Chapter 184 Soaring Loss

On the afternoon of August 5, on the sea about 200 kilometers west of the Orkney Islands, a British cargo ship was sailing southeast. This cargo ship sailed from Canada to the United Kingdom, and all the food on board was transported.

Britain's local industry is well developed, but agricultural products such as food need to be transported from overseas colonies. Such a small amount of domestic production is simply not enough to meet the consumption of tens of millions of British people.

After the war broke out, Britain's food was far from enough. Therefore, the British government has issued an order to mobilize grain transportation from the colonies in North America and Australia to Britain to support the consumption of the war.

The submarine u-039 is sailing on the sea more than ten kilometers away from the British cargo ship. Not enough, they soon spotted the oncoming submarine.

"Captain, a British cargo ship has been spotted! It's about ten kilometers northwest of us."

"Dive down immediately, and don't let the British find us." Doenitz immediately issued an order.

The submarine's water tank began to fill with water, and a large number of air bubbles gushed out. In just half a minute, the submarine was completely submerged in the sea. Although there were a lot of air bubbles left on the water surface, it soon became calm and there was no trace left.

"Turn around and go around to the left of the British. The torpedo at the bow of the boat is ready." Doenitz calmly issued an order.

This was the first victory they encountered after entering the Atlantic Ocean, and Doenitz certainly didn't want this victory to slip away.

The submarine was underwater, slowly approaching the British cargo ship. At this time, the British sailors on the cargo ship did not expect that the crisis had already arrived. Although, many merchant ships were sunk yesterday. However, the British government did not respond in time, nor did it have time to notify those merchant ships on the Atlantic Ocean to evade.

As the time passed, the u-039 submarine had successfully circled to the left side of the British cargo ship, and extended its periscope less than two kilometers away from the cargo ship.

"Get ready, launch the torpedo!" Doenitz gave the order.

"Boom!" A 533mm heavy torpedo was launched from the torpedo tube and quickly rushed towards the British cargo ship two kilometers away. Since the speed of the cargo ship was only ten knots, Dönitz ordered only one torpedo to be fired. Under such conditions, even if it is just a torpedo, the hit rate is very high.

The distance of two kilometers only takes two minutes for a torpedo with a speed of more than 30 knots. After the U-039 submarine launched the torpedo, it did not dive immediately. Because the target of the attack is a cargo ship, there is no need to worry about being counterattacked by the target.

The British sailors on the cargo ship did not know that the crisis had come at this moment. Until, a sailor on the deck suddenly saw something rapidly approaching them on the sea surface on the left.

"What is that?" The young sailor asked loudly, pointing to the water marks left by the torpedo on the sea.

"God! Torpedo. It's a torpedo! We've been attacked!" An older sailor who had served in the Royal Navy yelled in horror.

Suddenly, the British sailors on the cargo ship were in a mess.

"boom!"

When the torpedo kissed the cargo ship's left hull, there was an earth-shattering explosion.

Although this cargo ship is a large cargo ship with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, the hull of the cargo ship is obviously far from being comparable to that of a warship. During the violent explosion, a large hole was directly blown out of the underwater part of the cargo ship on the left side. Sea water poured into the cargo ship frantically.

The sailors on the cargo ship did not carry out loss control, nor did they block the hole, but scrambled to escape to the lifeboat, and even fought for the limited number of escape places.

When more and more seawater poured in, the cargo ship gradually tilted and finally capsized on the sea.

"Turn around and continue sailing south!" Doenitz ignored the sinking British cargo ship and the British sailors who fell on the sea and shouted for help, and directly ordered the submarine to leave.

The further south you go, the greater the chance of encountering a British merchant ship. Doenitz also wanted to sink more British merchant ships and gain more results!

Although, the speed of the submarine is very slow, far inferior to that of the surface ship. However, submarine attacks are more stealthy. The enemy didn't even notice it, and the crisis was over.

After the 30 submarines of the German Navy entered the Atlantic Ocean, they immediately began to attack British merchant ships and transport ships, causing the loss of British merchant ships to rise in a straight line.

Under the tactics of the German Navy's surface fleet and underwater submarines, the loss of the British transport fleet was very large. On August 5 alone, the number of British merchant ships sunk soared to sixty-two, and the total tonnage lost exceeded 500,000 tons.

Although, the submarine also encountered surface ships of the British Navy during the operation. But they were all avoided by these submarines with their excellent performance. With the existence of Qin Tian, ​​who is similar to cheating, the submarines of the German Navy have been greatly improved compared to another time and space, which also makes them more likely to be sunk during the battle. Reduced.

In the case of the loss of nearly a hundred merchant ships, large and small, the British government knew that something was wrong no matter how slow its response was. Many merchant ships that were supposed to arrive at the port did not arrive on time, which surprised those who were preparing to receive the goods.

When pieces of news were assembled, the British government knew what had happened.

At the British Admiralty, Churchill, the Lord of the Admiralty, turned blue.

Before the war broke out, he was originally the Home Secretary. However, Prime Minister Asquith admired his naval capabilities very much, and specially asked him to switch positions with McKenna, with him as Secretary of the Navy and McKenna as Secretary of the Interior.

After taking over as Secretary of the Navy, Churchill was even more at ease. After all, as the war drew closer, the status of the Royal Navy, the most powerful force in the British Empire, was constantly rising, which made his status as the Minister of the Navy higher and higher.

Although, Churchill knew that it was not a good job to be the Secretary of the Navy now. The German Navy is aggressive and quickly catching up with the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy will face unprecedented challenges. But Churchill believed that the background of the Royal Navy was enough to meet the challenge of the German Navy. If he can lead the British Navy through this crisis, he will become a hero that goes down in history.

But what Churchill did not expect was that he had encountered such a difficult problem just after the war had just begun.