Who did the "generator" of the Western European campaign electrocute (1)?

  On May 28, a large number of British civilian ships requisitioned by Admiral Ramsay began to leave the coast of Britain under the protection of British naval destroyers and headed towards the French port of Dunkirk. On big and small boats, many British sailors and sailors on requisitioned boats were busy on deck. When the British Navy requisitioned them, they told them that this time they would go to rescue the British Expeditionary Force in France, those boys were being surrounded by the despicable Germans with cunning tricks in Dunkirk. They could not retreat to the French interior, and now they could only rely on sea supplies. Outside, the German army concentrated its superior forces to attack these British boys. Can you watch these excellent British soldiers be slaughtered by the Germans? So go save them. At that time, you are also heroes of Britain, and there will be no great danger. The British Expeditionary Force kept the German army at bay in the distant suburbs of Dunkirk. On the sea, there is the fearless British Navy, and in the sky, there is the equally brave British Air Force. Those annoying Germans have no way to deal with these small boats. What are you afraid of? A bunch of high hats were thrown at the sailors, who were dizzy and didn't know what was going on. Many of them were greatly encouraged by this. With a mighty roar, they set foot on the road to no return.

  The British were unaware that the German Navy had already deployed in the area, and as the British rescue fleet left the River Thames and entered the Dover Strait, a German submarine U-9, which had been lurking there for some time, discovered them and reported their position to the German fleet. It then quietly followed behind them, continuously reporting the British position to the main fleet.

  At this time, the German fleet received a report from reconnaissance submarine U-9. Some of their ships were to intercept British rescue ships as planned, while others would enter a state of heightened alertness, ready to engage the British Home Fleet approaching from the north. The British Mediterranean Fleet was too far away and would not be able to arrive in time after receiving news. Therefore, Zhou Tianlei only arranged for some submarines to be deployed north of the Strait of Gibraltar to monitor the movements of the British Mediterranean Fleet. If the British Mediterranean Fleet were to move, they would try to delay its rescue efforts heading north.

  At this time, the lookout on the British convoy destroyer squadron flagship 'Westminster' found several masts appearing in the northeast on the sea surface, but it was not clear what kind of ship and nationality they were. He immediately informed Captain Will, who rushed to the bridge. With binoculars, he looked towards the direction reported by the lookout, and indeed saw several ships, but due to the excessive distance, it was still unclear what type of ship and intention they had. Will thought, could it be that the British home fleet deployed in Spark Bay in the north sent a ship over? But they were now gathering troops there, preparing to respond to the German attack that was about to happen, why would they send a ship over? So he ordered the signalman to signal those unidentified ships, asking for their nationality and intention.

  The signalman flashed a message with the lamp, and the leading ship replied with its own lamp: "We are British naval vessels. Do not be mistaken." But Captain Will of the Westminster was still uneasy and continued to observe through his binoculars. As the other ships drew closer, he suddenly saw that the leading ship had begun to accelerate, and the others were also speeding up and turning left, deploying in formation. Captain Will looked at the two ends of the opposing ships with suspicion, only to see some people taking down the snow-white British naval flags hanging there and replacing them with German naval flags.

  The captain of the "Westminster" was shocked and hastily turned his head to shout at the sailors below: "All ships enter first-class combat readiness, they are......" The captain's words were interrupted by a 203mm shell whizzing through the air, passing over the escort destroyer "Westminster" and hitting a 100-ton fishing boat in the middle of the rescue fleet. The fishing boat was blown into two pieces on the spot, and only the captain and his first mate, who were standing at the bow, managed to jump into the sea in time. The others had no time to react and sank to the bottom of the sea with their boat. Ten seconds later, the ill-fated fishing boat completely disappeared from the surface, leaving behind a small whirlpool and dozens of splintered wooden fragments.

  At this time, the captain and fleet commander Riedel was standing on the bridge of the German intercept fleet's flagship 'Blücher' heavy cruiser, observing the movements of the British rescue ship and the busy sailors on the British escort destroyer that could be vaguely seen. Before departure, he had his own 'Blücher' heavy cruiser and two other light cruisers, as well as the destroyers assigned to him, replace the German naval flag with the British flag. He reported to the fleet commander: "After our ship is flying the British flag, we can conceal our identity at a certain distance. Let them think we are a British home fleet coming to reinforce them, and also confuse the British reconnaissance planes." Lütjens' response was: "If you can sink those little British ships to the bottom of the sea with the British flag, I will apply for the First Class Iron Cross medal for you. The submarine force's G?tting is already a colonel and has the Oak Leaf Knight's Cross, how can we fall behind the submarine force? Set off, I await your victory message."

  At the time of their encounter with the British, Riedel imitated the characteristics of the British Navy and ordered his signalman to pretend to be a ship from the British Home Fleet when answering the British fleet's inquiry. He thought that since they were so far apart, the British might not have recognized their identity, and besides, his own fleet had, in addition to the flagship "Blücher" heavy cruiser he commanded, two light cruisers "K?ln" and "Leipzig", and four destroyers, each of which was larger than its British counterpart, with more powerful armaments. The light cruisers were equipped with 152mm main guns, while the destroyers had 127mm and 150mm guns, all of which were stronger than their British counterparts. After all, these ships had been designed for sea raids from the start, and they had long been prepared to withstand being surrounded by a British fleet. Without Admiral Prien's plan, he and his ships would still be doing their sea raiding business in the Atlantic, worried that they might be found and sunk by a British fleet at any moment. Now, however, he could engage in a regular naval battle with the British without worrying about being discovered. He had originally been just a destroyer captain, but due to his outstanding performance in the Norwegian campaign, where he sank two British destroyers, heavily damaged one, and quickly cooperated with "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst" to block the path of the British battleship "Warspite", attracting its attention and allowing Commander Zhou Tianlei's submarine to launch a surprise attack.

  Liddell returned to the command post, and the second deputy reported: "The rangefinder has measured the distance, the position of the British escort destroyer has been calculated, and the shooting elements have been set. The gunner is ready for battle, waiting only for your order." "Fire!" "Yes, sir."

  The executive officer bellowed into the intercom; "Commander's orders, open fire!" The order was also quickly relayed to the formation by the communications soldier; "Commander's orders. Open fire!"

  The words had barely fallen. The bright muzzles of the heavy cruiser 'Blücher' and the light cruisers 'K?ln' and 'Leipzig' began to flash, the massive cannon shots deafening, the smoke from the cannon shots spreading out and soon enveloping the 'Blücher', 'K?ln' and 'Leipzig' in a rolling cloud of smoke with the help of the sea wind. Several German cruisers fired violently, the muzzle flashes of their main and secondary guns illuminating half the sky, the massive recoil making one's heart skip a beat, the bows of several German cruisers were pushed back half a meter by the recoil. The shells fell like giant hailstones into the British convoy destroyers and rescue ships, throwing up high water columns and huge flames.

  As the British escort destroyer recognized the opposing ships as German, the sailors and officers on board began to bustle about, rushing to their posts. A few minutes after the German ship opened fire, they also returned fire at the German warship, but due to a significant disparity in firepower, the cannon fire was completely suppressed by the German cruiser fleet. The captain of the 'Westminster' ordered his communications officer to immediately report to the London Admiralty: "My rescue fleet encountered a German fleet southwest of Dunkirk Port, including the heavy cruiser 'Blücher', light cruisers 'K?ln' and 'Leipzig', and four Z-class destroyers. My escort fleet has opened fire but cannot withstand the German attack, please send reinforcements quickly."

  At this time, the German fleet had formed a T-shaped formation with the flagship 'Blücher' heavy cruiser leading, followed by the light cruisers 'K?ln' and 'Leipzig', while the destroyers split into two groups, firing under the cover of the fire from the 'Blücher', 'K?ln' and 'Leipzig' cruisers, moving towards both ends of the British rescue fleet, attempting to encircle the fishing boats and yachts in the rescue fleet that were in a state of panic.

  On the other hand, British escort destroyers were busy fending off attacks by German interceptors while also trying to keep together a rescue fleet of trawlers and yachts that had been thrown into confusion by the attack and shepherd them slowly back towards the British mainland.

  At this time, the U-9 reconnaissance submarine that had been monitoring the British fleet arrived. The commander of the U-9 submarine, Wolfgang Lüth, couldn't help but give the order "All hands to battle stations" after observing the excitement on the surface through the periscope. Alarm bells rang out throughout the submarine, and the sailors and officers rushed to their posts. Meanwhile, on the surface, the British destroyer flotilla flagship HMS Westminster was turning right 40 degrees to counterattack the German destroyers, exposing its broadside to the U-9 submarine.

  The commander of U-9, Wolfgang Lüth, saw a good shooting position and gave the order: "1, 2 torpedo tubes flooded, use G7a torpedoes, set depth to 4 meters, 1st torpedo bearing 210, 2nd torpedo bearing 230, distance 800 meters." As his crew reported back one by one: "Depth set", "Torpedo loaded", "1, 2 torpedo tubes flooded". Lüth gave the order: "Fire!" "1st torpedo fired." "2nd torpedo fired." Lüth continued to give orders: "Retract periscope, fill main ballast tanks with water, fill quick-diving tanks with water. Dive to 150 meters, turn bearing to 190. Maintain one-quarter speed. Keep the whole boat quiet." U-9 began to dive and head in the direction of the rescue ship fleet, preparing to pass under their ships and avoid the British escort destroyer's depth charges.

  At this time, the sonarman of U-9 grabbed his own headphones with his hand, stretched out five fingers with his left hand. The sailors and officers on board U-9 understood that the sonarman was reporting that the torpedo was still 500 meters away from the target. As the sonarman retracted his fingers one by one, it meant that the torpedo had advanced another 100 meters. When the sonarman retracted the last finger, he quickly took off his headphones and put them back on after waiting for 5 seconds and listening for a while, shouting "Hit the target".

  On the surface, due to the fact that HMS Westminster had already taken several high-explosive shells from the German intercepting squadron's flagship, the heavy cruiser Brünnhilde, there were many casualties among the sailors on deck. As a result, they did not discover U-9's two torpedoes in time. When they finally discovered them, the torpedoes were less than 200 meters away from HMS Westminster. The captain of HMS Westminster was shocked and pushed the helmsman aside, taking control of the wheel himself and turning it to the right as far as it would go. The ship's loudspeaker shouted: "Torpedo attack, torpedo attack!" But it was too late. The two torpedoes made a direct hit on HMS Westminster. The explosion sent the ship flying three or four meters into the air before crashing back down into the water, throwing many sailors and officers who had not secured themselves overboard, where they were killed instantly.

  The captain of the "Westminster", Will, and the naval officer on the bridge were knocked to the floor. When they got up, they sadly found that the destroyer "Westminster" was beyond salvation. The captain of the "Westminster", Will, issued an order to abandon ship and hastily transferred the flagship's responsibilities to another destroyer, ordering him to escort the remaining rescue ships back to Britain. At this time, the destroyer "Westminster" was in chaos on board. Surviving sailors rushed to grab life-saving equipment and jumped into the sea. The captain of the "Westminster", Will, refused his subordinates' request for him to retreat. Stubbornly staying in the navigation room with the sailors who failed to evacuate, they went down to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean together. 20 minutes later, the destroyer "Westminster" disappeared from the surface, leaving behind a thick oil slick and many debris on the sea surface.