Chapter 681: Defending Leningrad - Surprise Attack in the Fog

At 4 a.m. on August 13, 1942, 15 nautical miles west of Kotlin Island, a large submarine fleet was quietly moving forward in the morning mist of the Gulf of Finland.

Lieutenant Colonel Hans von Diesenhausen stood in the command tower of the brand new IXD1 submarine U195, which had been commissioned only a month ago, and was very excited because he finally waited for an important combat mission.

Due to the change of sea power in the Atlantic, U-boat captains who are still serving in the submarine force have rarely had combat missions. Blockading Britain is now the job of battleships, heavy cruisers, missile cruisers and aircraft. Submarines can only conduct reconnaissance, lay mines, or serve as a means of transportation to transport supplies to areas that are inconvenient for large surface ships to go.

And Major Diesenhausen, the former ace U-boat captain and the idol of thousands of German girls, is no exception. Since April 1942, he has never carried out a single anti-shipping combat mission. A month ago, the higher-ups simply retired the submarine he had commanded for Atlantic commerce raiding, and replaced it with a "special transport boat" U195.

Just when he thought he would be a transport captain in the remaining years of the war. His "special transport boat" U195 was allocated to the Marine Corps. And he also learned that this large submarine with a displacement of 1,616 tons above water and 1,804 tons underwater would transport tanks.

This is a submarine that can transport amphibious tanks to the enemy beachhead! Submarines and tanks are actually combined together, which is an incredible idea.

I heard from Captain Rudolf von Ribbentrop, the commander of the 1st Tank Company of the 1st Amphibious Assault Battalion of the Marine Corps, that this "genius idea" came from the Japanese Navy, a navy with tank units! Those Japanese naval soldiers with strange ideas did not put their tanks on landing ships, but used submarines to transport tanks to launch surprise attacks, and actually achieved good results.

So the senior officers of the German Marine Corps decided to follow the Japanese tactics and also built dozens of large submarines, which were modified to transport tanks and landing troops.

At the same time, a "customized version" of the Type 3 tank that can be used for amphibious landings was also manufactured. This tank is improved on the basis of the Type 3N tank. It has been waterproofed and equipped with detachable floats and propeller thrusters, and can be propelled at a speed of 5-6 kilometers per hour on the water. The KwK40L/2475mm main gun of the Type 3N tank has also been retained, making this tank have quite powerful firepower when dealing with infantry.

Now there is a Type 3P tank and an LWS amphibious transport vehicle tied to the deck of the U195.

The LWS amphibious transport vehicle is also a brain-opening equipment. It is a combination of a tracked tractor and a water tugboat. It is 9 meters long, 3 meters wide, 3.15 meters high, weighs 15 tons, and has a crew of 4 people. In water, LWS can propel at a maximum speed of 12.5 kilometers per hour, and on land, the maximum speed is 40 kilometers per hour.

This vehicle-and-ship integrated equipment was developed as early as 1935, but it has never been put into mass production. It was not until the establishment of the German Marine Corps that it had a major buyer.

The first unit to receive LWS was the 1st Amphibious Assault Battalion of the Marine Corps. According to the plan, this strange "vehicle-and-ship" will tow its own underpowered Type 3 P tank to the beachhead of Kotlin Island.

At the same time, a squad of amphibious assault team members will also board this LWS amphibious transport vehicle and go ashore with the Type 3 P tank.

In addition, these LWS amphibious transport vehicles are equipped with anti-aircraft machine guns or anti-tank guns. The installed anti-aircraft machine gun is the French M1 large-caliber machine gun, and the anti-tank gun is a detachable 28mm cone-bore gun.

"Can you see the Kronstadt Fortress?" Captain Ribbentrop's voice came from the bottom of the command tower, and then there was a sound of escalators. Captain Ribbentrop had already climbed up and squeezed next to Major Diesenhausen.

"How can we see Kronstadt?" Major Diesenhausen said with a smile, "It would be bad if we can see it. If we can see the fortress, then the Soviet Red Army can also see us."

Captain Ribbentrop stood firmly on the top of the crowded submarine command tower, and then his eyes swept around. It was foggy all around, and the visibility was only a few hundred meters. It was indeed impossible to see anything.

"Then how do we know when to set out to land?" Captain Ribbentrop squinted his eyes and tried to look forward, but still couldn't see anything clearly.

