The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 585

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Just after New Year’s Day in 1928, a merchant ship named Apollo discovered the German fleet in the northern part of the North Sea, about 150 kilometers away from Norway.

The merchant ship happened to be equipped with wireless telegraphs provided by the British, which were installed by the British in the name of facilitating merchant ships to ask for help at sea.

The captains would naturally not refuse such a good thing, but the British radio telegraphs were not taken for free. After they installed these things, a British was assigned to each ship to send telegrams.

In name, this person helped the merchant ship to operate the telegraph, but in fact, he provided the latest intelligence for the British at any time.

Although this move cost more than 20 million pounds, it allowed the British to obtain more than 20,000 spy ships at once, which greatly facilitated their work of obtaining intelligence and enabled them to effectively monitor the enemy’s every move.

The merchant ship Apollo was flying the Norwegian flag, which was not safe at sea because the Germans had sunk two merchant ships flying the Norwegian flag before.

So, after discovering the German fleet, they immediately sent a telegram to the British Empire, and quietly changed the flag to the United States, pretending to be a merchant ship of the United States, and then followed the German fleet openly, carefully keeping a distance and monitoring the Germans.

Because the naval warships of various countries at that time were not equipped with radar, the people on the Apollo did not know that they had been discovered by the Germans when they approached Hans’ fleet!

“Commander, there is an annoying tail behind us, do you want to send a destroyer to sink it! ?”

On the Bismarck, Lütjens was using a telescope to observe the sea conditions in the distance.

Because the Norwegian Sea is close to the North Pole, there are a large number of icebergs drifting from the North Pole. Most of these icebergs are hidden underwater, and only a small part is exposed above the water. Therefore, even if equipped with radar, it is not easy to spot them at a long distance.

Therefore, the German fleet was forced to slow down and set up a number of lookouts on the deck and mast of the bow, using telescopes to observe the surrounding situation. Once they found an iceberg approaching, they had to evade it in advance to prevent the fleet from colliding with the iceberg and causing losses.

Compared with icebergs, Lütjens was more worried about another thing: mines!

Because mines float on the water, they can Directly attack the waterline area of the battleship. Once this area is blown up, it will immediately cause a large amount of seawater to flow back. Once a battleship is flooded with a large amount of seawater in a short period of time, the center of gravity of the battleship is likely to shift, and the battleship will be in danger of capsizing!

Although the Bismarck is a 4-ton battleship, and the armor near the waterline has been strengthened and can even withstand torpedoes, Lütjens still dare not be careless when facing mines. After all, when he was off the coast of Vladivostok, he witnessed the tragic scene of the Mikasa of the Foot Basin Navy being hit by a mine and sunk, so he had a deep fear of mines in his heart! After hearing the soldier’s report, Lütjens asked,”Have you conducted any reconnaissance? What kind of ship is it?”

“We have already sent destroyers to investigate. It is a merchant ship flying the Eagle flag. It is not large, about 1,000 tons.”

Lütjens nodded. Merchant ships sailing long distances, especially those sailing across the ocean, are generally larger in tonnage. After all, large tonnage can load cargo and earn more profits. If the tonnage is too small, there will not be much cargo to tow. After deducting the labor cost and fuel consumption, there may be no profit.

Therefore, this merchant ship of more than 10,000 tons is unlikely to come from the Eagle sauce, but it is flying the flag of the Eagle sauce, which can only mean one thing, this merchant ship is impersonating

“How long have they been following us?”

Although Lütjens had guessed the true identity of the merchant ship, he did not immediately order the destroyer to sink it.

“It has been following for three hours!”

Three hours, at the current speed of the German fleet, this merchant ship has probably followed for 40 nautical miles.

At 40 nautical miles, the other side should have figured out the German route and predicted Hans’s purpose!

“Very good, send a destroyer to sink it with a torpedo, then pick up the people who fell into the water and find an island to throw them there!”

Lütjens finally gave the order to sink the merchant ship, but he did not kill all of them. Instead, he asked the destroyer responsible for sinking the merchant ship to salvage the people who fell into the water.

Generally speaking, except for large ocean-going passenger ships, there are usually not too many crew members on merchant ships. A 20,000-ton merchant ship will not have more than 25 crew members, and a 12,000-ton merchant ship will have at most 20 people. Sending a destroyer is enough to pick up all the people who fell into the water!

At this time, the navy was still an aristocratic branch of the army, and both sides still had a little chivalry. They did not say that they would just ignore the enemy after sinking it. The situation where the enemy fell into the water and drowned.

Of course, the Far East’s Jiaoben people are not included in this list. The Jiaoben people have always killed all the enemies who fell into the water, and have no intention of rescuing them.

However, this situation is also changing. As both sides are equipped with a large number of submarines, more and more merchant ships and warships are attacked and sunk by submarines. These submarines have a relatively small tonnage and a small internal space. In addition, they are afraid of retaliation by enemy warships.

Therefore, after completing the attack, they will not rescue the people who fell into the water, but will immediately dive and run away, for fear that they will be caught up and sunk by the enemy fleet.

In World War I, the German submarines He did a lot of things like this, causing a large number of casualties, which was also the main reason why various countries condemned Hans after the war.

Lütjens did not care about the submarine force, he only cared about the surface fleet, so he did not care what the submarine force would do. As an old-school traditional soldier, Lütjens still retained this ancient chivalrous spirit!

The reason why a destroyer was sent to perform this mission was because the destroyer was very fast and the enemy’s merchant ship could not escape the pursuit of the destroyer.

The maximum speed of Hans’ destroyer is 38 knots per hour, and the speed of any merchant ship cannot exceed this number, so As long as they were dispatched, the enemy merchant ships would not be able to escape.

Moreover, the destroyer had a smaller tonnage, so it was more convenient to rescue people who fell into the water. After they rescued these people, they spent some time sending them to the nearby islands. They could also catch up with the main fleet with their high speed and would not fall behind.

The Apollo did not know that their lives were in danger. Relying on the American flag they were flying, they were not worried at all. They followed the German army to take pictures and send telegrams to the British army.