Chapter 1106: Excessive Tension

As the U-47 sliced through the waves, forging ahead in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, its course extended straight forward, intersecting with the track of a massive transport convoy. And this massive fleet of transport ships was precisely the one carrying various repair and maintenance supplies from the United States to Iceland.

To deliver more supplies to the authorities on Iceland, and to ensure the island’s absolute security, this massive transport fleet was even carrying a full 3,000 American soldiers to reinforce the British defensive positions.

Standing on the bridge of a transport ship, a U.S. Army infantry colonel had a pale face. He was not at all suited for this kind of long-distance sea transport. He complained to the officer beside him, “I really don’t understand why we have to transport so many supplies and soldiers to a place where a volcano is still spewing smoke.”

The waves of the Atlantic made everyone who was seasick feel even more uncomfortable. Most of these poor American soldiers had never experienced such a miserable journey at sea, so every one of them was suffering from vomiting and other symptoms of discomfort.

“I don’t know. I heard from division headquarters that we’re just the first batch of soldiers being sent to the island. The whole division will be transported there, one after another, to stop a possible German amphibious landing… cough, cough!” The operations officer, who was answering him, didn’t look too good either. The long period of rocking at sea had ruined his appetite, and he sounded weak. They were the U.S. Army, not those U.S. Marines. If one had to be precise, this kind of mission should have been carried out by the Marines.

“Mr. President must have been hoodwinked by those damn Brits,” the colonel said, clutching a sickness bag. He was beginning to feel his stomach churn again. He dry-heaved twice, and then continued, “Otherwise, why would we be giving the British weapons and supplies, and also sending us to that godforsaken place?”

“The intelligence department is convinced that the Germans are putting more and more effort into atomic weapons,” a U.S. intelligence officer, who was also on his way to Iceland, happened to be on the same ship. He hadn’t spoken just now because he himself was a poor soul who was not suited for long sea voyages. He had thrown up everything in his stomach yesterday and hadn’t eaten a single thing since.

He looked at the sickness bag in the colonel’s hand and felt another urge to heave. He grabbed an iron handrail beside him and said in a hurried voice, “The Germans may have already begun to master a more powerful superweapon, so we cannot let them have this forward airfield on Iceland. If they occupy Iceland, they might be able to use their bombers to launch air raids on New York or Washington.”

“To hell with that. Just the other day in Congress, you were all claiming the Germans were mass-producing battleships and aircraft carriers, intending to attack New York and the East Coast… Someone even claimed Germany had a plan to land in America. But everyone knows that’s just alarmist talk,” the colonel said, dry-heaving twice. There was really nothing left in his stomach to throw up. He composed himself and retorted the intelligence officer.

The U.S. intelligence department had indeed provided a lot of intelligence about the German army, but most of it was speculation or completely without evidence. So, although the military and many other departments privately believed in Germany’s scientific and technological progress, they were unable to prove it with details.

For example, six months ago, the Americans had discovered that several German universities were involved in research on atomic weapons, but they had been unable to investigate further. The Gestapo and the SS had destroyed countless American spy networks, and the U.S. had made no real progress in this area.

However, the Americans still knew that there were several heavy water plants in Norway and in the German homeland. The Imperial University of Berlin and several other universities were all conducting large-scale research on atomic weapons. There was even a new investigation report that showed the Germans had already successfully used a uranium enrichment centrifuge to purify some of the uranium ore that had been mined in Czechoslovakia.

But there was little evidence to prove this news, so it was not very persuasive in the U.S. Congress. Although the U.S. military and Roosevelt and the others all believed that the Germans were developing all kinds of superweapons, this belief could only remain at the level of “belief.”

Moreover, because the intelligence department dabbled in too many things, some of the information was mixed up, and had become completely unrecognizable, false news. For example, the Imperial University of Berlin had purchased and used a large number of vacuum tubes, and the Americans had a record of this—but the Americans had counted this as part of the German atomic bomb project.

“Just because of some inexplicable intelligence, and based on your speculation, you’re sending a full 3,000 soldiers to this kind of place?” the colonel said, his feeling of being wronged growing. “You might as well have sent us to Britain. At least we could have died a more heroic death.”

The Americans had now come to see fighting the German army as a kind of disaster. They resisted being sent to the distant Middle East, and would even prefer to go to Australia and then to bypass the Japanese navy’s activity area, to go directly to India, rather than to take the South Atlantic route, which was infested with German submarines.

And those German sharks, who were hunting under the waters of the North Atlantic, were an even more lingering nightmare for the American and British captains. These U-boats, which would stop at nothing, would attack any enemy ship that entered their attack range. Sometimes they would even, due to carelessness, sink a passenger liner, and then send a clear-text telegram to the Americans, providing the coordinates of the sunken civilian ship.

“Give me a break. Congress just rejected the proposal to send 100,000 troops to the Soviet Union to assist in the fighting on the Eastern Front. It’s not an easy thing to want to fight the Germans directly now,” the intelligence officer said with a bitter smile. “The Soviet Union is now full of factions. Those people don’t have the backbone that Stalin has. They’re just waiting for Stalin to die, so they can sign a peace treaty with the Germans.”

“The situation on the Soviet side, is it already that dangerous?” the colonel asked, clearly having heard this news for the first time. He frowned. “We’ve supported them with so many weapons and supplies, and they still haven’t been able to hold back the Germans?”

“Isn’t that the truth… In fact, there’s no harm in telling you. This kind of classified information is pretty much known by everyone,” the intelligence officer said. Perhaps because he had been sent to a place like Iceland, he was also a bit resentful and self-pitying, and he just blurted out the classified file as if it were the evening news. “I hear that the higher-ups are cutting back on the things we’re sending to the Soviet Union, afraid that in the end, it will all just be a gift to the Germans.”

The three of them were still chatting about all kinds of topics when, suddenly, a warning alarm came from the outer perimeter of the fleet. The entire fleet sprang into activity. All the ships began to slowly accelerate, and on the anti-aircraft gun positions, sailors in their life jackets were already seated.

“Alarm! Alarm! A destroyer has spotted a German U-boat! Alarm!” a crewman ran over quickly. He shouted twice at the several American officers, and then ran past them at top speed. The red alarm lights in the ship’s cabins were flashing, and the American GIs in their hammocks were all looking at the busy sailors with terrified, blank expressions.

BOOM! BOOM BOOM! On the outermost perimeter of the fleet, on the distant sea, the sound of a destroyer’s naval guns roared. Who knew what fatal damage they could inflict on a German submarine at this time, by firing their main guns, apart from just bolstering their own courage. And another sailor, covered in grime, hurried over and began to put life jackets on the several American officers on the bridge.

“Hey! Are you trying to throw us, who can’t even swim, into the sea?” this American colonel shouted, a little dissatisfied with the crewman’s roughness.

The crewman, while trying to tie the life jacket as tightly as possible, replied without even looking up, “Sir, we are in the very center of the entire fleet, so generally speaking, we won’t be in any danger. But we must ensure your safety, so we can only have you put on your life jackets first.”

“Don’t German U-boats usually only attack at night? It’s broad daylight. Is it necessary to be so nervous?” the American intelligence officer asked, checking his own life jacket as he spoke to the sailor, who was constantly tying knots in the life jacket’s straps.

The sailor was still busy with his work, but he replied without a pause, “Sir, German U-boats do, in general, only attack at night. But some German captains will also fire torpedoes during the day. It’s not a fixed rule.”

He hadn’t even finished his words when the artillery fire from the outer perimeter had stopped, and then the “all clear” was sounded. “All clear! All clear! The German U-boat did not launch an attack. Most of our fleet has passed through the dangerous waters! I repeat, all clear! All clear…”

And so everyone relaxed. The army soldiers, who had thought they were dead, began to pray incessantly. Some were constantly making the sign of the cross on their chests, to thank God for His mercy.

For the navy and the sailors on the transport ships, all of this was much more commonplace. They spent their years shuttling back and forth on the sea, and they often encountered this kind of situation. A lookout, in his nervousness, might mistake a whale or anything else for a German U-boat, and then the entire fleet would be on edge for a while, and in the end, the “all clear” would be given.

And sometimes, those false targets that were spotted could also be real German U-boats. Because in the daytime, the German U-boats would just follow the fleet from a distance, to show their comrades behind them the Allied fleet’s course and speed. They liked to attack at night. That was more conducive to them surfacing, to fire their precious torpedoes from a more perfect angle.

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