Brag
01-22-07, 12:44 PM
1939-1940 One Year of War a la GWX
A report by OLt. z. S. Augustus Schmarff
01 September 1939 found me in Kiel and in command of a type II Canoe. Knowing how awful green crews are, I took the boat out of Kiel and came back after a little shake down cruise. Poland was on its last legs and we were at war with England and France when in Early October I was ordered to a location east of the Shetlands.
On our way out, we received a flurry of signals on restrictions on what and whom to attack, while Hitler made peace overtures to France and England to no avail. Our first target was a munitions ship running without lights. Under American flag, this ship clearly violated all rules of neutrality and the blockade. I sent a torpedo and the ship blew up in a spectacular show of fireworks. Later that day, another pyro ship showed up and we let it have it. Thanks to rough seas, my crew was too tired to reload torpedoes. We had to submerge and let the crew rest.
By the time we returned to Kiel, we had sunk 3 ships and over 30,000 tons. To my surprise I had enough renown to get command of a Type VIIB, the U-49. I picked up more crew, which included an experienced first watch officer, LT. Bernhard Steinhouser This ended up being bad luck for him.
The next three patrols were to the east coasts of England and Scotland, where we interdicted a parade of small ships without much interference by the Royal Navy. However, we were able to sink an unsuspecting destroyer that crossed our cross hairs.
In April 1940, we were sent to patrol off the coast of southwestern Norway. Then got orders to proceed to Narvik and interdict a British invasion there. We made haste and arrived three days later. Expecting British forces, we snuck into the fjords. After two days, I realized there were no enemy forces in the here. Narvik was firmly in German hands.
We received orders from BDU to withdraw from the Narvic area. No sooner were we in West Fjord when we received orders to return and stand off Narvik. I placed U-49 in a position were we could attack any invading force and still had deep water.
After 3 days, intercepted a message from another U-Boat engaging British forces near Narvik. Thinking that somehow the Brits bypassed my blocking position, I proceeded to where the action was.
The weather had turned nasty. Rain and fog. I looked into every little nook and cranny where the Brits could be--nothing.
Carefully I made my way into Narvik harbour. Visibility was less than 200 meters. We sighted a VII U-boat. Turning in the narrow port, I heard music. I ordered hard starboard rudder and we found ourselves in a quay with band and flower girls. Being a sucker for this kind of reception, I docked in Narvik and was awarded a Knight's and a German Cross. Proof that you don't need to do anything to be a hero.
We must have drank a lot of aquavit. The next thing I know it's May, we have no specific patrol orders. Just return to Kiel. I proceeded to the western side of the Shetlands. We transited in good, calm weather. While submerged, we picked up screws noise from a destroyer. I plotted it's track. His AOB would be 90 degrees at 2000 meters. Bloody perfect. I sent a pair of electric T-IIs and prayed for a hit. This first torpedo broke the ship in two, the second one hit the aft section . The destroyer went down in less than a minute.
Rough seas, low visibility, the sound of warships kept us in a state of alert. We managed to stumble into the middle of a convoy. Torpedoed two small freighters from a distance of 300 meters. A large merchant rammed our conning tower. We sent a magnetic torpedo from the stern tube as the freighter vanished in the fog. The ship sank.
The weather cleared. We followed a sound contact to find a small freighter escorted by an armed tug. This bugger (later reported by other U-boats) has an uncanny way of detecting submarines. It came for us. I ordered surface and the deck gun to engage the tug.
This tug had an unusually large gun and used it with incredible accuracy. Its first shell hit the conning tower, killing Lt. Steinhouser. I got on the flack gun. Was unable to get a single shot out, as petty officer Meier, before he could insert a magazine into the gun., was mowed down by a hail of 20 millimeter shells I ordered the deck gun crew below and we dove. For a long time, the tug kept depth charging us. With full honors, that night, we buried our dead shipmates and gave them a three gun salute.
The U-49 was badly damaged and we limped back to Kiel. I asked for a transfer to Wilhelmshaven, which was granted.
On 04 August, we left Wilhelmshaven with orders to patrol to the west of the Hebrides. Equipped with new supercharged engines, the U-49 could develop a surface speed of 18 Knots. Approaching the Fair Isle Passage, we encountered the first air patrol and dove. From there onward, we could not stay surfaced long in daylight without aircraft forcing us to submerge. We sank one large and a small freighter. In our patrol area, we were surfacing when aircraft showed up and caught us at low speed. Several bombs exploded nearby before we could dive, causing light damage.
