s: Asking for votes at the beginning of the month For a period of time after the war, many military fans wondered why the German submarines were so awesome and noisy.
After the Chinese fleet joined the escort, there was no movement at all.
Even after October 1919, there was no movement at all.
Strictly speaking, there are many reasons for this, but one of the very important reasons is that the Chinese navy's anti-submarine capabilities are too formidable, causing heavy casualties to the German submarine force and being unable to bear the losses.
One of the parties involved at the time, Captain Karl Dönitz, the captain of the U68 submarine, wrote a memoir after the war that recorded his experience in the Atlantic War.
The Atlantic War I Experienced, we may roughly be able to tell two things from this book: How Tokko's submarine was beaten to tears.
An excerpt from my experience of the Atlantic War is as follows: The war has entered its fifth year, and the international environment is gradually becoming unfavorable to our empire.
Yes, it is because the United States and China, the two former neutral countries and the two largest industrial countries in the world, have become increasingly worse since they joined our hostile camp.
Since the United States entered the war, our material imports have decreased a lot, but at that time we still had China as a big supplier.
The Eurasian Railway is really a good thing.
With it, we can still obtain a large amount of goods even without the Atlantic route. supplies.
The Chinese, like Americans, are very good at doing business.
As long as they are paid, they will sell anything.
The empire has received a huge amount of supplies through trade with China, not to mention civilian supplies, ranging from food, clothes, household appliances to medicines.
The same goes for military supplies, ranging from light weapons such as pistols, rifles, submachine guns, and machine guns to heavy weapons such as tanks, artillery weapons, aircraft, and ammunition of various calibers.
Even our navy has ordered many light ships and submarines from China, including two cruisers, the heavily mined cruisers Pillau and Elbing, which made great achievements in Jutland.
Of course this was before the war.
After the outbreak of the European War, our navy's purchases in China basically stopped.
Only the purchase of some submarines can still be carried out because the sea routes were blocked by the United Kingdom and surface ships could not return to the country.
In addition, there is a very small torpedo boat.
They are called S16 torpedo boats in the Imperial Navy, but in private, we are more accustomed to calling them "trout".
"Trout" has a full load displacement of only 50 tons, a length of less than 25 meters, and a width of more than 6 meters.
They were small enough to fit on a train car, and with the hull and superstructure separated, three flatbeds could transport two torpedo boats.
Of course, it must be a broad-gauge train like China.
If it is a train of imperial standards, it cannot be transported.
Fortunately, the Eurasian railway is built according to Chinese standards, and even more fortunately, it runs all the way to the port of Hamburg.
The torpedo boats we bought from China were sent to the Port of Hamburg through this railway.
This kind of small torpedo boat has a unique feature and is very easy to identify, because their entire hull and part of the superstructure are made of aluminum alloy.
It is incredible.
Aluminum, a metal that was more expensive than gold during the Franco-Prussian War, was actually used Used to build ships.
I don’t know what the Chinese people think.
Anyway, my colleagues and I were very surprised.
Of course, aluminum is not that expensive now, but it seems to cost about 7,000 marks per ton.
Translator's Note: At that time, 100 marks cost 47 Chinese yuan.
It must be admitted that China and the United States are probably the only two companies in the world that can use aluminum to build ships.
Even if cost is not taken into account, the aluminum production in other countries is not enough to be allowed to be used to build ships, even this small ship.
"Trout" is small, but its performance is very good.
It is equipped with 4 torpedo launch tubes, which can launch four 600mm torpedoes at the same time.
This kind of torpedo tube from China is very interesting.
Its inner diameter can be adjusted.
Just by replacing different inner tubes, it can launch torpedoes with calibers from 600 mm to 450 mm.
I think this is a great design.
In addition to torpedoes, it also has a 20mm machine gun and a 13mm anti-aircraft machine gun.
There are two depth charge rails behind it, which can carry 8 depth charges.
