Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 204: Encounter (middle)

"The submarine found! One thousand and two hundred meters ahead!" The watcher almost shouted hoarsely, shocking the captain who was climbing up the control tower.

"Nani!" Hiroshi Hanabo hurriedly climbed up to the control tower by two steps, then raised the telescope hanging on his chest and looked forward.

"This is... Assi, this is a submarine of the Independent Navy. It is said that they have been training in this sea area during this period." Hiroshi Hanabu breathed a long sigh of relief. He saw the submarine. The white German navy flag was hung on it.

The intelligence department of the Japanese Navy is increasing its investment in the Vietnamese intelligence network, but apart from some Japanese nationals and Vietnamese independents, it is difficult to recruit reliable agents, and these two types of people have long been used by the French authorities. Stared. Especially now that the German intelligence agencies have also begun to intervene in the counterintelligence work of French Indochina. The Gestapo sent by Germany is cruel and cruel, no less than that group of conscientious super-tech police.

The French colonial government still paid attention to some evidence in the early years, and the governor was a humanistic care. So even if the evidence was conclusive, the judge only sentenced short-term imprisonment and exile. When the Germans arrived, the way they dealt with the problem changed. They set up two huge concentration camps in Saigon and Hanoi.

Since last month, there have been continuous reports of information developed by Japan missing in French Indochina territories. People who were born or died were not seen. It is estimated that in all likelihood, they were sent to concentration camps by the French. Regarding this matter, Japan's major intelligence organizations can only be dumb and eat huanglian. The government cannot even recognize the identity of these people, let alone protest against the French.

The Japanese Navy has established intelligence stations in Saigon Port and Haiphong Port, but the intelligence network has been torn apart by German and French intelligence agencies. In the end, it was the naval command and the Japanese naval attaché in French Indochina. In the danger of being expelled by the colonial government, he spent a lot of money to buy two officials from the French port authority, and finally some valuable intelligence was released.

The Naval Command attaches great importance to the activities of the French Far East Fleet. Those two French battlecruisers are too powerful to fight against any battleship belonging to the combined fleet, not to mention the piles of light and heavy cruisers. Before the USS officially entered service, these two French battle patrols were the greatest threat to the Imperial Navy in Asia.

However, the information disclosed from the French Indochina government said that the French seemed to be preparing to recall these two warships early next year. It is said that they are preparing for modernization and improvement. God knows where these two warships are still not modern enough, but This is good news for the Imperial Japanese Navy.

As for the submarine force of the German Navy, the military command seems to be totally uninterested. In fact, it was frightened by the ferocious posture of the Germans when they attacked the army red deer. In addition, the piles of hands and tails in the Bishan air battle were still I didn't get it done, so the upper management was deeply afraid that no more diplomatic disputes would arise because of intelligence work.

The naval staff who understood the spirit of Shangfeng found a very "logical" reason. They declared in the report to the military command that the German boat group was only a passerby from the colony of South Asia, declaring the existence of an independent country. It must be back to the base camp in Europe.

And the reason seems to be particularly good. Germany does not have a real military port in Asia, neither a shipyard for submarine repairs, nor a professional logistics supply base. In particular, the German Navy’s parts system is almost incompatible with Britain and France. This means that even if it is a bolt for repairs here, Germany will have to travel all the way from Europe.

The staff members claimed that no country in the world would consume such high operating costs just to maintain an existing fleet. Instead of sending a costly submarine detachment, the Germans might as well have an army in Asia, at least it would be cheaper.

In addition to the above, the most important reason is that the Japanese have always believed that without the cooperation of the surface fleet, submarines can only play a harassing role in regular naval battles. They took the Japanese Navy’s own tactics as the starting point, and finally reached this “scientific” conclusion after “repeated demonstrations”.

The Japanese navy did not know the brilliant performance of the German submarine forces in the Battle of England, because this time Germany did not have the hype around the world like in history. Of course, the British will not be all right, except for the two sides of the war. Few people know the exact loss tonnage of British merchant ships.

In the eyes of the Japanese navy commanders at this time, they only saw the magnificence and splendor of the British-German naval fleet during the decisive battle in the strait, and the German submarine force seemed to be fighting soy sauce all the way, and only some merchant ships and destroyers were killed.

Several frontal naval battles in the European War further strengthened the idea of ​​the Japanese imperial naval fleet's surface decisive battle. The gradual reduction of the 9th dan of the Butangtang formation is the right way to use troops. Any aircraft and submarine are opportunistic. Our great ship cannon.