We then proceeded to the vicinity of Rockall Bank in the hope of intercepting a convoy. No luck. As our forces secured the French coast, I headed south, slowly. We were in an empty sea. Maybe the Brits finally realized they were fighting for a lost cause? Messages ordering some of the U-boats into Brest and Lorient sounded encouraging.
West of Ireland, in good weather, we got several Condor reports and sank a number of ships with the deck gun. Surprisingly, no aircraft interfered. While proceeding to an intercept, spotted a Towns class destroyer ambling at thee knots. Without changing course we approached it at periscope depth. I sent two fish from 900 meters. Both torpedoes hit. U-49 has had extraordinary good luck in demolishing our worst enemies.
Finally, we got a message ordering us to Lorient.
We detoured to attack a convoy heading northwest. Weather was calm seas. The moment I saw the first escort, lowered periscope and kept it down. I positioned the boat at 90 degrees to convoy's course. Up periscope--fired 2 torpedoes at a large freighter 2,000 meters away and waited 30 seconds to get a good AOB on a 5,000 tonner. Immediately after firing 3rd. eel began dive to 165 meters, ten meters above ocean floor.
We heard two explosions and heard sounds of a sinking ship.
A destroyer came overhead and tossed depth charges when we were 40 meters deep. Flank speed and five degrees rudder got us away from the lethal zone. As soon as Dcs exploded, I cut the speed to 3 knots. The destroyer kept banging at us, close for an hour. It cut our speed down to 2 kts and the destroyer obviously lost us as we crept away.
We had 3 torpedoes left. Hoping to meet some unescorted merchants, we slowly cruised toward France.
A convoy shadowed by U-boats was reported. The first visual contact with the convoy revealed it was escorted by at least three, dreaded Black Swans. But one of them had a fire raging.
We approached the convoy with pero down. Got into position and sent two torps toward a large freighter as a Black Swan raced toward us. With bad angle I fired our last fish at a medium freighter and dove. We were at 20 meters when the destroyer shot it's depth charges. I was at flank speed before the bugger got overhead and managed to avoid the lethal dose. By the time the Swan turned around and made another pass we were at over 50 meters deep. Again, flank speed got us away and I quickly cut the engines before the DCs exploded. We skulked away at 2 knots while the Swan caused his disturbance further and further away from us.
From these two convoy attacks I've learned that at 3 knots, the Brits can still hear a U-boat.
We docked at Lorient on 04 September 1940, thus completing 7 patrols in one year of GWX war.
A report by OLt. z. S. Augustus Schmarff
01 September 1939 found me in Kiel and in command of a type II Canoe. Knowing how awful green crews are, I took the boat out of Kiel and came back after a little shake down cruise. Poland was on its last legs and we were at war with England and France when in Early October I was ordered to a location east of the Shetlands.
On our way out, we received a flurry of signals on restrictions on what and whom to attack, while Hitler made peace overtures to France and England to no avail. Our first target was a munitions ship running without lights. Under American flag, this ship clearly violated all rules of neutrality and the blockade. I sent a torpedo and the ship blew up in a spectacular show of fireworks. Later that day, another pyro ship showed up and we let it have it. Thanks to rough seas, my crew was too tired to reload torpedoes. We had to submerge and let the crew rest.
By the time we returned to Kiel, we had sunk 3 ships and over 30,000 tons. To my surprise I had enough renown to get command of a Type VIIB, the U-49. I picked up more crew, which included an experienced first watch officer, LT. Bernhard Steinhouser This ended up being bad luck for him.
The next three patrols were to the east coasts of England and Scotland, where we interdicted a parade of small ships without much interference by the Royal Navy. However, we were able to sink an unsuspecting destroyer that crossed our cross hairs.
In April 1940, we were sent to patrol off the coast of southwestern Norway. Then got orders to proceed to Narvik and interdict a British invasion there. We made haste and arrived three days later. Expecting British forces, we snuck into the fjords. After two days, I realized there were no enemy forces in the here. Narvik was firmly in German hands.
We received orders from BDU to withdraw from the Narvic area. No sooner were we in West Fjord when we received orders to return and stand off Narvik. I placed U-49 in a position were we could attack any invading force and still had deep water.
After 3 days, intercepted a message from another U-Boat engaging British forces near Narvik. Thinking that somehow the Brits bypassed my blocking position, I proceeded to where the action was.
The weather had turned nasty. Rain and fog. I looked into every little nook and cranny where the Brits could be--nothing.
Carefully I made my way into Narvik harbour. Visibility was less than 200 meters. We sighted a VII U-boat. Turning in the narrow port, I heard music. I ordered hard starboard rudder and we found ourselves in a quay with band and flower girls. Being a sucker for this kind of reception, I docked in Narvik and was awarded a Knight's and a German Cross. Proof that you don't need to do anything to be a hero.
