Chapter 562: A Clever Plan

Walking back to his cabin, the bearded captain suddenly frowned. He felt that something was not right, so he began to repeatedly think over the battle he had just experienced. Countless moments unfolded in his mind, bit by bit.

He had locked onto the enemy submarine countless times, marking its position on his sea chart again and again. He sorted and connected those seemingly random points and finally found the pattern that was difficult for others to see.

An unconscious habit of the enemy submarine commander had finally given him an opportunity. He had ordered an attack and had thus achieved the first victory of a Soviet surface warship against a German submarine unit.

All of this seemed so reasonable, as if there were no flaws worth scrutinizing and thinking about. He had sunk his opponent, and there was a lot of evidence to prove this achievement—there were old life jackets, broken wooden planks, and a constantly leaking oil slick. These things clearly proved the fact that the German submarine had been sunk, beyond a doubt.

The bearded captain reached out his hand and stroked his beard. Every time he encountered a problem he was unsure of, he would make this gesture. This was a habit of his, a thinking habit that had not changed for more than ten years.

Finally, he had to rethink the entire course of events once more: from the moment he had locked onto his opponent, then those chaotic trajectories, and finally he had dropped the depth charges and sunk his opponent… Wait! He suddenly froze. He suddenly realized where the problem was.

It was too coincidental! That was the problem. The bearded man suddenly realized that for him to have so accurately sunk that difficult opponent on his first attack was definitely not a coincidence that could be explained! Under normal theoretical circumstances, when a submarine is locked onto by a destroyer, the only outcome awaiting it is to be sunk! The greatest advantage of a submarine is that it is difficult to be discovered, and when a submarine is discovered, then all its advantages disappear.

For a submarine commander to be able to contend with a destroyer captain for so long while being locked on, only to be easily sunk on the first attack, this coincidence in itself just didn’t make sense! The bearded man did not believe that the other side had been so easily sunk. The more he thought about it now, the more he felt that something was wrong.

It was as if the opponent had deliberately sold him a flaw, then waited for him to make his move at the critical moment, and then used the treacherous trick of faking his death to escape. The bearded man suddenly stood up and walked quickly towards the command room.

He arrived at the command room, immediately took over the command that had just been handed over to the first officer, and then ordered the warship to turn around at once and head for the area where the submarine had sunk. He silently prayed in his heart, praying that the other side would show some flaw.

In fact, a confident smile reappeared on the bearded man’s face. In his mind, he calculated the opponent’s speed and his own reaction time. The time was not long. The chance to restart the game of cat and mouse was still great. Once he had regained the advantage he had lost, the other side would never be able to escape his grasp this time.

The destroyer’s speed had been pushed to the limit. It cut through the waves in the icy seawater, the large cannon on its bow looking majestic, pointing grimly straight ahead. And there was the spot where the German submarine had sunk, a faint oil slick still visible.

“Sonar! Turn on the sonar, confirm the position of the enemy submarine! Quick!” The moment he arrived next to the oil slick, the bearded captain impatiently ordered the orderly to turn on the sonar system and re-lock onto the enemy submarine’s position.

“…” After a moment of silence, the sonarman looked up at the bearded captain with a puzzled expression. He hadn’t heard anything. And in his opinion, his warship had already successfully sunk the opponent. Why did they have to come back and search again now? This was completely unnecessary, because the oil slick and the debris showed that the opponent had indeed been sunk.

“Sir! I can’t hear anything. There’s nothing moving underwater here anymore!” the sonarman finally said, stating his own judgment, although he knew that his judgment was very different from his captain’s. If their captain did not doubt his own victory, then he would not have turned back to search an empty sea.

The bearded captain was taken aback. He clearly had not expected his opponent to be so cunning. It seemed the opponent had already left this sea area. To chase after them and continue the entanglement, it would depend on whether his next judgment could guess correctly.

This German submarine could have escaped to the right, or it could have escaped to the left. The opponent, during the previous engagement, had repeatedly used the “false habit” of a full rudder to port. This time, it was entirely possible that he would do the opposite and use a full rudder to starboard to shake off his pursuit. Of course, it was also possible that it was the exact opposite, that the other side would continue with a full rudder to port, playing a superb psychological game to continue to crush him intellectually.

Whether to go left or right, this was absolutely a critical choice, a critical choice that would determine whether they could continue to hunt down this German submarine. The bearded man finally decided to try his luck and, leaving it to fate, gave his combat order: “Full rudder to starboard! Pursue to the right!”

The destroyer turned to starboard and continued to speed across the sea. But this time, it did not have such good luck. What awaited it was still the empty, cold seawater, and the German submarine that had caused a shipwreck tragedy in the Soviet waters of the Arctic Ocean had, at this moment, completely escaped the pursuit.

“It seems we’re really safe now,” Captain Prien said with a smile to his crew after confirming with his sonarman once again that there were no enemy ships nearby. “Bring out the champagne. We’ve created another miracle this time!”

He had indeed created a miracle. In the battle of Scapa Flow, he had sunk two battleships. In the subsequent Battle of the English Channel, he had, with his own luck, sunk another battleship. And now, with heaven-defying luck, he had once again sunk a battleship. It seemed the reputation of “battleship killer” was destined to accompany him throughout his legendary life.

Not every submarine commander has the opportunity to sink four enemy battleships. This cannot be achieved with skill and luck alone. This kind of combat record requires heaven-defying luck plus skilled command techniques. And this kind of record is an unrepeatable miracle, which makes it even more precious in the long scroll of war history.

That afternoon, the news of the sinking of the Sovetsky Soyuz reached Murmansk. The Soviet high command was shaken. A warship named after the country had been sunk by the enemy. This was an intolerable shame for Stalin. However, the Soviet high command immediately showed their superb skill in covering up their shame. They renamed the Ukraina to the Sovetsky Soyuz and then announced to the world that the battleship that had been sunk was the Ukraina.

In fact, Nazi Germany in another timeline had also done such a thing. The Deutschland-class pocket battleship, also known as the Lützow-class armored ship, had had its name urgently changed during the war. The original Deutschland was renamed the Lützow, with the aim of avoiding the loss of national honor caused by the sinking of the warship.

“A message from U-47. They have sunk a battleship near the Soviet coastline in the Arctic Ocean. This battleship should be the newly built Sovetsky Soyuz-class, but we still need to confirm which specific warship it is,” a colonel said, handing a document to Dönitz. Dönitz put down the statistical report in his hand and began to study this telegram about the sinking of an enemy warship.

“This is really not easy to handle this time. He is already a colonel. Are we going to promote him to rear admiral? That would clearly be against the rules… To transfer him to the naval staff would seem to be a waste of his talent,” Dönitz said with a helpless, wry smile. Sometimes, when a subordinate performs too well, it really is a headache for many superiors. The rewards were almost at their limit, yet the achievements of these subordinates were getting bigger and bigger. This had to be said, was a pity.

His deputy, hearing his leader say this, quickly offered a suggestion. “If that doesn’t work… how about applying for a medal?”

“Prien already has the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross. How can we apply for another medal? The next level up, even an army group commander… wait!” Dönitz’s eyes lit up as he said this. It was clear that his deputy’s suggestion had another layer of meaning, and after he understood it, he felt that this was indeed a good idea.

The air force, the navy, and the army were all competing with each other in the number and quality of their medals. The army had their Wittmann and Rein, and the air force’s aces were a dime a dozen. Similarly, as the war continued, the Iron Cross was no longer a rare item in the navy either.

So the two sides had begun to compete on quality. The army, navy, and air force had successively produced their own Oak Leaves to the Iron Cross. If the navy were to nominate the repeatedly meritorious Prien for the first Swords to the Oak Leaves of the Knight’s Cross in the entire armed forces, it would be simply perfect. If it succeeded, the entire navy would have face. If the nomination failed, then how to commend Prien would be a problem for the High Command, and would have nothing to do with them. This plan was simply killing two birds with one stone, an absolute masterstroke.

“Send a telegram to Berlin. Submit the proposal to promote Prien for the Iron Cross. The legendary submarine commander who has sunk four battleships is an absolute model for the soldiers of the Reich!” Dönitz, having thought it through, immediately gave the order.

“Yes, sir!” the deputy replied with a smile, standing at attention. He turned and walked out of Dönitz’s office. And at this very moment, in the distant Arctic Ocean, Prien, breathing the cold air and smoking a cigarette, did not yet know that his name had been sent to the High Command in Berlin, to compete for the first Swords to the Oak Leaves of the Knight’s Cross in the entire armed forces.

If he had known, he would have preferred to bargain with Dönitz: Give me six months of leave, and I don’t want any damn medal!

Published: 2025-09-06T04:19:28.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-12-30T18:35:55.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c562-clever-138253767

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