Chapter 744: Fleet HH2

British submarine technology had not failed to develop; on the contrary, at the end of the First World War, the Royal Navy’s anti-submarine technology could be described as powerful. However, as time passed, their technology had indeed fallen behind, especially when dealing with Germany’s new type of submarine. This technological and tactical gap had created an insurmountable chasm.

Overall, the sonar systems on British destroyers, or rather, on the more recent American destroyers, had not seen a generational leap forward. Their detection accuracy was no longer sufficient to pinpoint the specific location of the new German submarines, and thus could not provide precise guidance for the destroyers’ subsequent attacks.

For a long time, German submarines had also not updated their technology. Even the most powerful submarines under Dönitz’s command were just enlarged and strengthened versions of the U-boats from the First World War era. Therefore, the United States and Britain had mistakenly believed that the Germans had not developed any new technology, and so Britain had not considered the submarine to be an invincible opponent.

After all, Britain had lost its homeland in a very short time after the war began, which had put the British at a technological disadvantage. Many laboratories and large-scale equipment had to be destroyed and could not be taken with them. Therefore, apart from a few technologies that Britain had tried its best to preserve, all other technologies were incomplete and could not meet the needs of the war—sonar technology was one of them.

So Britain had abandoned the research and development of some technologies. After all, even if some technologies were greatly enhanced, they could not be immediately put into operational use. Therefore, some technology development was completely canceled, and only the continued development of aviation and radar technology was retained as a key project.

The facts proved that the British approach was not wrong. Using their old anti-submarine technology and increasing the search density on the Iceland-to-America route, they had sunk 4 German submarines in June, 9 in July, 5 in August, reached a peak of 12 in September, 4 in October, 6 in November, and 8 in December. Including the number of possible but unconfirmed sinkings, the Allies had sunk a total of 38 German ocean-going submarines in the past seven months. This was by no means an insignificant achievement.

The data proved that with the existing system, the Allies could still deal with German submarines. It was precisely for this reason that the weapons and equipment that the United States was producing at full capacity were mostly concentrated on fleet cruisers and aircraft carriers, with the aim of quickly assembling a force to complete a decisive naval battle with Japan.

Against this backdrop, Germany’s advanced submarines had appeared out of nowhere, directly breaking the balance in anti-submarine warfare between the United States and Britain, forcing them to face the cruel reality that a new type of German submarine was already in service.

“Sir!” A British naval officer knocked on the door of the office of the current First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, Dudley Pound. After receiving permission, he walked up to the 61-and-a-half-year-old head of the navy, stood at attention, saluted, and then said respectfully, “News just came in. The special supply fleet designated HH2 was just ambushed by a German submarine force and has suffered heavy losses.”

“What happened? How many German submarines were sunk?” Dudley Pound frowned, looked up, and put down the document he was handling. This old general had been through the First World War and was a very experienced naval commander. However, this unlucky naval commander had taken over from Churchill and was now struggling to support the British Empire in its most severe and passive situation in history.

Of course, facing the same test as him was the famous Hugh Dowding. He had taken over the entire British air force on Iceland at a critical moment, with only a pitiful 80 Hurricanes, 110 improved P-40s, and 44 Meteor jet fighters with an astonishingly high failure rate under his command.

The British naval officer immediately replied to Admiral Pound’s question, “The battle report is still a bit chaotic. We are currently compiling the testimonies of several destroyer captains, as well as descriptions of the situation from some of the merchant ship captains who were in the fleet at the time. However, some of the reports are very strange. For example, several people’s telegrams mentioned two or more ‘phantom’ submarines.”

Admiral Dudley Pound raised his eyebrows. The thing he had feared most had finally and inevitably happened. From the moment the first rumors of a phantom submarine had spread at sea, he had realized that this might be a new type of German naval submarine. It was just that he had no ability to change the level of the British Navy’s anti-submarine warfare, so he could only grit his teeth and choose to ignore the rumors of this phantom submarine.

He had once urged the U.S. Navy to develop more precise sonar technology and to help equip some of the escort ships on the American East Coast and some of the British Navy’s ships with more advanced radar detection devices. Unfortunately, the Americans, in order to switch from defense to offense in the Pacific, had not paid too much attention to Admiral Pound’s suggestions.

