The roar of the diesel engines at full throttle echoed in their ears, facing the howling sea breeze and the roaring ship cannons. The six German torpedo boats were like six incredibly sharp swords, slicing through the surging waves on the revitalized sea.
On the low stern mast, the bright German naval flag fluttered in the wind!
"T3! T3! Let's attack the first battleship on the right together! S30, 31, 32, 33, you attack the leftmost one! Try to get as close as 1500 meters before releasing the torpedoes! Repeat, 1500 meters!"
On the torpedo boat designated as T2, a German officer with a thick beard grabbed the wireless phone and loudly issued the final tactical orders to the entire torpedo attack formation. Both T2 and T3 were fleet torpedo boats of the German Navy, commissioned in the summer of 1939 and 1940, respectively. With a displacement ranging from 800 to 900 tons, they replaced the old "torpedo boats" built in the 1920s, becoming the new leaders of the German Navy's high-speed torpedo boat fleet—each boat capable of carrying six powerful 533-millimeter torpedoes for naval assault, making their attack capabilities formidable!
The four closely arranged S-boats were also newly commissioned vessels of the German Navy between 1939 and 1940. They were equipped with 2500-horsepower diesel engines, capable of reaching speeds close to 40 knots, and each boat was armed with two 533-millimeter torpedo tubes and two 20-millimeter machine guns. With a total tonnage of less than 100 tons, they usually operated near the coast. They were able to travel from the port of Brest in France to the Bristol Channel, with most of the journey being towed by cargo ships!
As the orders were issued, the four S-boats quickly surpassed the lead ship and attacked the rearmost battleship of the British fleet. Upon spotting the incoming German torpedo boats, the British promptly turned on the ship's searchlights and launched numerous illumination flares into the sky above the sea. The previously quiet sea surface became noisy again: British warships of various sizes unleashed their firepower, and the flying shells created an astonishing number of water columns ahead of the German torpedo boat formation. These high-speed torpedo boats seemed like speedboats participating in an obstacle race—they not only had to avoid direct hits from the shells but also stay as far away as possible from any explosion. After all, while pursuing high speed, they greatly sacrificed armor protection, making it impossible to adequately protect the crew and essential equipment inside.
"T3! T3! The frontal firepower is too strong! Turn right, full speed right turn, and bypass the dense artillery area!" Seeing that the water columns ahead had almost formed an insurmountable wall, the bearded captain quickly contacted the neighboring boat via radio. Meanwhile, the helmsman standing beside him swiftly turned the antiquated wheel in the wheelhouse, and everyone in the cockpit had the same determined look!
The Imperial Navy, carrying the dream of German maritime hegemony, had experienced many ups and downs—from the rise during the Tirpitz era to the sinking at Scapa Flow, a twenty-year slumber, and then a rapid rise in the new era of German-Italian collaboration. This time, they did not want to sink again!
On the sea surface, two large torpedo boats with streamlined hulls made a rapid right turn, drawing an arc on the sea surface. As the hulls tilted sharply during the turn, the sailors on board had to hold onto fixed objects tightly. The bow continuously smashed through the surging waves, spraying endless white foam onto everyone, soaking them through. But when they thought about hitting the British across from them hard, who cared about a little trouble?
"Distance 4100 meters! That's a battleship! Quite large! Very powerful firepower!" On the upper part of the bridge, the shooting commander of the torpedo boat tied himself tightly to the mast with a rope, lest he fall into the sea due to the waves or the swaying of the ship when observing.
"Attention! Everyone, we're going for a straight sprint!" The bearded captain shouted, not just to vent his emotions. The sailors who participated in the Norwegian campaign knew that a straight sprint was advantageous for ensuring the torpedo's accuracy. However, the enemy's gunfire would also be correspondingly more accurate, posing a deadly challenge for everyone on the deck!
The sharp bow quickly corrected its course. Their target was on the edge of the illuminated area by the illumination flares, only indistinct ship silhouettes and flickering flames were visible. And when the large-caliber guns on the ship fired at a slower rate, the fireballs from the muzzle illuminated a small area—the gray steel hulls looked formidable, but they were still extremely fearful of the power of large-caliber torpedoes!
"3600 meters!" The shooting commander reported the distance once again at the 500-meter mark. At this point, the bearded captain had already heard the report from the S-boat squadron through the radio: "We're launching torpedoes at 1500 meters distance, full speed return! All four boats, full speed return!"
Although the torpedo boat had been hit, its speed had not slowed down. It was just that due to the helmsman falling when hit, the direction of the boat had become inexplicably off course.
The bearded captain turned the wheel with one hand and grabbed the communicator with the other, only to find that its wires had been severed, so he angrily tossed it aside.
With the bow once again aligned with the direction of the British fleet, the bearded captain saw his fellow boats, the large torpedo boats, charging forward. And farther away, there were huge flames rising from the midst of the British fleet!
He couldn't hear anything in his ears, but the bearded captain still excitedly shouted, "Well done!"
"Captain!" A sailor rushed into the command cabin, only to find his captain paying no attention while steering the boat.
"Captain, the port-side torpedo tube is damaged and cannot be used!" he shouted loudly, but the captain still didn't respond. As he approached, he was surprised to find blood flowing from the captain's ears and bruises on his face and neck...
On the battlefield, bloodshed was nothing, and many had lost part of their bodies. But the most tragic were those young men who had not yet truly tasted the beauty of life: some had not even held a girl's hand; some were still waiting to meet their sweetheart on the next visit; and some had already set their wedding dates...
"Leo! Leo? How far are we? About 2500 meters?"
The captain suddenly shouted loudly, seemingly mistaking the sailor for his shooting commander.
"Captain..." The sailor was momentarily speechless, having just seen the veteran officer who had tied himself to the mast in combat status, now lying dead.
The captain turned his head to look at the sailor. Although he didn't see his "Leo," he still shouted loudly, "2000 meters, it's already 2000 meters! Tell everyone to unlock the safety and be ready to fire at my command!"
Just then, another shell hit the ship's side, causing the torpedo boat to tremble violently once again, and seawater even rushed into the cockpit through the breached hull.
Moments later, another sailor approached the cockpit, his face covered in soot, looking bewildered.
"The torpedo launch position on the starboard side, everyone is dead, only I am left!" he reported.
"1500 meters! Fire the torpedoes!" The captain continued to shout as if no one else was around. In his mind, there was only one objective...
The previous sailor gritted his teeth and resolutely rushed towards the starboard side.
He never came back.
40 minutes later, the German Navy torpedo boat T-2, riddled with bullet holes, passed through the blockade and returned to the Bristol Bay. When it slowly docked at the almost ruined pier in Cardiff, people were astonished to find that out of the 119 personnel assigned to the torpedo boat, only 31 remained. There were still five torpedoes left in the boat's six torpedo tubes. According to observations from the companion boat T-5, the torpedo that finally hit the British flagship was launched by T-2!
In the swift and deadly attack by the German torpedo boats, the British H-fleet lost a light cruiser and a destroyer, with two battleships each hit by a torpedo. Although neither battleship suffered serious damage, the British officers and sailors, already wary, became even more fearful. The lesson from the homeland fleet told them that if they lost power within the operating radius of German bombers, they would either be trapped in the harbor or bombed into scrap metal.
As a result, the formidable H-fleet dared not approach the German blockade again, only bombarding the German positions from afar at 3 a.m. Then, they sorrowfully headed north—shortly after passing through the Strait of Dover, the flagship "Warspite" was suddenly attacked by a German submarine. Although it was saved from sinking by the efforts of the crew, it could only lie dormant in the port of Liverpool...