Chapter 22: Going Out to Sea

  Two days later, Zhang Haino's body finally recovered its vitality, and with everyone's joint efforts, the repair work of U-21 was also successfully completed. The crew then transported torpedoes, ammunition and various supplies onto the boat, and after obtaining approval from their superiors, U-21 set sail again.

  After two days of getting along, Zhang Hainuo discovered that although Hersen always had a very cool expression, he was actually quite kind. He never beat or scolded his soldiers, and even criticized them rarely. His 25 crew members were skilled and tacit in their work, and they often couldn't help but tease each other when they were off duty, so the atmosphere here was much more lively than on the Sedritz. The crew's jokes involved everyone on board, including Captain Hersen and Zhang Hainuo. On this point, Hersen seemed to never mind, while Zhang Hainuo was a bit unaccustomed at first, but soon adapted.

  Treading on the morning sun, U-21 slowly left its berth and set out on a new journey. Standing on the conning tower of this submarine, Zhang Haino watched as the sailors on the fore and aft decks gathered ropes, checked the submarine's guns and machine guns' waterproof canvas. It was as if he had returned to the Sedlitz, where every morning the sailors would carefully clean the deck. But looking around at the docks, buildings, and patrol boats and barges preparing to set sail, Zhang Haino felt as though he was standing at the lowest point in the world, a feeling that was vastly different from standing on the bridge of the Sedlitz, gazing out at the sea...

  The northern Adriatic Sea was calm and peaceful, and shortly after leaving the port of Pola, U-21 began its first full-speed trial run after a major overhaul. When the two 788-horsepower diesel engines were fully powered up, the submarine moved like a fast-swimming swordfish on the surface of the water, with the bow sometimes dipping into the sea and sometimes jumping high out of the water. The serrated cutting wire knife located above the bow was the "super-large swordfish"'s sharp blade, and any unarmed ship would not want to be touched by this thing. Of course, this cutting wire knife was used to deal with anti-submarine nets, and basically no submarine captain would use it to attack surface ships. Zhang Hainuo asked other crew members, even the "madman" Hersen never did such a thing.

  "Top speed 15.8 knots!" The first mate, Wolf, finally came through the tube, and Zhang Haino knew that this speed was already quite fast among submarines of various countries, but compared to those surface warships, especially destroyers and torpedo boats that exceeded 30 knots, it seemed a bit awkward.

  "Dive in 5 minutes, all compartments note equipment status!"

  After giving this order through the loudspeaker to the people inside the boat, Hesen turned around and glanced at Zhang Hainuo standing behind him.

  "First time in the water?"

  Zhang Haino honestly replied "yes", at the Kiel Naval School, they had also taken submarine courses, but had never followed a submarine to sea, so this was Zhang Haino's first time in his life to take a submarine to sea for combat missions.

  "Don't pray for God's blessing at this time!" Hesen winked at him.

  "Why?" Zhang Hainuo was puzzled. Was it that prayers under the water were managed by another great god, Poseidon?

  Hesen told Zhang Hainuo, don't look at this submarine, from its service to now, the number of dives is not a thousand, but also eight hundred, but each dive can't be careless, especially after repairs, the first dive must check if there are still unrepaired loopholes, otherwise when encountering the enemy, there will be no chance to regret!

  Hesen's words were deeply etched in Zhang Hainuo's heart, he knew that some things could never be learned in the classroom, and to defeat the enemy without being defeated by them, the more skills one mastered, the better.

  After the alarm bell rang, the sailors who were just on the deck quickly returned to the submarine through the watertight doors on the deck and bridge. A large number of bubbles began to emerge from the bow, stern and both sides of the boat. In a moment, the bow was submerged in seawater. At this time, Hessen said to Zhang Hainuo: "I'll go down first, you close the hatch!"

  Before Zhang Hainuo could say anything, Hersen quickly slid down the ladder in the passageway and into the boat.

  "I've only seen instructors use a dismantled hatch cover for simulation in class..." Zhang Hainuo had to swallow these words, because the submarine was still descending. If they didn't enter the submarine and close the hatch cover in time, the entire submarine would sink due to this small "mistake", which would mean the loss of all 27 lives on board, including Zhang Hainuo's own.

  No choice, Zhang Haino had to climb down along the ladder, and after his body was completely in the vertical passage, he used his hands to pull the rotating handle on the hatch cover to close it. This was only the first step. Next, he had to follow a strict procedure to turn the rotating handle to the correct position, then press down the spring latch on the hatch cover. After completing these steps, he still didn't dare to slide down the bottom of the cabin, but instead stayed in place and continued to stare at the hatch cover until the seawater completely covered it and didn't seep in. Only then did he let out a big sigh of relief.

