. The era when destroyers could protect the Atlantic route was gone forever.

So at the suggestion of his superiors, he entered the submarine school and got a brand new S-class submarine after completing several months of crash training.

However, as the captain of the S-class submarine, he was not sent to the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea or the Pacific Ocean to break the trade, but was incorporated into the Home Fleet to prepare for the Battle of the English Channel.

On the afternoon of May 1, Lieutenant Colonel McIntyre was ordered to command his submarine to leave Portsmouth Port and lurk in the Strait of Dover. As a result, on the way to the Strait of Dover, they were attacked by German Ju87 dive bombers with bombs several times. Fortunately, they were lucky enough to escape, but it took a lot of time. They arrived at the designated location at around 7 o'clock in the evening, but they encountered dozens of torpedo boats towing balloons, and saw Dover's cannons bombarding those torpedo boats.

However, McIntyre did not use submarines to attack torpedo boats, but continued to wait patiently. Before long, a huge fleet of ships consisting of an unknown number of ships arrived. This time, McIntyre did not hesitate any more, and decisively seized the opportunity to sink a 4,000-5,000-ton ammunition ship, which immediately attracted destroyers.

Seeing the other side firing flares, McIntyre quickly lowered the periscope and ordered an emergency dive - because when the flares came just now, his submarine happened to raise the periscope, and maybe it was discovered by the German "Cat's Eye Warrior"!

"Sir, the sonar has found a submarine, with a bearing of 98 degrees, a depth of 5-10, and a distance of 500. It seems to be diving urgently."

The common tactic used by submarines when encountering destroyers is definitely not to launch torpedoes, but to dive deep and keep silent. However, during the emergency dive, sometimes it will be detected by the destroyer's sonar because of excessive noise. Krezimer, who was originally an ace U-boat captain, certainly knew this "trick", so he just asked people to launch flares and hedgehog bombs to scare people.

Krezimer's bluff soon paid off. The sonar of Z38 detected a British submarine that was diving.

"Prepare for a hedgehog depth charge attack, 3 rounds!" Krezimer chose the hedgehog bomb. Because the distance was close, Krezimer did not choose the deep water charge with a strong momentum, but chose the hedgehog depth charge that could attack a large area.

The launcher for launching the hedgehog bomb was installed on the bow of Z38, with 24 rounds in a row, and each hedgehog bomb weighed 30 kilograms. All of them can be fired in a very short time, and form a 40-meter elliptical barrage more than 200 meters in front of the destroyer. As long as one hedgehog bomb hits the submarine and explodes, the other 23 will also explode, forming a fire net. Generally speaking, two rounds of hits are enough to destroy a submarine, but Kretschmer decided to bomb three rounds first to be on the safe side.

But unfortunately, the three rounds of hedgehog depth bombs were ejected and fell into the water without even making a sound (the hedgehog depth bombs are trigger fuses and can only explode when they hit the submarine shell), so they obviously missed the target. Just when Kretschmer was considering whether to try his luck with depth charges, the shells fired from the Dover Fortress had already fallen like raindrops on the water near the destroyer Z38.

It turned out that the British submarine attack caused several German transport ships to burst into flames, thus exposing the position of the entire fleet and allowing the British artillery at Dover to once again find the general target of the attack.

But relying only on firelight guidance and no calibration, it was simply firing indiscriminately. Except for two 4,000-ton cargo ships that were hit by near misses and sank, all the other shells were empty.

On the other hand, the British submarines ambushing the western exit of the Strait of Dover achieved three more results. Two freighters and a T-type landing craft full of soldiers and equipment were sunk one after another.

However, these British submarines also paid a price. Two S-class boats were sunk by the German Z-type destroyers using hedgehog bombs and depth charges.

…

"Seven ships and two torpedo boats were sunk, and more than 1,280 people were lost..."

After hearing the report from Lieutenant General Hermann Buckle, Chief of Staff of the Western Front, Marshal Schleicher, who had been awake all night, smiled slightly.

"Not bad, the loss is not big." Schleicher touched his bald head, "How is the weather in the English Channel now?"

"There is some fog, but it will disperse soon, and there will still be fierce fighting."

"Will the British send a fleet?"

"It's unlikely, but the Air Force and Naval Aviation are already prepared," Lieutenant General Bakker said. "General Jeshunek has prepared 6,000 aircraft and can launch an attack at any time."

General Jeshunek is currently the commander of the 3rd Luftwaffe of the German Air Force, and also serves as the commander of the Western Front Air Force Combined Command. Not only the German and Italian air forces and naval aviation units deployed in France, Belgium, and western Germany were under his command, but even the French Air Force, which had begun to gradually recover, was under the command of the United Air Force Command led by him.

Due to the concentration of large amounts of German, French and Italian aviation forces, Jeshunek now controlled unprecedentedly powerful air power. The fierce air battle that broke out over the Taiwan Strait on May 1 was just the beginning. The real war has just begun now.

"Mr. Prime Minister, the German troops did not land at Dover, but they still destroyed 8 armored gun turrets at Dover. In addition, last night our submarine attacked the German fleet trying to pass through the Strait of Dover, sinking at least 10 ships.”

"10 ships? How many are there in total?" Fatty Qiu had just returned from the train station to the fortress underground on King Charles Street.

The purpose of his going to the train station was to say goodbye to King George VI, who was going to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands for a "vacation". If the Germans really landed in Dover or somewhere else in England, then this "vacation" would be will be long term.

"I'm afraid there are 150 ships, or even more!" replied First Sea Lord Dudley Pound. "According to reports from submarines, the fleet that passed through the Strait of Dover yesterday included at least 3 aircraft carriers and 2 battleships. Dozens of ships are likely to be landing ships. In addition, our intelligence personnel also reported that there are currently hundreds of transport ships parked in the port of Brest, and at least one armored division has been lurked near Gibraltar. Intelligence personnel report that the port of Gibraltar is currently empty. We estimate that the main force of the so-called European Combined Fleet should be hidden in the Atlantic Ocean west of Brest."

"Haha, the war is coming." Churchill sat down in his seat, "Can you determine the direction of the German attack?"

"It should be somewhere west of the Strait of Dover," said Viscount Brooke, chief of general staff. "Cornwall and Ireland each have a 50% chance... Prime Minister, I recommend that you approve the army's entry into the Irish Free State."

"Enter Ireland?" Churchill lit a cigar and took two puffs. "How helpful would it be to enter now? The landing may be only 24 hours later. If the Germans want to airlift troops to Cork, it will only take a few hours? So Can we take over all of Ireland in a little while?”

"This is impossible."

Churchill exhaled a puff of smoke, "In that case, let the Germans go first...and then we will start a battle with them in Ireland!" He looked at the frowning Viscount Brooke and said with a smile, "There must be a large-scale land battle. The war was either in Ireland or England. If hundreds of thousands or millions of Germans had not landed, the man in Moscow would have continued to wait cautiously. If I were to choose a battlefield, it would be on English soil. Might as well fight on Irish territory!"