Chapter 37 Lucky Day

  In response to the enthusiastic requests from book friends, today's update will be explosive! There will be at least one new chapter in the morning, afternoon, and evening. If the weekly recommendation exceeds 6,000, an extra chapter will be added; if it exceeds 8,000, a second extra chapter will be added, and so on. I hope everyone will vote and support me even more! Thank you to all of you, dear readers!

  Please go ahead and provide the text you'd like me to translate. I'll return the translation in English.

  "Torpedoes 1 and 2, set depth at 2 meters, turn angle zero!"

  When Zhang Haino gave the order, it was already 2:30 on the second day. U89 and U93 had arrived in time, but U122 had a minor breakdown on the way and would not arrive until about two hours later along with U145. Although this small wolf pack only had three submarines for now, considering that waiting for the other two submarines to arrive might miss the opportunity, Zhang Haino decided to launch an attack under cover of darkness.

  At this moment, including U-171, three submarines have entered their respective attack positions: U-171 arrived the earliest, so it took advantage of its speed to bypass the British convoy from the side and is now located on the right front of the British convoy; U-89 was the second to arrive, although the mood of the boat's captain Zhang Hai is unknown at this time, but his submarine still honestly followed the instructions issued by U-171 and lurked on the right side of the British convoy; The last one is U-93, a Type D U-boat of the same level as U-89. This type of submarine was originally used for export, but after the outbreak of war, it was all incorporated into the German Navy's combat sequence. Because they have a large tonnage, long range and good navigation performance, most of Germany's current Type D submarines are being deployed to the Atlantic Ocean for combat. The displacement of this type of submarine varies slightly depending on the construction batch, with an underwater displacement of over 1,100 tons, equipped with 5 x 450mm or 533mm torpedo tubes, and carrying more torpedoes than the U-B type.

  As U-171 fired two torpedoes at a distance of 3,000 meters from the British convoy, U-93 was quietly lurking on the left side of the British convoy under the command of Lieutenant Commander Rudolf.

  This time, Zhang Haino did not immediately order the withdrawal of the periscope and dive into the deep sea after launching the torpedo, but continued to observe the situation on the surface through the periscope at this depth. The white trails left by the two T-type torpedoes quickly disappeared in the night-shrouded sea. Not far away, although the British fleet was executing strict light control, their huge bodies could not escape the sharp eyes of the underwater hunters at such a distance, let alone the thick black smoke that continued to spew out from the chimneys of those steamships.

  From this distance, launching torpedoes at the center of the British fleet was not Zhang Haino's main goal to hit enemy ships but to attract their attention and lure some escort warships away from the fleet, creating an opportunity for U-89 and U-93 to attack. However, if the torpedoes could hit enemy ships, it would create even greater chaos and add a stroke to his own combat record, making it a win-win situation that Zhang Haino couldn't help but look forward to.

  In this era, there were two types of torpedo running speeds: one was low speed with high range and the other was high speed with low range. This could usually be adjusted before launching the torpedo. For German submarine commanders, since they often attacked at close range to their targets, high-speed torpedoes had a stronger combat effectiveness than low-speed ones, so they generally set their torpedoes to run at speeds of over 40 knots. Of course, some chose lower running speeds of around 30 knots in order to reduce the wake left by the torpedo, such as the two launched this time by U-171.

  In fact, Zhang Haino had another consideration for this choice, that is, the current torpedo has a range of only 3500 yards at a speed of 40 knots, while at a speed of 30 knots, it can travel an additional 2000 to 3000 yards. In that case, even if the first few British warships discovered the torpedo and made effective evasive maneuvers, the torpedo would still have a chance to hit other ships in the rear of the fleet!

  1 minute and 40 seconds later, Zhang Hainuo's first guess got the answer. A faint alarm sound came from the surface of the sea, and through the periscope, he clearly saw that the searchlights of the two British destroyers leading the way were fully opened, obviously, they had discovered the torpedo speeding across the sea!

  At this time, Zhang Hainuo's heart had a feeling of being suspended in mid-air. The British should be able to determine the general direction of U-171 through the torpedo trajectory. A battle of pursuit and counter-pursuit was inevitable, which he wasn't particularly worried about. However, his submarine now only had 4 torpedoes left, two of which were located in the stern torpedo room. If those two torpedoes ultimately failed to hit their target, there wouldn't be many opportunities for him to attack enemy ships. Watching his companions hunt with ease was not a terrible thing, but as a submarine commander, regret was inevitable.

  Fortunately, Zhang Haino had already made up his mind that as long as this three-boat hunting battle was successful, he would suggest to the submarine command department to adopt the "wolf pack tactics", which might make the historical D?nitz cry out in infringement, but in order to achieve greater results or even reverse the situation at sea, Zhang Haino felt it was necessary to do so. However, if this hunt is not successful, Zhang Haino thought that he would have to find another opportunity to prove this tactic, otherwise, such a suggestion would be difficult to pass through the conservative high-level officials!

  The complex thoughts in Zhang Hainuo's mind didn't bother him for too long, 40 seconds later, a huge explosion sounded across the sea surface, and less than 5 seconds apart was another one.

  The world in front of Zhang Hainuo suddenly brightened up a lot, he saw two high fireballs rising from the sea surface, they were so dazzling that everything within dozens of miles around was illuminated by them!

  Just as Zhang Hainuo was about to order the withdrawal of the periscope, he saw that one of the fireballs had suddenly increased by tens of times in an instant! The newly born fireball rushed higher and higher, with a momentum that seemed to be going straight up to the sky. Its volume also rapidly expanded as its height increased, and finally it appeared like a mushroom cloud produced after an atomic bomb explosion in Zhang Hainuo's line of sight.

  "This time we've won!" Zhang Hainuo couldn't help but shout out, he pulled his chief of staff, Kukla, to the periscope, "Look, we hit an oil tanker!"

  Before Cook could take a closer look, Zhang Hainuo turned his head and shouted at the other sailors:

  "We've hit an oil tanker!"

  The sailors suddenly exclaimed "Oh!" in excitement. At this moment, no one cared if they were on the edge of the battlefield!

  "Ensign, that's a big tanker, at least 10,000 tons!" said Cook, peering through the periscope at the large "bloom".

  "10,000 tons!" At first glance at the blazing fireball, Zhang Haino only thought it was a tanker full of oil, without even thinking about its size. Although Cook's military rank is not high, he has already served in the German Navy for 4 years and has been on reconnaissance fleets and two submarines, with rich experience!

  The news of hitting the British oil tanker quickly spread from the command cabin to other cabins, and the cheers were like a relay race, one after another. It seemed that the sailors' emotions were unprecedentedly high, but as the commander of this submarine, Zhang Haino quickly calmed down from his excitement. He loudly announced:

  "Alright, everyone be quiet! The British destroyer is approaching. Now I order the submarine to dive to a depth of 40 meters. Everyone take their positions and prepare for impact!"

  Although it sounds unreasonable that the submarine only changes its depth without changing its position after launching a torpedo, Zhang Haino had already figured it out. Since the British also thought so, and their listening devices could relatively accurately locate the submarine navigating underwater, he would rather not develop the engine and stay hidden in the deep water, waiting for an opportunity to launch a "feigned death" attack. This way, the chances of evading the British attack were higher. Moreover, with 89 and U93 nearby, as long as they launched an attack, the British destroyers that came to strangle U171 would have to go back to protect the merchant ships, making them busy running around.