Chapter 561: I Won
“First depth charge! Deploy!” With a roar, the Soviet destroyer dropped its first depth charge of the day. After an hour of engagement, the Soviet destroyer, for the first time, felt confident that it could sink its opponent, and so it launched a fierce attack.
Just an hour ago, this destroyer had turned with Prien’s submarine and had then sailed along a course for two minutes, only to suddenly lose track of the submarine. The bearded captain, after a brief calculation, had guessed Prien’s trick—a slow deceleration.
In fact, the speed of the enemy submarine had been decreasing after it had adjusted its course. And at this time, the destroyer’s sonar was deployed at the bow of the ship, which meant that the rear of the destroyer was actually a sonar blind spot.
Using this principle, the German submarine had cleverly hidden in the sonar blind spot of the Soviet destroyer. This was also a trick learned from the Royal Navy. If the submarine war in Britain had taught the British how to conduct anti-submarine warfare, then for every British captain who had learned anti-submarine warfare, there was a German submarine commander who had mastered the skill of escaping from the tiger’s mouth. Back and forth is the essence of war; there is no rule that only one side can grow in a war.
However, the destroyer, relying on its higher speed, had still regained the initiative. After circling for half an hour, just as Prien thought he had shaken off the Soviet destroyer’s entanglement, the bearded man, with his strong obsession for revenge, had once again returned to the battlefield.
Prien was really being driven mad by this persistent fellow. The last time he had had such an experience was after the raid on Scapa Flow, the time of the Royal Navy’s massive search. But that had been a terrifying process of being blockaded by dozens of ships. To be chased with one’s tail bitten by a single destroyer, this was a first for Prien.
And so, a new round of the hunt began. This time, the process was much more thrilling and exciting than the last, because when the bearded man and his destroyer had found Prien again, his course control had not been so good.
Captain Prien on the submarine had immediately sent the bearded man a hefty welcoming gift: he had fired two torpedoes from his stern tubes, directly disrupting the bearded man’s pursuit. The destroyer was forced to dodge the oncoming torpedoes and once again lost its target. This, from another angle, also proved Prien’s state of mind. Under normal circumstances, a submarine commander would be unwilling to use precious torpedoes to escape an opponent’s anti-submarine attack.
The poor Soviet destroyer had to once again predict the submarine’s position and once again caught Prien’s tail. But this time, Prien had started to zigzag again. Because during this period, Prien’s submarine had risen to periscope depth and had ignited its diesel engines to recharge its batteries. So this time, Prien was even bolder in his game of hide-and-seek with the bearded man’s destroyer. The submarine had chosen a relatively safe sea area and had descended to a depth of 70 meters. This was a depth that was already very difficult for a destroyer to detect and attack. And as the depth increased, the positioning of the submarine became even more difficult.
However, after an hour of entanglement, the bearded captain was no longer willing to continue the chase. He gave the order to attack, and the first depth charge was finally dropped into the water by the launcher.
“The enemy has begun its attack! Depth charge! One!” The sonarman heard the unusual sound of something entering the water and immediately reported the news he had received. This sound was all too familiar, because this destroyer had been built in Britain, and the German submarine force had encountered escort destroyers of the same model several times.
“Full rudder to starboard, evade this charge! After the explosion, send the prepared present to the Soviets, then shut down all systems and wait for them to leave!” Prien decided to pull out the trump card he had been preparing for an hour. He had his men remove a pile of useless wooden boards, life jackets, and other equipment from the submarine and then stuffed them all into the torpedo tube.
What he had to do now was to coordinate with the explosion of the opponent’s depth charge, launch this junk, and then let it float to the surface to create the illusion that the submarine had been hit and sunk. This was an Oscar-worthy performance. Under normal circumstances, it could deceive the opponent and allow one to escape to safety. Of course, this was also a last resort. No one would easily use such an extreme method of faking their own death to deceive their opponent.
And on the surface of the water, the bearded captain was also waiting. A few minutes ago, he had found a flaw in the German submarine commander. This flaw was the only one the opponent had revealed in over an hour of their battle of wits.
“This German opponent is really very cunning. If not for our good luck, we probably wouldn’t have been able to sink this German submarine,” the bearded captain said with emotion, standing on the bridge. “His only flaw is that he likes to go full rudder to port on his first turning maneuver! A subconscious habit that has sealed your fate today.”
He was full of confidence in sinking his opponent, because just now, when he was looking at the incoherent and somewhat messy series of marks on the sea chart, he had accidentally discovered this habit of Prien’s. He had even deliberately tested it once and had found that the opponent indeed had this little habit.
The deployed depth charge exploded in the dark ocean, creating a huge air bubble. This bubble expanded violently in the seawater, a violent expansion that defied the laws of nature. However, just an instant later, the surrounding seawater, due to the immense pressure, squeezed back in, forming a huge, oscillating tearing force. If a submarine were within the range of this explosion, even if it were just grazed, it would be torn apart by this huge tearing force and become a steel coffin under the water.
“Fire!” The corners of Prien’s mouth slowly curled upwards, and a small sense of得意 (complacency) appeared in his heart. The flaw he had deliberately exposed had finally been discovered by the opponent. With this attack, the shockwave from the massive explosion would greatly limit the opponent’s sonar operation. This was also his best opportunity to escape the pursuit.
Life jackets, wooden boards, and other items were all pushed out into the sea by the high-pressure air. Due to their buoyancy, these items and some air bubbles began to float rapidly upwards. If the opponent saw these things, they would mistakenly think that the submarine had been sunk and would voluntarily leave. To increase the realism of the effect, a large barrel full of fuel was also included in the pile of debris. This iron barrel would not float to the surface, but it would leak diesel fuel to make the scene of the sinking look more realistic. An Oscar-worthy performance of faking one’s death is by no means an empty boast.
And so, a quiet wait began. The people inside the submarine waited motionlessly, waiting for the good news from the sonarman. Time passed, second by second. No one knew if in the next second they would hear the news of the enemy’s departure, or the sound of another deadly depth charge falling from above.
The bearded captain was now standing on the deck, looking at the obviously friction-marked, damaged life jackets, and the broken pieces of wood. There were not many things on a submarine that could float to the surface. The most direct evidence, of course, would be a body, but in this situation, a body would often not immediately float to the surface, and it was also possible that there would be no bodies.
“Let’s wait and see!” the bearded man ordered with a frown. The destroyer cruised back and forth in the nearby waters, refusing to leave. It seemed to be waiting for the German submarine to lose its cool and reveal its position, and also seemed to be waiting for evidence that could confirm its kill to float to the surface.
The inside of the submarine was filled with a chaotic smell of French perfume mixed with diesel. The submarine crew, who were used to this smell, were completely unaware of it. They just looked at their own ceiling, waiting for the time when their warship would once again start its engine and sing its song.
On the deck of the destroyer, the cold sea breeze blew against the sailors’ collars. They were also waiting, staring at the sea surface, afraid of missing anything important, hoping for more direct evidence to appear there.
Watching the oil slick on the sea surface grow larger and larger, the bearded captain also felt that in this situation, the enemy submarine had definitely been sunk by him. “I won! I sank them!” he exclaimed, then gave the order to return to base. The destroyer circled once and then began to sail back along the course it had come from, its speed not fast, but not too slow either.
“Speed is about 20 knots, and they’re moving away,” the sonarman whispered the information he had heard to Prien. Prien nodded, ignoring the low cheers behind him, and gave another order to the NCO in charge of the submarine’s propulsion. “Engage the propulsion system, full speed ahead, full rudder to port! Hold the course!”
The submarine’s batteries began to work again, the electric motors once again made a turning noise, and the internal power began to be restored. Apart from the emergency lights, a portion of the lighting was also turned on by the crew. It was no longer so dark here; it was as if everything had returned from hell to the world of the living.
“Still full rudder to port?” the helmsman asked Prien with a puzzled look. Just now, to deliberately sell the flaw, he had made several full rudder to port maneuvers. Now that they had shaken off the enemy, why did they still have to go full rudder to port?
Prien patted him on the shoulder and explained solemnly, “This opponent is not easy to deal with. I don’t know how long this trick of faking our death will deceive him, so this time we still have to be prepared to fight at any time. We cannot be the slightest bit careless!”
After speaking, he confidently clenched his fist. Commander of the destroyer, I admit you are indeed very strong, but this time, no matter what, it is I who have escaped to safety! It is a pity, but I won!
Published: 2025-09-06T04:18:38.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-12-30T18:35:56.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c561-i-won-138253373
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