Chapter 95 Chapter 94

The revolving earth hung the bright moon in the sky again, illuminating a low black ship breaking through the rough waters beyond Kyushu.Splashes of water were shining brightly over the bridge, and the Barracuda was speeding forward for a dawn attack on a wounded enemy ship in Leyte Gulf; a large fleet tanker with a deep bow The bank, guarded by four escort ships, traveled slowly at nine knots.An urgent telegram sent the Barracuda a course order to attack the troubled tanker, and a test of the new captain's hands-on fire was about to begin.Oil tankers have now become prime targets of attack.The Japanese could not fight without oil, and the oil was transported by sea.So there are four ships escorting.This is a difficult attack!Byron had rescued several downed pilots, rescued a grounded submarine, and had been on patrol throughout the campaign without spotting any enemy ships.This is his first time directing an attack.

Both he and his mate were splashed wet by the icy spray.Captain Philby wore a raincoat, but Byron was on the main deck at midnight in his khaki uniform.He was so nonchalant about everything; the crashing waves only refreshed him.On the moonlit horizon, the tanker was like a tiny speck.No escort ships in sight. "How do we do it?" "That's good. If it doesn't change its course, we can reach the surface of the sea where the mission is carried out at five o'clock." The tone of the deputy captain was very cold.He originally planned to follow the stern of the boat in hot pursuit and attack when the moon was in the middle of the night.If he adopted his method, they would have entered the waters close to the enemy ship at this moment.On the other hand, Byron advocated copying from behind, and he always believed that this decision was correct.The enemy ship continued to hold that position.If the sky is covered with dark clouds, a night attack is not necessarily certain.Qatar.Esther always likes to approach the bow of the ship, which is the best way to see it.

"Well, I'm off to sleep, then. Call me at four-thirty." There was a look of doubt in the squinted eyes of the mate's wet face, and he almost shouted, "Who are you kidding? You go to bed before the first sortie?" "Yes, captain." There was a slight disapproval tone in the voice. Byron didn't blame him.He knew Philby was an excellent mate.Philby, pale as a dead man, barely slept, kept every part of the sub in order.Whether it is taking care of the maintenance of the torpedo or preparing for the launch, he is so energetic in his work.As for how he would carry out his mission when he launched an attack, and how he would persevere when he was attacked by depth charges, that was indeed still a question.But this question can probably be answered.

Byron took off his wet uniform and lay on his bunk, opposite the photographs of Natalie and Louis taped on the partition.He often doesn't notice them much now; they've been there too long.Now he saw the photographs again; some had been taken in Rome and Theresienstadt, and one had been taken by Natalie in the studio.Old wounds ache again.Are his wife and son still in that Czech town?Are they still alive?How beautiful she was; how he loved her!Thinking of Louis made his heart ache almost unbearably.In his powerlessness, his love for the child turned into a haunting hatred that his father should not have driven Natalie to Europe, that Natalie should not have been so panic-stricken in Marseilles.Again, Father and Pamela.The Tudsbury relationship...

What a silly idea!The lights went out.In the dark, Byron quietly prayed to Natalie and Louise. He used to pray every night before, but he kept forgetting these days.His father was right about at least one point: conducting was a distraction and a pain reliever.He fell asleep almost as soon as his neck fell.When he was a junior officer in the past, people used to make fun of him for this matter, but now when commanding a submarine, it has become his advantage. At four-thirty the orderly brought him coffee.He woke up calm and confident.He is not Qatar.Esther, will never be like Qatar, even if there are twenty mistakes in the attack, he will still fight.Look at that target is not easy to hit.What bad weather; his second cup of coffee overturned on the wardroom table.On the main deck, the wind was blowing, the waves were rough, and the dark ocean surface showed white waves in the dawn before the storm.Visibility was poor and the tanker could not be seen.Philby was still on the bridge, water gurgling down his raincoat.He said the radar had measured the target at a range of fourteen thousand yards, the bearing was still three hundred and the target angle was zero degrees.By this time the "Barracuda" was in front of its target.

As the submarine dived closer to the target, Byron saw through the dawn fog the escort ships coming straight ahead: four escort ships, small gray boats that looked like American escort destroyers.The positions were not neatly arranged; no doubt there were some inexperienced reserve captains on them.As the ship zigzags forward, an open water surface is exposed to the left, and Byron lets the submarine drive in under the open water surface, undetected by the sonar, and approaches the huge leaning oil tanker. "Already in raid position: close to fifteen hundred yards... twelve hundred... nine hundred yards..." I like short distances," Esther used to say; more dangerous, but The hit rate was higher. Byron and Philby cooperated very well, and the officers and soldiers in the command tower were also veterans. When he was nervously conducting the pursuit battle and considering the technical problems of launching torpedoes, Byron completely forgot that this was the first One command. Byron had manipulated the periscope many times before Esther commanded the attack. He had already done this perpetually thrilling job. Now it was him who gave the final fire order, which was new to him.

