GoldenRivet
06-30-07, 11:57 PM
8 february 1943
Sound contact was made with a warship at about 1800 hours. had a look through the periscope and within seconds he made a B-Line at me. crash dived to 140 meters dropping decoys on the way down and rigged for silent running. depth charged us. dve to 180 meters. pings were still very loud and crisp. depth charged us again... dive to 200 meters... depth charges were landing all around us. "depth charges in the water" "hard to port & ahead flank" for two hours we played this game with me eventually trying 240 meters to evade this maniac. still the depth charges landed close enough to cause the boat to shake violently.
"If we survive this..." the commander said with a nervous grin "i will pick my battles with much greater wisdom in the future."
with each pass of the destroyer and each zig zag of the sub as the last depth charge exploded every ear listend closely for the pinging to subside in hopes that the attack was over.
the silence of breathing men was all you could hear... until...
PING PING PING
"here we go again gentlemen, this destoryer captain is undoubtedly an expert at his task, lets meet his expertise with out own"
another pass of depth charges, then another, then another... after every pass the men listened again for the attack to subside. Surely he must run out of depth charges soon! and each time the silence was interrupted by the sharp and crisp and ear shattering...
PING PING PING
eventually enough was enough. on what would become his final depth charge run - the minute i heard the first splash i went ahead flank and blew the ballast... my sub ascended with great speed and eagerness to leave the dark often untreaded depth of 240 meters. surely his cans passed us on the way up. they exploded deep below. as we arrested the ascent to get to periscope depth. this has gone on long enough... it will be either them or us, we will surely be finished if my attack fails.
my scope breached the surface and without hesitation his search lights hit the tiny protrusion. putting in quick estimates of speed, range and AOB i fired a stern shot as tracers landed in the water all around the scope.
There was never a sweeter impact than this one as it ripped through his starboard bow causeing massive secondaries to engulf the destroyer. as he went down by the bow - defiant pings of asdic became sporatic... the forward most search light trailed off and went dark... the aft search light stared at us in disbelief before flickering into eternal darkness.
U-90 and her crew would survive the hell of the atlantic to fight at least one more day.
:rock:
Sound contact was made with a warship at about 1800 hours. had a look through the periscope and within seconds he made a B-Line at me. crash dived to 140 meters dropping decoys on the way down and rigged for silent running. depth charged us. dve to 180 meters. pings were still very loud and crisp. depth charged us again... dive to 200 meters... depth charges were landing all around us. "depth charges in the water" "hard to port & ahead flank" for two hours we played this game with me eventually trying 240 meters to evade this maniac. still the depth charges landed close enough to cause the boat to shake violently.
"If we survive this..." the commander said with a nervous grin "i will pick my battles with much greater wisdom in the future."
with each pass of the destroyer and each zig zag of the sub as the last depth charge exploded every ear listend closely for the pinging to subside in hopes that the attack was over.
the silence of breathing men was all you could hear... until...
PING PING PING
"here we go again gentlemen, this destoryer captain is undoubtedly an expert at his task, lets meet his expertise with out own"
another pass of depth charges, then another, then another... after every pass the men listened again for the attack to subside. Surely he must run out of depth charges soon! and each time the silence was interrupted by the sharp and crisp and ear shattering...
PING PING PING
eventually enough was enough. on what would become his final depth charge run - the minute i heard the first splash i went ahead flank and blew the ballast... my sub ascended with great speed and eagerness to leave the dark often untreaded depth of 240 meters. surely his cans passed us on the way up. they exploded deep below. as we arrested the ascent to get to periscope depth. this has gone on long enough... it will be either them or us, we will surely be finished if my attack fails.
my scope breached the surface and without hesitation his search lights hit the tiny protrusion. putting in quick estimates of speed, range and AOB i fired a stern shot as tracers landed in the water all around the scope.
There was never a sweeter impact than this one as it ripped through his starboard bow causeing massive secondaries to engulf the destroyer. as he went down by the bow - defiant pings of asdic became sporatic... the forward most search light trailed off and went dark... the aft search light stared at us in disbelief before flickering into eternal darkness.
U-90 and her crew would survive the hell of the atlantic to fight at least one more day.
:rock: