Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Leaving the Brooklyn base, Tiger Shark submarines wander along the coastline in search of prey. Kretschmer saw from the periscope that the Americans had no defensive measures on the coastline. Oil ships and cargo ships were busy shuttling in the harbor. On the radio, he could hear the captains talking casually about the direction of navigation and the position of the ships on the clear radio.

"These idiots are really looking for death." Compared to Germany's sense of precaution, these Americans seemed as if nothing had happened.

In December 1941 in the original time and space, Germany, which had been cheated by its pig teammates, could only declare war on the United States. In mid-December, Dönitz decided to send five Type IX ocean-going submarines across the Atlantic to the coast of the United States for a six-week combat cruise. Dönitz summoned the five captains to his office to explain the mission in person. They were Captain Heinrich Bleichroedt, captain of U-109, Captain Ulrich Fuchs, captain of U-125, Captain Reinhard Hardgen, captain of U-123, Major Ernst Karls, captain of U-130, and Major Richard Chap, captain of U-66.

Dönitz asked the captains not to attack any ship before arriving at the scheduled combat position, unless the target tonnage exceeded 10,000 tons, because they wanted to avoid being discovered by the Allies and achieve a surprise attack as much as possible. Dönitz was convinced that the United States' coastal defenses were still disorganized and disorganized, and he wanted the captains to create the greatest possible sensation. He named the operation "Drumming."

The five submarines set sail one after another. On January 14, 1942, they arrived at the scheduled location. With a radio wave coming from the French coast, the drums of death began to sound on the seabed of the East Coast of the United States.

Just as Dönitz expected, his Sea Wolves set off a sinking spree along the east coast of the United States.

On January 13, Major Karls' U-130 sank the Norwegian cargo ship "Frisco" in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Eight hours later, the Panamanian cargo ship "Friar Rocco" was hit by a U-130 in the same waters. 130 attacked and sunk. Hardegen continued to increase his sinking record. In the early morning of January 14, U-123 sank the 9,600-ton oil tanker "Nornis" by surface attack about 60 nautical miles away from Motauk Point, Long Island.

That night, Hardgen boldly directed the submarine close to the entrance to New York Bay. Horst von Schlueter, who was serving as a lookout at the time, described: "We could see the cars speeding along the coast road, and I could even smell the forest. Smell." Hardgen also reported his impression: "In short, they were defenseless...after all, the war was going on. In front of me was a brightly lit coastline, and near Coney Island, we could see To the Ferris wheel and the carousel. All the ships were sailing with lights on and all kinds of nautical lights twinkling on the water, which to me was just incredible."

On January 15, Hardegan sank the oil tanker "Coimbra", and on January 17 he sank the cargo ship "San Jose". Major Chap's U-66 ended the life of the oil tanker "Aaron Jackson" on January 18. Soon another oil tanker and three cargo ships became the prey of this sea wolf.

On January 19, U-123 sank three merchant ships and damaged one in a daylight attack. According to previous combat habits, Hadgen originally planned to sit on the bottom of the sea during the day and surface at night to attack, but he found that it was completely unnecessary here because the U.S. coast was simply undefended. The carnage continued, and U-130 sank the oil tanker Alexander Hog in the waters south of Cape Breton. It sank two more cargo ships and four oil tankers before returning to France.

Zap's U-66 destroyed one oil tanker and three cargo ships, and Captain Bleichroedt's U-109 sank the Canadian oil tanker "Montrollite" and three cargo ships. On January 19, Hardegan's U-123 attacked the oil tanker "Malay" with its final torpedo in the waters near Cape May, New Jersey, but failed to sink the target. The "Malay" later returned with injuries. port.

Because the torpedoes were exhausted, U-123 began to return to the French base. On the way back, it used artillery to sink the 3,000-ton cargo ship "Culebra".

When the first five submarines participating in Operation "Drumming" returned from hunting, 23 merchant ships had sunk to the bottom of the sea on the east coast of the United States, with a total tonnage of 150,000 tons! Among them, Hadgen's record was the most outstanding. U-123 sank a total of 9 ships during this trip, totaling 50,766 tons. Dönitz was overjoyed and sent a congratulatory message to U-123: "To the drummer Hadgen: Well done! You play the drum well." Soon, a Knight's Cross was hung on Hadgen's neck. superior.

The strange thing is that in the past, Americans had been listening to and reading about the developments of the war from the radio and newspapers. Now that the war has reached their own doorsteps, not only are they not afraid, but they are dragging their families and driving cars to the beach and to the coastline. Use binoculars to watch the battle. At night, countless car lights illuminate the ships traveling on the sea, which is equivalent to pointing out the target for the submarine, and unintentionally becoming an accomplice of the German submarine.

After that, more Type IX and Type VII submarines arrived on the east coast. By May, they sank 397 ships of all types in one go, with a total tonnage of more than 2 million tons, exceeding the first "Happy Hour" ( The early days of the creation of "Wolf Pack Tactics"). Therefore, some people call "Operation Drum Beat" the second "Happy Hour". German naval activities continued into July, extending from the east coast to the Caribbean and even the Gulf of Mexico.

In July, the experienced British finally arrived to support the US Navy and Coast Guard, and the Royal Navy Patrol sent 24 armed tugs with anti-submarine equipment. The U.S. Navy also gradually established a convoy system, which ended the second "happy time" of German submarines. Afterwards, German submarines became unprofitable and the battlefield returned to the mid-Atlantic.

Kretzimer has let go of several small fish, but now he doesn't care about ships of several thousand tons or even 10,000 tons. He wants to find a bigger one.

After cruising for more than an hour, his hard work paid off, and he finally saw a behemoth, a large oil tanker that looked to be at least 50,000 tons. "Torpedo No. 5 and No. 6, fixed depth 10 meters, launch direction angle 3 degrees, launch!"

After giving the launch order, he immediately retracted the periscope. The oil tanker moved very slowly, less than ten knots, and was obviously fully loaded. It would be fine if it was loaded with heavy oil, but if it was crude oil or gasoline, the power of the explosion would be unimaginable. He was worried that the shock wave from the explosion would damage the periscope that was exposed above the water.

"Torpedo No. 5 has been launched!"

"Torpedo No. 6 has been launched!"

Kretschmer held a stopwatch and counted the time. One minute and ten seconds later, a shocking explosion sounded on the sea and even reached the inside of the submarine.