Now the chickens had come home to roost. In one morning, Britain and the United States had lost nearly 30 destroyers and merchant ships, with a total tonnage of over 130,000 tons. The loss of cargo was countless. A large portion of fuel and food had been lost, and some munitions ships had also been unable to escape their fate.

“Two or more new types of German submarines?” At this point, it was futile for Dudley to try and cover it up with talk of demons and monsters. He might as well just define the matter: there were no phantom submarines in the world, only new types of German submarines.

The British naval officer who heard this was taken aback for a moment, then nodded in acknowledgment of Pound’s words. “Yes… yes, sir! The Germans used at least three new types of submarines to launch the attack. Although our destroyers were constantly chasing them, by the time our planes and other ships arrived, not a single German submarine had been sunk.”

In the whole of January, the Allies had sunk a total of 3 German naval submarines on the shipping lanes, all of which were old-style U-boat ocean-going submarines without exception. However, this combat record did not make the British cheer, because in this month, they had been met with the even more deadly new type of German U-boat.

“When will the HH2 fleet arrive here?” Dudley asked with a helpless sigh. Since the loss had already occurred, there was no point in considering responsibility or other matters. He now felt that the most difficult problem was the entire energy supply for Iceland. Having lost a large amount of fuel, Iceland, in such cold weather, was very likely to be completely paralyzed.

The HH2 supply fleet had always been one of the more important fleets in the hands of the British government-in-exile. Together with HH1 and HH3, it had supported the main material transport mission for the British government-in-exile in Iceland. The other single or multiple transport ships were just a supplement to these three large supply fleets. Now that one of these three fleets had run into trouble, the direct impact was already very terrible, not to mention the ripple effects.

Once more of Germany’s new submarines appeared on the shipping lanes, then the HH1 and HH3 fleets would also become unsafe. Following this line of reasoning, the final conclusion was that the defensive positions that Britain had deployed on Iceland would also eventually collapse due to a shortage of fuel.

The reason why Iceland had never been able to develop historically was, to put it bluntly, because of its own limitations. The British government-in-exile’s decision to build this place at all costs as a forward base for retaking the homeland had to rely on supplies from the United States. Now that the Germans had played a trick of “pulling the firewood from under the pot,” Dudley could only give a bitter smile.

It seemed that among the commanders of the German Navy, there were also some formidable characters with unique strategic vision! Dönitz, Lütjens, and that Raeder… including the Führer Akado, it seemed that none of them were pushovers. And this move was clearly a good show orchestrated by that godfather of German submarines, Dönitz.

“Increase the escort fleet for the HH1 fleet, which is about to return to the United States for a transport mission. If necessary, transfer patrol destroyers and cruisers from Canada. We must ensure the safety of the HH1 fleet!” Dudley said, giving his operational orders after a moment’s thought. There was very little he could do now. Apart from increasing the escort strength of his transport fleets, he could only pray to God that the enemy’s submarines would run out of ammunition and leave this choke point on their own.

In fact, after such an attack, the German submarines had indeed dispersed and were operating independently. The reason was actually very simple: the batteries of Prien’s U-47 had developed a problem, and it had to withdraw from the field early. The remaining four submarines had no choice but to fight on their own.

As for the pitiful HH2 supply fleet, it had suffered a devastating blow in the early hours of that day. Prien’s U-47 alone had achieved the proud combat record of sinking four of the enemy’s ships. This also raised his personal total sunk tonnage to an incredible 200,000 tons, making him the undisputed number one submarine commander in the world.

On the vast North Atlantic, amidst the cold sea breeze and the rolling waves, the Third Reich’s Navy and the Royal Navy engaged in the cruelest of contests. No one remembers how many battles took place in the Atlantic during this war, but the soldiers who went through them all imprinted them in their hearts. Only when drinking heartily in a bar would they tell these thrilling stories, many of which had a legendary color, making the people around them can’t help but feel nostalgic for this era of war.

But unfortunately, the person who led this era, for example, Prien, did not like everything before him. The cold seawater crashed against the conning tower of the submarine, and the splashing water left a few watermarks on his leather greatcoat. He lit a cigarette. For some reason, he once again thought of the young SS captain on the supply ship, of the resolute expression on his still-somewhat-youthful face.

“Full speed ahead! Maintain course!” Prien said to his first officer beside him. “We’re going home!”

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