Q: Were you able to sail on your next mission then?
Not yet, unfortunately. By the time we got back, the German advance had been more or less stemmed, but there was still immense pressure on our resources - and the D-2 still needed repairs and maintenance, and short a few crew members. Some of those that volunteered to fight on land did not return, including seamen Smolevich and Boskov, both very reliable guys who stood on deck watch with Kislayev, our chief lookout; as well as our chief torpedo mechainic Pastukhov. I also conceded to the politruk’s repeated suggestions to remove the senior machinist Maidanov, who’d shown cowardice and panic when we were bombed on our two previous patrols. But qualified replacements took a bit to find.
The necessary maintenance also dragged out - both the K-1 and K-2 cruiser subs returned from their first patrol, and division commander Gadzhiev prioritized getting these big boats ready for their next patrol, along with their just-arrived sisters K-3, K-21, K-22, and K-23. We weren’t the only ones having trouble of course - the Northern Fleet’s resources were stretched, and I’d reckon that half of our boats were at base and in need of maintenance.
So, we just had to be patient and make do. Soon our ticket came up.
Q: What were your orders?
Nothing out of the ordinary. By this point the Norwegian coast was divided up into fairly standard patrol sectors, some of which have been redrawn since our last sailing. Position No.2, the large section of coastal waters which we patrolled last time, had by now been split up into equally-sized 2 and 2A, 2A being the northeastern half, from the mid-point of the island of Soroya that we circled last time, up to Nordkapp. The advantage now would be that with polar winter coming, the light conditions would favour us and prevent enemy air patrols from attacking, meaning we could fight close inshore - provided we didn’t run into any mines.
Part of the reason for the breaking up of the sectors was that our submarine “family” had got bigger with the new cruiser subs. Their entry into service wasn’t completely smooth - for instance the K-22 went on patrol in October, but had nearly sunk because of mechanical problems. So, division commander Gadzhiev was busy working on operating procedures for these boats. He emphasized their minelaying and artillery capabilities, and so far as our intelligence could tell, the minefields were proving very effective, claiming several German ships already.
It was these mining operations that were also stressed in our briefing - our boat was not outfitted for carrying mines, but since we often hunted close inshore, we had to know the positions of all these newly-laid minefields and avoid them on our hunts. While this put certain areas off-limits for us, it was no big loss to us as the Norwegian fjords are quite vast. And we’d have good conditions for hunting in the dark near the coast.
Our politruk also got some orders and instructions of his own, among them - a propaganda manual detailing the successes of the various commissars in the fleet, and a summary of the fleet’s achievements. He’d proudly emphasized how we added to the tally - the Northern Fleet’s tonnage total was some 170,000 tons, of which we’d contributed some 25,000. Some 50 ships and 2 submarines were reported sunk by all of our fleet’s vessels, and 192 airplanes were reportedly downed, mostly by naval aircraft. At that point, we had not yet lost any submarines of our own. So far, so good, as they say.
To be continued...