Chapter 1065: Chapter 935: The First Anti-Submarine Battle

Toot——!

A fleet of three steel warships, composed of one large and two small ships, cleaved through the waves, gallantly sailing past the high seas of the Eritrean Sea, leaving three long, white wakes on the sea surface.

However.

Within the fleet, the two smaller escort warships "Pangolin" and "Warthog," flying the Duchy’s flag, were not actually main Navy , but rather two... .

Entire Ship Length: 169 meters; Width: 16.9 meters; Draft Depth: 5.8 meters; Standard Displacement: 7430 tons.

: Main Gun: 4 twin-mounted 152mm 50-caliber cannons; Secondary Gun: 4 single-mounted 102mm 45-caliber cannons; Anti-Aircraft Gun: 3 quadruple-mounted 12.7mm 62-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns; Torpedo: 2 quadruple-mounted 533mm torpedo tubes.

: 29 knots.

It seemed as though the already had its own successfully launched, so the side certainly wouldn’t leave their naval strategic system with a gap.

These actually played the roles of the Level 5 and Level 6 ships from the Age of Sails.

Especially the Tulip, which has the world’s largest colonial expanse, needed a large number of cruisers to maintain colony security.

Even if they couldn’t be used as decisive main warships, they could be used for reconnaissance; launching commerce raiding; protecting battleship fleets heading for the open sea; and they could also use wolfpack tactics to swarm enemy heavy warships.

As for the flagship and lead ship of the fleet, it was undoubtedly the .

Ship Length: 177.8 meters; Ship Width: 29 meters; Draft Depth: 8.7 meters; Full Load Displacement: 28900 tons.

No matter which parameter is compared, it is the most powerful battleship among the civilized countries of the contemporary world, and there is no second.

Furthermore, it is currently the flagship of the Galliot Duchy Navy’s three major fleets: the Black Sea Fleet, the Broken Star Sea Fleet, and the Golden Sea Fleet, serving as a powerful shield for the capital in the Black Sea Fleet.

However, at this moment, the atmosphere in the luxuriously decorated captain’s cabin of this warship was not very harmonious.

A gracefully petite female officer in a crisp uniform sat cross-legged on the captain’s chair, seemingly impudently looking at the captain standing deferentially before her with a half-smile:

"Elante, do you know where you went wrong?"

The latter looked aggrieved, his demeanor far from that of a Vice Admiral:

"Dear, I’m wronged!"

"Wronged? That Miss Negrito responsible for the reception was about to fall into your arms at the ball. I remember she was called Fatima Sana, from an aristocratic Priest Clan, right?"

The "Peacock Islands" truly lived up to being the "Museum of Ethnicities and Faiths" of the human world, that Miss Fatima, while considered a Negrito, belonged to the upper nobility.

In other words, she was a mix of the foreign Nimansite People and Negritos, with chestnut long hair, a high nose, deep eyes, and very healthy wheat-colored skin.

Remarkably, she was only 18 but had already earned a bachelor’s degree from the Phaletis Tulip Art Academy, and graduated top of her class, being close friends with many daughters of the alliance’s nobility.

She was truly a peerless beauty with both looks and substance.

"How can you falsely accuse me just like that? It was simply because you couldn’t attend the farewell ball, I couldn’t possibly dance with men, right?"

Elante glanced at his wife’s slightly swollen abdomen, thinking: you overestimate me, even if I had the intention, I wouldn’t have the courage!

"Hmph, when we get home, I’ll have my brother beat you up!"

Upon hearing this, the General, knowing the futility of arguing, could only smile wryly, fully aware that even a hundred of himself couldn’t match his brother-in-law, the .

But at nearly forty, it was too hard to say something as awkward as "let my brother beat your brother" to his wife.

Dare to resist Irina’s "tyrannical" reign?

Though not visibly showing, with slender and graceful limbs, she was almost three months pregnant.

Now she was a treasure; offending her might unite the entire family against him.

By then, it would likely become a mix of two joining forces! Not to be messed with, not to be messed up.

Just then.

Knock! Knock! Knock!...

With urgent knocks at the door, a voice sounding heavenly to Elante’s ears resounded:

"Captain, sir, sonar feedback indicates there’s an unknown object undersea following us!"

Whoosh!

Elante dashed out in a flash.

Since a military situation arose, as the deputy captain, Irina knew better than to weigh the importance and promptly followed to the bridge.

The sonar and radar units are managed by the radar department, with the radar officer reporting the enemy situation to both captains:

"Captain, sir, the unknown object is powered, traveling at ten knots, and was detected five minutes ago by passive sonar. It is currently a kilometer away from us.