The weapons I mentioned are only its original equipment.
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After we get the "Trout", we usually install various weapons on it according to our own usage habits and mission needs, from the 8mm Maxim to the 57mm short There are both pipes and cannons.
The most amazing thing about the Trout is its speed.
Because it uses a hydroplaning hull instead of a traditional displacement hull, it is very fast.
It can reach an astonishing speed of 40 knots, just like flying.
The Imperial Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy bought a lot of this excellent small ship.
The Italians, Turks and Poles also liked this small but powerful ship, and almost all the navies of the Allied Powers purchased it.
After the war, I even heard that the navies of at least 20 countries had purchased such ships.
But I know it's not cheap, so the Chinese came out with a cheap version using cheap steel instead of aluminum.
I also heard that the Japanese also made a cheaper wooden-shell version of the Trout, which sounded like a good idea, but unfortunately, the Japanese underestimated the huge water pressure caused by high speeds. , their wooden-shell "trout" simply did not dare to drive above 33 knots, otherwise it would disintegrate.
Ironically, the torpedo boats sold by the Chinese also brought them a lot of trouble.
On June 17, 1919, the Italian Navy used a whole fleet of original Chinese "Trout" to deal a heavy blow to the Allied fleet.
At that time, the Allied fleet was attacking the Bay of Taranto.
The Italians ambush the torpedo boats in the harbor and used camouflage nets.
Covered, it evaded Allied aerial reconnaissance.
It was so small that it could be easily hidden.
Subsequently, the Allied fleet was ambushed by Italian torpedo boats.
Because the distance was too close, the Allies had no time to react.
China's Fuxi and Nuwa were at the front.
They suffered the most attacks.
They were hit by at least 10 torpedoes and were almost sunk on the spot.
The most unlucky ones were the British.
They sank three pre-dreadnoughts and severely damaged two.
Later, the Chinese spent a lot of effort to repair these two unlucky super-dreadnoughts, but it seemed that the damage was so fundamental that they could never be restored to their best condition.
Therefore, they withdrew from the front line after the war and were used as training ships.
It was transformed into a battleship museum.
The Chinese's weapons design and manufacturing levels are quite high, not inferior to those of the empire.
It's hard to imagine that this country was so weak that it couldn't even defeat Japan 20 years ago.
I don’t know much about the equipment of the Army and Air Force, but our Navy has adopted a large number of Chinese designs and ideas, and even directly purchased finished weapons.
The "Trout" torpedo boat I mentioned earlier is just one of them, and we purchase the largest amount.
The most important thing is submarines.
We have purchased nearly 200 submarines in China, and even more have purchased production licenses.
For example, my submarine No.
U68 is an authentic Chinese product.
The Chinese call it Type 901.
After arriving in the empire, this submarine was named Type U21 by the Navy Ministry.
I like these submarines very much, and honestly I think they are the best submarines in the world, bar none.
The Imperial Navy relied on this advanced submarine to achieve unimaginable results, and once almost completely suffocated Britain.
Although the Imperial Submarine Force is not as prestigious as the High Seas Fleet, I think our contribution to the Empire is no worse than that of the High Seas Fleet.
Thanks to the hard work of the officers and soldiers of our submarine force, we achieved a total of more than 38 million tons of results during the entire war, sinking nearly 10,000 merchant ships and more than 400 warships.
Just the U68 submarine under my command achieved a result of 155,000 tons before being sunk.
Among the imperial submarines, our results were not the best, and we were not even ranked in the top ten.
But we are honored to have achieved the result of sinking the dreadnought.
I think this will be the pride of my life.
But after March 1919, our submarine force encountered the greatest crisis.
The Chinese Navy entered the war.
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Since they entered the war, the losses of the imperial submarine force have been increasing day by day.
In December 1918, the empire had nearly 600 submarines.
By June, before I was captured and during the last sortie of this world war, the Empire had only 250 submarines left.
By October, our loss of submarines had reached a staggering level.
Our productivity could no longer keep up with the losses, and the lost officers and soldiers could not be replaced.
In the end, the Navy had to cancel the submarine engagement.
Of course, during this time I was already in a Chinese prisoner of war camp.
On June 2, 1919, we received the sortie mission.
That afternoon, my submarine U68 sailed out of Kiel Naval Base together with other submarines.
The Submarine Command informed us that another large merchant fleet from the Allied Powers has left New York, USA.
Their destination is France and the United Kingdom.
Our task is to kill them.
We weren't as excited about this mission as we had been.
Since last year, the anti-submarine capabilities of the Allied Powers have become more and more powerful, and we have an additional powerful enemy aircraft.
Although I like submarines very much, I am also very aware of the weaknesses of submarines.
Our submarines have almost no power to fight back against opponents in the sky such as aircraft.
Since the United States put a large number of aircraft into escort, the good old days are no longer the same.
With planes watching from the sky, it will be difficult for us to find opportunities to attack.
Instead, we will be discovered accidentally, and the losses will be much greater than before.
But that's not the most unfortunate thing.
I have always believed that the participation of the Chinese Navy in the war was the biggest factor that truly caused the Imperial submarine force to withdraw from the war.
Beginning in March 1919, after the Chinese Navy joined the escort mission, the Imperial submarine force suffered unimaginable losses, and its combat results also dropped significantly.
The results in April were less than 400,000 tons, but we lost 38 submarines.
In May, the situation became even worse.
Our military's results further dropped to 200,000 tons, but we lost 59 submarines, and as many as 112 submarines were damaged.
One-third of them were seriously damaged and may never be used again.
Mission accomplished.
This kind of exchange ratio is really unsatisfactory.
The battles in the past few months reflect the power of the Chinese Navy's anti-submarine capabilities.
The most terrifying thing about them is that they can discover and find us at night, and the night can no longer provide us with security.
Before this, the Naval Staff and we privately discussed repeatedly how the Chinese found us.
The Naval Intelligence Department also spent a lot of effort to understand this, but unfortunately they had no clue.
Although we had cooperation and technical exchanges with the Chinese Navy before the war, it was obvious that they did not have this capability before the war.
A staff member of the Naval Staff put forward a conjecture.
He believed that the Chinese had invented a more advanced underwater listening device that could detect and locate our submarines through their noise.
This kind of device is not uncommon.
We also have similar devices, which were invented before the war, but it can only detect whether there are submarines and ships nearby, and their general direction.
Imperial submarines are all equipped with this kind of underwater listening device. , but it is unable to locate the exact location of the sound source, because it is difficult to distinguish the exact distance and depth of underwater sounds, and it often malfunctions and often gives false alarms.
If his conjecture is true, then the Chinese are far ahead of the empire in this area of technology.
After the war, I learned that not only China has this kind of equipment, but also the United Kingdom and the United States and other countries.
I can’t know the specific performance, but it is definitely not as good as similar products in China.
This can be seen from our losses.
None of us captains had much hope for this mission.
After blessing each other, we set sail for the Atlantic Ocean.
Although I was mentally prepared for sacrifice, I didn't expect failure to come so quickly.
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On the night of June 12, we arrived 200 kilometers north of the Azores, waiting for this fleet numbered w15.
Because of previous experiences and lessons, our location is relatively far away from the main routes, about 50 kilometers or more.
In order to avoid the patrol aircraft of the Allied Powers, we did not float up during the day and kept our snorkels suspended underwater.
At about 6:20 a.m., the listener said that there were suddenly several huge explosions coming from our port side, which were underwater, and there were no ships on the water at this time.
I almost immediately thought that this was an Allied aircraft that had discovered us, and the explosion just now was a depth charge dropped by them.
I quickly ordered to put away the snorkel and dive, leaving my current position at full speed.
Then there were four more explosions behind us, loud enough that I could hear them without the listener telling me.