He ordered "Periscope up!" and took bearings one last time, and at this moment, behold the hull of the sadly huge wrecked tanker looming ahead like a corner of a stadium stand.How could he miss it?He was so close that he saw hordes of Japanese repairing the bomb damage on the steep deck. He ordered to shoot.The sub fired four torpedoes, the slower, more accurate electric torpedoes.It's only a minute to wait.Then, "Raise the periscope! Hit, my God!" Three white water jets soared into the air on one side of the tanker.A mountain-shaking rumble shook the Barracuda.Cheers came from the command tower.Byron turned the periscope quickly, and saw the two escort ships he avoided coming towards him.

"Speed ​​dive! Descend to a depth of three hundred feet!" The first depth charges fell aft of the stern, and the thunderous jolt did no damage.Three hundred feet below the surface, the sub slipped away, but a ship's sonar picked up its track.The sonar was getting louder and more urgent.The sound of the propeller approached, all the way above the head.Those battle-hardened sailors blinked their eyes in the command tower, squatted down, and covered their ears. Depth charges rained down all around the Barracuda: it was a brilliant discharge, and it formed a net of explosive fire.The sub made a sharp dive and sank like a rock, lights went out, clocks, gauges, and other things were strewn about, panicked voices mingled with damage reports from battery-free phones .The emergency lights showed a frightening surge in depth: three hundred and fifty feet, four hundred feet, four hundred and fifty feet.Four hundred feet is already the maximum test depth.It had never descended to this depth before, but the sub continued to sink.

Philby staggered down the ladder to inspect the damage, Byron scrambled to stop the sub from sinking, and the first officer yelled up from the control room that the aft spar had jammed as it plunged.The elevator was also stuck.Five hundred and seventy feet below the surface, Byron was ankle-soaked and dripping with sweat in the dimly lit conning tower among a group of pale-faced sailors.Philby reported that the hull of the boat could not withstand the pressure of the seawater, and disc-shaped depressions had appeared. Water was seeping in several water-tight compartments. Water was sprayed out from many hull fixtures and valves. The air and hydraulic systems failed. There was a short circuit on the board and the water pumps were both broken.Byron wanted to tilt the bow of the boat up, so he activated the high-pressure air compressor unit of the front boat, which was an emergency compressed air reserve, and it was also his last resort.This way he stopped the sinking.Then he activated the high-pressure air compressor unit of the rear boat, and the submarine regained its buoyancy.

The submarine floated to the surface, and the officers and soldiers had just opened the hatch when Byron ordered them to stand in combat positions.As soon as the helmsman opened the hatch of the conning tower, a terrible jet of water gushed out of the hole, and it took a long time before he could reach the front gun and the bridge.The diesel engine started and roared, which was an encouraging sound.When Byron finally stepped onto the bridge, the enemy ship about three nautical miles away was already firing. The light yellow flames appeared to be three-and-a-half-inch guns, and the shells that the enemy ship missed fell far away here. Behind the partially damaged submarine.Several other escort ships were far away, rescuing the surviving crew alongside the sinking tanker. The Barracuda fired back with her four-inch bow guns, and the escort dodged and shot all the way.Its heavy artillery has poor firepower.For fifteen minutes, Byron directed the submarine to zigzag to avoid being hit by shells, while Philby ran around below, trying to restore the submarine's ability to dive.It turned out that if one more shell hit the old shell, the Barracuda would probably be over.

