Chapter 1387: 1304 Unknown Origin Attack

“Submarine! Submarine!” On a distant destroyer of the Laines Empire, a first officer put down his binoculars and shouted loudly, “Sound the battle alarm! Quick! Sound the battle alarm!”

He had not received any news of the ongoing battle ahead, so the entire destroyer was still at a secondary alert level, completely unprepared for combat.

“Message the flagship! Inform His Majesty we’ve been attacked by an unknown force! Suspect enemy submarine!” The first officer shouted while issuing a turning order: “Port rudder! Deviate from the course! Go around!”

They were still far from the transport ship hit by a torpedo and needed to hurry over to understand what had happened.

In fact, the first officer hadn’t seen the submarine; he had only seen the towering water column from the torpedo explosion and judged that there was a submarine nearby firing torpedoes at them.

Unfortunately, there were about thirty transport ships nearby, but only their one destroyer. For the enemy submarine, this was a huge opportunity.

“Which country’s submarine dares to attack us in international waters?” The first officer asked with a frown, still unsure of the situation.

Logically speaking, their Laines Empire hadn’t declared war on any country, so they shouldn’t be attacked while sailing these international waters.

“Could it be that a battle has started ahead? Has the Great Tang Empire declared war on us?” He considered this possibility, but quickly dismissed it, because if the war had started, he should have received a message from the forward fleet.

Yet, he hadn’t received any message indicating that war had broken out, or even a message to raise their alert level.

As he was pondering, a third transport ship was hit by a torpedo, and a massive water column rose from the middle of the ship. The seawater surged skyward, snapping the ammunition-laden transport ship in two.

The expanding seawater lifted the middle of the transport ship high, causing the bow and stern to crash down on either side due to gravity. The entire transport ship broke apart and then heavily slammed back onto the sea surface as the water receded.

“Damn it!” The first officer cursed, then saw the captain hastily arrive on the bridge. He stood at attention, saluted, and yielded the command position to his superior: “Captain!”

“Hmm! What’s the situation?” The captain moved to the porthole, looked at the just-exploded and broken transport ship, and asked without looking back.

“We’ve been attacked, probably by a submarine. Perhaps we’ve already declared war on the Great Tang Empire, otherwise there shouldn’t be a submarine attacking us here.” The first officer voiced his guess.

“Most likely the war has started. Send a telegram to the Laines! Report our current situation! Request instructions!” The captain ordered, “Move closer! Prepare anti-submarine depth charges! Try to locate the submarine.”

“It’s too noisy here, too many engines… We need a quieter environment.” The first officer reminded.

Their sonar performance was average and would be disrupted by the surrounding transport ships’ propellers; only further away could they discern the submarine’s noise in the water.

“Accelerate! Full speed ahead!” The captain realized he needed to establish a defensive barrier farther from the fleet, at least to drive the enemy submarine away and prevent further unrestrained attacks.

“Send a telegram to the Thunderbolt destroyer behind us! Tell them to close in quickly!” After ordering the acceleration, the captain started seeking assistance.

This was a very natural tactic in anti-submarine warfare, leveraging the advantage of troop numbers and the higher speed characteristic of destroyers to quickly gather forces and encircle the exposed enemy submarine.

The destroyer’s sharp bow cut through the seawater, rapidly turning away from the transport fleet under the rudder’s influence. The two chimneys on the ship billowed with smoke, and the sailor on the mast was scanning the sea for anything suspicious. All the weapon stations were fully manned, waiting for the order to open fire.

Once they found the enemy’s submarine or spotted a periscope, they would immediately attack. The destroyer would use dense gunfire to force the enemy’s submarine to dive, then fix its position with sonar and deliver depth charges to send it to the depths.

“Enemy ship leaving the fleet! Heading towards us!” Inside the Great Tang Empire’s submarine, the sonar operator reported the destroyer’s movements to the captain.

“Prepare the wire-guided torpedo! Give them a surprise!” The Tang captain revealed his yellowed teeth, smiling broadly, “Stay sharp, lads! The big fish is coming!”

Directly ahead of the Tang Army submarine were six torpedo tubes, and only four torpedoes had been fired earlier. The remaining two torpedo tubes were loaded with wire-guided torpedoes, a secret weapon of the Tang submarine troops.

This tracking torpedo had a terrifying hit rate, akin to a missile underwater. It could accurately receive instructions from the submarine, adjust its course, lock onto targets, and attack precisely.

As the Tang Army submarine began adjusting its course, aiming its bow at the more threatening Laines Empire destroyer, the fourth salvoed torpedo hit its target, sending a transport ship skyward.

At this moment, the entire Laines Empire’s transport fleet was in chaos, facing this terrifying attack, all the transport ships were calling for help.

Almost all the ships claimed they needed destroyer protection, with some even leaving the fleet, heading in a direction they deemed safer.

However, this indiscriminate turning caused greater chaos, with several ships nearly colliding as a result.

“No reply from the flagship Laines, but Thunderbolt has replied–they’re on their way!” The first officer was somewhat nervous, facing such a formidable opponent like the Great Tang Empire’s submarine for the first time.

In previous exercises, they had practiced against their own country’s submarines with decent results. At least they were confident in their ability to evade torpedoes.

“Is the radar fixed?” The captain looked grimly at the technical officer beside him. The officer responded awkwardly, “Replacing the spare parts will take another 3 hours; it’s the fastest we can do.”

“Have the lookouts watch the sea! Report immediately if they spot an enemy periscope!” The captain, unable to rely on the radar, turned and said, “Have the Rain maintain course, guard the other side! Keep the transport fleet in order! We’ll handle this side with Thunderbolt!”

“Send another telegram to the flagship Laines! 16th transport fleet under attack, the war has started! Warn them to be cautious!” After speaking, the captain picked up his binoculars and once again looked towards the distant sea.