At 6:45, we drove about 7 kilometers.
At this time, there were no unusual sounds nearby.
I ordered the car to stop and float to the height of the periscope.
I kept thinking later that if I had made the decision not to just retreat, but to continue to retreat, my fate might have been different.
I was just about to raise the periscope when the listener suddenly said that I heard a strange sound.
I didn't understand what he meant.
I felt a sudden violent vibration in the submarine, and at the same time a huge explosion sounded, and almost all of us fell down.
Our submarine was like a sausage tumbling in a soup pot, unable to stand at all.
Soon, the damage control reported to me that there was a big hole on the port side, a lot of water was entering, and there were many breaches in the pressure tank.
At the same time, the power cabin also reported to me that a large number of batteries were damaged and poisonous gas was spreading.
To make matters worse, the main power supply was also damaged.
In this case, I had no choice but to close the battery compartment and continue to float.
Fortunately, we had already reached the height of the periscope.
We raised the snorkel manually, started the diesel engine, and spent a lot of effort to drain the ballast water. , floated to the sea.
Now our U68 has lost the ability to dive.
When we opened the sealed door and went out, we saw a dozen planes circling above us.
After they discovered us, two planes swooped down and fired machine guns at the sea near us.
I know this is a warning and an urging for us to surrender.
I can see the bombs under their belly.
At the same time, I also saw clearly the emblems on their wings, which were Chinese carrier-based aircraft.
In this case we had no choice but to surrender.
Our seriously injured submarine could not escape the pursuit of more than a dozen aircraft.
We did our best.
We raised the white flag, and about half an hour later, two Chinese destroyers came and picked us up.
I was the last one to board the ship.
Before boarding the ship, I opened the sea valve of U68 and personally sent this old companion that had been with me for three years to the bottom of the sea.
Some people may say that it was originally made by the Chinese, and the Chinese must know it better than we do, so there is no use taking it away.
But it is already the property of the empire.
We can surrender, but we cannot hand over the empire's property to the enemy.
I was later sent to a prisoner of war camp in Djibouti, which the Chinese renamed "Yanqiu," which means burning mountain.
The Chinese are very civilized and strictly implement the Geneva Convention.
They do not treat us prisoners of war in any way and certainly do not receive preferential treatment.
If we are healthy, we must participate in labor every day.
Only those with military rank of lieutenant colonel or above are exempted.
Unfortunately, I was only a captain at the time and was not injured, so I had to go to the construction site every day.
The Chinese regard us as road construction workers and let us prisoners of war build a road here.
It is a railway to Ethiopia, with a 2500 mm gauge with Chinese characteristics.
Here I once again experienced the scientific and technological strength of the Chinese.
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They used a large number of construction machinery and giant airships on the construction site.
At this time, I received a small preferential treatment as an officer.
Lieutenant Colonel Wang Xinren, the commander of the prisoner of war camp, summoned our group of German officers and asked us if we would like to learn to operate construction machinery.
He said that there is a shortage of operators here.
If we Learn, if you will, so that we don't have to do the simplest physical labor like those soldiers and black people.
Yes, they had many black prisoners of war here, mainly from the East African Corps.
It can be seen that General Vorbeck's situation was very bad, otherwise so many black soldiers would not have been captured.
Of course I am willing to learn to operate construction machinery.
After all, I am also an imperial officer.
I am confident in my IQ and knowledge.
I stayed in this prisoner-of-war camp for 10 months and learned how to operate various construction machinery such as excavators, shovels, road rollers, and cranes, as well as drive vehicles.
Later, before returning to China, the political commissar of the prisoner-of-war camp Chen Kaopu The lieutenant colonel gave me a stack of certificates, which were qualification certificates and driving licenses for various construction machinery.
He joked that if I retire, I can go to work in China with these documents.
I thought it was a joke at the time.
However, after the war, I did go to China, of course not to operate construction machinery: