Chapter 305: Chapter 382 Operation Starvation (6)
The so-called "Empire on which the sun never sets" refers to an empire whose colonies are spread across all twenty-four time zones of the world, ensuring that there is always some part of its territory basked in sunlight.
The United Kingdom was not the first to be bestowed with the title of the "Empire on which the sun never sets"; that honor belonged to Spain. It was only after defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588 that Britain replaced Spain as the emerging world superpower.
By the early 19th century, during the Victorian era, the British Empire reached its zenith. Nearly a quarter of the world's population of about 500 million people, around 120 million, were subjects of the British Empire. The territory covered approximately 33.67 million square kilometers, accounting for a quarter of the world's total land area, with colonies in Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
The famous 19th-century British economist Jevons described it thus: "The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields; Canada and the Baltic coast are our timberlands; Australia is our pasture; Peru is our silver mine; South Africa and Australia are our gold mines; India and some other country are our tea plantations; the East Indies are our sugar, coffee, and spice plantations; the southern United States is our cotton plantation." Such was the splendor and power.
The resources of these colonies were all transported to the homeland via maritime routes. It can be said that each maritime route was an artery of the British Empire, a lifeline related to the survival or demise of the empire. Once these lifelines were cut, extinction was not far off.
"We shall never surrender! Britain will never surrender! The Germans are trying to annihilate us, but their plots will never succeed! The ultimate victor will still be the British Empire!" Churchill was broadcasting on the radio, delivering an inspiring speech with fervor.
Of course, no matter how eloquent he was in front of the microphone, the situation he faced was still not optimistic. After all, hiding every day in a dark underground air-raid shelter can lead to despair.
It was already difficult to see any figures on the streets of London because the V3 cannon had an almost uncertain hit rate. Even the Germans didn't know where the shells would land, let alone the British. Perhaps as you walk down the street, a shell might land in front of you and blast you into the sky. Or a shell might pierce the roof of your house and land beside your pillow while you sleep.
Under such circumstances, what morale could there be to speak of?
Fortunately, when the Germans said they would bomb London, they did just that, and the surrounding towns were not much affected. Those with connections were all trying to leave the city and flee to the countryside. Many wealthy people were fleeing to the northern regions, heading to Liverpool, hoping to get a boat ticket there, a ticket to Canada.
This kind of escape was akin to smuggling, as the British government explicitly prohibited civilians from fleeing abroad. However, since it was only those with the means who could make it to Liverpool, not many people cared about those so-called prohibitions.
Just as Churchill was trying to rally the already despondent British people, somewhere in the North Atlantic...
Half-submerged, with only the conning tower visible above the water, Captain Joachim Schepke of the U-100 submarine lay on the bridge peering through the periscope at the distant, massive convoy, contemplating how to devour this enormous target.
Due to the increasing ferocity of German submarines, the British organized their returning transport ships from Canada into large convoys, escorted by destroyers, cruisers, and even battlecruisers, in an attempt to mitigate their losses.
The German attacks never ceased, but even the formidable wolfpacks couldn't swallow so many ships at once. Although each convoy suffered heavy losses, some ships always managed to survive and deliver supplies to the British mainland to support the war effort.
Watching the transport convoy gradually recede into the distance, Joachim turned and loudly ordered inside the cabin.
"Launch torpedo number four!"
The first officer inside repeated his command loudly. "Launch torpedo number four!"
At that moment, the submarine was at least 15,000 meters away from the transport convoy; during World War II, the range of commonly used German torpedoes rarely exceeded 10,000 meters.
Joachim ordered the launch of the torpedo because they were equipped with a new type of torpedo.
To increase the range and power of a torpedo, it must carry more fuel and explosives, which inevitably increases the torpedo's own volume, affecting its flexible use and thus failing to bring out the power of the torpedo, resulting in a counterproductive outcome.
To increase the travel distance with a fixed torpedo volume, the best solution is to use a more powerful and efficient propeller; hence, the "wet-heater torpedo" was developed.
From the early 20th century, torpedo experts from many countries were mobilized to complete the research on "wet-heater torpedoes." However, they soon abandoned the development of this "fantasy" weapon one after another.
The reason is simple—the propulsion principle of the "wet-heater torpedo" involves compressed oxygen from a tank entering the combustion chamber and mixing thoroughly with the fuel, hence also known as the "oxygen-powered torpedo." As is well known, oxygen is a very dangerous gas, and combustion caused by pure oxygen in a confined space can easily turn into a deadly explosion.
This "fiery temper" became the biggest technical challenge in the development of oxygen torpedoes. During the process of developing oxygen torpedoes, serious explosion accidents occurred in various countries, causing many technicians who pursued the dream of a super torpedo to perish.
After repeated setbacks, many countries abandoned the development of oxygen torpedoes, but the Eastern nation of Japan persisted. However, they faced the same dilemma as other countries—finding a way to safely burn pure oxygen inside the torpedo.
But an accidental incident gave the tormented torpedo technicians a glimmer of hope. In 1931, during a fleet review held at sea in Yokohama, an explosion occurred in the gasoline storage of the seaplane carrier "Notoro." While researching preventive measures, it was discovered that using a gasoline anti-explosive agent had a good effect. This caught the attention of the torpedo design department. In previous oxygen torpedo experiments, once the air contained more than 25% oxygen, it was prone to explosion. What would happen if a gasoline anti-explosive agent was added?
They then observed an interesting phenomenon: igniting a mixture of oxygen and atomized petroleum would cause an explosion; however, igniting petroleum and then blowing in pure oxygen would not. This discovery was great news for the research department. Once this was understood, the remaining problems were no longer difficult.
In early 1932, the first experiment was conducted. Researchers first introduced air into the combustion chamber, then sprayed atomized petroleum and ignited it, followed by blowing in pure oxygen. Although this caused intense combustion, it did not induce an explosion, which greatly boosted the researchers' confidence.
In the second experiment, they used a mixture of 50% oxygen and 50% air (with oxygen and nitrogen ratios of 63.5% and 35.5%, respectively) to create a compressed gas with a pressure of 195 kilograms per square centimeter, which was introduced into the combustion chamber for ignition. Then, they gradually increased the purity of the oxygen to achieve pure oxygen combustion. The structural strength of the combustion chamber was also enhanced with the increase in oxygen content, and its volume was enlarged. The experiment went surprisingly smoothly, with stable fuel combustion and no explosions.
In the following days, despite some difficulties and setbacks, the technicians continued to refine technical details, such as the problem of delivering a mixture of oxygen and air into the combustion chamber. They added a small starter combustion chamber (about 50 liters in volume) next to the oxygen tank, where the oxygen was first mixed with air before entering the main combustion chamber to mix and burn with atomized kerosene.
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