Q: So you never caught up with that convoy?
No, they’d gone into Kirkenes by then and there was no point chasing them into a well-protected port. But we did find another convoy later.
Before that, we ran into a fishing boat out in the open water, in vicinity of cape Omgang, in the early morning hours of the 30th of November. It was a dark, misty, icy night; I ordered slow speed and followed it stealthily until we were able to sight its flag and identify it as a Norwegian trawler.
We fired a shot across their bow from reasonable distance and they seemed to understand their situation right away. They signaled us with their light, lowered their lifeboat and, soon after, I ordered fire to be opened on the trawler from our “sotka”
[100mm cannon].
With 4 shots, we cut down the trawler’s mast and set it on fire. It sank shortly thereafter and we did not approach the lifeboat. They were close enough to shore to take care of themselves.
We continued west along the shore; on Fleet frequency, we were advised of convoy activity. PQ-6 had just left Iceland, and a westbound convoy in the opposite direction was passing to our north. We scanned for hostile warships that could threaten it, but all we’d bumped into was a Vorpostenboot on the evening of the 30th. We watched him leave towards the coast, and then resumed our course to the west. And that’s when we found them…
To be continued...