Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Chapter 393: Operation Hunger (16)

In addition to the captured American pilot, the German Foreign Ministry also issued another statement asking the United States to cooperate in the investigation of the attack on Dr. Albert. Foreign Minister Ribbentrop's words were quite strong, and he almost named him and said that it was the United States that revealed Dr. Albert's whereabouts to the British, which led to his death.

Dr. Albert is a leading figure in the scientific community and is widely respected by scientists all over the world. If the United States is found to be involved in the attack on Dr. Albert, the consequences will be really disastrous.

This series of events left Roosevelt in dire straits and in trouble both internally and externally.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the transport formation that fled to British waters like a bereaved dog encountered a minefield again more than 20 kilometers away from the port.

boom! boom!

Explosions sounded one after another. Hubert was on the verge of tears and even wanted to die. This time, the mines in the minefield were more dense. In just two minutes, more than a dozen transport ships hit the mines one after another and began to sink slowly.

Fortunately, we were closer to the port this time, and the port quickly dispatched a minesweeper formation to clear the mines. Most of the current mines are anchor mines. The minesweeping cable used by minesweepers is equipped with a cutter on the steel cable. The cutter is like an open scissor. The blade is very hard and equipped with a balance plate to keep it level during mine clearing. And make the knife edge open outward. When the minesweeper drags the minesweeper forward, once it encounters the mine cable, the minesweeper will cause the mine cable to enter the knife edge and be cut off, and the anchor mine will surface. If the mine cable cannot be cut off, the mine can also be dragged to the water surface. , and then destroyed.

After working for most of the day, they destroyed dozens of mines and barely cleared a channel for a cargo ship to pass.

"Damn, how many mines have these Germans laid?" On a minesweeper, sailor John leaned tiredly on the side of the ship and couldn't help but curse.

The sailor next to him continued. "I'm afraid there are hundreds of mines in this area, which will keep us busy for a while." The most disgusting thing is that it's not just about clearing the mines here. They mine mines during the day, and the Germans come to mine them at night. I'm afraid that before the war is over, It will be like this endlessly!

As he spoke, a cargo ship that seemed to weigh seven or eight thousand tons slowly entered the channel. It was indeed "slow." This cargo ship, with its displacement reaching its limit, was so slow that it gave people the feeling of an old man stumbling. The sailors on the minesweeper looked like they wanted to push forward, but what they cared more about was hoping that the freighter could pass through the minefield safely.

"Come on, hurry up!" While waiting anxiously, the freighter had already traveled half the distance, and John silently gave it more strength. At this time, the freighter blew its whistle and saluted the minesweepers on both sides with its powerful whistle.

boom!

A thick column of water rose into the sky from the bottom of the freighter, as if cutting the freighter in half. The water column seemed to pause in mid-air for a second before slamming back to the sea, causing waves to reach the nearby minesweepers. The minesweeper, which was not very large in tonnage, was bumping in the waves like a leaf.

John quickly grabbed the side of the ship to steady himself, watching in amazement that the middle part of the huge cargo ship was deforming at a speed visible to the naked eye; the heart-wrenching sound of the steel twisting made the sailors on the surrounding minesweepers involuntarily narrow their eyes. . It was obvious that the underwater explosion just now had destroyed the keel of the freighter, and seawater was pouring into the lower compartment of the hull.

John saw that the ship might not be able to hold on for even ten minutes and would sink to the bottom of the sea. The sailors on the freighter apparently had the same idea, and jumped into the cold seawater like dumplings.

"Hurry up and save people!" John shouted loudly as he picked up the tire hanging on the outside of the ship's string. When the wheel became round, he threw it out with his arm. The other crew members also threw the life-saving supplies on the ship into the water.

The cargo ship's hull was gradually broken. The middle part hit directly by the explosion wave was submerged underwater. The rear of the hull was tilted up, and the stalled propeller was exposed out of the water. Immediately afterwards, a large amount of steam spurted out from the chimney. It seemed that the steam pipe of the boiler had ruptured. Then, because the pulling cable broke, the chimney bent under its own neutrality and fell into the water.

The sailors in the water swam out harder. When the ship sank, the water around the hull would sink with the hull, forming a large vortex, sucking in the surrounding things. The larger the ship, the larger the vortex. Once the vortex generated by a ship of this tonnage gets involved, it is difficult for them to escape and they can only sink to the bottom of the sea with the ship.

Fortunately, there were minesweepers nearby, and they rushed over and began to salvage the sailors from the sea.

After a while, the cargo ship completely disappeared on the sea, leaving only some oil stains to show that it once existed.

"Damn it!" John couldn't help but curse loudly. "What's going on! We have clearly cleared all the mines, and we didn't see the submarine's periscope! What on earth are the Germans using to attack us?"

What they didn't know was that Germany had laid not only traditional anchor mines, but also acoustic mines.

This is a type of mine equipped with an acoustic fuze, also known as a sonic mine. The non-triggering mine fuze that uses acoustic signals to operate is called a mine acoustic fuze. According to the different sources of acoustic signals, acoustic fuzes can be divided into passive acoustic fuzes and active acoustic fuzes. Passive acoustic fuze is a suitable non-trigger fuze. Active acoustic fuzes rely on the fuze itself to emit sound waves. When a ship passes near it, the echo signal received by the fuze changes, causing the mine to explode.

At this time, the captain of the cargo ship who rescued the minesweeper started yelling. "How did you bastards clear mines? My ship sank!!"

The sailors on the minesweeper immediately stopped working. They worked hard for a long time to clear mines, but in the end they were pointed at their noses and scolded. Who could bear this anger, so they immediately scolded them back. The scolding soon escalated into a fight. The minesweeper sailor and the cargo ship sailor struggled with each other. The scene was very chaotic for a time. It was not until the captain of the minesweeper came over and pulled them apart that everyone calmed down a little.

At this time, there was a faint buzzing sound in the sky. Everyone raised their heads and saw a small black shadow flying slowly in the blue sky. "Damn it, it's a German reconnaissance plane! It's very dangerous for us to stay here." That reconnaissance plane will definitely spread the news about the situation here; regardless of whether the other party sends bombers or submarines, it is very dangerous for the transport fleet to continue to stay here.

Hubert is also well aware of the seriousness of this matter. If there is a slight delay, the few remaining transportation formations may be completely wiped out. But the explosion on the cargo ship just now made him hesitant, and he couldn't believe that only one fish slipped through the net. After hesitating for a long time, they had no choice but to take a detour. After losing several more transport ships, they left the minefield and sailed into the port.

In this way, of the nearly 200 transport fleets departing from Canada, only about 20 ships were left when they arrived at the British port, which can be said to be a heavy loss.

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