It’s speculated that it was near our route beforehand, only making noise after moving, which is why we detected it."

[Sonar] itself is a technology for navigation and ranging through electro-acoustic conversion and information processing. The key point is not ultrasound, but rather electro-acoustic conversion and information processing. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

This problem has only been solved by [Electrical Engineers] in recent years, different from the sonar of the [Crown of Miracles] that relied on "Mei," the ship spirit, to be usable.

The new sonar equipment on the [Prince] has a passive detection range of about 20 kilometers and an active detection range of about 50 kilometers.

Although passive sonar remains on without actively emitting ultrasonic waves and won’t expose its own presence through sonar use.

Its performance is significantly worse than that of active sonar, especially if the noise of the target being measured is close to or even less than the ocean’s background noise, it basically becomes as useless as a blind person.

This is the basis for the radar chief’s judgment above.

"Order, Warthog to move close and scout, grant the captain Colonel Mandel the authority to open fire first!"

As one of the two cruisers slowly left the formation on its own.

A kilometer beside them, moving in the same direction, an inconspicuous rod-like object suddenly shrank underwater.

"Sir, the noise from the diesel engines has exposed us. Should we launch the attack now?"

"If only we could miniaturize the [Magnetic Ore], a highly silent submarine wouldn’t be discovered so easily."

The submarine captain sighed and then ordered:

"Order: open the seal door of the No. 1 torpedo tube and fill it with seawater."

[Golden Palm Federal Submarine: Ghost Class·Sea Snail]

[Specifications]: Hull diameter 5.3 meters; length 36 meters; surface displacement 493 tons; surface max speed 14 knots, underwater speed only 10 knots; maximum diving depth of 60 meters; crew of 20.

[Military Preparation]: One 50mm and one 37mm caliber cannon; six 450mm torpedo tubes.

Due to current technological limitations, the Federation-built [Ghost Class] usually operates on the surface, using torpedoes, mines, and artillery as weapons.

Because at this stage, the torpedoes are all straight-running ones with short range and unreliable, submarines are equipped with artillery to chase and attack weak merchant ships on the surface.

As for coming to provoke on the [Duchy Fleet] route this time, it was not done on a whim.

[International Democratic Alliance] is indeed different from monarchic countries, where the monarch Aiven can make decisions on many things single-handedly without needing to consider costs or balance different interests.

Especially in technical aspects, no one can sway Aiven’s will.

However, in "democratic countries," the military research department, Navy, Members of Parliament, and their financial backer "Eye of Wealth"... each has its own interests.

The future development path of the Navy is considered from different perspectives, and even with abundant funds, it’s impossible to pursue all technical routes equally.

Frankly speaking, the arms race that has been producing no tangible results has continued for years, and it is time to show some achievements to the Congress and the financial backers.

Whether or not they can achieve military results, only through friction can they feign... cough, request more funding!

Of course.

The entire crew of frontline combat personnel on [Sea Snail] has the guts to challenge the world’s strongest battleship.

Because they are confident that, currently, this powerful weaponry that can stay underwater for extended periods is nearly invincible.

And they are not Sea Monsters; [Siren’s Song] doesn’t affect them at all.

What could excite navies more than challenging the world’s strongest battleship during actual combat? The highest military medal "Golden Palm Medal" of the Federation is beckoning to them!

"Dive, leave periscope depth!"

For this submarine, periscope depth is seven meters.

"Target the nearest cruiser, No. 1 torpedo tube, fire!"

Whoosh—!

A white line surged across the water surface.

This torpedo is 2 meters long, weighs 220 kilograms, contains 40 kilograms of explosive, travels at a speed of 30 knots, with a range of 4 kilometers.

Originally devised by weapons expert genius engineer Levitt (mortal), who invented the combustion chamber, sending the gas generated from burning high-pressure air and fuel into the cylinder to drive piston motion, creating the world’s first [Thermodynamic Torpedo] (also known as Steam-Gas Torpedo).

But this type of torpedo can only be used to assault surface ships.

Thus, submarines must rise to a distance of 3 to 15 meters from the surface to launch torpedoes when attacking enemy ships.

At 16:35 in the afternoon, the equatorial sun was dazzlingly bright, even though the enemy’s true form hadn’t been seen, the lookout on "Warthog" had already spotted the inexplicable torpedo trails first.

Thinking it was some kind of Sea Monster, Captain Mandel, who had been prepared with the [Siren’s Song], was startled:

"Hard left, evade—!"

Simultaneously, two more menacing white streaks shot out from under the sea, all rushing towards the nearby [Dreadnought: Crown Prince].