Another World: Naval Storm

At Leo's urging, Murdoch's escort fleet was soon sunk. Murdoch floated on the sea in a lifeboat, watching several transport ships that were on fire and about to sink at sea. The only thing that could comfort his heart was the message he received before escaping, that the Third Battlecruiser Squadron had arrived nearby.

"Sir, the fleet has been reorganized!"

"Full speed ahead to the southeast!"

"Sir, there are still a dozen transport ships that have not been sunk!"

"Never mind, the Talens are here!"

Dawson looked around at the sea in confusion. There was nothing there except the wreckage of Taren's fleet nearby.

Leo checked the bird's-eye view and knew that the 20rd Battle Patrol Squadron had approached kilometers. Although he did not see the smoke column, the possibility of an encounter was very close.

Although Leo used his skills to avoid the Talen's Third Battle Patrol Squadron as much as possible, he still encountered Sturdy.

It turns out that the Trand has been following Leo's fleet in order to atone its sins. Dawson asked to sink it many times, but was rejected by Leo because it was no longer necessary and a battle was inevitable.

"I don't know whether I am lucky or unlucky that I always meet Leo!" Sturdy said cheerfully.

"General, isn't this what you wanted?"

"Of course, that's what we want!" The Third Battlecruiser Squadron followed Leo's fleet closely. The two sides were still some distance apart, so they were not in a hurry to fire.

The 1st Battle Patrol Squadron on the other side had also received the news.

"General, the third squadron has killed Leo. It looks like he won't be able to escape this time!"

"I hope I can meet this old friend again!" Liam sighed. "Let the fleet speed up. It's still a bit difficult for Sturdy to deal with Leo alone! After all, his strength is not weak. Sturdy suffered a great loss last time!"

Leo was under great pressure as he was being chased. 5 to 9! This battle was not easy.

"General, U-134 submarine reports that it will launch an attack to buy time for the fleet!" Dawson hurriedly reported the situation to Leo. U-134 was the submarine that had just taken advantage of the chaos to attack the Taren transport fleet.

"Tell them it's not necessary, let him trust me, I will bring the fleet back!"

"General! This is their farewell telegram. They say you are a hero of the empire and they are willing to fight to protect you!"

"Oh! Stubborn brain!" Leo punched the cabin wall.

U-134 Captain Lothar von Peller addressed his crew, "General Leo is a hero of the Imperial Navy, and the fleet is a valuable force for the Empire!"

"The Taruns are now chasing us closely and are about to sail out of our attack range. In order to protect Leo's fleet, I have decided to launch an attack! Long live the Empire!"

"Long live the empire!" Peller glanced at his crew members. Everyone had a firm expression and no one opposed this decision.

U-134潜艇是双壳体设计，具有良好的远洋性能和水面航行性能。水下排水量约900吨，最快速度为水面16.4节，水下9.7节。以8节的速度在水面巡航，航程可以达到8790海里。武器为4具500㎜直径鱼雷发射管，可以携带6枚鱼雷。艇上人员包括4名军官和31名水兵。

There are two 2mm deck guns on the submarine, which makes Leo feel helpless. While proposing unrestricted submarine warfare, he also suggested that submarines should not be equipped with deck guns. Wouldn't it be better to install a few more torpedoes?

Who knew that this would be opposed by the navy from top to bottom. In Leo's eyes, this was an outdated weapon, but the navy believed that submarines must be equipped with deck guns. Submarines without deck guns would feel unsafe.

The consensus of the world's navy is that what a torpedo can do, a deck gun can also do, but what a deck gun can do, a torpedo may not be able to do. In addition to attacking surface ships, deck guns can also bombard shore targets, and small-caliber deck guns can also shoot down aircraft. Now there are already large-scale air battles on the East and West fronts, although they are all biplanes.

The Drake Empire Navy was the first to introduce deck guns into the submarine armament system. Its main purpose was to use it to attack merchant ships in order to save the limited and expensive torpedoes. In particular, the torpedo technology in this world was not very good and the accuracy was a bit low. In addition, the shells were much cheaper than torpedoes. For unarmed merchant ships, deck guns could also be fatal. Peller used deck guns to sink several merchant ships many times.

Torpedoes are still used to attack merchant ships of larger tonnage. After all, the deck guns are small in caliber and lack power, and there are many cases where ships can escape after being hit by multiple 88mm shells.

In order to save torpedoes, attack targets on shore and deal with threats from the surface, submarines of almost all countries were equipped with deck guns before this world war.

Deck guns are usually installed on the decks in front and behind the submarine's conning tower. They are mostly open-air configurations and are usually operated by three people. An ammunition compartment is set up under the deck near the gun position to store a small number of ready-to-fire shells. The well-trained Drake sailor gun crew can achieve a firing rate of 13 to 17 rounds per minute.

Drake Navy submarine commanders preferred to use deck guns, on the one hand to save torpedoes, and on the other hand, the number of torpedoes carried by submarines at that time was less than 10. In order to improve the hit rate, they often fired multiple torpedoes at once, which made the number of attacks very small. In addition, torpedoes could only be fired from the bow and stern of the boat, with a narrow firing range. The submarines were slow to maneuver underwater and it was difficult to change targets. Therefore, unless they were dealing with enemy warships or high-value targets, Drake Navy submarines would give priority to deck guns with a wide firing range and flexible shooting.

There were still four torpedoes on U-134, and Peller's periscope was closely following the silhouette of Sturdee's fleet.

"Ready to fire!" Peller aimed at the last Talen light cruiser in the line.

"3.2.1 launch!"

The sweaty sailor pressed the launch button, and two torpedoes were ejected, followed by the remaining two that were urgently loaded and quickly launched.

"Dive! Dive! Maximum depth 50 meters!" Peller has done everything he can, and now he can only wish for the best.

The four torpedoes moved forward in a fan shape, and only one caught up with the rear of the Talen light cruiser Lombard. The remaining three sailed away until they ran out of fuel and sank to the bottom of the sea.

It was just this 500mm torpedo that lifted the stern of the light cruiser Lombard high up, and then slammed it back into the water. Several sailors on duty at the stern were thrown into the sea. The Lombard was no longer able to continue sailing.

"What's going on?" Hearing the explosion behind him, Sturdy hurried to the stern of the Indefatigable to check, and thick smoke was coming from the rear.

"What happened to the Lombard?" Sturdy asked, grabbing an officer who was gathered in the crowd at the stern of the ship.