Chapter 388 Operation Starvation (12)

After the loss of more than a dozen transport ships, the fleet finally came to a slow stop.

"..." The stop was made, but Hubert was in a dilemma.

What to do next? Blindly charging through the minefield ahead without knowing its scale is purely a suicidal act.

Their fleet did not have dedicated minesweepers; destroyers could also double as minesweepers, but they are not professional, and their efficiency is far less than that of minesweepers. By the time the destroyers cleared the mines, it would be who knows when.

Contact the homeland to dispatch a minesweeper fleet? That doesn't seem realistic either.

That leaves only one way out, to take a detour, to go back and bypass this minefield.

But to have such a large formation collectively retreat is not an easy task; the slightest carelessness could lead to a collision accident.

After hesitating for a long time, Hubert decided to take a detour. Just as he was about to issue the order for the last row of ships to start reversing, he suddenly heard a series of huge explosions coming from all around.

"What's going on?! Did we hit a mine again?!"

News came from the perimeter destroyers. "German submarines! We've been attacked by a wolf pack!!"

"!!" Hubert's vision went dark, and he suddenly realized that he had fallen into the trap of the German wolf pack. Now the entire fleet was stationary, simply the perfect target! Without time to hesitate, he ordered loudly, "Full speed ahead!" Advancing is death, retreating is death; now he could only gamble on the scale of the minefield.

At this moment, the perimeter destroyers were almost completely annihilated. Normally, destroyers might be able to dodge torpedoes launched by submarines, but now they were as stationary as the other cargo ships. Even if they detected the incoming torpedoes, it was impossible to accelerate in time to avoid them; they could only watch helplessly as the torpedoes drilled into the ship's hull, causing violent explosions.

During World War II, torpedoes were roughly divided into two types: contact-fused torpedoes and magnetic-fused torpedoes.

Not much needs to be said about contact fuses, but magnetic fuses involve installing a magnetic sensor on the torpedo. When it approaches the target, it senses the magnetic field of the steel hull and triggers an explosion. Because seawater cannot be compressed, the ultra-high pressure from the torpedo's explosion at a distance of several meters or even more than ten meters is transmitted directly to the enemy ship's hull without attenuation. In addition, magnetic torpedoes generally explode under the ship, directly shaking the enemy ship's keel and main structure, causing more damage than torpedoes that explode upon direct collision with the side of the ship.

Unfortunately, the performance of German torpedoes in the original timeline was quite poor. The most "embarrassing" incident occurred in October 1939. At that time, the British Naval Minister Churchill (not yet elected Prime Minister) was aboard the battleship "Nelson," escorted by more than a dozen destroyers, en route to the Scapa Flow Naval Base. Midway, the German submarine "U-56" discovered them and unhesitatingly fired three torpedoes, all of which hit the "Nelson," but none exploded, and the British battleship remained unscathed, with Churchill naturally unharmed as well.

Afterward, the German naval high command was haunted by this incident, believing that if the torpedoes had exploded, it could have rewritten the history of World War II. The commander of the German U-boat force, Dönitz, did not hide his view that this attack was "a major military blunder!"

Another incident involved the German Navy's submarine "U-39," which encountered the British aircraft carrier "Ark Royal" while on a mission. It immediately moved into attack position and fired three torpedoes. Surprisingly, all the torpedoes exploded prematurely, not only causing no damage to the target but also revealing the submarine's position. It was then sunk by British destroyers using depth charges.

However, the problem with torpedoes was not unique to Germany; other countries were not spared either.

In 1942, the British naval warship "HMS Trinidad" encountered a German destroyer. After a barrage of gunfire left it riddled with holes and ablaze, powerless to retaliate, the British captain ordered the launch of torpedoes to sink the German ship. After the torpedoes were fired, British sailors flocked to the deck, intending to witness the sinking of the German ship. But a bizarre scene unfolded: the torpedoes circled on the sea surface and headed back towards them. After a loud explosion, the "HMS Trinidad" was heavily damaged and subsequently sank to the seabed.

Across the Atlantic, the United States was no less remarkable, even surpassing others.

During World War II, the dud rate of the American MK14 torpedo reached as high as 70%, and it created a unique case in the history of human warfare.

During an attack on a Japanese 10,000-ton oil tanker, the American submarine "Blackfish" fired 15 torpedoes but failed to sink the ship. Records show that at least 12 of the 15 torpedoes hit their target, with an accuracy rate of no less than 80%. However, only 2 of the hit torpedoes exploded, resulting in a dud rate of over 83%. Any submarine captain would likely be "explosive" in the face of such a situation. Thus, there is a joke that the greatest reliability of the American MK14 torpedo is its guarantee not to explode, which could be considered an "against-the-odds hidden feature." It is worth mentioning that, despite various problems, the MK14 achieved a record of approximately 4 million tons sunk during World War II.

The torpedo issues of Britain and the United States, although detrimental, did not lead to their defeat; Germany, however, was different. Torpedo malfunctions caused Germany to miss the opportunity to severely damage the British fleet and merchant ships, ultimately leading to their loss in the war.

After the war, Marshal Dönitz wrote in his memoirs: "In those years when the situation was favorable for submarine warfare, due to the defects in torpedo performance, a large number of enemy ships were not sunk... At that time, Britain had not yet found a way to deal with submarines, it was the golden opportunity for submarine warfare, but due to the torpedo issues, such an opportunity was missed."

Wilhelm certainly would not repeat the same mistakes and took early steps to improve the torpedoes.

Although the German magnetic fuses were unreliable, he knew that Italian technicians had installed aviation magnetic fuses on torpedoes, which were widely used throughout the war with good effect. He obtained this technology and had German technicians improve it before using it on their own torpedoes.

Now, the failure rate of the German Navy's magnetic fuses has been greatly reduced, and the depth-setting problem has been solved, making them fully capable of being used in actual combat.

"Torpedoes number three and four, fire!" The captain of the U-124 submarine, Johann, pressed against the periscope, watching the destroyer turning in the distance, and ordered loudly.

The destroyers in this fleet were the only threat to their submarines. The submarine captains had not expected that a few dozen mines could stop the fleet in its tracks, even the perimeter destroyers responsible for the alert had stopped, such a rare opportunity could not be missed, and the first round of torpedoes took out ten destroyers.

By the time the enemy reacted, the submarines had already launched the second round of torpedoes, hitting several more destroyers.