Herr Russ
04-12-07, 10:16 AM
April 45, Sailing my IXC out of Bergen for the last time.. I spent a few extra minutes on the bridge looking at the flower throwing nurses and soldiers standing around. Would they be there if and when I returned??
Made the uneventful transit from Bergen to blue water and headed around Scapa Flow to another grid off of North Africa. Wind is blowing 7 kts, so I made sure my best lookouts were on watch to pick up any aircraft.
Two days spent running drills and chasing fishing boats. Not being able to man the flak or deck guns and not wanting to waste an eel, we avoided contact once it was identified..
So far the partol was uneventful. An occassional merchant or cargo would cross our path and we'd sink an eel or two into it. The wind was consistantly running 7 kts. so we couldn't use our deck gun. We could use a patrol like this, picking off unescorted singles or doubles.
Four days out and we detected radar signals (300 bearing). We dove undetected, leveled out at periscope depth and watched a JC Butler running screen.. It was quite a ways off, so I raised the snorkel and increased speed to full.. It looked like it was tracking East, so we headed due North. We settled in at 13 meters so just the head of the snorkle was above the waves. It was only 0900, so we had a long day ahead of us.. Before long, sonar was calling out numerous contacts, mostly warships and moving at 13 kts.
Dropping the snorkle and speed, I took the phones and scanned the convoy. We made great time and with some luck, would get in a good shooting position.. Right in the middle of the group was a horrendous noise.. I had never heard such heavy beats in all my patrols.. I cautiously raised the scope, increased magnification and found a Bogue Escort Carrier in the middle of the pack. As I slammed the scope down, and pondered my approach, I ordered silent running and continued to close. The destroyer escorts were running almost 20 kts. and seemed to be deaf. Once the lead destroyer passed, I kicked it up to standard and readied all tubes.. Never having come across a carrier, I chose a 3 tube salvo, mag pistols and set a meter below the keel. Once in position, I slowed to 1/3 and set silent running. A quick look through the scope to confirm my setup. It would be a near broadside shot at 800 meters.. This must be a end of war prize for lasting this long!!
Within 3 minutes I had a clear shot, fired 3 tubes and headed out of the group.. A T3 was cutting in front of me, so I sent the final loaded bow eel at her.. I contemplated shooting my stern eels too, but with so many escorts around, I saved them for defense. I didn't make it this far by being too rash. Dive to 25 meters, secure from silent running & get reloading!! I was at 20 meters when the first torpedo struck and then heard three other explosions.. I F12'd the scene and saw planes exploding off the Bogue. Two eels would have done the trick though.. The T3 was also ablaze and my log indicated she was destroyed. Set course to 270 and get out of dodge.. The destroyers picked me up briefly, but some turns and decoys shook them from my trail. Within 2 hours, they were tearing up a piece of the ocean behind me.. Air cover came in and also tried to ruin my day. All the noise helped cover my exit. Well into nightfall, we surfaced and reloaded the externals. After a very long day, all internals were reloaded and I was able to rest most of the crew..
Two days later during the daylight submerged run ,we picked up a convoy report. It was just Southwest of us and should be within visual in about 10 hours. To save our batteries & top them off, I ordered the snorkle raised and increased speed to full. As I poured over the plot and plugged in degree shifts and various speeds, I came up with a probable solution. At 64 TC, it seemed to take forever, but at 11 hours we were rewarded with several sonar contacts. Once again, there were several loud contacts. As I refined the approach and lowered the snorkle ,I scanned the sonvoy with the attack scope.. Several cargos, merchants, two troop transports and a passenger liner (My first). I selected the liner and a troop ship as my targets and got into position. There were 8 various escorts so there was no way I could pick them all off and have any eels left for the valuables.. The escort lookouts must have been eyeballing the liner since they never saw my scope.
We closed to 2000 meters, opened all tubes and waited for the convoy to close. We were moving into position at 1/3 and silent running. Just in case I had a chance, I readied both stern tubes for the second transport. Minutes later, two eels were streaking towards the passenger liner and two towards the nearest troop ship.. We secured from silent running so the loaders could do their job and swung around to bring the rear tubes to bear on the second transport.. We were finally detected by the escorts, but not before the liner was destroyed and the transport was damaged. Unfortunately, one torpedo missed the transport.. These escorts were more tenacious than the last bunch and gave us a steady lashing of active sonar and depthcharges. Not being able to get into a good shooting position, we dove and escaped. Unfortunately, our kill came at a cost of all three flak guns and some serious damage to the tower and antennas.. Hours later we were on the surface & reloading our spares as the repair teams salvaged what they could. Since the convoy was well East of us by now, we attempted to radio a contact report, but it would not transmit. With repairs completed, we headed East to reestablish contact with the convoy. Hoping to find the wounded troop transport and maybe sink our teeth into the second one, we charged ahead at Full speed.. The torpedo loaders stood down and were rested during the chase..
