U-47 left St Nazaire the day after Christmas, 1941 on her eleventh war patrol, again bound for the BF grid south of Ireland on the western approach to the English Channel. We managed to put a 5500 ton freighter on the bottom while waiting out the objective. But targets were scarce. Aircraft seemed to be everywhere, and the patrol was conducted largely submerged. Coastal patrol vessels, mostly armed trawlers, crisscrossed the area. It was frustrating, because I would often make an approach only to see a target not worth a torpedo, and at the same time I hoped to avoid them as much as possible to reduce the likelihood we would be spotted, which always brings a swift reaction from Allied surface and air ASW assets.
After completing our objective, I decided to head south off the coast of Spain in the CG grid. This has proven a lucrative area, with essentially a convoy highway, and occasional heavy warship traffic. We managed to contact two convoys, but each time our approach was detected and we were driven off or held down as the convoy steamed past. We then moved west into the open Atlantic in the western edge of the BE grid. Did not make a single contact. Chased a few radio reports without success, then decided to head to the western approach to Gibraltar, thinking the bottleneck would aid us in developing contacts. And sure enough it did. Again, we made contact with convoys, but they were heavily and effectively escorted. More modern destroyers are being encountered, as well as Black Swan Frigates. In SH3 I developed a particular fear of Black Swans, they are exceptional ASW vessels, and I will not attempt to tangle with one. So again, we were driven off or held down and hunted each time we try to find an opening in the escorting screens of the convoys we found.
In addition, aircraft seem to be finding us much more easily, and it is very dangerous to be surfaced. Twice, we were damaged by near misses as we attempted to crash dive after sighting one of these Angels of Death. One more convoy was spotted and I got in great position, submerged ahead and lay quiet, still and with the scope down as we traced their approach by hydrophone. But that allowed an escort to get very close, and suddenly we were being short-scale pinged. I went deep, but not in time and we took serious damage from depth charges but we managed to get the flooding under control and limped off to live another day.
Feeling we had worn out our welcome, we headed north to patrol off to the west of England, and on the way stopped in Portugal to top off the tanks. The patrol was six weeks old and I had managed to fire two torpedoes. We spent another 3 weeks in the AM grid without reaching position to attack. More convoys, more failed approaches. As they say discretion is the better part of valor, and as I hope to survive the war, I won't press my luck against alerted enemy destroyers. No lone merchants were found at all. It was frustrating the hell out of me, but it is what it is (and quite frankly I love it
).
Perhaps I let it all get to me, and I decided to try to sneak in the back door, headed for the waters inland of the Hebrides. I thought if I exercised caution, and stayed submerged, I could find some targets and maybe take the enemy by surprise. But soon, it was the enemy who would surprise me.
One morning in early March we had just submerged for the day when a merchant was detected on the hydrophones closing from the north. Soon the course and speed were plotted and we surfaced to flank speed to get ahead and submerge for a periscope attack.
U-47 makes the flank speed dash as the sun comes up with the 9000 ton British merchant visible on the horizon.
Our flank speed of 17 knots allowed us to reach the attack position and we submerged and waited for the ship to come on. I had plotted it's speed early after sighting, and had her at 9 knots. I dialed in the solution and prepared to fire two bow electrics, one aimed at the leading edge of the bridge and the second at the stack from a range of 500 meters.
It seems too serene and peaceful. The scene belies the fact that two torpedoes are on the way at thirty knots to destroy this beautiful ship
Either the ship had increased speed, or more likely my initial plot was incorrect, and the first torpedo struck near the after mast and the second missed astern. But one was enough and the ship blew up and went down by the stern. The mistake was mine in only getting her speed once. When time allows, multiple speed readings should always be taken to make certain, but perhaps my success had gone to my head, and frankly I'm lucky we hit her at all.
We then cleared the area to the north, submerged at periscope depth at 2 knots. After running for about 12 kilometers, an aircraft was observed through the periscope. I put the scope down and waited for it to clear the area. But this particular pilot had other ideas. Three minutes later U-47 was rocked by explosions as we were hit hard by either bombs or depth charges. Damage was severe and two men were killed instantly. U-47 plummeted to certain demise as the after compartments flooded. I looked at my diving officer and thought so this is how it ends. He screamed 'we are diving too deep!' and I looked at the depth gauge as it passed in to the red and neared our crush depth of 220 meters.
At 186 meters, a loud crash and we hit bottom. So I have I will have plenty of time to think about dying, I would have preferred it to be quick. But my crew was not about to give up so easily. Damage control parties went to work, and soon machinery was being repaired. After three hours on the bottom, the pumps were repaired, bulkheads shored and I decided to try and blow ballast. It was just like the scene in Das Boot, and I actually let out a cheer as the depth gauge started to move. We surfaced in a still sea and we cleared to the north hoping to recharge the batteries and fix anything we could and most importantly, not be caught on the surface. Soon I felt we were able to submerge and we headed for the open sea west of the Hebrides. But sure enough, in the restricted waters, a convoy came on heading straight for us. This time the escorts did not detect us and we sank one huge freighter and damaged a tanker and snuck away apparently undetected.
Later that night we reached the open Atlantic and set course for St Nazaire, arriving there after many close calls from aircraft after four months at sea.
I knew aircraft could detect submerged boats in TMO, but I didn't know it could happen in OM. Now, I do
I have decided to transfer to the 29th Flotilla out of La Spezia in the Mediterranean. If I do not see Britain again, I will not miss it.