When Hesen ordered the periscope to be raised again, only ten minutes had passed since U21 submerged.
Ten minutes might not seem long, but U21 had traveled 1.4 nautical miles underwater at full speed during that time, while the cargo ship had moved slightly less than 2.5 nautical miles toward the port. The pilot boat from the port had approached the cargo ship by almost 2 nautical miles.
This seemed like a simple yet complex calculation. With his sensitivity to numbers and strong mental arithmetic skills, Zhang Hainuo knew that U21 had basically reached an attack position. If he were the commander, he would order the submarine to stop and quietly wait for the cargo ship to enter optimal firing range, then launch torpedoes, dive, and withdraw.
But Hesen didn't do that!
"Angle!"
"289!"
"Target 1, angle 289, distance 6100!"
After reporting these data, Hesen rotated the periscope clockwise by almost half a circle.
"Angle!"
"073!"
"Target 2, angle 073, distance 9500!"
Then Hesen and the periscope both turned in place before he ordered, "Retract the periscope, proceed at one-third speed ahead!"
Zhang Hainuo found it strange. Continuing to advance would increase the angle between the submarine and the cargo ship, and torpedo attacks usually aimed to target the 0 or 180-degree angles, unless Hesen wanted the submarine to pass through the enemy's path to launch an attack from the other side, or...
No, it couldn't be! Zhang Hainuo immediately dismissed this "or," because anyone with a bit of military knowledge knew that firing torpedoes towards the ship's sides resulted in the highest hit rate, given the larger target profile. Firing towards the bow or stern would significantly reduce the hit rate. Unless the distance was close enough!
A few minutes later, what Zhang Hainuo thought impossible was happening step by step. When Hesen observed through the periscope again, the angle of Target 1 had changed to 273, indicating it was on the submarine's port side, while Target 2's angle was 85, almost on the starboard side.
"At one-third speed, turn to 90!"
Hesen's command meant the submarine would turn 90 degrees to the starboard, aligning the bow with the direction of the pilot boat and the cargo ship.
What was this guy thinking?
After completing the turn, U21 found itself positioned between the cargo ship and the pilot boat. Did he want to take out both the cargo ship and the pilot boat with one torpedo each?
No, impossible! Zhang Hainuo rejected his own speculation once again because no one would waste a torpedo on a small boat of a few dozen tons, especially when it had such shallow draft that most torpedoes would pass under it!
After the turn, Hesen immediately ordered the engines to be shut down.
The interior of the submarine quickly quieted down. A faint, buzzing sound, somewhat like a bee, could be heard from outside, which Zhang Hainuo guessed was coming from the ship's stern.
After raising the periscope again, the angle of Target 1 changed from 273 to 181, at a distance of 1500 yards. Target 2's angle became 359, farther away at 4300 yards!
"Torpedo set depth 1, gyro angle 1, prepare to launch the stern torpedo!"
Almost without waiting, the voice of the stern torpedo compartment chief came through the speaker on the hull, "Stern torpedo ready!"
The stern torpedo tube was loaded with a torpedo with minimal depth setting, zero gyro angle, ready to launch at any time. When Zhang Hainuo learned about Hesen's peculiar habit from other crew members after boarding the submarine, he found it difficult to understand. To prevent friendly fire, some submarines set their torpedoes to maximum depth and armed them with safety mechanisms, but Hesen went against the norm, setting the torpedoes in the stern tube differently from the four in the front.
As each second passed, the cargo ship would draw closer by ten yards. The atmosphere inside the submarine suddenly became oppressively heavy, almost suffocating.
Hesen continued to stare fixedly at the periscope's eyepiece until the second hand on his watch had almost completed a full rotation before he suddenly exclaimed, "Torpedo number 5, fire!"
The UBIII-type submarine had five 450mm torpedo tubes arranged with four in the front and one in the rear. This number 5 torpedo was the one in the stern tube, ready to launch!
Zhang Hainuo didn't know if the sailors on the cargo ship had noticed the torpedo's wake under the water. Perhaps their captain was calmly steering the ship to evade, or perhaps the crew members were shouting and jumping overboard in panic. However, at a distance of less than 500 yards, they had almost no chance to evade, unless the torpedo missed its mark!
From the periscope's view, Hesen didn't intend to witness the cargo ship being hit by the torpedo with his own eyes. For him, perhaps such scenes had been seen too many times!
"Retract the periscope, dive to 15 meters!"
Twenty seconds later, there was a loud explosion from the surface, indicating that the explosion point was very close. The vibrations were felt distinctly even inside the submarine. At that moment, the tension among the crew members finally eased, and they began to congratulate each other, including Zhang Hainuo.
It was also his first taste of victory since coming to this era!
Hessen, the ace captain known as the "madman of the sea" by his peers, still had a cold and pensive expression.
Yes, Zhang Hainuo thought, the battle is far from over. Did the sailors on the barge see the trajectory of U21's torpedo? Would they notice U21's periscope? After a successful attack, why didn't Hessen withdraw immediately? What was this guy up to?
Zhang Hainuo was initially puzzled, but then he suddenly realized that because submarines typically launch torpedoes from the sides of ships, the British destroyers coming out from the port would assume that the German submarine attacking the freighter was on the ship's side and moving away from the port. As long as U21 lurked quietly here, it would not be easy for the British destroyers to find it.
In this pitch-black sea, the low perspective and limited lighting on the barge made it difficult for the sailors to observe torpedoes launched at the freighter from thousands of yards away. Therefore, Hessen was not worried about the barge discovering U21's position. On the contrary, the visual error of the British sailors might lead them to mistakenly believe that the freighter had struck a mine!
With such careful planning, launching the only torpedo from the stern at the front of the freighter, was Hessen's goal to make the British make a wrong judgment and pursue in the wrong direction, allowing U21 to safely evade the attacks of those British destroyers?
Looking at Hessen's face, colder and more austere than ever, Zhang Hainuo had a feeling that this guy was definitely not just trying to evade the attacks of the British destroyers here!