"There will be searchlights to guide us, the Soviets' own searchlights." Major Diesenhausen said, "We will see them when we get closer... Although we can't see Kotlin Island clearly, the direction of navigation is correct. When we see their searchlights, you can set off."

Through reconnaissance, the Germans already knew that the Soviet Navy had set up many searchlights on Kotlin Island to illuminate the waterways north and south of the island. In fact, what the Soviets were worried about was not the German landing, but the German submarines sneaking into the harbor of Leningrad to drop a few mines and bring a few spies ashore to cause damage.

So they set up anti-submarine nets and mines on the waterways on both sides of Kotlin Island, and used searchlights to continuously illuminate the water surface when visibility was poor. These searchlights now pointed the direction for the German submarines that came to attack.

"Captain, searchlight! 11 o'clock ahead." This is the lookout on the U195 boat shouted loudly.

Diesenhausen and Libentrov quickly raised their telescopes and looked forward at 11 o'clock, and found that there was indeed a flash of light in the fog, and then another one.

Obviously, this is a searchlight constantly sweeping across the sea.

...

"Comrades, cheer up and don't let any suspicious situation slip under our noses."

Nikolai Golubkov, the squad leader of the reconnaissance battalion of the 2nd Marine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet of the Soviet Red Navy, tightly grasped the PPSh submachine gun hanging around his neck, and then shouted loudly to the comrades behind him. On this foggy morning, he and his comrades were conducting routine patrols on the beach west of Kotlin Island.

This is a task that makes people a little depressed. Now is the climax of the world revolution!

The invincible Western Front of the Red Army has occupied Warsaw (the news of the occupation of Warsaw was announced at the end of July). Although the German Nazis were desperate and broke into the Soviet border from the Baltic Sea, they tried to put Empress Olga, who had long been swept into the garbage dump of history, on the throne of the Tsar again. But their plot will eventually fail. The heroic soldiers and civilians of Leningrad will severely teach these imperialists and their White Russian running dogs who dared to invade the Soviet Union.

And at this time when millions of Red Army commanders and fighters were fighting the enemy hard on the front line to make contributions to the world revolution, Golubkov and his comrades were walking on the beach of Kotlin Island... They said they were catching spies, but the problem is where would there be such stupid spies who ran to Kronstadt and Leningrad to die?

The people living in Kronstadt are all the families of Red Navy officers and workers and families of naval factories. They are all the most reliable people politically. How can they be deceived by a mere spy? As for the glorious Leningrad working class, they were the ones who launched the Russian Revolution. They are the mortal enemies of the Tsar!

So Comrade Golubkov had written a blood oath a few days ago, requesting to go to the front and fight the Nazi army. But now his request has not been approved, so he can only continue to patrol the beach of Kotlin Island every day with a dozen Red Marines who are as absent-minded as him.

"Got it, comrade squad leader."

"We will keep our eyes open."

"I'm afraid that the German and White Guard spies dare not come."

The soldiers responded loudly, and their morale seemed to be okay, but Golubkov still heard how impatient everyone was about the current mission.

Just when Golubkov was racking his brains to find a few words to boost everyone's morale, someone suddenly shouted.

"Target! There is a suspicious target on the sea!"

This shout immediately made Golubkov's blood rush to his head.

The legendary spy is finally here!

He hurriedly looked at the sea and saw a boat, no, several small boats slowly moving on the water.

It seems that there is more than one spy!

"Quick, find a place to hide, Sasha, set up the machine gun!" Golubkov ordered immediately.

"Yes, comrade squad leader!"

Everyone's spirits rose at once - the people who came were spies, and it was an opportunity to join the party and get promoted.

"Don't shoot first, wait until the spies come ashore, remember, you must leave a few alive." Golubkov led his men into the woods on the beach, loading his submachine gun while giving orders to his men.

The comrades listened to him and couldn't help but fire at the approaching boats. They let them get closer and closer until they landed on the beach, but no one came down from them.

"Comrade squad leader," machine gunner Sasha suddenly shouted, "It seems that the boat carrying the spies has landed!"

The boat has landed? That's not a boat, it's an amphibious vehicle!

Golubkov and his comrades immediately knew that something was wrong. They were not rustic infantrymen, but marines. They had seen amphibious vehicles and amphibious tanks.

"Oh my God," the sharp-eyed machine gunner Sasha continued to shout, "There are so many ships on the sea. These are not spies, they are landing! The Germans are going to land!"