Empire Conquest

Chapter 540 - 536: Wolf Pack in Action

To trace it back to the root, it all has to do with funding.

Once a full mobilization for war was implemented, it turned into a matter of industrial production capability.

The strength of a nation’s industrial production capability has nothing to do with the desires of military leaders and is not influenced by the will of leaders.

Although it was affected by the overall situation, such as the Bulan Kingdom temporarily lacking the capability to launch strategic reprisals and the impossibility of engaging in large-scale ground wars with the Consortium Group, the Army’s demands were relatively low. However, the massive losses in maritime transport still exerted immense pressure on the Newland Federation and indirectly impacted the construction of battleships, preventing the Newland Navy from acquiring all the vessels it desired.

Even when Nizi personally intervened, priorities had to be set.

Rofuss didn’t emphasize this issue, nor was there a need to do so excessively.

Don’t forget that, during the last great war, Rofuss was the Naval Assistant Minister for the Wilkins government, mainly responsible for the construction of naval equipment.

In Rofuss’s words, one should act according to one’s capabilities during a great war.

Of course, there were more direct reasons.

Just a few days ago, a convoy heading to the Luosha Federation was ambushed in the North Sunset Ocean, and a total of 17 ten-thousand-ton ships were sunk by Tiaoman submarines.

This was the third convoy this month in the North Sunset Ocean to be attacked by submarines.

Including this incident, the total tonnage of transport ships lost this month on the North Sunset Ocean route has already exceeded 700,000 tons and may reach 1,000,000 tons.

If so, this would be the month with the highest losses since the outbreak of the war.

As for the reasons, there were certainly many.

Firstly, the Tiaoman Navy had adjusted its anti-shipping tactics.

According to reliable intelligence, just last month, the Tiaoman Emperor personally awarded Dunz the rank of Navy Admiral, appointing him as Commander-in-chief of the submarine forces, designating the submarine forces as an independent service branch with extremely high decision-making autonomy, solely responsible for anti-shipping operations in the North Fan Flame Ocean.

Although this move also meant that the Tiaoman Navy would no longer dispatch large battleships for anti-shipping tasks, it essentially liberated the submarine forces.

Soon after, the Tiaoman submarines adjusted their anti-shipping tactics.

Simply put, there was just one key point.

They transitioned from operating alone to operating in groups.

This tactic was straightforward.

Whenever a submarine discovered an enemy convoy, the first thing to do was not to attack but to follow and monitor the convoy while sending a telegraph to report the situation. The submarine headquarters would issue orders to other submarines operating nearby based on the reports received and choose the most advantageous ambush location to have all available submarines attack simultaneously from different directions.

Usually, the ambush would take place at night.

The logic was simple; anti-submarine patrol aircraft and ship-borne aircraft were unable to operate at night, and anti-submarine warships such as destroyers were much less efficient in combat at night.

Furthermore, submarines would use torpedoes as their primary weapon and launch attacks from beyond a dangerous distance.

According to orders issued by Dunz, submarine captains were not to risk capturing merchant ships, nor were they allowed to use naval guns or other means to save torpedoes while sinking merchant ships.

The key point was also that before each submarine left port, it was assigned to a specific sea area for combat patrol.

This measure was intended to ensure that at any time, there were plenty of submarines near any major shipping route.

To increase the efficiency of ambushes, Tiaoman submarines primarily operated in the central region of the North Fan Flame Ocean, which is far from Bulan Kingdom mainland and the Gu Continent.

Relatively speaking, the coverage in the middle of the route is the weakest for convoys.

Due to travel range restrictions, in the central North Fan Flame Ocean, there was approximately a 1000-kilometer "blank" area where neither the remote patrol aircraft deployed from the Bulan Kingdom’s mainland nor those from the Gu Continent could cross. They solely relied on patrol aircraft carried by escort aircraft carriers and the cover provided by escort destroyers.

To boost combat efficiency, Dunz had acquired a batch of long-range patrol aircraft with a range exceeding 5000 kilometers, specifically for searching for transport fleets in the open ocean.

At least for this month’s three attacks, it had been these Henkel-made, twin-engine planes, nicknamed "Eagle Lion," that had spotted the transport fleets.

However, the most crucial factor was actually the early deployment of submarine support ships to the open ocean.

Before Dunz took over as the Commander-in-chief of the submarine forces, the Tiaoman Navy had already converted a dozen fast oil tankers built before the war into submarine support ships.

Worried about being encircled, these submarine support ships had previously only operated within bay seas and had not ventured to support submarine operations in the North Sunset Ocean.

Most of the time, they acted as floating submarine docks.

Once Dunz took command, he dispatched all the submarine support ships to the North Sunset Ocean.

In some sense, the reason Tiaoman submarines could continuously attack three transport fleets within half a month was precisely because of these submarine support ships.

The reason is simple, without the support ships, Tiaoman submarines would have to return to their homeland after running out of torpedoes.

In combat operations focused on torpedoes, the consumption rate of torpedoes is astoundingly fast.

Typically, a single battle consumes a dozen or more torpedoes, while the torpedo carrying capacity of Tiaoman submarines mostly lies below 30, with some older models around 20.

The primary value of the submarine support ships is the significant increase in submarines’ operation efficiency.

Previously, since they had to return to port for torpedo resupply, which required over a month due to round trips, many submarine commanders would use as few torpedoes as possible in combat.

Whenever possible, they would surface and sink ships with naval guns, or even board the captured ships to plant bombs.

Consequently, many submarines became prey to armed merchant ships or were sunk by patrolling aircraft that arrived timely.

If entirely using torpedoes, submarines would be in combat patrol for only about a third of their regular operational cycle. The other two-thirds would be spent traveling to and from patrol areas or resupplying in ports.

The advent of submarine support ships not only freed commanders from these concerns but also saved travel time.

Of course, submarine support ships provided more than just torpedoes.

As long as the crew’s morale was good, they could obtain ammunition, fuel, and other supplies from the support ships and continue their commerce raiding missions.

This alone more than doubled the submarines’ operational efficiency.

Previously, the combat patrol duration for a submarine ranged between 100 to 120 days, of which about 40 to 50 days were spent on navigating to and from, with actual deployment time only around 50 to 80 days. It was considered quite impressive to reach 60 days.

Now, the operational tenure of submarines in remote oceans had extended to over 150 days.

Even after deducting 50 days of travel time, the combat patrol duration within a single mission cycle exceeded 100 days, sometimes even reaching up to 120 days. For instance, if they encountered a newly arrived support ship with fresh fruits and vegetables, the patrol time could be appropriately extended.

As for morale, that wasn’t a major issue.

In Nizi’s words, as long as they achieved combat successes, morale would never be too low.

Don’t forget, Nizi was a submariner.

During prolonged combat deployments, what submariners feared most was the feeling of nothingness, sailing for months without encountering anything.

As long as they achieved combat successes, even if it was just a single stranded small cargo ship, it could boost the crew’s spirits for half a month.

However, the victories Tiaoman submarines achieved in the North Fan Flame Ocean were not solely due to the change in commander-in-chief but also had much to do with the Alliance Group.