Q: You were confident that just two torpedoes was enough for a hit?
Yes, although my expectations did not pay off! Despite the depth adjustment, both torpedoes somehow ran underneath the merchant without exploding. I cursed, and waited patiently for the next ship behind him to get into position.
At 00:44, I commanded “pli!”
[“fire!”] - and this time things went better. The first torpedo explosion wrecked the ship’s forward section entirely, and it quickly buried its bow in the water, going down in minutes with its screws sticking up.
Two small torpedo boats, which I had not seen before, immediately lit up searchlights behind the convoy. I was not yet done, however. As the convoy raised alarm and the surviving two transports maneuvered frantically, I saw an opportunity. Quickly commanding high speed on the motors, I ordered a hard turn to starboard, both to turn away from the wreckage of the sinking ship in front of us, and to bring our stern tubes to bear on the ship our torpedoes previously missed.
My stern torpedoes were set to run at fast speed - and I mostly reserved them just for the purpose of hitting targets of opportunity or ships chasing us. I found it generally more difficult to aim planned shots with the stern and, regardless, the tubes could not be reloaded at sea. I figured the odds of this one were low, but, relying on the Russian “avos’”
[stereotypical Russian attitude of “ah heck, I have no idea what I’m doing, but maybe I’ll get lucky and this will work!”], I ordered tube 7 launched at 00:46.
Naturally, it worked; the panicking ship turned straight into our torpedo, exploding in a powerful series of secondaries. It must have also been carrying ammunition. Now our job was done and I ordered a depth of 60m and course away from the convoy. Above us, as many as 5 escorts continued making noise - far more than we first detected, so it was probably for the best that I attacked submerged!
When we came up to periscope depth to check at about 2:00, they were still circling somewhere astern. I figured we were far enough, and ordered reloading of torpedoes. By the time we were done reloading at 3:20, there was still some sort of small vessel nearby - either the lurking escorts, or just a fishing boat. I decided that it was enough for us, though, surfaced, and high-tailed it out of the area. At 5:00 in the morning, I finally called “otboi”
[“secure from battle stations”].
To be continued...