We must have drank a lot of aquavit. The next thing I know it's May, we have no specific patrol orders. Just return to Kiel. I proceeded to the western side of the Shetlands. We transited in good, calm weather. While submerged, we picked up screws noise from a destroyer. I plotted it's track. His AOB would be 90 degrees at 2000 meters. Bloody perfect. I sent a pair of electric T-IIs and prayed for a hit. This first torpedo broke the ship in two, the second one hit the aft section . The destroyer went down in less than a minute.
Rough seas, low visibility, the sound of warships kept us in a state of alert. We managed to stumble into the middle of a convoy. Torpedoed two small freighters from a distance of 300 meters. A large merchant rammed our conning tower. We sent a magnetic torpedo from the stern tube as the freighter vanished in the fog. The ship sank.
The weather cleared. We followed a sound contact to find a small freighter escorted by an armed tug. This bugger (later reported by other U-boats) has an uncanny way of detecting submarines. It came for us. I ordered surface and the deck gun to engage the tug.
This tug had an unusually large gun and used it with incredible accuracy. Its first shell hit the conning tower, killing Lt. Steinhouser. I got on the flack gun. Was unable to get a single shot out, as petty officer Meier, before he could insert a magazine into the gun., was mowed down by a hail of 20 millimeter shells I ordered the deck gun crew below and we dove. For a long time, the tug kept depth charging us. With full honors, that night, we buried our dead shipmates and gave them a three gun salute.
The U-49 was badly damaged and we limped back to Kiel. I asked for a transfer to Wilhelmshaven, which was granted.
On 04 August, we left Wilhelmshaven with orders to patrol to the west of the Hebrides. Equipped with new supercharged engines, the U-49 could develop a surface speed of 18 Knots. Approaching the Fair Isle Passage, we encountered the first air patrol and dove. From there onward, we could not stay surfaced long in daylight without aircraft forcing us to submerge. We sank one large and a small freighter. In our patrol area, we were surfacing when aircraft showed up and caught us at low speed. Several bombs exploded nearby before we could dive, causing light damage.
We then proceeded to the vicinity of Rockall Bank in the hope of intercepting a convoy. No luck. As our forces secured the French coast, I headed south, slowly. We were in an empty sea. Maybe the Brits finally realized they were fighting for a lost cause? Messages ordering some of the U-boats into Brest and Lorient sounded encouraging.
West of Ireland, in good weather, we got several Condor reports and sank a number of ships with the deck gun. Surprisingly, no aircraft interfered. While proceeding to an intercept, spotted a Towns class destroyer ambling at thee knots. Without changing course we approached it at periscope depth. I sent two fish from 900 meters. Both torpedoes hit. U-49 has had extraordinary good luck in demolishing our worst enemies.
Finally, we got a message ordering us to Lorient.
We detoured to attack a convoy heading northwest. Weather was calm seas. The moment I saw the first escort, lowered periscope and kept it down. I positioned the boat at 90 degrees to convoy's course. Up periscope--fired 2 torpedoes at a large freighter 2,000 meters away and waited 30 seconds to get a good AOB on a 5,000 tonner. Immediately after firing 3rd. eel began dive to 165 meters, ten meters above ocean floor.
We heard two explosions and heard sounds of a sinking ship.
A destroyer came overhead and tossed depth charges when we were 40 meters deep. Flank speed and five degrees rudder got us away from the lethal zone. As soon as Dcs exploded, I cut the speed to 3 knots. The destroyer kept banging at us, close for an hour. It cut our speed down to 2 kts and the destroyer obviously lost us as we crept away.
We had 3 torpedoes left. Hoping to meet some unescorted merchants, we slowly cruised toward France.
A convoy shadowed by U-boats was reported. The first visual contact with the convoy revealed it was escorted by at least three, dreaded Black Swans. But one of them had a fire raging.
We approached the convoy with pero down. Got into position and sent two torps toward a large freighter as a Black Swan raced toward us. With bad angle I fired our last fish at a medium freighter and dove. We were at 20 meters when the destroyer shot it's depth charges. I was at flank speed before the bugger got overhead and managed to avoid the lethal dose. By the time the Swan turned around and made another pass we were at over 50 meters deep. Again, flank speed got us away and I quickly cut the engines before the DCs exploded. We skulked away at 2 knots while the Swan caused his disturbance further and further away from us.
From these two convoy attacks I've learned that at 3 knots, the Brits can still hear a U-boat.
We docked at Lorient on 04 September 1940, thus completing 7 patrols in one year of GWX war.