Chapter 23 Entering the Battlefield

  On the 5th day of leaving Pola Harbour, U-21 finally arrived in the waters near Malta. However, Hersing did not rush to dive into the Strait of Malta to search for prey, but instead waited quietly away from the shipping route. Until sunset, he commanded U-21 to cautiously head towards Valletta, the most important port on the island of Malta.

  When Malta's black outline appeared on the horizon, the sky had gradually darkened. At this time, Hessen, standing on the conning tower of the submarine, ordered:

  "All hands return to the cabin, confirm all watertight doors are closed, and prepare for immediate dive!"

  In a moment, there was no one on the deck of the submarine. Even the first mate Wolf returned to the cabin through the passage. At this time, only Zhang Hainuo and Hersen were left on the command tower of the submarine. They both wore black rain cloaks with hoods, one holding a high-powered binoculars, constantly scanning the sea surface.

  Zhang Hainuo's impression of Malta mostly came from the sea and air battles that broke out around the island during World War II between the Axis powers and the Allies. Like many military enthusiasts, Zhang also felt that Germany and Italy not capturing Malta was a mistake, as it was an important transit point on the Mediterranean shipping route, and only separated from Sicily by a single sea. The failure of Rommel's North African Corps that year was largely due to logistical difficulties, and the biggest factor in the Axis powers' logistical difficulties in North Africa was that their ships were constantly being intercepted by British planes, submarines, and warships, most of which came from bases in Malta!

  When a small grey dot appeared in the telescope, Zhang Hainuo elbowed Hessson with his elbow.

  "Captain, there's a ship over there, but it's still unclear whether it's a cargo ship or a warship!"

  Hesen glanced over there, "Don't worry, that's a British gunboat, its duty is to patrol near the port, it usually won't run so far, and we are also out of its observation range now!"

  According to Zhang Hainuo's not very accurate visual measurement, there are at least 15 nautical miles from Valletta Port here, and about 10 nautical miles from that ship. But how did Hersen determine it was a gunboat with the gray dot in his telescope? The magnification of the telescope in his hand is not higher than his own!

  This is probably the difference between a novice and an old bird! Zhang Hainuo thought so in his heart, hoping that he could also reach that level soon.

  "Alter course ahead three points!" Hessen shouted into the speaking tube, seemingly unconcerned that his voice might carry to the British on the island.

  From full speed ahead to one-third speed, the change is not only in the submarine's surface navigation speed, but also in the noise emitted by the two diesel engines. In an era with radar and advanced sonar equipment, Zhang Hainuo would find it hard to imagine a submarine like U-21 approaching an enemy port at a leisurely pace on the surface, but now is 1917, an era when anti-submarine technology was still underdeveloped.

  After more than ten minutes, Zhang Hainuo and Hersen almost simultaneously discovered a ship coming from the east.

  "A cargo ship, with a displacement of around 2000 to 3000 tons!" Hesen once again showed Zhang Haino his rich experience at sea, because in Zhang Haino's eyes, it was just a small white "boat"!

  "Come to 340 degrees, full speed ahead!"

  Hesen ordered through that loudspeaker.

  Are you ready to attack? Zhang Haino's heart was secretly excited, this would be his first time attacking a target with a submarine, and without any escort ships, that unlucky freighter should not be able to escape Helmut's grasp!

  Winter nights fall early, and before long the sea surface was completely dark, which reminded Zhang Hainuo of Zhou Xingxing's classic line: "Moonless, windy, murderous night".

  At this time, Malta Island lit up with lights, especially the tall lighthouse at Valletta Port, which can be seen clearly from a great distance.

  Isn't the British so arrogant, not even implementing blackout during wartime? Zhang Hainuo found it strange, wasn't openly lighting up like that just asking to guide enemy submarines?

  Hessen seemed to have noticed Zhang Hainuo's confusion, and he told Zhang Hainuo that although the Valletta port was brightly lit, there were dense minefields and anti-submarine nets laid outside the harbor. Every cargo ship entering the port needed to be led by a tugboat from within the harbor. It was extremely dangerous for submarines to approach it, let alone enter the port. In addition, there were many British cruisers and an entire squadron of British destroyers stationed in the harbor, making it difficult to attack British ships outside the harbor and retreat unscathed. Therefore, German U-boats deployed in the Mediterranean would generally only set up ambushes near the shipping lanes outside the Strait of Malta, and rarely ventured into the strait itself.

  In short, the battery that can only supply power for a submarine to dive for more than an hour has caused this tactical "bottleneck"!

  "Then today..." Zhang Haino looked at the ship with navigation lights on the sea in front of the submarine, if it attacked it in this strait, wouldn't it be surrounded by a squadron of British destroyers?

  Hesen looked at him with profound meaning and did not answer.

  After the turn, U-21 quickly moved to a position between the freighter and the harbor, which Zhang Haino had learned in naval school was called occupying an attacking position - when submarines were not as fast as surface ships, they could only ambush ahead of the ship's route and launch torpedo attacks when they approached.

  Before long, the steamer turned on a searchlight and a small boat appeared from the direction of the harbor. That must have been the pilot's launch Hesson had spoken of.

  "Dive!"

  Without warning, Hesson suddenly gave the order to dive.

  Ever since he was "played" by Hessen, Zhang Hainuo has been quietly practicing how to get from the command tower down to the boat and close the watertight compartment cover at the fastest speed every day. He even asked Otis for advice, although he didn't dare say that he could do better than other crew members now, but at least he was no longer as clumsy as before.

  But this time, He Xun didn't let Zhang Hainuo take the lead, but instead took the lead himself.

  Zhang Hainuo had just come down from the vertical ladder and hadn't taken two steps when Hersen also came down with a "whoosh", obviously sliding down the ladder.

  "It's really fast!" Zhang Haino thought to himself, probably still haven't closed that watertight cabin cover yet!

  "Dive to periscope depth! Full speed ahead!" Hessen strode swiftly to his command platform.

  Hessen rarely looked at his watch; he seemed to have an innate sharpness about time. Five minutes later, he ordered: "Raise the periscope!"

  A cylindrical object slowly descended from the upper position of the command platform. In order to maintain consistency with the light outside, all the wall lamps in the cabin had been changed to dark red at this time. Zhang Haino seemed to be in a movie world, but everything here was incredibly real.

  Hesen grasped the handles on the periscope with both hands, his eyes stuck to the observation mirror, his body constantly moving with the rotation of the periscope. Zhang Hainuo stood opposite him, his two eyes staring at the scale indicating the angle on the periscope.

  Soon, the periscope stopped rotating, and Hessen asked Zhang Hai clearly: "Angle?"

  “328！”

  "Target No. 1, bearing 328, range 10,600!"

  "Angle!"

  “057！”

  "Target 2, bearing 057, range 14200!"

  After reporting this string of data, Hesen closed the rotating handle of the periscope. "Retract the periscope!"

  Hesen walked quickly to the navigation table, where Navigation Officer Loki had prepared a monochrome sea chart. Zhang Hainuo leaned in for a closer look and saw that it included the entire island of Malta and one corner of Sicily, but apart from the outline of the islands and several ports marked with small circles, there were no enemy ships, troop deployment data, or seabed topography. This was far from what people imagined a military map to be; in fact, it was just a two-dimensional map that wasn't much different from a hand-drawn scroll.

  It seems that the lack of reliable sea charts and intelligence was also one of the reasons why German U-boat commanders were reluctant to "hunt" near Malta!

  At this time, however, He Xun did not heed Zhang Hainu's idea. With only a pencil, ruler and compass, he was busy on that simple nautical chart. Before long, he had annotated the entire battle plan with lines and numbers that only he could understand on the chart.