Whitney's Surrender

  In history, Prien once discovered the British main battleship HMS Warspite participating in the Norwegian Campaign. He used two G7E torpedoes to attack at a distance of 900 meters. However, one torpedo exploded prematurely and the other hit a rock, exposing U-47 under Prien's command. Relying on his skills, he narrowly escaped the British anti-submarine counterattack. After returning to Wilhelmshaven, Prien was furious, saying that using such wooden guns would cost him his life, and initially refused to go out to battle again. Of course, now the protagonist has arrived, and the German Navy's electrical torpedo technology problems exposed during the Norwegian Campaign have been solved ahead of time.

  After studying Lieutenant Commander Tovey's report on the first battle of Narvik, D?nitz agreed with his assessment that the British Navy would certainly send a more powerful fleet to exact revenge.

  But now the German Navy had only 10 destroyers and U-boats in Narvik, which was clearly insufficient. Therefore, he asked Admiral Raeder to send two battleships 'Gneisenau' and 'Scharnhorst' to reinforce, and sent supply ships to provide ammunition, fuel and other supplies for the German army in Narvik. Raeder agreed to D?nitz's request. The German deployment had just been completed when a British strike fleet led by Admiral Whitworth arrived at the outer port of Narvik. This fleet included the old-fashioned British battleship 'Warspite' and the aircraft carrier 'Furious' ('Warspite' had 8 x 381mm main guns and 8 x 152mm secondary guns, which had participated in the Battle of Jutland and was a "veteran" of the British Home Fleet).

  After the reinforcement troops and supply ships arrived, Zhou Tianlei discussed the battle plan with the captains of the two battleships. He then rushed to inspect the new torpedoes brought by the supply ship (which was actually an improved version of the acoustic torpedo equipped by the German military in early 1944. The acoustic torpedo previously used by the German military was prone to interference and often attracted by other loud noises in the water, so the German Navy developed this improved version, which only reacted to sounds similar to propellers. However, at that time, the German Navy had no power to turn back. Zhou Tianlei carefully studied the data of this torpedo and proposed his improvement idea, namely, to add control wires, gyroscopes, and controllable wings to the torpedo, like the wire-guided torpedoes of later generations. The submarine's sonar was used for positioning, and the torpedo would transmit its underwater state back to the control device on the submarine and respond to the commands from the control device. However, due to the problems with the wires themselves, the range was reduced by nearly a quarter compared to the original product.)

  Six torpedoes were launched, three of which were equipped with explosively formed penetrators similar to those used on anti-tank missiles, in order to test whether they could penetrate the armor of modern warships. If successful, they would be promoted to the army and air force.

  Zhou Tianlei's mission was different from the last time, he no longer served as a reconnaissance warning task, but only ambushed on the route that the British fleet must pass outside Narvik Port, preparing to ambush the warships in the British fleet that posed a major threat to German warships. The reconnaissance mission was carried out by the reconnaissance planes carried by the two battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst.

  When the striking fleet led by Admiral Whitworth appeared, the reconnaissance planes responsible for reconnaissance quietly followed them, identified their position, speed, and type of ship, and reported to the Narvik Port Command.

  Narvik harbour command issued a warning to German warships and ordered them to execute combat according to plan No. 3.

  After receiving the order from the port, Zhou Tianlei knew that he was to find and attack the enemy's high-value warship. He knew that at the end of the British fleet sequence was the aircraft carrier "Furious", so he decided to attack it, and sent his combat intention back to the port command. The port command agreed with his combat plan.

  After finding the Furious, he discovered that she had two destroyers as escorts. He decided to attack her while the carrier was turning into the wind to prepare for launching aircraft, since at this time it would be unlikely for the carrier to change course to avoid torpedoes. At this time, Rear Admiral Whitworth decided to use the Furious's air group to bomb Narvik harbour.

  The aircraft carrier began to turn into the wind direction, and the planes were lined up on the deck ready for takeoff. Zhou Tianlei saw the opportunity to attack had arrived. He loaded a wire-guided torpedo at the "Furious" aircraft carrier and launched it, hitting its stern. Zhou Tianlei didn't have time to see the result, quickly diving down to avoid the attacks of the escort warships.

  Evade the search by those 2 destroyers at silent running speed.

  He then hastened to direct his submarine to pursue the "Acasta". Meanwhile, thanks to an early warning from a reconnaissance plane, the "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst", along with several destroyers, had taken up advantageous firing positions ahead of the British fleet. They sank one of the two leading British destroyers and forced the other to retreat.