Radar Signals Detected!!! We dove and expected to see the signals coming from the East (Direction the last convoy took), but instead, they were coming from the North. We cautiously closed as numerous warship contacts were called out by sonar. It appeared to be a six warship convoy or task force.. As they were steaming SE, we had to sprint East in order to close the gap without being detected. As far as we dared, we ran at top speed and slowed before we could be detected. Nightfall was approaching and we had 5 tubes of eels!! In the mess were Clemsons, a Dido and smack dab in the middle was the first King George V Battleship I had seen the entire war..
I decided to fire a 3 tube salvo from the bow and then swing around in case the last stern eel was needed. I've been saving the acoustic eel for defense. During my scope sweep, we were detected and instead of speeding up, the battle ship slowed to 6 kts and began using searchlights. I prematurely fired 3 bow fish at it (3 degree spread) & headed due west. (I was feeling rather unwelcomed at that point), not only to bring my stern around, but to head for safety and blue water.. All 3 torpedoes exploded under the keel of Ol' George and the escorts went beserk. The active pinging and racks of depth charges were earsplitting. Just as before, I was able to mauever out of the mess. I don't know if the decoys were unlimited, but I kept praying for just 1 more decoy... I was almost in the clear when a Clemson picked up my trail. With my batteries pretty run down, I ordered Flank speed and periscope depth. I raised my 'target' aka snorkel and readied my stern acoustic. With the Clemson at 500 meters, 0 AOB and shooting at my scope wake, I fired the stern tube... 10 second run time according to the watch. I lowered the scope to save it from further damage and F12'd the fight. The eel exploded right under the bow and the destroyer slid under the waves.. The other escorts continued on with the rest of the convoy, which suited me just fine. I surfaced, repaired and sent off a status report. By the time I received my "Well Done, Keep up the good work" from Uncle Karl, I was repaired and heading home.. The lone small tanker we ran into a day later was anticlimatic after sinking the Bogue, liner and King George.. Out of fish and with building weather, we warped back to Bergen. Patrol total was 109K (Second 100K+ patrol in my career). With 400 points shy of getting an XXI, I decided to put to sea in my faithful IXC. AS I selected my mission and selected start, I received a message that the war had ended..............
Made the uneventful transit from Bergen to blue water and headed around Scapa Flow to another grid off of North Africa. Wind is blowing 7 kts, so I made sure my best lookouts were on watch to pick up any aircraft.
Two days spent running drills and chasing fishing boats. Not being able to man the flak or deck guns and not wanting to waste an eel, we avoided contact once it was identified..
So far the partol was uneventful. An occassional merchant or cargo would cross our path and we'd sink an eel or two into it. The wind was consistantly running 7 kts. so we couldn't use our deck gun. We could use a patrol like this, picking off unescorted singles or doubles.
Four days out and we detected radar signals (300 bearing). We dove undetected, leveled out at periscope depth and watched a JC Butler running screen.. It was quite a ways off, so I raised the snorkel and increased speed to full.. It looked like it was tracking East, so we headed due North. We settled in at 13 meters so just the head of the snorkle was above the waves. It was only 0900, so we had a long day ahead of us.. Before long, sonar was calling out numerous contacts, mostly warships and moving at 13 kts.
Dropping the snorkle and speed, I took the phones and scanned the convoy. We made great time and with some luck, would get in a good shooting position.. Right in the middle of the group was a horrendous noise.. I had never heard such heavy beats in all my patrols.. I cautiously raised the scope, increased magnification and found a Bogue Escort Carrier in the middle of the pack. As I slammed the scope down, and pondered my approach, I ordered silent running and continued to close. The destroyer escorts were running almost 20 kts. and seemed to be deaf. Once the lead destroyer passed, I kicked it up to standard and readied all tubes.. Never having come across a carrier, I chose a 3 tube salvo, mag pistols and set a meter below the keel. Once in position, I slowed to 1/3 and set silent running. A quick look through the scope to confirm my setup. It would be a near broadside shot at 800 meters.. This must be a end of war prize for lasting this long!!
Within 3 minutes I had a clear shot, fired 3 tubes and headed out of the group.. A T3 was cutting in front of me, so I sent the final loaded bow eel at her.. I contemplated shooting my stern eels too, but with so many escorts around, I saved them for defense. I didn't make it this far by being too rash. Dive to 25 meters, secure from silent running & get reloading!! I was at 20 meters when the first torpedo struck and then heard three other explosions.. I F12'd the scene and saw planes exploding off the Bogue. Two eels would have done the trick though.. The T3 was also ablaze and my log indicated she was destroyed. Set course to 270 and get out of dodge.. The destroyers picked me up briefly, but some turns and decoys shook them from my trail. Within 2 hours, they were tearing up a piece of the ocean behind me.. Air cover came in and also tried to ruin my day. All the noise helped cover my exit. Well into nightfall, we surfaced and reloaded the externals. After a very long day, all internals were reloaded and I was able to rest most of the crew..
Two days later during the daylight submerged run ,we picked up a convoy report. It was just Southwest of us and should be within visual in about 10 hours. To save our batteries & top them off, I ordered the snorkle raised and increased speed to full. As I poured over the plot and plugged in degree shifts and various speeds, I came up with a probable solution. At 64 TC, it seemed to take forever, but at 11 hours we were rewarded with several sonar contacts. Once again, there were several loud contacts. As I refined the approach and lowered the snorkle ,I scanned the sonvoy with the attack scope.. Several cargos, merchants, two troop transports and a passenger liner (My first). I selected the liner and a troop ship as my targets and got into position. There were 8 various escorts so there was no way I could pick them all off and have any eels left for the valuables.. The escort lookouts must have been eyeballing the liner since they never saw my scope.
We closed to 2000 meters, opened all tubes and waited for the convoy to close. We were moving into position at 1/3 and silent running. Just in case I had a chance, I readied both stern tubes for the second transport. Minutes later, two eels were streaking towards the passenger liner and two towards the nearest troop ship.. We secured from silent running so the loaders could do their job and swung around to bring the rear tubes to bear on the second transport.. We were finally detected by the escorts, but not before the liner was destroyed and the transport was damaged. Unfortunately, one torpedo missed the transport.. These escorts were more tenacious than the last bunch and gave us a steady lashing of active sonar and depthcharges. Not being able to get into a good shooting position, we dove and escaped. Unfortunately, our kill came at a cost of all three flak guns and some serious damage to the tower and antennas.. Hours later we were on the surface & reloading our spares as the repair teams salvaged what they could. Since the convoy was well East of us by now, we attempted to radio a contact report, but it would not transmit. With repairs completed, we headed East to reestablish contact with the convoy. Hoping to find the wounded troop transport and maybe sink our teeth into the second one, we charged ahead at Full speed.. The torpedo loaders stood down and were rested during the chase..
Radar Signals Detected!!! We dove and expected to see the signals coming from the East (Direction the last convoy took), but instead, they were coming from the North. We cautiously closed as numerous warship contacts were called out by sonar. It appeared to be a six warship convoy or task force.. As they were steaming SE, we had to sprint East in order to close the gap without being detected. As far as we dared, we ran at top speed and slowed before we could be detected. Nightfall was approaching and we had 5 tubes of eels!! In the mess were Clemsons, a Dido and smack dab in the middle was the first King George V Battleship I had seen the entire war..
I decided to fire a 3 tube salvo from the bow and then swing around in case the last stern eel was needed. I've been saving the acoustic eel for defense. During my scope sweep, we were detected and instead of speeding up, the battle ship slowed to 6 kts and began using searchlights. I prematurely fired 3 bow fish at it (3 degree spread) & headed due west. (I was feeling rather unwelcomed at that point), not only to bring my stern around, but to head for safety and blue water.. All 3 torpedoes exploded under the keel of Ol' George and the escorts went beserk. The active pinging and racks of depth charges were earsplitting. Just as before, I was able to mauever out of the mess. I don't know if the decoys were unlimited, but I kept praying for just 1 more decoy... I was almost in the clear when a Clemson picked up my trail. With my batteries pretty run down, I ordered Flank speed and periscope depth. I raised my 'target' aka snorkel and readied my stern acoustic. With the Clemson at 500 meters, 0 AOB and shooting at my scope wake, I fired the stern tube... 10 second run time according to the watch. I lowered the scope to save it from further damage and F12'd the fight. The eel exploded right under the bow and the destroyer slid under the waves.. The other escorts continued on with the rest of the convoy, which suited me just fine. I surfaced, repaired and sent off a status report. By the time I received my "Well Done, Keep up the good work" from Uncle Karl, I was repaired and heading home.. The lone small tanker we ran into a day later was anticlimatic after sinking the Bogue, liner and King George.. Out of fish and with building weather, we warped back to Bergen. Patrol total was 109K (Second 100K+ patrol in my career). With 400 points shy of getting an XXI, I decided to put to sea in my faithful IXC. AS I selected my mission and selected start, I received a message that the war had ended..............