Graf Paper
01-11-08, 03:26 PM
Whew! Just got back into 1st Flotilla's port at Kiel after my sixth patrol. This turned out to be my longest patrol yet.
It started out on glorious spring dawn, light winds and the ocean as placid as glass. I had been assigned to patrol grid AF59, off the northwest coast of Norway. It turned out to be a very stormy and dull trip from the moment I first sighted the Norwegian coast. The waves were rolling so much that my boat occasionally would find itself submerged in 10 meters of storm surges that had me truly worried about my watch crew, topside. Sank one tiny scow of a merchant, all the other contacts were warships from my team there to repel the coming Brits.
Finally got a transmission from BdU stating that all U-boats were released from duties at Norway, so I was left to my own devices as to where I should go next.
I decided to go 'round the Shetlands and south along the English coast toward Ireland. Took me several uneventful, stormy days to get there but my whim paid off almost immediately when a contact report came stating a Task Force was in my vicinity! As I was laying course and dashing along an intercept heading, a new contact report was received. A Large Convoy was headed my way from grid AM52!
Knowing my primary mission as a U-boat commander is to interdict merchant shipping, I broke away from my intercept of the Task force and made full speed toward the convoy.
As I close in, my sonarman starts rattling off so many contacts I had to double check the hydrophones myself to make sure he wasn't reporting the same ships twice! 10 merchants and 4 warships!
The entire North Atlantic seems to be in the grip of the storms I must have dragged with me from Norway. The sea is even more rough here and the rain is falling hard with a heavy fog that has nearly eliminated visibility, so I rely on my man at the hydrophones to zero us in to position.
All stop. Periscope depth and wait.
One of the warship contacts is inside the convoy and nearly on top of me! I scan around and a Revenge-class battleship falls into the crosshairs of my 'scope. My first battleship target! My hands tremble and my heart leaps in my chest from the exicitement. Distance is a mere 432 meters but there's not enough time to set up a salvo and fire before she's sailed past me.
I very nearly gave up at that point, thinking the destroyers would be on me for sure if I broke silent running to catch up for another shot.
Then it occurred to me that the same soup that was keeping me from spotting targets until they were in my lap would also blind the enemy in a similar fashion!
Surface the boat! Ahead flank! I was catching up to that war-horse, determined to bring her down. This patch of ocean was so crowded from the convoy I had to dive under one ship to avoid a collision and passed so near to the stern of another you could count the rivets in the hull plating! But my strategy was working. The rough seas and foul weather hid me from view and the escort screen (C&D, A&B, and Flower Corvette) was busy listening for submerged attacks.
Let me digress for a moment by stating that you should treat your sonarman very well. A good one is worth his weight in gold for a situation like this.
I pester the sonarman for updates on the battleship so I can double check my plot. Yes! We've pulled ahead just enough. Hard to port! Ahead slow! I'm at the UZO and all lined up. Setting salvo, tubes 1...3...4, impact trigger, shallow run, 5 degrees spread. Almost there! Got to time the shot with the pitching of the waves...
Bearing 358.
Open tube doors!
Bearing 000.
FIRE!
Torpedoes away!
Each second that passes feels like its own agonizing eternity...
Will the torpedoes run true?
Will enough detonate on target?
Did I line everything up right?
Sure enough, there's three flashes visible even through this pea-soup fog as the eels impact. GOT HER! :D (I'm sure my men are wondering about my sanity at this point as I caper around the bridge, giggling like a school girl and doing the happy-dance).
She burns gloriously and explosions rip through her hull like a symphony of thunder. Within minutes after being hit, the mighty battle-wagon slips beneath the storm-tossed waves!
Ship sunk! Grid AM 53. Revenge-class Battleship, 31000 tons. May 3, 1940, 10:11.
Oh yeah! Life is good! *quiver* *gasp*
I then went on to sink a Whale Factory ship, Nipiwan Park tanker, and a Large Merchant.
By then I had raised so much of a ruckus that I finally drew the attention of the three escorts. It took some fancy steering but I managed to avoid them, despite one close shave with the C&D.
I still had two eels left, but I figured I had pressed my luck enough with this bunch, who were likely screaming for my head on a stick after bringing down the three largest vessels in the convoy.
Later, as I was passing to the west of the Orkneys, I stumbled across that Task Force I'd abandoned earlier, but they were well east of my position. As I was racing to catch up, yet another Large Convoy popped up. They were following the same general tack as the Task Force but several hours behind, which meant they were that much closer to me!
I go through the steps to place myself abeam of their path, waited about 4 minutes, and then rammed my last two eels into the belly of an Ore Carrier.
Once again, I used the weather to my advantage and slipped away while surfaced which left the escorts running around in circles looking for a submerged U-boat that wasn't there! :rotfl:
After that, it was simply a matter of breaking out the record collection and speculating about the frauleins back home when we made port.
Patrol 6:
Merchants sunk- 5 (33,601 tons)
Warships sunk- 1 (Revenge BB 31,000 tons)
Total Tonnage sunk- 64,601 :arrgh!:
I am overjoyed at how well this patrol turned out! And my very first battleship sunk, ever!
My return to Kiel was on May 10th, 1940. As I recall, 1st Flotilla was moved to Brest in June and that would coincide with the time my U-boat would be ready for a new patrol. I wonder if this next patrol will begin in Kiel and end with me having to sail around to Brest?
It started out on glorious spring dawn, light winds and the ocean as placid as glass. I had been assigned to patrol grid AF59, off the northwest coast of Norway. It turned out to be a very stormy and dull trip from the moment I first sighted the Norwegian coast. The waves were rolling so much that my boat occasionally would find itself submerged in 10 meters of storm surges that had me truly worried about my watch crew, topside. Sank one tiny scow of a merchant, all the other contacts were warships from my team there to repel the coming Brits.
Finally got a transmission from BdU stating that all U-boats were released from duties at Norway, so I was left to my own devices as to where I should go next.
I decided to go 'round the Shetlands and south along the English coast toward Ireland. Took me several uneventful, stormy days to get there but my whim paid off almost immediately when a contact report came stating a Task Force was in my vicinity! As I was laying course and dashing along an intercept heading, a new contact report was received. A Large Convoy was headed my way from grid AM52!
Knowing my primary mission as a U-boat commander is to interdict merchant shipping, I broke away from my intercept of the Task force and made full speed toward the convoy.
As I close in, my sonarman starts rattling off so many contacts I had to double check the hydrophones myself to make sure he wasn't reporting the same ships twice! 10 merchants and 4 warships!
The entire North Atlantic seems to be in the grip of the storms I must have dragged with me from Norway. The sea is even more rough here and the rain is falling hard with a heavy fog that has nearly eliminated visibility, so I rely on my man at the hydrophones to zero us in to position.
All stop. Periscope depth and wait.
One of the warship contacts is inside the convoy and nearly on top of me! I scan around and a Revenge-class battleship falls into the crosshairs of my 'scope. My first battleship target! My hands tremble and my heart leaps in my chest from the exicitement. Distance is a mere 432 meters but there's not enough time to set up a salvo and fire before she's sailed past me.
I very nearly gave up at that point, thinking the destroyers would be on me for sure if I broke silent running to catch up for another shot.
Then it occurred to me that the same soup that was keeping me from spotting targets until they were in my lap would also blind the enemy in a similar fashion!
Surface the boat! Ahead flank! I was catching up to that war-horse, determined to bring her down. This patch of ocean was so crowded from the convoy I had to dive under one ship to avoid a collision and passed so near to the stern of another you could count the rivets in the hull plating! But my strategy was working. The rough seas and foul weather hid me from view and the escort screen (C&D, A&B, and Flower Corvette) was busy listening for submerged attacks.
Let me digress for a moment by stating that you should treat your sonarman very well. A good one is worth his weight in gold for a situation like this.
I pester the sonarman for updates on the battleship so I can double check my plot. Yes! We've pulled ahead just enough. Hard to port! Ahead slow! I'm at the UZO and all lined up. Setting salvo, tubes 1...3...4, impact trigger, shallow run, 5 degrees spread. Almost there! Got to time the shot with the pitching of the waves...
Bearing 358.
Open tube doors!
Bearing 000.
FIRE!
Torpedoes away!
Each second that passes feels like its own agonizing eternity...
Will the torpedoes run true?
Will enough detonate on target?
Did I line everything up right?
Sure enough, there's three flashes visible even through this pea-soup fog as the eels impact. GOT HER! :D (I'm sure my men are wondering about my sanity at this point as I caper around the bridge, giggling like a school girl and doing the happy-dance).
She burns gloriously and explosions rip through her hull like a symphony of thunder. Within minutes after being hit, the mighty battle-wagon slips beneath the storm-tossed waves!
Ship sunk! Grid AM 53. Revenge-class Battleship, 31000 tons. May 3, 1940, 10:11.
Oh yeah! Life is good! *quiver* *gasp*
I then went on to sink a Whale Factory ship, Nipiwan Park tanker, and a Large Merchant.
By then I had raised so much of a ruckus that I finally drew the attention of the three escorts. It took some fancy steering but I managed to avoid them, despite one close shave with the C&D.
I still had two eels left, but I figured I had pressed my luck enough with this bunch, who were likely screaming for my head on a stick after bringing down the three largest vessels in the convoy.
Later, as I was passing to the west of the Orkneys, I stumbled across that Task Force I'd abandoned earlier, but they were well east of my position. As I was racing to catch up, yet another Large Convoy popped up. They were following the same general tack as the Task Force but several hours behind, which meant they were that much closer to me!
I go through the steps to place myself abeam of their path, waited about 4 minutes, and then rammed my last two eels into the belly of an Ore Carrier.
Once again, I used the weather to my advantage and slipped away while surfaced which left the escorts running around in circles looking for a submerged U-boat that wasn't there! :rotfl:
After that, it was simply a matter of breaking out the record collection and speculating about the frauleins back home when we made port.
Patrol 6:
Merchants sunk- 5 (33,601 tons)
Warships sunk- 1 (Revenge BB 31,000 tons)
Total Tonnage sunk- 64,601 :arrgh!:
I am overjoyed at how well this patrol turned out! And my very first battleship sunk, ever!
My return to Kiel was on May 10th, 1940. As I recall, 1st Flotilla was moved to Brest in June and that would coincide with the time my U-boat would be ready for a new patrol. I wonder if this next patrol will begin in Kiel and end with me having to sail around to Brest?