Chapter 558: Torpedo
“Depth 7 meters! Continuing to dive!” an NCO in the command room reported to Prien. At this moment, through the periscope, Prien could finally see just how massive the enemy ship was.
“Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleship?” Prien muttered to himself. He couldn’t believe his luck was this good, to have run into a Soviet battleship in the vast ocean. To be honest, he also didn’t want it to be a battleship, because wherever there was a battleship, there would be escorting anti-submarine destroyers.
For any submarine commander, attacking a battleship in a war zone was a very risky act. Even if you ultimately succeeded, the submarine would often have to immediately face the pursuit of several destroyers. Whether the achievement was enough to earn a medal was one thing; whether you would live to go back and receive it was another.
Prien moved away from the periscope, and the first officer took his place to continue observing the target. Captain Prien walked to the side and began to look through a book of enemy warship silhouettes. He wanted to compare the warship in his mind with the actual image of a Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleship to see if there were any differences. The result made him very conflicted. This was a Soviet battleship, and it was indeed the famous, newest generation of battleship, the Sovetsky Soyuz-class.
In terms of the Sovetsky Soyuz-class alone, it was probably the largest battleship in the world at the time. It was equipped with nine large-caliber cannons, with a layout somewhat similar to the Japanese Yamato. But there were also certain differences between the two. For example, the originally designed 406mm main guns of the Sovetsky Soyuz-class (slightly smaller than the Yamato’s 460mm guns) were ultimately changed to imported 381mm main guns due to the great difficulty of the design.
However, this battleship, the largest tonnage built after World War I, was not equipped with radar, and its fire control system was also a relatively backward version. As a result, this class of battleship did not fully meet the performance standards of a World War II battleship and could only be considered the strongest battleship of the late World War I era.
After the comparison, Prien put down the book and gave a combat order. “Dive to 20 meters. Prepare to release torpedoes for an attack. Continue to observe and confirm the positions of other enemy ships on the surface.”
“Ping… ping…” The echo of the sonar came through the headphones of the German sonarman, somewhat monotonous and hypnotic. But the sonarman was still listening intently to this sound. For him, this monotonous and seemingly unchanging sound was more important than his eyes.
He could distinguish the approximate distance between the submarine and the enemy ship from the sound and could also hear whether the other party’s course was moving away or approaching. He could hear the sound of anti-submarine weapons hitting the water and the explosion of a torpedo hitting its target. It could be said that underwater, he was the eyes and ears of the entire submarine, Prien’s only reliance.
“Behind the battleship, there seems to be a destroyer following! Also, its side profile is too large, I can’t see the other angle, whether there are more enemy ships following on its port side!” the first officer reported his observations. “The size of the ship following behind is unclear; the distance is a bit too far.”
“Calculate the angle! Set the fixed depth of the torpedoes, preset depth to 9 meters! Quick!” Prien gave another new order.
The forward torpedo room of the submarine became a hive of activity. The technicians began to turn gears and valves, setting the fixed depth for the torpedoes. The depth of each torpedo was set differently. The depth of the explosion directly affected the degree of damage the torpedo would inflict on the target.
The closer the attack was to the bottom of the ship, the more likely it was to cause greater structural damage. This had a lot to do with the water pressure and the design of the ship. Usually, the sides of a warship were covered with thick armor, but the bottom of the hull was relatively fragile. An explosion close to the bottom could destroy more compartments, let in more seawater, and also cause greater trouble for repairs.
Of course, it was impossible to preset the depth of all torpedoes. The ideal depth for attacking a battleship was mostly over ten meters. But if this depth were used to attack a destroyer or a cruiser, the torpedo would just pass under the other ship’s hull. The situation was similar for merchant ships, but they were usually very fragile, and one torpedo was in most cases enough to solve the problem.
So most torpedoes were loaded and fired on the spot. Pre-loading torpedoes in the submarine’s torpedo tubes only happened in two situations: the first was when the submarine commander expected to fire the most torpedoes in the shortest possible time, such as in Prien’s raid on the British naval port. The second was when the submarine had just set out to sea and had to carry the most torpedoes possible for combat in a limited space.
“Torpedoes adjusted!” the chief petty officer in charge of the machinery reported to the command room after setting the depth of the torpedoes. The command to load came from the command room without any pause.
“Load!” At the chief’s command, four sailors pushed two torpedoes, which had been hoisted up, into the launch tubes. The thick doors of the torpedo tubes were forcefully closed by the sailors, and then two of them worked together to tighten the valve knobs on the doors.
“Load!” They had adjusted four torpedoes, so after loading two, they did not rest but quickly loaded the other two. Soon, four torpedoes had been pushed into the launch tubes, while the other two tubes still contained two torpedoes that had been loaded at the start of the voyage, with a set depth of about 3 meters, not intended for attacking battleships.
At this time, the enemy ship was not far from them. Prien, who had returned to the periscope, confirmed the number of enemy ships. In his periscope, there were four Soviet warships: one Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleship, one unknown cruiser, and two destroyers. This fleet was clearly passing through here on its way to Leningrad, and ridiculously, it was not using a standard anti-submarine formation.
An opportunity! This way, it seems there’s a hope of escaping after a successful sneak attack! After calculating in his mind for a long time, Prien finally made up his mind to take the risk. After all, such an opportunity was not common, and perhaps he would never encounter such an opportunity again in his lifetime.
“Correct course! Course five degrees to port!” Prien wanted to secure the best firing angle to ensure that after he successfully took out the battleship, he would still have enough time to escape. After all, the two destroyers were not just for show. Heaven only knew if the other side would come after him.
“Prepare to fire torpedoes!” Prien was waiting, waiting for an opportunity. The bow of the submarine was already pointed at the enemy’s course. The torpedoes could be fired directly without even adjusting the angle. This was the most typical submarine attack, and the difficulty was also relatively low.
If the Soviet Navy’s destroyers had been in an anti-submarine formation, it would have been very difficult for Prien to find such a perfect firing position. But it seemed that it would take a very, very long time for the Soviets to learn the British standard escort procedures. Prien felt that it was necessary to teach the Soviets a lesson, to make them remember some necessary knowledge sooner.
“Tubes 1 and 2, fire torpedoes! Tubes 3 and 4, fire torpedoes!” Prien did not fire his four torpedoes in a salvo. He paused for about half a second. At this time, he was turning slightly, so his torpedoes could cover a fan-shaped area about a dozen meters wide.
Waiting. Now all he could do in the remaining time was wait, a long wait, a wait that was enough to drive one mad. Of course, while waiting, he had to find something to do, such as turning to escape…
“Turn! Full rudder to port! Speed 4 knots, turn off the interior lights, conserve power!” Prien smoothly gave the command. This was not the first time he had fled; he had experienced even more dangerous escapes than this before. So he was full of confidence now, because the current situation was just a “small scene.”
On the sea surface, which was already full of broken ice, the white wakes stirred up by the torpedoes were like four straight lines, extending forward from the submarine’s original position. From the air, it was very obvious, as if someone had drawn four clear white lines on the sea.
The advancing Soviet fleet, with the flagship Sovetsky Soyuz in the lead, had its funnels emitting a not-so-thick black smoke. The warship was heading for Leningrad at almost its top speed, preparing to further threaten the Norwegian and Finnish coasts from there.
The fleet commander felt that to escape the threat of submarines, they had to increase their speed. Once the fleet’s speed exceeded 25 knots, the submarines would not be able to attack them. This conclusion was learned from the British, because the British statistical reports had said so: the higher the speed of a transport ship, the lower the probability of being attacked.
And so, this Soviet fleet brazenly adopted the classic single-line-ahead formation, the classic World War I formation with the battleship in the lead. Prien was almost embarrassed to attack such an innocent fleet commander. For him, this was like a two-meter-tall giant bullying a first-grade primary school student.
At this moment, on the observation tower of the Soviet fleet’s flagship, the Sovetsky Soyuz, a Soviet naval officer frowned as he saw a faint, unidentified object swimming on the water in the distance. At first, he thought it was a seal, but he found that the object was moving too regularly, so he picked up his binoculars.
A periscope! He was stunned by the image in his binoculars. It was a periscope that was turning away from him. This officer on duty quickly grabbed the telephone. “Submarine! Starboard! German submarine! Attention!”
Just as he was nervously reporting his discovery, without the need for observation equipment like binoculars, he could already see four white lines of water not far from the starboard side of the warship, rapidly approaching.
He held the phone and, with a terrified instinct, shouted, “Torpedoes!”
Published: 2025-09-05T01:18:01.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-12-27T18:08:37.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c558-torpedo-138142837
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