[Laughing Swordfish]

U-46 limps back into Kiel

Four white pennants flap from the periscope, there is only one torpedo left in the stern tube. We are trailing a little diesel oil, the deck plating is ruptured, and the port side of the bridge and saddle tank is buckled

Below amidships, wooden beams support the hasty repairs to the pressure hull. The last of the welding has just finished, and the bilge pumps are just about coping

I have broken out a case of beer, and the crew are responding with their usual young bravado, but it's easy to see they are exhausted, and not a little shocked

The patrol to the Clyde approaches had started well enough. A relatively easy passage across the North Sea, even pausing to dispatch a British trawler with the deck gun. One warning shot across the bows to let the crew row clear, then three into the waterline.

"Nice shooting!" remarks the second lieutenant
"Hardly the Ark Royal" is the Chief's laconic reply
"Well at least there's no kippers for Winston's breakfast tomorrow"
comes the cheerful rejoinder

We hail the survivors, fishermen from Hull, and pass down water, food , cigarettes and a navigational fix

"I wonder if they got an SOS off?" muses the First Lieutenant.
"Don't even think about it" I growl, but we dive anyway to be on the safe side

Later we pick up an unescorted coastal tramp. The sea is so bad it takes three eels to send her to the bottom

"The torpedoes probably cost more than she did" grumbles the Chief. "We're running at a loss"

I smile. Otto is only happy when he's pretending not to be

We reach AM53 on the first of August, and start our search pattern across the approaches to Clyde. The weather is atrocious, and the lookouts certainly earn their pay

"On today's menu is the U-46 house speciality!" announces the 2nd Lieutenant one evening in the wardroom. "Soup in the lap!"

We take the boat down for a trim dive and to rest the crew

Then the excited face of Hans appears around from the Sonar Room, his phones dangling from one ear

"Slow screws, many, bearing 276, medium range, approaching!"

Convoy!

With a clatter of plates and cutlery we hasten to our stations. and I bring us up to periscope depth. Can't make out the mast heads yet, but Hans has given us a good fix. They're coming right at us

We figure on a reciprocal course that will put us in a 45 degree attack run by nightfall, and blow to the surface full ahead both

Alarm!

A destroyer puts us down. We go into the cellar and rig for silent running. An occasional peek an hour later convinces me he has lost the scent. We blow again and move in. We get off a contact report but don't expect any help, as far as I know we are the only boat in this vicinity

Flooding tubes 1-4

The big fat guys are right in the middle. The tommies are screening the convoy with neutral ships. But it looks like the nearest escort is the other side of the convoy

The fox is in the chicken coop!

And look there's a big tanker on the outskirts. "Flank speed, master sight to bridge!"

We put two in her. She must have been full of aviation fuel. Went up with a hell of a bang

A smaller merchantman goes down to, and we cripple a larger cargo ship, I think

Alarm! We've upset them again

A bit tricky, it's shallow here. Took a bit of a pasting but wriggled out the back of the convoy ok. A lot of cursing going on in the torpedo room as they struggle to reload. "Quiet, Men!" the coxswain shouts before realising he should be whispering himself!

Come up again. The convoy is no longer in sight, but we've a fair idea where they've gone, and Joachim on the weapons desk reports all tubes reloaded.

"One last go, Number One?" I ask, and then we're thrashing through the storm eastwards again in hot pursuit

We get ahead and drop down

When we come up, we're slap bang in the middle of them. Too close for comfort really. The range is too short, searchlights are playing everywhere, and our firing solutions are rushed. A couple of duds, one wounding shot, and one that glanced off

Then it happened

"Brace! Brace!" screamed the Watch Officer

We watched in horror as a large cargo ship loomed up on our beam out of the rain at ramming speed

The collision nearly capsized us, and certainly made a mess of the boat. With a great crunch we were hit full on, but the momentum of the merchant actually pushed us off his bow

I didn't need to flood tanks, we were going down anyway

We had serious flooding amidships, and every available senior rushed to damage control.

It was touch and go for a while, but Otto managed to stabilise our depth, and eventually I got the report that all leaks had stopped

At dawn we could see the big cargo ship we had hit last night. It was burning, but wouldn't go down. We had one torpedo left, but we were in no condition to mix it with any destroyers hanging around

Time to creep home

"That was a patrol and a half" murmured the Chief and then promptly fell asleep where he sat

Lt de Bunsen, U-46