Chapter 267: Attention

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The Scapa Flow naval base is the main fleet anchorage of the British Royal Navy in the British Isles, located in the Orkney Islands north of

The Scapa Flow naval base is the main fleet anchorage of the British Royal Navy in the British Isles, located in the Orkney Islands north of Scotland. This location happens to be a vital chokepoint for German maritime transport lines entering and leaving the North Sea and holds extremely important strategic significance.

Without a doubt, this base also frequently presented targets that were extremely tempting for German U-boats. Many of the British main fleet’s battleships entered and exited here, for example, the well-known battlecruiser HMS Hood and the battleship HMS Royal Oak have both docked here.

But just like other impregnable fortresses, Scapa Flow was heavily guarded, and the British army had stationed a large number of troops here for defense. In terms of coastal defense, there were hundreds of large-caliber cannons, and dense anti-aircraft fire was also deployed.

And at sea, especially against possible submarine attacks, during the First World War, the submarine UB-116, commanded by Emsmann, had attempted to sneak into Scapa Flow in October 1918 but had sunk after hitting a mine, with all crew members lost. This action had led all senior British naval officers to believe that any attempt to break through Scapa Flow was absolutely impossible.

But God is a deity who very much dislikes human hubris, so those who boast and are certain of their own ideas rarely come to a good end. For example, any ship that is called “unsinkable,” such as the Titanic on its maiden voyage and the Bismarck in its first battle, did not end well. Similar examples include the Americans’ belief that Pearl Harbor was impregnable, and the French belief that the Maginot Line was impregnable…

In Akado’s words of admonishment to the commander of the submarine force, Dönitz, any attacker “needs the most bold and strong enterprising spirit, needs extraordinary courage and superb technology.” So this time, the Germans planned to take them by surprise. Even though what they had to face was not only the heavily defended Royal Navy, but also the unpredictable strong sea currents, whose power was enough to push a submarine off its intended course and into a dangerous situation.

All along, Akado had been secretly studying a surprise attack with Dönitz. Both of them wanted to try to get a German submarine to sneak into the waters of Scapa Flow and deliver a heavy blow to the British Royal Navy. This way, the British would lose their advantage for several years and would be unable to recover.

The reason the Führer attached so much importance to a tactical raid was not as superficial as Dönitz’s. Because Akado wanted to use a successful raid to hide the real killing move he held in his hand.

The outcome of the naval battle off the coast of the Netherlands had been confirmed by Akado as early as 1937. Although the German Navy’s lack of courage for a decisive battle had postponed the victory until the beginning of 1938, Akado had long been preparing a follow-up move for this victory.

One of the follow-up moves was how to make people forget this victory. This follow-up plan could be said to be an important step for Akado to disrupt the rise of the maritime power of various countries. Akado actually had many fears in his heart, one of which was the fear of America’s all-destroying production capacity when left undisturbed.

If American industry were to operate at full speed, Germany might be able to compete a little if left undisturbed. But with the addition of the British blockade and its burden, Germany would only return to the old path of defeat.

America’s geographical advantage could not be changed, and Germany was temporarily unable to threaten the American mainland—this was a very modest statement. In fact, Akado also knew that let alone threatening the American mainland, he currently did not even have the strength to take a look at the east coast of America.

On the other hand, once the powerful American industry started to run, Germany would have to face the threat of ten or even twenty American aircraft carriers. Akado did not want to point out the correct path of naval development to the Americans so early. He hoped to reveal this mystery as late as possible, to catch the American Navy off guard.

Germany’s steel was limited. The war with France and Belgium had caused a break in Germany’s steel imports. The existing reserves were not enough for Germany to go all out in developing its army, navy, and air force. Although Akado, under great pressure from the navy, had vetoed the plan to build battleships and heavy cruisers, the steel saved was only enough for him to produce seven aircraft carriers. In other words, if he only used the navy’s original resources, his current navy was almost at the end of its development.

Therefore, he had to build a powerful navy before the Americans could react, a navy strong enough to dominate the Atlantic, an elite maritime force with aircraft carriers as its core. This way, even if the United States entered the terrifying stage of mass-producing aircraft carriers in the later stages, he could rely on the foundation he had accumulated to ensure that the Atlantic defensive barrier was foolproof.

So how could he make the British and American naval commanders not notice Germany’s carrier fleet? How could he divert the attention of the already badly beaten Royal Navy from Germany’s carrier fleet? Akado decided to create another miracle to cover up his own true intentions.

