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SEA OF SHADOWS 331
“Belay that order! Counter-battery fire! I want a torpedo in the water
NOW! Firing bearing one-seven-eight!”
The Fire Control Officer acknowledged his order and began to punch
buttons with the speed of a touch-typist. “Torpedo away!” he shouted
after a few seconds. “Firing bearing one-seven-eight!”
The water-jet ejection system emitted its characteristic burbling
vibration as it propelled the torpedo out of its tube. The sound was almost
lost under the shriek of the American torpedo.
The Fire Control Officer turned toward his kapitan. “Sir! What do we
do now?”
Gröeler stared back at him. “Now? Now, we die …”
The bulkhead to his left imploded, the metal first fracturing and then
vaporizing under the incredible heat of the Mark-54 torpedo’s plasma-jet
explosive. Gröeler was blown from his feet and incinerated before his
lifeless body hit the deck.
The pressure inside the dying submarine dropped instantly, as the
hungry fireball sucked up all of the available air. A millisecond later, the
sea crashed through the broken hull and pulverized everything inside.
The broken pieces of U-307 tumbled to the bottom of the sea.
USS Towers (DDG-103) :
The 29-MC speakers thundered to life. “All Stations—Sonar. Loud
underwater explosions with secondaries, bearing zero-zero-two! I think
we got the bastard!”
A cheer went up in Combat Information Center, followed by what
seemed to be a collective sigh of relief.
The 29-MC speakers thundered to life again. “All Stations—Sonar has
hydrophone effects off the starboard bow! Bearing zero-zero-five! Initial
classification: hostile torpedo!”
Chief McPherson’s eyes jerked back to the CDRT. Oh shit! It wasn’t
over yet! She keyed her mike. “TAO—USWE. We can’t evade in a
minefield! Look at the plot, sir! We’ve got mines on both sides of us!”
Captain Bowie stared at the hostile-torpedo symbol flashing red on the
Aegis display screen. There was nowhere to run. They couldn’t evade.
The torpedo screaming toward them was a German-built DMA37, the