<>U-45 Kaptain Hans Wolf- 4th patrol report<>

[Kaptain Hans Wolf]

Hello again fellow kaptains. this report will be brief as i am about to put to sea for my 5th patrol, but here goe's, hope you enjoy.

<>Departure date<>17/Dec/1939
we left port at kiel and headed for our patrol zone on the south coast of france, taking our usual course around the north of scapa flow, then south.

as we were heading south, we encountered a large convoy. we dived to periscope depth and followed the hydrophone in till we were aft of the convoy. this was the first big convoy of my current carrer so i was feeling quite exited, and i had never encountered a good sized convoy this early in the war.

to put a long story short, we launched four torps, sunk 1 c2 cargo and 1 smaller merchant. we left to re-load, came back and sunk another c2 cargo, and managed to sink the convoys only escort, a corvette. we then surfaced hoping to reak havock with the deck gun, but the weather was bad so we could not do so.

we trailed the convoy for nearly 2 days, hoping to get weather good for the deck gun, but we did not. we were low on torpedos so we decided to leave and head for home. as we left we sunk a small merchant with the stern tube.

results<> sunk 4 merchants for 17,574 tons
<>sunk 1 corvette for 950 tons
<>awarded iron cross first class

quite a short patrol really, but im not going to turn down 18,000 tons of enemy shipping.

keep an eye out for my next report, and thank you for your support fellow kaptains.

Good hunting from everyone onboard U-45.

[TomcatMVD]

From: Lt Sr Tomcat U-47
To: Capt. Hans Wolf U-45

Herr Kaleun,
it would seem as if it was just yesterday that we were making our way through the academy, learning to conn a submarine in utmost secrecy, shooting ship wrecks with deck guns and calculating torpedo solutions once and again, and again until we grew tired of it!
When war finally wroke out, our Fatherland had a fair share of seamen with enough experience to put a blow into the British face! Eagerness and morale were the common factor among the members of the entier U-bootwaffe. However, after realizing that the war is no longer a possibility, but a fact, actions are the only thing that keeps faith in the heart of the men, actions from oneself, or actions from fellow comrades.
Lately, after picking up your reports at port, while on sea, I gather the men around on dull hours, and let them know about the progress and war efforts of U-45, and is truly amazing to hear the cheers and see the grins on their young faces after each torpedo hit I narrate them. After we finish with your report, they all seem a lot more eager in emulating U-45´s success at war.
Fellow Kaleun, I guess I just needed to thank you for your hard work and sacrifice at sea, and for keeping the arrogants tommies out of our ocean! Or should I say: below it?
Congratulations, and good hunting my old friend!

Lt. Sr. Tomcat
U-47

[Kaptain Hans Wolf]

Danke kaptain tomcat, and good hunting to you as well!