V4CH36: Torpedoes

"Captain, we have reached the marking point."

　　Lieutenant Kesselring, the vice-captain, reported loudly to Gilse after recording the present position of the boat on the chart.

　　"Very well, prepare to turn, heading 240, maintain the present depth and speed. Another half hour and we'll be out of this patrol area now, hopefully, we won't have to dive for so long again before we enter French waters." Gilse replied, sitting leisurely in his captain's chair with a cup of coffee.

　　"Aye, Captain. Prepare to steer, heading 240," Kesselring repeated Gilse's order aloud, "Five seconds to start steering, 5. 4. 3. 2. 1, steering... Report captain, steering complete. Now heading 240."

　　"Very good."

　　Gilse was very pleased with the training of his men, and immediately afterward he picked up the cabin phone hanging from the command module's enhanced support sill and then turned the dial bar to the listening room.

　　"Corporal Wolfgang, this is the captain of the boat, report the current situation. Are they still following?"

　　"They are still following, both sides of the stern, less than 1,500 meters apart, with a clear and loud sound of the propeller. U38 and U43 have not fallen out of line, sir."

　　"Very well, keep listening, any abnormalities must be reported to the command module immediately."

　　"As ordered, sir."

　　Satisfied, Gilse put down the phone, he turned to Kesselring and said, "We are now in waters where enemy ships are very active, I hope we don't run into any trouble, any little mistake on our part now could bring irreparable damage to Germany, we must get Field Marshal Reinhardt to France safely no matter what."

　　"I understand, Captain of the boat. All of us understand this, you can rest assured." Kesselring replied with a serious look.

　　"Very well." Gilse smiled and nodded.

　　"Report Captain."

　　Ensign Turk, the U37's deputy navigator, hurriedly entered the command cabin, and before he could straighten up, he hurriedly reported loudly, "His Excellency the Marshal wants you to go over to see him immediately if it is convenient for you now."

　　Gilse could not help but frown at the panicked appearance of Turk, but once he heard that the marshal wanted to see him, he could not care to blame his subordinate for his abnormal reaction, Giselle hurriedly asked Turk, "Where is the marshal now."

　　"In the first torpedo bay."

　　"Good, I'll be right over." Giselle turned back to Kesselring and said, "Kesselring, I'll leave it to you here now, let me know immediately if there are any problems."

　　"Don't worry, Skipper."

　　Gilse looked around for a moment, then sharply got out of the command module and walked quickly toward the first torpedo bay, and Turk hurriedly followed him.

　　"Turk, how did the marshal get to the head torpedo bay, wasn't he talking to you guys?"

　　Before the two commandos went back to sleep, they reported to Gilse that the marshal had woken up and was walking in the boat, then another sailor came to report that the marshal was chatting with some officers in the rest area, and now the marshal had gone into the torpedo compartment, Gilse could not figure out what was going on in the mind of His Excellency.

　　"We were chatting, but after we overheard those failed attacks, the marshal suddenly wanted to go to the torpedo compartment and we didn't dare to stop him. Now the chief gunner and the chief mine officer are accompanying him."

　　"Failed attacks? You mean those attacks on our last cruise.

"

　　"Yes, Skipper. The marshal said he might know the reason for the torpedo failure."

　　"What, the marshal really said that." Gilse's feet lagged for a moment.

　　"Yes, that's what he said."

　　"Oh." Gilse pondered slightly for a moment, then quickened her pace toward the first torpedo bay.

　　The corridor of the forward cabin was now filled with sailors and low-ranking officers, who were looking curiously into the first torpedo cabin while whispering to each other. When they saw the captain walking quickly, they stood at attention against the wall to make way for Giselle.

　　When Gilse entered the first torpedo bay, the first thing he saw was a T3 on the torpedo loading rack in the middle of the torpedo bay. The big 533mm caliber bomb, weighing 1,600kg, had been disassembled, and from underneath the removed inspection ports, the internal parts of the torpedo, coated with rust-proof oil, glowed dark gold in the bright light of the bay.

　　"Marshal. You asked me to come here to show you this, right?" Gilse walked up to Xu Jun, who was standing by the torpedo and watching the torpedo chief's work carefully, and asked respectfully, "My marshal, have you really found out the reason why our torpedoes often fail?"

　　"I'll talk to you later, wait a little while, there will be results soon."

　　Xu Jun turned his head to look at Gilse, and then focused his attention back on what Ensign Sutton, the torpedo chief, was doing now.

　　Sutton, the chief torpedo officer of U37, was taking a screwdriver to disassemble the panel on the inspection port of the torpedo balance compartment, and a small air hole was exposed when the small steel plate was removed. Sutton hurriedly took a pressure gauge from a tool holder and then carefully inserted it into the air hole.

　　"What is Sutton doing, measuring the pressure of the balance chamber? This won't do anything, the air pressure of the balance chamber has been tested on land without any problems." Gilse felt that the marshal was an army officer after all, and still did not seem to be familiar with weapons like torpedoes.

　　"Don't be anxious, captain, keep your patience, the result will be revealed soon." Xu Jun smiled and said to Gilse.

　　"Huh? How can this be!" At this moment Sutton, who was carefully watching the pressure gauge readings, exclaimed.

　　"What's wrong?" Gilse hurriedly padded over.

　　"Captain, it seems that the marshal's guess was correct. Look at this reading. The pressure in this damn balance chamber is now the same as the pressure inside our boat."

　　"What, there's such a thing. This can't be." Gilse looked carefully at the reading on the pressure gauge, then turned his head to look at the reading on the barometer on the wall of the boat, and was stunned by what he saw.

　　"The torpedo's set depth is entirely determined by the air pressure in this balance chamber, and we all set the torpedo's dive depth based on maintaining one atmosphere of pressure in the balance chamber. But now this torpedo has the same pressure as inside the boat, which means that if we still set the depth for this torpedo as written in the operation manual, its actual depth will be much deeper than the depth we set, maybe three to five meters different, and possibly more." Sutton frowned and said.

　　"That means there's no way we can hit the target with this torpedo." Gilse said with a sudden realization, "So those torpedoes we shot were not disabled, but all of them burrowed through the bottom of the enemy's ship."

　　"That's most likely the case. It seems that what we shot was actually the bottom of the sea." Sutton sighed as he shook his head.

　　"Could it be that you made a mistake in testing, such as the balance chamber being accidentally opened and sealed?" Gilse cringed at the thought that her torpedoes might all have this fault, which meant that she would not have a working weapon to protect herself on this voyage.

　　"Absolutely no problem, I did it strictly according to the testing procedures on land," Sutton replied categorically.

　　"Gentlemen, it's better for me to say a few words." Xu Jun faintly on the side of the jack too.

　　Only then did the two naval officers realize the existence of the marshal, and only then did they remember that this problem was discovered only because of the marshal's proposal, and they now hoped to get the right answer from this soldier who kept creating miracles.

　　"We now know that this torpedo has a problem with the balance compartment, so have you ever wondered why this happened." Before the two men could answer Xu Jun went on to say, "There is only one possible reason for this to happen, and that is that the balance pod has lost its seal. I think it is more likely that it was never actually sealed. This would explain the reason why German torpedoes often failed in actual combat during this period. The failure of torpedoes in the previous period of doing battle often occurred after you had been diving for a long time, when the pressure inside the submarine would have increased a lot, and because the balance chamber was not sealed, the pressure in the torpedo increased with the air pressure inside the submarine. As a result, as Ensign Sutton said, all our torpedoes were fired to the bottom. The surface torpedoes were launched with the same air pressure as the outside world so they could reliably hit their targets. Including those with short dive time or floating ventilation, their torpedoes also remained effective because the pressure inside the boat was normal. This is the reason why sometimes the torpedoes did not fail and sometimes they all failed."

　　"It seems you were right, my marshal. You are truly an apostle of God." Gilse stood up and respectfully saluted Xu Jun.

　　"I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you in place of all the personnel of the German submarine force."

　　"Ah, no need for that, I just heard your men talking about this matter and the idea popped into my head, I thought the problem might be in the torpedo's fixing depth, that's why I took it upon myself to do this test. To say thanks, I also have to thank those officers for mentioning this matter to me." Xu Jun listened to Gilse's thanks and felt a little embarrassed, the problem of German torpedoes in fact had long learned from the previous historical data, now he was obviously plagiarizing the fruits of labor of those German scientists, putting the credit on himself.

　　"Please don't say that my marshal, if it wasn't for you, I really don't know how long our submarines would have fought with such unreliable weapons, you know how efficient those people in the Navy Ordnance Bureau are," Gilse said excitedly.

　　"Haha, let's not talk about that, this is my way of repaying you for taking care of us Army officers. Well, now that we have found the problem, we can come up with countermeasures. This weapon at least still works. Ensign Sutton, now you can put it back together."

　　Xu Jun wanted to change the subject, but Gilse was obviously unwilling to do so, and he now didn't know how to express his feelings. Xu Jun's discovery had saved the reputation of a large group of submarine captains, including him, and now they could finally prove that those failed attacks were not the result of their personal skills, but rather the result of those damned torpedoes that simply didn't work.

　　"My marshal, I think your reward is too valuable, you know, you have redeemed the honor of half of the Navy's submarine captains. You have opened the way for them to regain their confidence, knowing that several good submarine captains have now doubted themselves because of several failed attacks. Your discovery saved them, and to be honest, you saved the lives of countless submariners. No one will ever lose their life because of a malfunctioning torpedo again, it has happened many times, and several submarines have been attacked because the torpedo not only missed the enemy ship but exposed their position. I'm sure everyone will be glad when they learn about this. My marshal." Giselle could not conceal his joy.

　　"Haha, captain, as I said it was just a moment of inspiration for me. I didn't do much for you guys, so stop saying that." Xu Jun smiled and said, "Now we already know what the problem is, but we can't do anything about it right away. We still have to continue using the torpedo until we make improvements to it. So I think we have to come up with a way to use it effectively, in the end it's just a matter of fixing the depth, I think we just need to reduce the fixing depth accordingly after testing the pressure in the cabin, that magnetic fuse seems to be not very reliable, plus it's not very useful without accurate fixing depth. I think it's better to just turn them all off and wait until a more reliable product is finalized. What do you think, when we surface you can inform the other two submarines to do so first."

　　"As ordered, my marshal, everything will be carried out according to your will." Gilse replied respectfully, "Please get out of here and rest in the officer's room, the air is too muddy and there is grease and debris everywhere. This.... It's really...."

　　"Oh, so, well then I'll go and sit in the officer's room for a while, can you have someone prepare something for me to eat? I'm a little hungry." Xu Jun said to Gilse while walking out of the cabin.

　　"As you command, my marshal, I'll arrange it right away."

　　At this moment, the intercom on the torpedo bulkhead suddenly whistled. Gilse hastily picked up the receiver and said, "Torpedo compartment, this is the captain, what is the matter. What! are you sure? How many?.... I'll be right over."

　　Gilse's face became more and more ugly as the report came over the phone, and for the first time, a nervous look appeared on the excellent submarine captain's face. Xu Jun stopped and looked at the captain, he detected a hint of uneasy premonition from that tone and expression of Gilse, something must have happened, and this thing must be very, very troublesome.

　　"What's happening, Captain." Xu Jun looked at Gilse who looked worried.

　　"It is not certain yet, my marshal. Let's go to the command module first, I'll get a detailed report there. If there's no mistake, we're really in big trouble now. Your Excellency the Marshal, please follow me." After saying that, Gilse hurriedly walked toward the command module.

　　Those soldiers and officers surrounding the door also felt from the boat captain's expression that something was going on. When the captain walked by, they also automatically went to their respective posts. If they really encountered a battle, those posts will be in great need of manpower. Suddenly, with several shrill battle alarms, the lights in the submarine were violently switched to red battle lights. The crew perked up at once, all standing at their battle stations, eyes firmly on the speakers in their respective compartments. They were waiting for the captain to give them orders, and they wanted to know what kind of enemy they had encountered this time.

　　The entire submarine was instantly enveloped in an overwhelming and oppressive atmosphere before the battle, and that hot murderous aura spread to every corner of the U37 with the crew's breathing.

The crew believed that as long as they obeyed Captain Gilse's command, they could easily get through whatever difficulties they faced. What's more, there was now a German god of war on board, an apostle of God, and under the patronage of this miracle worker, they might even be able to achieve some legendary feats. So none of these sailors felt nervous and fearful, on the contrary, they began to look forward to the next battle, and they all had a feeling that it would be a fierce battle, a wonderful battle, and probably a battle that they would never forget and that they could tell others about for the rest of their lives.

　　In the early morning of June 26, 1940, in the open waters 80 nautical miles from the Norwegian coastline, a brutal battle at sea was about to begin. A group of elite German sailors was eager to prove their bravery with blood and fire under 30 meters of water, and they wanted to distill their medals and glory from the blood of the enemy.