  Rear Admiral Whitworth, on receiving this, also received a signal from Furious reporting that she had been torpedoed by an enemy submarine, was out of control and was organising damage control parties.

  Knowing air support was impossible, the destroyer moved forward to lay smoke and launch torpedoes in an attempt to turn the tide.

  The German view was obstructed and they could not see the British ships. Then suddenly the British fleet fired torpedoes, each ship turning to avoid them. The British destroyer scouting force saw that the German ships had left their firing position.

  Signal the flagship at once. Admiral Whitworth was overjoyed and hastily issued orders for the British fleet to open fire while the German fleet was in disarray. But just as they were about to do so, Zhou Lei arrived on the scene.

  The German fleet had been forced to withdraw. He then fired four torpedoes at the "Abdiel". Two of them were previously sent with explosive warheads. Rear Admiral Whitworth was observing the movements of the German fleet on the bridge of the "Abdiel" with binoculars, when suddenly a lookout shouted; "Torpedo on starboard side, 4!" The captain hastily ordered: "Hard to starboard." Only to see the four torpedoes pass by the starboard side.

  Whitney wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He thought: Is this the German mystery submarine mentioned in the previous intelligence? How did I not discover it just now? After thinking about it, cold sweat seeped out of his forehead again. Before he could figure it out, the lookout on the deck shouted even more terrifyingly: "Two torpedoes on the port side! They are two of the four torpedoes from earlier, and they can actually turn corners! They are too close to us, we cannot avoid them."

  Whitney was astonished at the torpedo's erratic behavior when he heard the captain order, "All hands prepare for collision."

  At this time, only two torpedoes were seen to hit the "Yue War" No. 1 at the tail and the other hit the engine room position of the "Yue War" No. 1. The "Yue War" No. 1 lost power, like a dead fish floating on the surface of the sea, with the waves rising and falling.

  The German fleet, seeing this, immediately killed a horseback gun. The 'Gneisenau' and 'Scharnhorst' fired their main and secondary guns, and the German destroyers did not show weakness, joining the firing array together.

  Only to see large and small shells falling into the British fleet like hail. 'Gneisenau' and 'Scharnhorst' attacked the upper structure of 'Warspite' fiercely with high-explosive shells as Zhou Tianlei said.

  In a moment, flames were raging on the "Repulse". There were hardly any signs of activity on board. Admiral Whitworth and Captain Tennant were in the armoured conning tower. The damage control parties reported that they could not carry out repairs due to the intense German gunfire.

  The destroyer squadron commander in the fleet reported that several destroyers were either sunk or lost combat effectiveness due to German gunfire. The Furious was also unable to escape from this sea area due to propeller damage.

  Admiral Whitworth heard these reports and knew that his fleet was powerless to resist. If he didn't surrender, the fate of being sunk awaited them. So he consulted with the captain of "Disdain" and hung a white flag on "Disdain", asking the Germans to cease fire and negotiate. He also sent a telegram to the British Home Fleet, saying that the fleet he commanded had been ambushed by the German army, had lost more than half of its strength, and was unable to resist or retreat. He requested permission to surrender himself and his fleet to the Germans. And at the end of the telegram, he said that Germany indeed had a mysterious submarine, which played a crucial role in this German ambush.

  The German forces were overjoyed to see the British fleet's surrender signal. They immediately replied, requesting that the British send a representative to the "Scharnhorst" for negotiations. At the same time, they ordered their fleet to surround the British fleet. After several rounds of haggling between the two sides, the Germans conditionally accepted the British surrender. They accepted the surrender of the British fleet led by Rear Admiral Whitworth.

  Whitworth, Rear Admiral of the Navy, made his first request on board 'Scharnhorst' to see which German submarine had brought them from windward to leeward and its commander, as well as the torpedoes they used.

  The request was politely declined by the Germans. News of the British fleet's surrender quickly spread back to Berlin.

  The German Naval Command was overjoyed. This was the greatest achievement of the German Navy since the Battle of Jutland. Hitler, upon hearing the news, fell to the ground from his chair. After regaining his composure, he immediately summoned Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, and demanded that the invincibility of the German Navy be broadcast to the whole world.

  Newspapers on the streets of Berlin were snatched up in no time. The newspaper vendors' mouths were stretched into wide smiles.

  The major German newspapers worked overtime that night to print extra editions. The next day, many people were hospitalized due to exhaustion from work. Meanwhile, the German Army Command and Air Force Command had shattered glass everywhere.