After being temporarily sunk on our eleventh patrol, I decided to take a transfer to the 29th Flotilla based at La Spezia on the northwest coast of Italy. I spent a lot of time based in the Mediterranean in SH3, and wanted to give it a go in OM. The Med in 1942 has the advantage of being surrounded mostly by German controlled territory, aside the from eastern end, Malta and Gibraltar. Though we of course could not know this, the Torch landings will begin in November, and this 'German Lake' will slowly become the property of the Allies, but in May 1942 the situation is favorable for boats patrolling here. In SH3 I had a great deal of success patrolling the bottleneck between Sardinia and Tunisia. In that sim, this was essentially a task force highway, and many battleships and cruisers were sunk here.
One shortcoming of Silent Hunter is the inability of the program to shift patrol objectives immediately following a transfer. Your objective is assigned when you return to base, and subsequently transferring does not change your patrol objective grid assignment. So it was that U-47 was to set sail from La Spezia with the objective of patrolling BF15 south of Ireland. We decided to ignore those orders and would try to cover as much of the Mediterranean as we could, to get a feel for our new environs to hopefully allow us to focus on most profitable areas in later patrols. In addition, I hoped to get a feel for those areas that the enemy could cover by air, or were patrolling with surface units.
U-47 set sail from La Spezia on May 28th, 1942. The T III version of the G7e was now available, and would prove to be a marvelous weapon, a huge upgrade over the T II we had become accustomed to. After leaving base we headed for the bottleneck between Sardinia and Tunis. Soon after arriving on station, we began to receive rapid radio reports of task force positions and courses. Most of them were reported traveling east soon after departing or passing through Gibraltar. Positioned in the bottleneck, I was certain we would make contact soon. However it became evident that these were either not passing by, or more likely were hugging the north African coast, passing just out of range to our south. I shifted to patrol closer to the coast and soon made contact with a task force consisting of many destroyers, at least one light cruiser and troopships.
As we attempted to get in on this force we were detected and the escorts charged. We were forced deep and the TGB as we crept away. This repeated itself twice more. I am finding it almost impossible to get in on TF's and convoys any longer. The escorts certainly have radar, and their ability to detect U-47 submerged is remarkable.
After several failed attempts I gave it up as a bad job and decided to head east to see what we could find and essentially attempt to reconnoiter the Med. I also planned to stick our nose in to Valetta on Malta and see what we might stir up. The next day the watch spotted a ship and we went to battle stations and began the plot. But it soon was apparent the ship was lying to in the middle of the Med. Closer inspection revealed it to be a C&D class destroyer. It seemed a trap and we crept closer, scanning the horizon for any surprises. But there were none. The ship was just stopped and we moved to 2000 meters off her starboard beam. One of the new T III's was fired with the mag/contact pistol and struck the DD amidships. The destroyer was lifted out of the water and exploded in a flash, sinking on an even keel in less than a minute.
We cleared to the east and approached Valetta in darkness. I wanted to be in position for a dawn look in to the harbor, because if we were to be held down for any length of time, I wanted it to be during daylight, so we would have the full night for recharging. As we neared the harbor I could see many cargo ships and destroyers moored offshore and in the quays.
We continued on submerged to get inside the 5000 meter circle that is the max range of our torpedoes. I selected two freighters near one another as targets and fired two torpedoes at each. I didn't know if there might be torpedo nets and I began to reverse course to head for deep water. After a long run the torpedoes began to hit. The first target exploded and the second absorbed both torpedoes and began to settle. I fired the stern torpedo and this also hit, sinking the ship but she grounded without exploding and in Silent Hunter you get no credit for that.
The two target ships, we were credited with the one on the right
This alerted the destroyers who got underway and we cleared to the north. Because of the extreme firing range and the fact our torpedoes are wakeless, they had no idea where we were and never got close. After moving well out of range we surfaced and headed for the U-Boat base in Salamis, Greece for a reload and to top off the tanks. After leaving Salamis, we headed further east, to patrol the waters between Crete and Cyprus and perhaps have a look into Alexandria.
As we patrolled here, we began making contact with lone merchants once again. I began to call this area the Mediterranean Air Gap, and it was like 1940 all over again, except now the targets flew Turkish and Palestinian flags. In the course of the next two weeks we sent six lone merchants to the bottom. One was a small 1800-tonner, and the rest were all the same exact type of ship, what is known in OM as M-KF-M (E), 5000 tons.
The new torpedoes were remarkable, as much for their reliability as for the destruction they wrought. I used the magnetic/impact pistol and set depth for impact, usually at around 3 meters. When these torpedoes hit, the ships were often lifted from the water, broken in two and followed by secondary explosions. We did have one dud, and of course it was the one time I fired a single. After seeing how effective these weapons were, I thought it safe to fire just one, and of course it did not explode. But overall, they were fantastic torpedoes, and I was very pleased after three years of firing unreliable torpedoes.
Here are some shots of a typical attack. On August 6th a 5000 ton Turkish cargo ship was spotted emerging from the fog making 8 knots. Making our normal approach, we set up the attack as she came on.
Here, the first torpedo hits the below the stack
The second torpedo hit below the after mast
I really like the Operation Monsun Mod, lurker did a great job with it. But there are a few wrinkles. One is the fact that when submerged, the watch crew is not automatically moved to the interior of the sub. As a result, you can cruise around below the surface with your crew members exposed as though they were still on the bridge, though they are not shown on the bridge, but are considered to still be there from a damage and danger perspective. Further, it isn't only the crew members on watch at that time, but all three watches are considered exposed. When there is a possibility of counterattack, I place each of them inside the boat, with six going to the conning tower and the rest in the crew's berth. But I admit I don't do this when attacking lone merchants, as I don't expect depth charges, though if a plane happened by they would be in serious peril. And I paid the price for this laziness.
As I watched through the scope waiting for this ship to sink, the gun crew on the fantail spotted my feather and opened up with small caliber fire killing my XO! and wounding the rest. He was easily my best watch officer, with a watch rating of 103. I was devastated. We had now lost three crew members killed and many wounded in the past two patrols. I admit it was entirely my fault, but moving the crew one by one gets old and I didn't do it.
After this the ship suddenly exploded. And not just any explosion. A massive blast that broke the ship in three!
After the ship exploded we headed for the barn, with many watch crew wounded, I didn't want to risk losing any more of these men I had worked so hard to train up to the level they were now.
Here are my poor watchmen doubled over in pain after being wounded.
The remnants of the Turkish freighter that killed my XO
U-47 put in to La Spezia on August 15th having put 8 ships including the destroyer on the bottom of the Mediterranean. In a sense it was a patrol back in time. It was a good not to be hunted and hounded constantly, but I know this too won't last.
Here is a shot of the eastern Med, and you can see the location of our base at La Spezia as well as those at Messina and at Salamis, of the destroyer sinking near Sardinia, and the area east of Crete/south of Rhodes that became a Turkish ship graveyard.
