Q: What was your last action? Another air attack?
No, actually. In the morning of the 6th of September, as we were getting near our base, we decided to drop by the German-held anchorage at Varde - not to sink anything, just for reconaissance. We went in with decks awash got to within a few kilometers, observing quite a number of ships at dock there. But eventually they saw us and started firing on us - three patrol ships immediately headed in our direction.
Not wanting to be trapped and depth charged in coastal waters again, I ordered tanks blown and diesel engines to best speed ahead. We managed some 15-16kt on the surface, which was enough to outpace the armed trawlers and other auxiliary craft that Germans threw at us. They gave up the chase after only 25 minutes, at which point we again pre-flooded some of our tanks and proceeded away with caution. Sure enough, less than an hour later an airplane showed up, but we dived before they could spot us.
In the evening, we surfaced, sent our reconnaissance report to fleet, and took a final heading to port.
Q: What greeted you on arrival?
Well, when we got into Polyarnyi that afternoon, which was the 7th of September 1941, the first thing we did was announce our arrival with three shots from our “sotka”
[100mm cannon] - one for each ship sunk, as per division commander Gadzhiev’s orders. That felt good!
And another new tradition awaited us when we docked. The greeting party, already alerted about our successes in advance, brought out three roasted pigs on trays - one for each German ship sunk. If that doesn’t make you want to sink more Germans during wartime, I don’t know what will!
(map of the 2nd patrol of the D-2 "Narodnovolets", August-September 1941)
To be continued...