  When Zhang Hainuo returned to the cabin, he found Hersen standing there with a smile that was not quite a smile.

  "Sure enough, he's a madman!" Zhang Haino said to himself. Entrusting such an important task to a pure newcomer like himself was probably unprecedented in the German Navy! However, on the other hand, Zhang Haino believed that after this exercise, even if his brain really lost its memory, he would not forget how to close the watertight hatch of a submarine - it had already been deeply ingrained in his mind and body as an instinct!

  Due to the recent dive, the air inside the submarine was still relatively fresh. However, after entering stealth mode, the crew turned off the extra lights in the cabin, and the light inside suddenly became much darker. After the diesel engine was shut down, there was almost no extra sound in the cabin, only hearing the deputy captain Wolf reporting numbers one by one:

  "Three meters underwater... everything is normal!"

  "Five meters underwater... everything is normal!"

  "Ten meters underwater... everything is normal!"

  The maximum diving depth of a German U-boat III was 45 meters, but they rarely ventured that deep because in this era the anti-submarine technology of both sides was not strong, sonar and depth charges were still very poor, and most submarines were destroyed on the surface - within hours they had to float up to breathe again, and their batteries could only supply them with low-speed cruising for an hour.

  This is the simplest and most direct way to deal with submarines, of course, the British also came up with some other ideas, such as using decoy ships to lure German submarines to surface, or laying mines and underwater anti-submarine nets on some important navigation channels, which did play a role in actual combat.

  When the depth gauge showed that U-21 had reached a depth of 35 meters, Hersing shouted "Halt", waited for about five minutes, and when each compartment - torpedo room, command center, engine room, motor room and battery room reported no abnormalities, he ordered the submarine to rise to within 10 meters of the surface, then continued diving at a speed of 5 knots.

  Time was ticking away, and Zhang Hainuo gradually felt the air inside the boat becoming increasingly turbid, but only with a faint smell of diesel, not like the legendary pungent and suffocating odors. However, for Zhang Hainuo who had just started his submarine life, this smell made his stomach churn constantly. Half an hour ago, he could still grit his teeth and hold on, but after about forty-five minutes, he finally couldn't bear it anymore.

  "Otis, bring me my medicine!" Heson grabbed Zhang Hainuo who was about to rush to the toilet.

  Seeing Otis's incredibly agile movements between the cabins, Zhang Hainan finally knew why Hesen chose such a person as his orderly.

  What Otis brought was a small metal bottle, roughly the shape and size of a perfume bottle. When he opened the stopper, a strong medicinal smell wafted out and quickly spread through the air.

  "Oh, another poor kid is going to get punished by Poseidon! " Since the submarine dived, communication officer Frank Langkamp had been idle and finally found someone to tease. When Zhang Hainuo looked at him in confusion, that guy made a very painful expression, as if the stuff in the can was not medicine but poison.

  "Alright, I'll apply this medicinal wine to my temples, nostrils and the sides of my throat!" Hesen still had a serious expression on his face. Zhang Hai looked at him, then at the communications officer who was now making another weird face, and finally applied the somewhat pungent medicinal wine to himself as Hesen had instructed.

  Zhang Hainuo didn't believe in the existence of miraculous medicines, but Hersen's bottle of medicinal liquor indeed took effect quickly. Although the strange medicinal flavor made him frown repeatedly, his stomach no longer felt so uncomfortable. After a while, even that detestable seasickness had alleviated considerably.

  "From now on, whenever you get seasick, injured or hurt, just come to Lieutenant Hessen and he'll fix you up for only one mark! This time it's on the house, free!" Frank Lankes said with a smile.

  Hesen just smiled and made no comment on this.

  10 minutes later, the U21 surfaced smoothly. Zhang Haino soon discovered that for the crew members, every dive was a kind of torture, because underwater not only were there dangers at all times, but also the cramped space and stale air made it difficult to have a good mood. At this time, those boring or even absurd jokes were the best way to vent and relieve boredom.

  For the next two days, U-21 spent most of her time on the surface, making 15 knots in good weather but only 10 when it was rough. It took her two days and a night to get from Pola to the entrance to the Adriatic, and not until she had passed the "heel" of Italy did targets begin to appear with any frequency.

  This time, Hersing decided to go to the waters near Malta, because even in the busiest shipping lanes of the Mediterranean, it was also the area where British and French warships were most frequent - compared with other German U-boat commanders, Hersing's biggest characteristic was that he liked to fish for big fish.