Two Hundred and Sixty-Six Thrilling Voyages

At 4:00 in the morning, it was still dark. ..u-211 submarine's break is over. Prien glanced up at the sky, then waited for his crew to drill back into the submarine one by one. It was his habit to be the last to enter the sub so that he could inspect the hatches himself.

Soon everyone entered the submarine, Prien closed the hatch, and the fresh and cold sea breeze was replaced by the bad-smelling air.

"Continue to dive! Depth positioning is 35 meters. After 5 minutes, save power and keep heading." Prien ordered loudly.

His first officer was already in position, repeating his order loudly: "Continue to exhaust and dive, set at a depth of 35 meters underwater. Turn off the main lighting power after 5 minutes!"

The situation has become clear, and the combat missions have been declassified. Prien had told his crew that the next day's mission was to enter Scapa Flow. With nearly the entire day to be spent underwater, Prien ordered everyone to conserve air and electricity and not move around more than necessary.

After about 5 minutes, the main lighting in the submarine was interrupted. The instruments in the submarine control room, the water droplets from the slight leakage of the pipes, and the sound of sea water squeezing the hull from all sides mixed together, giving people a creepy feeling. The roar of mechanical rotation became the noise inside the boat. The surroundings were dark, only the lights on a few instruments allowed the people in the submarine to vaguely see the outlines of the surroundings.

At 4:00 p.m. the next day, all the crew finished their meals, the tables, chairs and utensils were tidied up, and the crew's berths were also folded up.

"Take a few people with you and lay the explosives on the bottom of the submarine." Prien felt that the time was almost up, so he began to prepare everything before the attack.

The first officer nodded, and led a few people out of the command module holding flashlights. They installed explosives in the torpedo cabin and the power room. The expressions of several people were very serious. They knew that this mission might be really difficult.

Then Prien issued another order to let everyone check their life jackets. At the same time, these submarine officers and soldiers carefully tore off the fleet logo on their caps to avoid revealing their identities after they might be captured.

"Damn it!" Prien knew that there would be a long wait ahead, waiting for the miracle to come. Holding his pocket watch, he felt very nervous. So he swallowed a mouthful of saliva and forced himself to calm down.

"Attention everyone! We are at risk of being sunk every minute of the next! Get ready for battle, everyone! We are going to Scapa Flow. Our mission is very simple - make a fuss in Scapa Flow One battle, to avenge our old High Seas Fleet." Prien announced the complete order loudly.

The command cabin of the entire submarine was eerily quiet.

Everyone stared at their captain in silence. They thought it was a reconnaissance mission or a minelaying mission, but they never thought that this time they were for real.

"Revenge!" After the shock passed for a long time, another sailor finally echoed with a suppressed voice: "Revenge for those seniors of Operation Rainbow!"

"Yes! Revenge! We want to let the British know! Who is the master of this sea!" the first officer said excitedly.

"Yes! This is what I want! Even if I die, I have to tear a piece of flesh from the British!" Brian nodded and said, "Keep on course! Keep going!"

Time passed by, and everyone waited for the moment when they could act. It's like a bride waiting to get on the sedan chair, full of joy and anticipation, but extremely nervous and nervous.

"Periscope high!" After an unknown amount of time, Prien finally ordered. He put his face on the periscope, raised the only device that can observe targets on the water underwater, and carefully looked at the surrounding situation.

"This strait cannot be submerged, otherwise you will hit those sunken ships." Looking at the surrounding scenery, he compared the nautical map with the chief mate. The locations of many sunken ships were densely marked on it. They were German merchant ships and others. An accurate map completed by spies for many years.

"Then what should we do? Let's go up?" The first officer looked at his commander in surprise and asked in disbelief.

"Floating!" Prien nodded and said.

At 7 o'clock in the evening, Prien gritted his teeth and finally ordered the submarine to start to surface. The electric motor started to run at full speed, and drove for another half an hour at a depth of about 25 meters underwater, until the underwater listener provided by the sonar reported that no noise was heard from the sea surface, and Prien observed with the periscope again situation for four weeks.

He felt that he had not been so cautious and nervous in several years. When he ascended to a depth of 5 meters, Prien ordered the periscope to be raised again. After observation, night has fallen and the sea condition is good. At 7:15, Prien finally made up his mind and ordered to surface.

The airtight water tank of the submarine squeezed all the sea water out of the submarine, and this behemoth of nearly 1,000 tons finally surfaced. Under the cover of night, the u-211 submarine was sailing almost close to the coastline.

Because of the air source, the diesel engine on the submarine started to run. In the next 2 hours, u-211 was very powerful, sailing at almost full speed to the northwest of the Herm Strait at a relatively high speed with the tide.

But at 9 p.m., they ran into trouble. A British freighter appeared on their route, so the u-211 submarine began to dive in a hurry. Finally, it dived below the surface of the sea one minute before being discovered.

In order to avoid passing ships on the sea surface, the submarine often dives into the water, and at the same time has to contend with the increasingly strong current. The time of entering Scapa Flow was calculated a little off, and a strong tide was flowing into Scapa Flow at this time. Like a canoe falling into the rapids, U-211 barely entered the Kirk Strait in the night.

At 23:31, the submarine began to enter Scapa Flow, during which the bottom of the hull even collided with the mooring cables laid on the seabed, causing the submarine to turn right sharply and run aground. Since Prien ordered the submarine to travel in a semi-submerged state based on the water depth, the only thing to do now is to continue to exhaust into the water tank, so u-211 successfully floated again.

The strait ahead gradually widens and the current slows down. In order to prevent submarine attacks, the underwater in the strait less than one kilometer wide is densely covered with many man-made shipwrecks and other underwater obstacles. According to the information collected before departure, it is extremely difficult to enter Scapa Flow by the line through the Cork Strait, and it is almost impossible to penetrate. At this time, the u-211 submarine was sailing along this route.

At 12:27 midnight, Prien finally confirmed a result. They have entered Scapa Flow. But when everyone breathed a sigh of relief, the most frustrating thing happened. Suddenly a bright light shot at u-211, illuminating its conning tower enclosure.

Prien, who was observing everything from the control tower, was stunned by the scene in front of him, and he was even ready to go all out. This light came from the headlights of a taxi that happened to pass by the small town of St. Mary on the shore. Under the strong light, Prien and the first officer on the conning tower could even see the trucks and guard posts used by the Royal Navy officers and soldiers on the shore.

Everyone panicked, it seemed that their whereabouts had been exposed, and it was inevitable that they would be attacked. The first officer's hand was already on the holster around his waist, and Prien on the side had even pulled out his own p-38 pistol.

But everyone knows that, not to mention relying on the short guns in their hands, even counting the 88mm cannon on the bow and the 40mm anti-aircraft gun at the stern, they have no chance of winning. Prien, who was holding his breath, could even see two British sentry soldiers lighting cigarettes at each other. Perhaps the two men would fire warning shots in the next second, making Prien and the others cut off their last hope.

This time it seemed that God chose to side with the Germans, and what Prien worried about never came. In the end, fortunately, the taxi did not find the submarine, but turned a corner and continued towards Scapa Flow.

"If I do this again, I'm going to be scared to death here." The first officer leaned on the shell of the submarine conning tower and panted heavily, his hands were still trembling uncontrollably.

For a few seconds, he even admired the silent Prien, feeling that the commander was a little calmer. But this kind of worship did not last long, because when the chief mate lowered his head, he saw that the captain was stuffing his p-38 pistol into the holster with trembling hands. go back.

"Be careful! We need to find the best attack position. There is only one chance. Now that we have come, we will make a big mess at once." Prien recovered for a while before saying this.

The first officer nodded, and the two of them picked up the binoculars and continued to monitor the surrounding situation. In any case, the current situation has not retreated. The current task of the u-211 submarine is to find the attack target as soon as possible. While commanding the submarine to continue sailing westward, Prien carefully observed the sea surface.

The dark night hangs over the British Isles, and the entire Royal Navy is saddened by the fiasco off the Netherlands. Under the advocacy of Minister of the Navy Churchill, the king has ordered more warships to be called to deal with the threat of the German navy.

Therefore, almost all the naval aircraft carrier forces that the British Navy can produce have been gathered in Scapa Flow. With the newly launched aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, HMS Glory and its sister ship Bravery, as well as the old aircraft carrier Hermes, Churchill planned to use an equal number of aircraft carriers to cover the battleships to raid Wilhelm Naval Harbor and destroy the German High Seas Fleet in one fell swoop.

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