Chương 316: Chapter 393 Operation Starvation (16)
Besides the captured American pilots, the German Foreign Ministry also issued another statement demanding the United States cooperate in the investigation of the attack on Dr. Albert. The Foreign Minister, Ribbentrop, used quite strong wording, almost explicitly accusing the United States of revealing Dr. Albert's whereabouts to the British, leading to his assassination.
Dr. Albert is a towering figure in the scientific community, widely respected by scientists around the world; if the United States is proven to be involved in the attack on Dr. Albert, the consequences are unimaginable.
This series of events has left Roosevelt extremely troubled, facing difficulties both domestically and internationally.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the transport convoy that fled to British waters like homeless dogs encountered a minefield again, a few dozen kilometers from the port.
Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions rang out, and Hubert was on the verge of tears, even contemplating death. The mines in this field were denser, and within just two minutes, more than a dozen transport ships had struck mines and began to sink slowly.
Fortunately, this time they were closer to the port, which quickly dispatched a fleet of minesweepers to clear the mines. Most of the mines now are anchor mines, and the minesweepers use a sweeping cable equipped with cutters, resembling open scissors with very hard blades and fitted with a balance board to keep the sweep horizontal and the cutting edge facing outward. When the minesweeper ship drags the sweeping gear forward, if it encounters the cable of an anchor mine, the sweeping gear will cut the cable, causing the mine to float to the surface. If it cannot cut the cable, it can also drag the mine to the surface and then destroy it.
After being busy for half a day, they destroyed dozens of mines and barely cleared a channel wide enough for one cargo ship to pass through.
"Damn it, how many mines did these Germans lay?" On one of the minesweepers, the sailor John leaned against the ship's side, exhausted, and couldn't help but curse.
Another sailor chimed in. "There must be hundreds of mines in this area, enough to keep us busy for a while." The most disgusting thing is, it's not over once we clear all the mines here; we clear mines during the day, and the Germans lay them at night, probably until the end of the war!
As they spoke, a cargo ship that looked to be seven or eight thousand tons slowly entered the channel. Indeed, "slowly," as the cargo ship, loaded to its limit, moved so slowly it gave the impression of an old man's faltering steps. The sailors on the minesweeper watched, wishing they could push it along, but what they cared about more was hoping the cargo ship could safely pass through the minefield.
"Come on, hurry up!" In anxious waiting, the cargo ship had covered half the distance. John silently cheered it on, and then the cargo ship sounded its horn, saluting the minesweepers on both sides with a robust horn sound.
Boom!
A large column of water shot up from the bottom of the cargo ship, as if cutting the ship in half. The column of water seemed to pause in mid-air for a second before crashing back down onto the sea, causing waves that reached the nearby minesweepers, making the relatively small minesweepers toss about like leaves on the waves.
John quickly grabbed the ship's rail to steady himself, staring in shock as the midsection of the massive cargo ship visibly deformed at a speed visible to the naked eye; the heart-wrenching sound of twisting steel made the sailors on the surrounding minesweepers squint involuntarily. It was clear that the underwater explosion had damaged the cargo ship's keel, and seawater was pouring into the lower chambers of the hull.
John realized that the ship probably wouldn't last even ten minutes before sinking to the seabed. The sailors on the cargo ship seemed to have the same thought, as they jumped into the icy sea one after another, like dumplings being dropped into water.
"Quick, save them!" John shouted while grabbing a tire hanging on the outside of the ship's stringer and throwing it out, his arms circling the tire. The other crew members also threw life-saving equipment into the water.
The body of the cargo ship gradually broke apart, with the midsection that was directly hit by the explosion already submerged, and the rear of the ship tilting upward, exposing the now-stopped propeller above the water. A large amount of steam then spewed out from the chimney, indicating that the steam pipes of the boiler had ruptured. Subsequently, due to the breaking of the cables, the chimney bent under its own weight and crashed into the water.
The sailors in the water swam even harder to get away. When a large ship sinks, the water around the hull will follow it down, creating a large vortex that sucks in nearby objects. The larger the ship, the larger the vortex. For a ship of this tonnage, once caught in the vortex, it would be difficult to escape and they could only sink to the seabed with the ship.
Fortunately, there were minesweepers nearby, which came over and began to rescue the sailors at sea.
In a short while, the cargo ship completely disappeared from the surface of the sea, leaving only some oil stains to indicate it had once existed.
"Damn it!" John couldn't help but curse loudly. "What the hell is going on! We clearly cleared all the mines, and we didn't see any periscopes from submarines! What are the Germans using to attack us?"
What they didn't know was that the Germans had laid not only traditional anchor mines but also acoustic mines.
This is a type of mine equipped with an acoustic fuse, also known as an acoustic mine. Mines that operate using sound signals are non-contact fuses, referred to as acoustic fuses for mines. Depending on the source of the sound signal, acoustic fuses can be divided into passive and active types. Passive acoustic fuses are a type of non-contact fuse that is triggered by external sounds. Active acoustic fuses emit sound waves themselves, and when a ship passes nearby, the change in the echo signal received by the fuse causes the mine to explode.
At this moment, the captain of the cargo ship, who was rescued onto the minesweeper, started cursing loudly. "How the hell did you sweep for mines? You caused my ship to sink!!"
The sailors on the minesweeper were immediately upset. They had worked hard to sweep mines all day, and now they were being scolded; no one could stand such treatment, and they immediately cursed back. The verbal fight quickly escalated into a physical altercation, with the minesweeper sailors and the cargo ship sailors wrestling with each other, creating a very chaotic scene; it wasn't until the captain of the minesweeper came over and pulled them apart that everyone calmed down a bit.
At that time, a buzzing sound faintly came from the sky, and everyone looked up to see a small black shadow slowly flying across the clear blue sky. "Damn it, it's a German reconnaissance plane! It's dangerous for us to stay here." That reconnaissance plane would surely report the situation here; whether the enemy sends bombers or submarines, it's quite dangerous for the transport fleet to continue staying here.
Hubert was also acutely aware of the seriousness of the situation. Any delay and the few remaining ships in the transport fleet might be completely lost. But the explosion of that cargo ship made him hesitate, unable to believe that there was only one that slipped through. After hesitating for a while, he had no choice but to take a detour. After losing a few more transport ships, they finally left the minefield and entered the port.
Thus, of the nearly 200 transport ships that set out from Canada, only about 20 remained when they reached the British port, a heavy loss indeed.
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