LRAB Chapter 91 The 3rd Fleet: A Man's Ambitions Unfulfilled, He Dies Before He Was Reborn
Chapter 91 The 3rd Fleet: A Man's Ambitions Unfulfilled, He Dies Before He Was Reborn
"Torpedo! Torpedo coming!"
"Baka! This is impossible!"
Yamaguchi Tamon lunged to the window, grabbed his binoculars, and stared intently at the sea, roaring, "Why can't we see any bubble trails?! Are the lookouts blind?! Can't they even see a torpedo's contrail?!"
There was no trail.
The sea was pitch black, with only rolling waves and no visible white bubble trails like those seen when a traditional torpedo is launched!
In those days, torpedoes from various countries were generally powered by steam and gas. Once launched, they would leave a very conspicuous "white streak" on the sea surface, giving surface ships ample time to evade.
But the Japanese had no idea that what Chen Zijun had spent a fortune to acquire was the G7e electric torpedo, a piece of German black technology from the end of World War II!
Pure electric propulsion, no wake, highly stealthy!
On the ocean in 1925, this was nothing short of a devastating scythe of death!
"Evade! The entire fleet, immediately execute a zigzag evasive maneuver! Deploy the anti-torpedo net!" Yamaguchi Tamon roared hysterically, veins bulging on his forehead. "Fire! Blind fire! Cover the sea with secondary guns! Depth charges! Blast the surrounding waters to smithereens!"
The Kongo's secondary guns and anti-aircraft guns began to unleash a furious barrage of fire on the dark sea, streaks of fire cutting through the night sky. The outer destroyers frantically hurled depth charges into the sea, attempting to destroy the approaching grim reapers.
But it was too late.
Thirteen U-boats launched a frenzied salvo of twenty-six missiles at an extremely close range of less than two kilometers. Combined with the G7e torpedoes' speed of forty knots, the Japanese had less than thirty seconds to react.
Without any warning or trace, when the sonic boomers heard the faint sound of the motor, death had already placed its cold scythe against their necks.
"BOOM—!!!"
A deafening roar shattered the deathly silence of the night.
The outermost special-type destroyer, the "Fubuki," suddenly exploded in a blinding orange-red fireball amidships. A massive 280 kilograms of TNT high-energy explosive tore its fragile armor to shreds underwater.
The entire 2,000-ton destroyer was as if it had been violently snapped in two by an invisible giant. The bow and stern were violently raised, and a large amount of seawater rushed in. In less than thirty seconds, this costly destroyer spun and sank into the cold seabed amidst deafening screams, leaving only a huge whirlpool on the surface.
And this was only the beginning of the massacre.
"Boom! Boom! Boom—!"
A series of deafening explosions, like a death symphony, resounded wildly across the East China Sea!
The second destroyer, the third, the fourth...
Under the saturation attack of trackless torpedoes, these destroyers, which were swaggering on the sea, were not even able to make any evasive maneuvers before being precisely targeted one by one. Some had their propellers destroyed and lost power, while others were directly detonated by depth charges.
A massive column of water shot skyward, accompanied by the ear-piercing screeching of twisting and tearing steel, and the violent explosion of an ammunition depot, transforming this sea area into a raging inferno. Countless Japanese sailors, their bodies ablaze with flames, screamed as they leaped into the icy water, only to be quickly engulfed by the heavy oil fires on the surface.
"Hard to port! Quickly! Hard to port!"
On the two 10,000-ton heavy cruisers, the captains roared desperately, trying their best to turn the massive ships around.
However, the torpedo firing angles of the U-93 submarine were precisely calculated by Heinrich into a three-dimensional cross-shaped network!
"Boom—!"
Four G7e electric torpedoes unsurprisingly crashed into the waterline armor belts of the two heavy cruisers.
The sturdy armor was easily torn apart like paper by the terrifying power of the heavy warheads. One of the torpedoes even hit the right-wing heavy cruiser's rear main gun magazine directly!
"boom--!!!!!!"
This explosion was a hundred times louder than all the previous sounds combined.
A towering column of fire, mixed with thousands of tons of steel debris, shot hundreds of meters into the air like a volcanic eruption. The heavy cruiser, displacing over ten thousand tons, was instantly blasted in two by the explosion of thousands of large-caliber shells.
Countless burning debris crashed onto the sea like a meteor shower. Thousands of Japanese sailors didn't even have time to scream before they were vaporized into ashes by the intense heat and shockwave.
"No...impossible...this is absolutely impossible..."
On the bridge of the Kongo, Yamaguchi Tamon stared wide-eyed, his eyes cracking from extreme terror and despair, oozing crimson blood.
His massive fleet, which he was so proud of, was an invincible force that he vowed to raze Shanghai to the ground.
Within just three minutes of the firefight, without even seeing a trace of the enemy, the entire army was wiped out!
On the sea, besides the wreckage of two heavy cruisers that were still burning fiercely and slowly sinking, and the Japanese sailors crying and struggling all over the sea, there was only the lonely Kongo.
"Commander! Enemy... enemy submarines are targeting us!"
The staff officer's desperate screams finally roused Yamaguchi Tamon from his daze.
"Collision prepared—!"
In his final, desperate moment, Yamaguchi Tamon hysterically roared out a complete command, gripping the railing of the command platform tightly with both hands.
next second.
"Thump! Thump!"
Two muffled metallic clanging sounds came from underwater on the port side of the massive Kongo-class frigate.
The two G7e heavy torpedoes launched by the U-931 flagship precisely shattered the Kongo's anti-torpedo compartment.
"Boom—!!!"
This massive sea behemoth, with a displacement of 27,000 tons, was violently propelled upwards amidst a series of explosions, like a giant elephant struck in the belly by a sledgehammer, before crashing heavily back onto the sea.
Everyone on the bridge, including Yamaguchi Tamon, was thrown into the air by the terrifying impact and then slammed heavily against the steel bulkhead, their heads bleeding and bones broken.
"Alarm! Boiler compartment No. 3 on port side is flooding! Ammunition depot No. 1 is flooding!"
"The ship is listing ten degrees to port! The propulsion system has been downgraded by thirty percent!"
"Damage control! Immediately begin starboard balancing! Hurry!"
The interior of the Kongo was in complete chaos, with piercing alarms and the screeching sound of steel twisting all mixed together.
Although two torpedoes were not enough to immediately sink this heavily armored 27,000-ton battlecruiser, the two huge gaping wounds were frantically swallowing the icy seawater. This once invincible steel behemoth was now like a wild dog with its spine broken, struggling painfully on the surface of the sea, dragging its badly wounded body.
underwater.
Heinrich looked coldly through the periscope at the hellish scene on the sea, at the Kongo, which was already severely tilted and billowing thick smoke.
There was not a trace of pity in his eyes.
"Captain, torpedo tubes number five and six have been reloaded. Should we immediately fire follow-up shots to sink this battlecruiser completely?" the first mate asked menacingly.
With just two more shots, this national treasure of the Japanese will have to obediently sink to the bottom of the sea to keep company with those turtles.
"No."
Heinrich slowly released the periscope handle, shook his head, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips: "The young marshal said 'if possible,' which means the young marshal didn't even think we could actually annihilate them. In that case, I think—"
"A wrecked ship, terrified by submarines and brimming with fear and despair, is more likely to crush the enemy's will than a dead ship already sunk to the bottom of the sea!"