How do you make a man forget the pain of a severed finger? The answer is simple: find a way to cut off his arm! Driven by this idea, Akado had drawn up this “Operation P” with Dönitz as early as the beginning of the invasion of Poland in 1937. The purpose of this plan was to use a glorious victory by a submarine to divert the world’s navies’ attention from aircraft carriers, to make them shift their focus to the “real secret weapon—the submarine.”

The German naval intelligence department had made a great deal of preparation for this. Through the German Air Force and some of the submarines that had gone out on patrol, merchant ships that had passed through here before the war, and the omnipresent spy department, they had collected some intelligence on Scapa Flow. On September 11, 1937, before the war with Poland had begun, a modified German seaplane had managed to take some clear photos of the base. On September 13 of the same year, the U-boat U-216, which was patrolling the waters near Scapa Flow, had also risked approaching the base and had brought back some extremely valuable reports.

After a careful study of the above intelligence, the German Navy’s submarine command had come to a conclusion: a night attack must be adopted, because the underwater currents were relatively slow at that time. The next problem was to determine the candidate to carry out the attack mission.

Now we all know that this candidate was Prien, the very one who was now commanding his submarine in Scapa Flow, dumbfounded. He was truly dumbfounded, because before his eyes was a massive fleet, the likes of which he had never seen in his life.

How big was this fleet? It included the four aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal, Courageous, Glorious, and Hermes. There were as many as five battleships: HMS Revenge, Royal Sovereign, Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth, and Barham. The other cruisers were too numerous to count, and the destroyers stretched as far as the eye could see.

This was probably the largest fleet in human history. If you also counted the German High Seas Fleet that had scuttled itself nearby in Operation Rainbow, then almost half of the warships ever built by mankind were gathered here.

The problem now facing Prien was not that he couldn’t find a target, but that there were too many targets and he couldn’t make up his mind which one to attack. His submarine could fire six torpedoes in one go, four from the bow and two from the stern. To ensure the destruction of his target, he also had to ensure that several torpedoes attacked one target at the same time.

This was really too difficult for Prien. So he searched and searched on the water surface and found what he considered to be the most perfect attack position. Then he decided to play for all it was worth. He personally went back down into the submarine and came to the forward torpedo room. There, he gathered almost all of his crew and began to lay out the mission.

To achieve as many results as possible, he found a few ropes, hung them from the ceiling of his submarine, and then, using these ropes and the principle of levers, he had his crew hold the torpedoes in front of the torpedo tube doors, waiting to load.

“In a moment, I will fire three of the four forward torpedoes. Then you will immediately reload the two torpedoes in the lower positions. Then I will fire a second salvo at another target. Then you will have about ten minutes to reload the upper two torpedo tubes again,” Prien arranged for his crew.

As he spoke, he explained, “While you are reloading, I will turn the submarine and fire the stern torpedoes! Then I will turn the bow again and attack a fourth target. After we have fired all these torpedoes, we will retreat.”

“Any questions?” he finally asked, looking up.

Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at him, their eyes filled with a sense of reckless abandon. They knew that by the time they were halfway through this attack, the British would have come to their senses and would be looking for them. Those destroyers would quickly blockade the entire harbor. Their chances of escaping were negligible.

“No problem, Captain!” the torpedomen said with a grin. “Don’t worry! We’ll let the British know what our German U-boats are made of.”

Prien gave a deep bow. “You are the finest soldiers of the Reich! If we do not die today, friends, we will be invincible in the days to come!”

“Invincible!” everyone shouted in a suppressed voice.

Prien aimed at a huge silhouette in the faint light. Judging by its outline, it should be a British aircraft carrier. At a glance, it was at least twenty thousand tons. And not far from this aircraft carrier was also moored a huge battleship. This was also the main reason why Prien had chosen to attack here first.

“Aim for the target!” Prien commanded, his eyes pressed to the sight, focused on his target, and he softly gave the first command.

“Torpedoes ready!” the torpedo operator replied.

“Bow torpedo tubes number 1, 3, and 4, prepare!” Prien continued.

“Torpedoes 1, 3, and 4!” the torpedo operator echoed.

“Fire!” Prien shouted his first attack command of the day.

“Fire!” The torpedo operator pressed the electric button to fire the torpedoes.

“Thump!” Everyone inside the boat heard the sound of the submarine firing its torpedoes. With a shudder and a noise, three torpedoes, trailing bubbles, shot out from the front of the U-boat U-211 and, under the dark night sky, sped toward their targets.