Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

SEA OF SHADOWS 321
The Sonar Supervisor’s voice came over the tactical net. “USWE—
Sonar, we have weapon start-up. It’s Firewalker’s torpedo, sir. Placement
looks pretty good.”
A friendly-weapon symbol appeared in blue on the CDRT.
Chief McPherson keyed her mike. “Sonar—USWE. Has the weapon
acquired?”
“USWE—Sonar. That’s affirmative. Firewalker’s weapon has just
now acquired the target. It’s a tail-chase, Chief. Even odds as to whether
it can catch the sub.”
“USWE, aye.”
U-307:
“Kapitan!” the Sonar Operator shouted. “The American torpedo has
acquired us!”
“Calm down!” Gröeler snapped. “Estimated range?”
“Close aboard, sir! The signal strength is high. Estimated range—less
than fifteen hundred meters.”
“Very well,” Gröeler said. He nodded, as though he had been
expecting this. The Americans were good—far better than he had thought.
He had three missing U-boats to prove it. But this wasn’t over yet.
He turned to the OOD. “Officer of the Deck, I have the Conn!”
“Officer of the Deck, aye!”
Gröeler barked, “All engines ahead one-third, slow to five knots! Left
standard rudder, steady new course three-one-zero!”
The boat began to heel over as the Helmsman executed his orders.
“Sir, my rudder is left fifteen degrees! Coming to new course three-onezero.
All engines ahead one-third! Slowing to five knots!”
The Officer of the Deck stared at Gröeler. “Five knots, Kapitan? Sir,
how can we outdistance a torpedo at five knots?”
Gröeler held up a hand. “Launch two static noisemakers,” he said.
“Then wait thirty seconds and launch two mobile decoys. Set one of the
mobile decoys for low speed and the other for high speed.”
The Officer of the Deck stared at his kapitan for another second. Then
he blinked and turned to the Countermeasures Control Panel. “Aye-aye,
sir. Launching static noisemakers now!”
A pair of pneumatic hisses followed by a pair of metallic thumps
announced the ejection of the two countermeasures.