As a result, the battleship faction and the treaty faction in the Japanese Navy began to fight for five days and three days and one quarrel again, because the European wars were placed there. The treaty faction is now showing signs of decline, and the fleet faction is beginning to chase after victory. Yamamoto's 56th Admiral, who is known for his extraordinary energy (just promoted in mid-November this year), has struggled to deal with this time.

The topic is far off. Now returning to the scene of the encounter, Captain Robin’s identification is correct. This is indeed a Haida IIIb ocean-going submarine. The Japanese Navy officially calls it the Iraqi 56 submarine. The number of this submarine is Yi-60, which is the fourth submarine of this class.

This class of submarine is called the Haida IIIa, which is an improved version of the Iraqi 53rd class submarine, so it is also called the Iraqi Five-Three Reform by the Japanese Navy. There are often several different types of equipment in the Imperial Japanese Navy. The name, whether it confuses the enemy's spies, I don't know. From a historical point of view, it should not have played a big role.

Speaking of this Yi-60, it is very famous in the Japanese Navy. She is the only submarine with an "anti-submarine record" in the Japanese Navy diving team.

Because on the night of February 2 last year, during the attack training in Bungo Channel, she personally killed her sister ship, also the Haida IIIb submarine Yi63.

Speaking of this, it is really amazing. It was a night training day. Yi 63 arrived at the scheduled meeting point ahead of time. Because no colleagues were found, the captain Sano ordered the submarine to stop and wait, just for safety. , Yi 63 also lit the control tower and navigation lights on the stern of the boat.

The problem was with these two navigation lights, and then arrived at Yi 60 at the assembly site. I didn't expect Yi 63 to light up because it violated night training regulations. As a result, the captain of the Yi 60 at the time, Shizuo Nakagawa (seeing the level of his father's name, he had predicted that his son would cause trouble in the future.) He assumed that the distant lights were the masthead lights of the fishing boat.

Know that the Haida IIIb is 110 meters long, and it is at least 50 meters from the control tower to the tail. At that time, Japanese coastal fishing boats were not that big. As a result, the Yi 63 The command tower and the stern light of the boat were misjudged by Captain Zhongchuan as being set off by two different fishing boats, so he did not hesitate to choose to cross the "middle" of the two fishing boats.

I 60 didn’t realize that it was rushing towards its sister ship at full speed until it was within 200 meters. Also, because of the lights, the personnel on the Yi 63 command tower did not notice the companions approaching at high speed in the dark. In the end, Yi 60 almost hit the motor compartment of Yi 63 at a right angle. IndoMTL.com caused the latter to sink to the bottom of the sea in a very short period of time, except for the captain Takao Sano on the command tower. Except for the following six officers and soldiers who survived, all eighty-one people drowned in the cabin.

To say that the magic is still to come, in order to conceal the responsibility of the superiors of the navy fleet, no one was punished for this afterwards. The Nakagawa Shizuo was only temporarily transferred from the captain's post at the end of October 1940. He was promoted to Zhong Zuo and was transferred to Yi 58 as a captain.

On the same day, the surviving Takao Sano was also promoted to Zhongzuo, and was assigned to serve as captain on the Yi70. It is really gratifying that the two captains are so successful.

In history, the Nakagawa captain survived the war, and was sentenced to eight years in prison in the war criminals court in Yokohama after the war for shooting at the surviving crew of an Allied shipwreck.

As for the Takao Sano, who thought he was alive, but didn’t want to remain in the doomsday, on the third day after the successful Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he commanded the Iraqi No.70 and arrived at Pearl Harbor for reconnaissance operations. After discovering the whereabouts of the missing aircraft carrier in Pearl Harbor, in a sense, the captain succeeded. Yi70 headed into the [Enterprise] aircraft carrier that was returning to Hong Kong at full speed. As a result, he had not waited for him to report to his superiors. It was bombarded by the "Big E" carrier plane, and finally the Yi-70, with its 93 officers and soldiers, sank into the vast Pacific Ocean.

Now let’s talk about the Yi 60 submarine that caused the accident. After being towed back to the Sasebo Naval Port for careful repair, Yi 60 recovered its combat capability in November of that year. After almost all officers were replaced, the Sasebo Town Shoufu granted this A new mission for submarines.

PS: The second chapter is here, but I'm exhausted. I have a rest. Don't forget to vote.