The low-pressure air compressor was restarted and the sub slowly corrected its list to left.The jammed stern level rudder moved again.The directional wing was restored to operation after emergency repairs.The pumps started to control the standing water again.All this time the artillery battle continued; at last Philby ran up to report to Byron that the hull was dangerously useless.Maybe go to the Navy Yard for a major repair first, otherwise the sub can no longer dive.So the "Barracuda" has lost its main self-defense capability, which is the ability to descend to deep water to stay safe. During all this time, the captain of the frigate never called for help; he must have wanted to do it alone.Philby reported loudly over the sound of gunfire from the bow, while Byron watched the Japanese closely through the billowing smoke from the bridge, seeing the ship he commanded speed up and turn around.Black smoke billowed from two thick chimneys.It seems that the captain, anticipating that the "Barracuda" was in trouble, decided to charge at it.At four thousand yards, he could hit it in a matter of minutes if approached at twenty knots an hour or faster.His sharp anti-submarine bow pierced the water, sending foam from the waves ahead.His figure is expanding. The mate stood beside Byron. "What shall we do, captain?" He sounded anxious, but not overly nervous. Good question! Until now, Byron has acted from experience.I remember that during the third patrol mission, some control devices were damaged by the depth charges, a hatch was blown off, and the submerged "Moray" sank to the bottom of the sea below 500 feet. That time Este Also used his high pressure air compressor.But that time they surfaced in the dark, and Esther commanded the submarine to escape in the dark.Esther did not encounter the impact of the enemy ship. The submarine commanded by Byron can only sail at a maximum speed of eighteen nautical miles an hour.If time allowed, the engineer might be able to restore it to full speed, but there was no time now.escape?You can buy some time while the enemy ship is chasing after it, but if you escape like that, several other escort ships will also catch up. The Barracuda would probably have been sunk by overwhelming fire. Byron grabbed the microphone. "Take the engine room, I'm the captain. Give me all your engine power, we're going to be attacked by the enemy ship... Helmsman. Starboard." The helmsman turned to look at him in surprise. "Starboard, captain?" To carry out this order is to turn the submarine to face the gray escort ship rushing towards it. "Right starboard, full starboard! I'm going to get out of her way and drive right by her side." "Yes, captain. Full starboard...full starboard, captain." The submarine broke through the waves and reversed direction.The two boats sprinted head-on toward each other through the turbulent green swell, kicking up a dense cloud of spray.Byron yelled to Philby, "Their small-caliber guns are no match for ours, Tom. I'll broadside them. Fire flak while we flank them. Order four-inchers. Aim the gun at the bridge!" "Yes, captain." The captain of the enemy ship was slow to react.When he ordered the ship to turn to port, the stern of the submarine happened to pass in front of his bow. The Barracuda passed along the port side of the frigate, less than fifty feet away, the water roaring and splashing among them.It was clearly seen that the sailors on that deck were some Japanese.Immediately, Butong Butong heard a cannon sound from the submarine, flashed the cannon fire, and clouds of smoke filled the air.A series of flaming tracer bombs strafed the deck of the escort ship.The four-inch guns fired, "Boom! Boom! Boom!" The escort's guns fired back intermittently, but by the time the Barracuda passed her stern there was silence. "Byron, it's dead in the water," said Philby, as Byron was ordering the sub to swerve around.At this time, the escort ship sailed towards the sinking oil tanker and several other escort ships.The tanker lay on its side, its red bottom almost invisible in the waves. "Perhaps you killed their captain." "Perhaps. But we've got three other captains to watch out for. They're turning this way. Go down in the control room, Tom, and be sure to watch out for every possible change. Well, that's it. " Philby picked up his speed to twenty knots. The Barracuda was pursued for twenty minutes, eluded her pursuers, and disappeared into a great black expanse of rainstorm.After a while, the three escort ships were no longer visible on the screen. Byron inspected the damaged bulkheads and was convinced that the Barracuda was unseaworthy.The depressions in the pressure hull due to the pressure of the deep water were severe; there were many faults beyond repair by the sailors;But no one was killed, and only a few people suffered minor injuries. "Go Saipan, Tom," he said to the mate, back on the wet bridge. "Store regular watch. Stop damage and put a third on duty. Ask the sergeant major to make a list." "Yes, captain." The word "captain" revealed unprecedented respect. Back in his cabin, Byron took off his wet clothes and said loudly to Natalie's photo, "Okay, from this point of view, maybe I can command a submarine." After this battle , Strange even to himself, he felt very melancholy.He wiped his body dry with a towel, and fell to sleep on the bunk with his whole body covered in sticky stains. It was late that night when he and Philby were in the wardroom writing the battle report.Philby scribbled the course of the battle, and Byron neatly sketched in blue and orange ink the battle charts for sinking enemy ships and conducting artillery battles.Once Philby put down his pen and looked up. "Captain, may I say a word?" "of course can." "You are amazing today." One, sailors are amazing.I also have a very competent mate. " Philby's long pale face was flushed. "Captain, you can definitely get a Navy Cross." Byron didn't say anything, still looking down at his battle map. What do you think about "this" thing? " "What's wrong?" "I mean: First sink the enemy ship, then fight that battle hard." "What do you think?" "I'm very proud to have been in this fight." "Well, me, I hope we are sent all the way to Mare Island. I hope the war is over before our submarine is repaired." He smiled wryly at Philby who was showing disappointment. "Tom, I saw hundreds of Japanese on that oil tanker, some walking around, some busy with their work. Killing a Japanese always makes Qatar Esther excited. But I'm very cold." "That's why the battle was won." Philby sounded angry, almost angry at a blasphemer. "The war is won. The pain may go on, but the war is won. If it pleases me, I'd rather sleep on land until the war is over. I'm not a Career naval officer. I never was. Let's get this report done." Byron's wish was partially granted. The "Barracuda" sailed back to San Francisco and was repaired for a long time.The naval shipyard is full of destroyers, aircraft carriers, and even battleships, all of which were damaged by kamikaze, so in the opinion of the captain of the shipyard, an old submarine that has lost its combat effectiveness is of course the last to be received patrons.Besides, the submarine commander of the Pacific Fleet will not be in a hurry to call the "Barracuda" back.The newly built submarines are patrolling the sea in groups.There are indeed fewer and fewer goals. After the submarine was repaired and fitted with an experimental undersea sonar called FM, Byron was sent to a false minefield off California to test it out.As soon as the mine is detected by this wonderful close-range sonar, a bell on the boat will ring; so, according to theory, a submarine equipped with this instrument can be guided by the bell to navigate in the dark sea. Pass through Japanese minefields and into the Sea of ​​Japan where merchant shipping is still frequent.The submarine commander of the Pacific Fleet takes FM sonar seriously; just imagine the ships still hiding in the Sea of ​​Japan, what a luscious target they are! Byron was a little mistrustful of it, because the sonar was inconsistent; on his few voyages, he had hit several fake mines.His sailors and all the submarine crews were horrified at the thought of fumbling their way through rows of Japanese mines with a new electronic invention.They have already experienced the new inventions of the Navy.For the past two years, most of them have been troubled by the non-exploding torpedoes and the explanations given by the Ordnance Bureau.The sergeant major warned Byron that if he wanted to use FM to explore the Sea of ​​Japan, one-third of the sailors would apply for a change of post or desertion. But Byron is also uncertain whether he will one day leave the West Coast.In San Francisco, there was a palpable sense that the war was coming to an end.Air defense has been canceled.Traffic on the streets and highways became congested.The black market made petrol rationing look ridiculous.Food is no longer lacking.Newspaper headlines about the advances of the Allies and the retreat of the Axis forces gradually became dull.Only those reports of military setbacks, such as the Kamikaze attack and the last German struggle known as the Battle of the Bulge, were interesting news.The main reason why Byron cared about Europe was that he hoped to get some news about Natalie from Germany's defeat.Speaking of the Pacific, he hoped that the B-29's air strikes, the submarine blockade, and MacArthur's advance via the Philippine Islands would force Japan to surrender before he navigated by bells into Japanese minefields, and lo and behold the pain How long will it last? He shared the same view with many Americans about this special stage of the war.Shocking events are often embellished by journalists into triumphantly boring reports.Anyway, this situation is coming to an end!However, ending a war is not as easy as starting it.Now, this situation can be seen all over the world.Germany and Japan, two great powers struggling under the control of totalitarianism, are stubborn and unyielding.They are not ready to withdraw from the battlefield.Allies - There is no other way to force them out of the field than to kill more and more people.Everything they do is aimed at causing unprecedented military carnage; while Byron (who has largely forgotten the horror) carries the Barracuda's Mechs and FM sonar goof off. Adolf.Hitler, of course, would not withdraw from the battlefield.His small boat can only float on two seas of blood.Attacks from the east, west, south, and from the sky brought his end closer and closer.At this time, his countermeasure is to launch the Ardennes counteroffensive, which is the "Battle of the Bulge".As early as late August, as the fronts continued to crumble, he ordered the Germans to hold on to the Russian front while launching a massive counteroffensive on the Western Front.His purpose is inexplicable: it seems to be to achieve a victory in order to bring about a cease-fire without being wiped out himself.The German military and civilians responded to his call and have been preparing frantically for months, piecing together their defeated troops and concentrating on the Western Front. But all this is basically fantasies and fantasies.east.The Soviet Union is gathering five replenished armies, with a total of more than two million people, and the luggage is piled up like a mountain, preparing to attack Berlin.No German thought that the Russian occupation would be any better than the Anglo-American occupation.Hitler faced threats to Germany's future from two sources, the ratio of the trickle to the torrent; Now, another Ardennes breakthrough is another march to the sea.When Guderian showed him the real information about the build-up of the Soviet army, he laughed and said: "Ah, this is the biggest bluff since Genghis Khan! Who made up these nonsense?" The Ardennes offensive lasted for two weeks, from mid-December until after Christmas.What Americans remember best is a general who heard about the German surrender and said, "Crazy!" Fifteen thousand, both sides lost a lot of weapons.The Allies on the Western Front were caught off guard for a while, but then regained their advantage.Unfortunately for Germany.Among some of his own people, Hitler spoke gleefully of the "restoration of the initiative on the Western Front."But he has not spoken or appeared in public since. The Ardennes offensive collapsed, and the Russian artillery roared all the way from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian Mountains.Crossing Poland, the Red Army broke into a huge industrial complex and prison camp at Auschwitz, most of which had been emptied of prisoners except for a few naked and dying, pointing out some The ruins after the explosion turned out to be crematoriums where millions of people were murdered secretly.What happened on the Russian front rarely made it into the California papers.Even if there were such reports, Byron did not see them. In less than four weeks, the Russian army had penetrated deep into Germany along the Oder-Neese river line, some places only 80 miles from Berlin.After advancing several hundred miles, they stopped briefly to resupply.So Hitler regrouped most of his troops and marched eastward in haste, leaving the Western Front empty.At that time, Eisenhower's troops had fully recovered their strength after the "Battle of the Bulge", and were preparing to forcefully cross the Rhine River and launch an offensive as powerful as the Russians.Looking at it now, that frantic movement of dwindling troops across Germany, from east to west, and back to the east, may seem ridiculous, but in the first half of 1945, in the third In the empire, it was an influential military mobilization and railway transportation.It certainly prolongs the days of people's misery. Byron knew next to nothing about these developments in the war in Europe.He knew more about the war in the Pacific.However, when it came to MacArthur's large-scale Philippine march, Byron mainly heard only bits and pieces of the news about the kamikaze attack on the naval fleet.He also knew that the British were driving the Japanese out of Burma, for every day he saw dull reports of how the battle was going on along a river called the Irrawaddy; The B29 "Sky Fortress" is setting some Japanese cities on fire.But from Byron's point of view, the biggest event in the Pacific was the capture of Iwo Jima—about 25,000 U.S. Marine casualties, and the rocky island with the airport on it was only 800 miles above Yokohama!As a result, the Japanese must cease the war. In fact, by this time both Germany and Japan had made peaceful attempts, which were subtle, unofficial, contrary to government proclaimed policy, and always ended in failure.In those official statements, both Germany and Japan blatantly provocatively said that the war-weary enemy was about to collapse.However, the existing air forces of these two countries are already overstretched, and the Allies are planning to use aircraft to carry out massacres, further toppling these two indomitable governments.Like Byron, the heads of the Allied Powers were impatient to end the war. In mid-February, more than 100,000 Germans died in a fire caused by an incendiary bombing of Dresden by British and American bombers. In mid-March, more than 100,000 Japanese died in a fire caused by an incendiary bombing of Tokyo by Sky Fortress. Since then, these mass killings have become very disgraceful news.Not only Byron, but almost all Americans did not mention them, as if they were just unobtrusive good news from afar at that time.More people were killed in these raids than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yet there is nothing new about the reports.It is said that after the war, Hitler's shrewd Minister of Armaments and Wartime Production, Ebert.Speer once blamed a U.S. Air Force general for not continuing to carry out air strikes like Dresden, saying that was the best way to end the war, but the Allies couldn't keep up with it. Nor did Byron pay much attention to the Yalta conference before the Dresden air raid.The newspapers cheered that the meeting was a great victory of friendship between the Allies.It was only after another period that a countercurrent of disappointment and opposition gradually emerged, and people began to blame Roosevelt for "selling out" some places to Stalin.To save American lives, Roosevelt easily traded the Balkans, Poland, and parts of Asia with Stalin.Stalin appreciated the deal, promising to send more Russians to their deaths.If they had known about this situation at the time, Byron and Henry would probably have agreed to the deal.All he had to do was win the war, find his wife and children, and return to his own home. At the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt wanted to renew his assurance from Stalin that once Germany was destroyed, he would attack Japan.Roosevelt did not know that the atomic bomb would solve the problem.He heard the opinion that the march into Japan might cost half a million or more dead.Speaking of the Balkans and Poland, the Red Army actually controlled those places at that time.Roosevelt must have noticed Ebyron.The mood of the average American represented by Henry: he only longs for an end to these days of suffering, and does not care about the geographical conditions of foreign countries. Perhaps, he has foreseen that modern warfare is so horrible and impractical that it will naturally be eliminated soon. At that point, geography becomes irrelevant.A dying man sometimes possesses such fantasies as an active and quick-witted mind does not. At any rate, the painful course continued, and by mid-March the Barracuda was ordered back to Pearl Harbor.Once there, it was organized into a fleet of submarines, ready to be loaded with FM sonar, to penetrate the Sea of ​​Japan.