[BillCar]

U-53, Oblt. z. S. Jochen Luebke

Patrol 4:
Departed Wilhelmshaven, December 21st, 1939.
Patrolled AL38. While on the way, sank a coastal freighter off Lerwick. Sank a few assorted merchant vessels, in the AL and some of AM.working my way up to roughly 25,000 tons. Headed towards AM53, encountered a large freighter, and sank same for about 10,000 GRT. Noticing the smoke, 3 motor torpedo boats approached and opened fire as U-53 crash dove. 10 minutes later, a destroyer was overhead, dropping depth charges, all of which were avoided. Having exhausted all but one torpedo, U-53 abandoned her foray into the Irish Sea and headed back to Wilhelmshaven, torpedoing a medium cargo on the way for 5200GRT. Docked at Wilhelmshaven with roughly 41,000GRT sunk, January 21st, 1940.

Patrol 5:
Left Wilhelmshaven, February 13th, 1940.
Assigned AN11.

February 16th
AN14 encountered one tugboat, and sank same with deck gun for 1100 tons. Heavy seas and overcast weather beginning February 16th at 14h00.

February 18th
AN11
Arrived on station.

One ore carrier detected, extremely heavy fog. Nearly collided. Ordered emergency back and hard to starboard, fired one fast TI under her stack from 300 metres. Sank for 8500GRT.

February 19th
Concluded patrol of AN11. Heading towards Hebrides.

February 20th
Received contact report at 02h14, enemy slow convoy heading west between Scottish north coast and Scapa Flow. Aborted course and proceeded to intercept.

Heavy fog, heavy precipitation, and heavy seas. Arrived ahead of projected convoy path and proceeded at 2/3 head-on towards it, performing frequent hydrophone checks.

20h15
Raising periscope at 13m depth, was shocked to see keel of approaching ship, despite darkness. Ship passed within 3 metres of conning tower without detecting U-53. This ship was a Flower class frigate. Lost visual contact with same less than a minute later, and surfaced.

On surfacing, U-53 found herself in between two columns. Torpedoed one tramp steamer and one passenger cargo. Combed with searchlights. Seven starshells up within seconds, and 4km distant, muzzle flashes. Ordered crash dive and spent two hours evading. No damage. Tramp steamer sank at 22h13 and passenger cargo sank at 22h40.

Surfaced and ran flank to overhaul convoy once more. Slipped in past a destroyer and made for a large cargo. Hit her with one torpedo to bow and another under her stack. She sank for 9,000+ GRT. Four starshells up, shellfire coming from distant destroyers. Crash dive. Evaded for two hours again. Four ships depth charging, sounded like two corvettes and two destroyers.

Surfaced at 5h00 and overhauled again. Nearly collided with a medium cargo. Hit with two torpedoes and crash dove.

Escorts must have been getting sick of U-53 at this point, as the depth charging was nearly constant. U-53 successfully evaded for one hour, after which point medium cargo succumbed to damage and sank for 5200+ GRT.

In the two months I'd been playing, I'd never been HIT with depth charges in this game – they've bounced me around a bit, but never come close enough to do damage. That changed at 06h45, when, through carelessness, U-53 was caught in one of the non-stop patterns from the four angry escorts. I can attest to it being genuinely nerve-wracking and much more involving than any "horror" game I've played. Deck gun was destroyed, conning tower beaten up, and front end of boat flooding fast. Secured from silent running and went to flank speed while the damage control team worked their magic. Miraculously, we controlled the flooding, and were able to evade successfully for another four hours before surfacing. Few torpedoes left, so we made way for Wilhelmshaven. On the way, we nearly collided with another medium cargo. Sank it with remaining three torpedoes and headed for home.

Docked in Wilhelmshaven with ca. 35,000GRT sunk, February 28th, 1940.
Awarded Knight's Cross.