Die Eisernen Wölfe

[InvisibleDeath]

Meine namen ist Mikhael Über. Ich bitte um Entschuldigung, I should write my journals am Englisch since it is most likely it will be found by them on my dead body. This is my journal of the war against the world. Or so it seems. Hitler has placed the world upon our shoulders and it is up to those of us in the Unterboot program to "save" him. It is not what I want or need, but I have my orders and I shall perform as any German captain shall.

I was born in München and was sent to Oxford for college. That is why I speak English so well. I returned to Deutschland just after my uncle, the first Democratic President of Germany was setup as a patsy to get Hitler into office. And now I serve as a Captain in the German Navy. These are my tales of happiness, of sadness, but hopefully not of death. It is with my deepest wishes that if you are reading this, it is in a museum while I am sitting on my porch, with a wife in Germany and this stupid war is far behind us.

Chapter One
Relaxation Becomes a Holey Adventure (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2126961&postcount=3)
A Tough Nut to Crack (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2126984&postcount=4)
Der Keltische See (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2127638&postcount=7)
Snakes in the wind (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2130779&postcount=8)
Hell on Earth (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2134430&postcount=12)
The Knife Fight (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2138389&postcount=13)

[InvisibleDeath]

I had just been given my new Unterboot and we pulled slowly out of the slip, headed out to sea with my crew. I'm glad to have my boat since I knew this crew very well having been their Leutnant. My new number one has had many kilometers under his belt. My crew was congratulated me and slapped my back as we began our move out to sea. This was going to be a great carreer.

The Keil Pilot had just disembarked and we ramped up to full speed heading out to sea. As we did so, it felt that we had reached a peaceful realm of relaxation and excitement. The water was peaceful, the temperature lovely and no ships in sight. For just a moment it felt as if there was no war at all, until the report came in that U-28 was sunk with all hands on deck.

As we moved on with our first day the crew wanted to go down to Amsterdam since the radio chatter suggested that the Brits were using the port for supplies. I had my doubts, I thought that the crew just wanted to see the city but thought that it would be good for binding the crew together so we set sail for the port.

We moved down past the isles and moved into the inlet leading to the city. As I had thought, there was not a ship in sight except us. We continued south and ran the center of the inlet to have the best observation point. As we reached the southern edge of the inlet we headed west towards Amsterdam when we got a report that there was smoke on the horizon. We headed hard west and waited to see what was coming our way.

At first it appeared we were approaching a single merchant but we soon discovered two separate smoke trails and headed into a good solution for using our guns. As we did so the two increased their speed and ran southward towards land. They must have known their fate. My gunners put a few rounds into their tails to damage their engines and props then we moved between them and opened up with our guns. There was no mercy for the hardware but I was glad to see rafts headed to shore as we sat and observed the two boats going down.

Later my bosun came and presented me with this pencil drawing of our first blood:

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee513/MichaelEber/SilentHunter/PencilSketchofFirstSinking.png

I did not care for the depth of the water and the smoke these two ships created, so instead of heading into the port we headed back out to sea. I saw this as my first test as a captain because my crew followed my orders without any complaints. We moved towards Rotterdam and I spent that time walking about talking with the crew and getting to know them even better. As we approached the port area we were lucky enough to find yet another merchant to sink before we began our run north towards our patrol area. I told the crew that we had to stop the small surface attacks as we needed to conserve the little amount of shells we had left. As day turned towards night we thought that the run would be as peaceful as the coming sunset. Clouds were forming and a storm was threatening but he spirits were high and we were all anxious to begin our patrol. Twice we saw smoke or received sighting reports but all were outside of our range.

It was at this point our peace turned into something else, a plane was sighted approaching from the west to our south. I headed up to the bridge and got my binoculars out but I was just focusing on them when I saw orange angry spits of fire from not one but two planes. I jumped down the ladder and ordered a dive but it was already too late. It was very tense as everyone hurried to get us below the surface. Damage reports flooded in as the two planes did their job and I did mine to keep my crew alive. As we slipped beneath the surface my crew worked hard to repair what they could. The crew quarters was flooded with water ankle deep but other areas of the boat were intact.

Once we stabilized the boat I pulled up the observation periscope and was very happy to report that no planes were visible in the skies. We evaded them! Surfacing I asked my engineer to give me a quick damage report. Our equipment was in good, working order as long as patches and chewing gum could be considered good. But the hull took too much damage. We did not have the diving gear to repair all of our damage and he rated our hull at 17% integral. The decision was simple; we head back to Keil and get our boat repaired. We made a run away from shores and headed straight into port. I felt bad that we had to tuck our tail between our legs just as we were approaching our patrol area. But I learned early on, it is always better to run and live so that we may fight another day. At least our boat did not go down.

[InvisibleDeath]

I thought that command would be pissed that I had damaged my boat and had to return before I even began a patrol, but the 3 merchants we sank and the two Polish merchants we caught in the Keil Canal made us more heroes than targets. It seems that our return without any deaths and good tonnage down was a great morale boost for the Unterboot group. Our victories would be published on the radio and we were to return to our patrol area.

This time no one complained when we headed straight out to sea and moved directly to our patrol area. We completely avoided the run north from Rotterdam and arrived at our AOO without incident. We were finally here. We were finally patrolling for the enemy. I gave several of my crew members promotions for their work during the attack and we all looked to the horizons for our next chance at shutting England out of the war. However our first day saw empty skies and empty seas.

Among the crew we also had an open discussion of a radio transmission we received; passenger boats were now valid targets! How could this be? Was the Fuehrer really wanting to touch this area of shipping??!!! We could not believe it and hoped we never had to make a choice. We hated what deaths we did cause and we thought that this was only going to make the world hate us more. Our discussion was interrupted by the radio; there was a merchants group south of us and we hurried to pursue them.

As we moved into pursuit they moved out to sea running at a pace that seemed faster than us. After hours of pursuit I finally gave up and radioed in their position, hoping a wolfpack would pick them up. We began to head back to our patrol area and I could feel the disappointment in the crew that we could not close on the enemy. As we moved into the patrol area, the ships appeared once again! I could not believe it but they were parallel to our course and heading towards England. We ran into position for an intercept however once we were inside their observation distance they immediately turned back out to sea at full speed! We did not pursue them this time; we headed on with our patrol and just ignored them. But they had other plans and soon they showed up once again; still heading out to sea but making a path that would take them back to England.

I went to my navigator and we hatched a plan could prove very rewarding if it paid off. We ran north and then sent the sub beneath the waves running full speed on electric motors. It paid off. We were in position to take on both ships with our eels, what we did not anticipate was that the lead ship had such an exceptional crew. They spotted my periscope and opened fire with a hail of very heavy fire! We locked onto that ship first, laid in a track and fired an eel at his broadside. I dropped the scope below the water line and waited as the torpedo found it's mark. We hit but did not sink her. I was happy enough with that, the damage should keep their damn gunners busy.

We moved to the second ship and this time I put two eels in her direction. We waited and finally got the report on the first eel, but the second one either went too deep or she slowed to quickly and it continued on its way to it's deadly sleep at the ocean floor. We sent another eel her way and soon had the report we wanted, it hit and the contact detonator left it's mark. We let her be as we turned our attention to the first ship. We pulled up into position at full speed and went to place another eel or two into her. She was taking on water and looked like an easy target. However our first eel ran wide, our second eel dove too deep and it was not until our 3rd eel that we got another eel into her causing significant damage. And her damage was now on both sides, one in the bow and one in the rear. Her damage was significant enough that we could surface and finish her off with our gun. As we neared her we saw why we took the damage that we did, she was bristling with guns front and rear.

After she was beyond hope I turned and looked for the second ship. She was not in view and I thought she was sunk. Two ships down and watch picked up a third ship to our north! Glad that we were on the surface we headed full steam in pursuit of the ship. But when we caught up I could not believe what I was seeing in my binoculars; the ship was the second ship and even though it was leaning heavily to port it was running at nearly full speed. So it was 16:00 hours and we began our pursuit to put her down.

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee513/MichaelEber/SilentHunter/Thewoundedduck.png

The wounded duck was a tough nut to crack and we drove hard to bring about her ending. It took quite a while to close even 1000 KM between us so we had the gun crew work at putting shells into her. We think we got a few shells into her rear and we kept moving to get into a broadside position but she kept turning her back to us. It was a surprise that she could maneuver like she did. I finally got a position where I thought we could put an eel into her opposite side. I got my solution and tried to anticipate her captain but she still managed to outrun my eel and it never reached her. But the water was slowly driving her down and we kept pursuit.

17:20 -- the ship was starting to break up and slow down. Fire was taking it's toll and we were able to close some distance between us. We put a few explosive rounds into her high side but I question if it was needed. Her deck was awash, her guns were unmanned, and her crew and passengers were heading to shore in their rafts. She finally slowed and quietly slipped into her sleep beneath the waves. As she went under we were happy to see that there were several rafts heading to the shore and we had our crew catch and interrogate one of the crew members while my engineer checked out our condition. The ship heading down was a small passenger ship but the first ship was a troop carrier. This explained why we had such a tough fight on our hands even though we were below the surface. It seems that the passenger ship road with the troop ship in the hopes of being protected as they headed into port. We offered help to the injured then headed back to our patrol zone. Our integrity was down by over 50% but I hoped we could hang out long enough for some normal merchant sinkings before we headed back to port.

[InvisibleDeath]

Ihr Deutsch ist Besser als mein Deutsch!:salute:

When I got onto a forum with a ton of Germans they thought my German was humorous. And not in a nice way. LOL Ich bin eine American. And flunked my second quarter of German in school. This is my fiction thread which Gap suggested I do. Enjoy the read.

[gap]

Enjoy the read.

We do. Keep them coming :yeah:

[InvisibleDeath]

As we returned to our patrol I did not like the looks of our hull. Those guns did way too much damage for my comfort. Then to make things worse, as we approached our port we received a message that our home port was reassigned! Finally we arrived, got our hull repaired and headed back out. This time we headed for Der Keltische See.

We ran north of England, along the western shore of Ireland and took on our patrol. The excitement was no longer there. We had brought about too much death, too much damage, to be excited. We moved into position and began our saw tooth search pattern. As we moved, we would remain surfaced during the day relying on the watch to locate any ships. In the evening we would frequently dive listening to sonar. And it was in this way that our evening event occurred.

The night wrapped itself around us like a black, silken cloak. We found it hard to see the difference between the sky and the ocean. I felt that, as we swung our ship to the northwest, that it was time to make a dive and listen to the ocean to see what secrets she would give up to us. As we switched over to electric and slipped into our watery sheath we picked up many props in the distance and they were quite tempting. We marked our charts and surfaced as we drove our machine harder to see if this was a chance of wealth or a cadre of death.

For hours we continued to switch between racing towards our target and diving to ensure they were still out there. I had heard of captains who pick up a convoy and once they get a direction assume they never change direction. I would not make that mistake. Eventually the watch sent down the word I was waiting for: merchant ships in sight sir! We sat on the edge of the field of ships and waited to ensure their course. We plotted an intercept and were close enough that even a course change would put the baby sheep in the jaws of the hungry wolf. We moved into position and slipped beneath the surface to await the arrival of our gift.

It was a huge convoy; fourteen ships were heading to England and it was up to us to wreak a little havoc on these ships. I had a full allotment of eels but knew it would take several to bring these ships down. I had to pick my targets very carefully. One must pick the oyster and leave the shell. I saw several freighters and some steamers and several were too far away to judge size. Of the nearest I selected what looked like the largest and picked my first two targets. Since I was having trouble with my eels diving too low I set my depth high and all triggers to impact. My first two targets were set and let the first eel go. Switching to my next target I let my second eel go and waited for the next two targets to be selected.

My adjustments paid off as I had two impacts reported. I ignored the ships since I wanted to make sure I had my next two targets ready. I had what looked like a large steamer and she was my next target. I did not want to lose her so I sent my last two eels her way. As I saw two explosions I swung around to my first two targets. One was smoking and the other was in flames. Both were running too strong for my liking but I was getting the call that tube one was reloaded and I waited for my second tube to be loaded as well. These two eels were sent off into the tail section of each ship and that meant waiting for my last two eels to be loaded up. But the ships were breaking up and running while I had a large steamer too close to let it escape.

I called for hard port and ran the engines at extreme speed. We had a very sharp turn about which put us in position to hopefully cripple a fourth tempting target while we reloaded all tubes. We were in position very quickly and I placed my eel into the midsection of the ship. As the torpedo ran towards it's target we did another 180 hard turn to get our forward tubes back into position. Once we were in position I scoped out the situation; two ships were heavily damaged and everyone else was quickly running to the north. I called to surface and the scene from the bridge was a sight to behold.

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee513/MichaelEber/SilentHunter/Twomerchantsdamaged.png

I relaxed upon the railing of the con and observed the ships as they burned. While at first view they appeared to be just sitting in the water burning, through the binoculars I could see that one was heavily leaning to port. The other must have had explosive damage to both sides as it sat level in the water and her decks were already awash with water. I turned to my left and the scene was total chaos. The ships were moving in what seemed like no pattern whatsoever. It was then I wished that I had double the number of eels than what we could carry. I looked closely at the two sinking ships; one was a large North Sands freighter and the other one was indeed a large steamer. Based on the boxes and crates on the deck it looked like she was carrying war supplies. This was a huge win for my crew!

I checked my boards and my last 4 eels were loaded up. I hoped I could extend our count and used our guns on a ship that was nearby and hopefully unarmed. Loading up the armor piercing rounds we began unloading shells into the side of the ship beneath the water line. Unfortunately it was so dark we had trouble telling how well our shells were working. Meanwhile the ship and the two sinking ships had their lights on us and our target was armed. We loaded up explosive rounds, sent several into the side of the ship shooting at us as well as a few explosive rounds in the center of the two burning ships. Instead of bringing down any ship quickly it just made us more of a target for the guns of the one ship. And their gunners were closing in on us. We all ran down the steps and dove to a safer location beneath the surface. We patched up the leaks and replaced and rerouted some damaged circuits getting everything was nearly back in order. By the time we got the periscope functional and back up the one ship had sunk and I watched as the second ship slipped beneath the surface.

I turned to the ship that had done this damage to us and I did not hesitate. We put together a quick solution and I was happy to send two eels into her bow and stern. I wanted this bugger going into the deep muddy green sea. I was so focused on this that I did not move the periscope away from her until I saw both torpedoes explode on her. And they were nearly true to aim. Over the next 20 minutes or so the flames rose and spread over her deck. As they rose they ignited other materials causing a very large explosion which began her spiral into a death at sea. We surfaced the boat and headed for the other two wounded ships, leaving her to her slow, fiery death. My sonar reported that the ships were running zig zag patterns moving north. That gave us an opportunity; with careful observation and planning we could send our fish into the backside of these two that would remove their propulsion and start to drag them down to the deep.

It took over an hour to follow, work a solution, and bring down two more ships and with the last three that we took down we had a nice finish. Another large North Sands freighter, another large steamer, and a medium sized freighter of unknown type. Each time we tried to surface, the remaining ships opened fire on us. So we slipped under the surface and headed off to the northwest. As their props quieted down on sonar we surfaced and headed back home. It was time to fix the damage and get more torpedoes. We headed towards the western coast of Ireland and avoided any convoys. The last thing we needed was having to avoid more gun fire as I did not want my submarine sunk. But when we saw a solitary ship heading to England we could not resist; We headed for an intercept with our gun fully manned. We would make up for having to let so many ships return to port by taking this one down.

We moved into position behind the ship as it turned to the north after sighting us on the surface. This was a good sign as she may not be armed. But with us coming from behind I doubt that even her guns could easily target us. We started at 11:00 in the morning with calm seas, nice weather, and no fog. The wind would not be a factor so we hurried to get into range chasing her from behind at full speed. Around 12:10 we were just about in range and put the gun on her. We sent several shells her way before we finally saw a very satisfying secondary explosion after the water splash. We focused on that range and continued to hammer her with shells. She made wide sweeping turns to avoid our shells but we just reaimed, adjusted range, and gave her damage to her side. With her speed starting to fail, and our shells hitting home, we sent several HEP rounds into her guts which caused a lovely fireworks display for our enjoyment. As we moved up on her we could see that she was an old Rongel Split Freighter and she was quite small, but she was another mark on our record. And my bosun caught a shot of her with her decks awash.

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee513/MichaelEber/decksawash.png

We returned home and felt much better about our return than our very first outing. The crew was in good spirits and I had a few promotions ready to give.

[InvisibleDeath]

The smoke coiled up to the skies like black, oily snakes coiling about the ships seeking to take the souls of the dead up to the heavens. We had created a sea of pain but had no time to extend our damage as a warship was heading into the area and we had to dive and run. But I digress; this began at command after finishing our patrol.

Command felt I was very promising. I had a good chance to discuss our encounters and they were impressed with the pencil drawing. As we discussed the battles it was brought up that there is too much product moving out of the eastern coast of England. I was asked to return and bring my skills to bear. We upgraded the forward gun to a large one and with the refit done we moved out to sea once again.

After we were out in the depths of the ocean I informed the crew where we were going. Everyone was upset that we were returning there and felt that we've paid our dues. Keeping morale up was not an easy task so I pulled out the special case I had placed on board and took it to the chef. The crew spent the next several days enjoying steak and onions, bratwurst and sauerkraut, and a very well made German Potato salad that was just vinegary enough. I spent most of my time talking to the men, telling them how proud command was with our work, and that we had become critical to the war effort. For them the trip was fast but for me the trip was tiring and long.

The command must have thought us very brave or extraordinarily insane. Our area of operation was small and our patrol area was large. We were pressed up too close to the shore and the water was shallow. Too shallow. We spent weeks running and diving from plane patrols and warships. The tension was finally improved when we ran across a small convoy moving into port at night. They were small merchants but they were a target that we could finally take on; the constant patrol of warships to our west weighing heavily. Everyone was very happy to take a conservative approach to this attack, two eels per merchant and with our full compliment of eels in the water we had four ships that eventually sank. As we turned to run beneath our wet cloak I had to break away from the command to head back to the bunks. Krauss was on his bunk crying and shaking in fear. It took me over an hour to calm his shakes and for that evenings' meal I told the cook to pull out the smoked duck. We headed into port to refit and get a break from the tension.

Everyone was happy to hear that we were given a better patrol area further north up the coast. It gave us a patrol area running in deep water. We had a tight AOO still, but the deep water made everyone breath a collective sigh of relief. I began having morning rituals where everyone would get onto the gundeck and do simple exercises whenever the weather and waves permitted it. Getting everyone out getting fresh air together helped in bringing this crew together as a single battle unit. While I felt that we could take on the world, it would not be until our next encounter that I would have any confirmation of this. It came in the middle of our second week on patrol and I noticed a higher level of alertness among the crew. Hopefully this would prove to give us an edge that we truly needed.

We plotted the course of the convoy; they were taking supplies to Europe. We put ourselves onto an intersect that would place us 500 meters above the convoy and ready for a creation of chaos among the placid shippers. We dropped 'scope and waited for the sheep to move among the wolf. But our calculations proved to be off and instead of being away from them we were now in the middle of them. Our only choice was to quickly estimate the distance between the rows of ships, move to the midpoint between them which gave us plenty of room for torpedo activation in both directions, and then unleash our attacks. As we observed the ship movements we had a huge convoy and no escort and a mixture of freighters and tankers.

We began with a slow running behind us at the nearest ship. We then sent our next four eels out; one to two smallish ships and two at a huge steam ship. Our proximity made it easy to hear that we had five contacts and when I put up the scope we had many ships on flames, but the large one behind us was barely touched. The two small ships were going down so we put the engines up to extreme speed and did a hard full turn to put forward tubes in the opposite direction. We picked out two more ships and sent two eels in their direction. A second very hard turn and we sent our last two eels towards any ship I could pick out. We had created a great deal of damage but had only one ship that was reported going down. It was then that Krauss came into the command room with hope in his eyes. He stated with due respect that we surface and turn our guns loose on the ships. They have no idea where we are and we could create some further damage and get some tonnage.

It took only one shot for bosun whistles and horns blowing to bring many search lights on us. We continued sending high explosive shells into the damaged ship closest to us until she was afire and then send all of our salvos towards a ship that had opened fire on us. As we fired upon them we got the engines fired up and began evasive maneuvers. The lights soon went out on the freighter and we began to pick other ships based on the amount of smoke and the amount of apparent damage to them. We snaked between boats making it difficult for other armed ships to easily open fire upon us. The next period of time (I lost track of how long we did this) we kept firing upon one ship after another making various turns to avoid hitting sinking hulks. As they went down we would drive through the wreckage to take on another ship. We did not know the total count and it took some time to build up an accurate log, but our best note was that we sent down at least three large freighters loaded with war supplies and one troop carrier. At a point where we were approaching the end of our gun ammunition we made a dive to avoid an approaching warship.

We had our photographer take this picture when we had three ships on fire and we began our run on a fourth ship that had their spotlight on us. There were many oily snakes in the wind.

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee513/MichaelEber/SilentHunter/snakesinthewind.png

I was too late. I'd waited too long. And we had a warship moving right for us. We dove to a depth of 100 meters then waited. It moved right to our position and we could hear the explosions of depth charges nearby. As they moved over us we went extreme speed making a 90 degree turn heading to the north. Once in that direction we dropped to slow speed and began our patient game of chess. We heard nearby charges first to our port side then more distant to our starboard side. We varied our speed from slow to none back to slow and then as they moved to a nice distance away from us we juiced up to half speed. We felt trapped as the warship kept us moving north but the ships also moved north. This kept the warship moving with us as a searcher and a protector. As much as possible we worked to keep moving but realized that to break free of this ship we had to create a new path for us. And that was east towards home. We had a moment of good fortune where the warship broke south and we broke east as we began our escape from our prison. At times we had picked up the sound of pings but nothing that gave us away and after the evening was chased away by the sunrise we surfaced to the happy sight of no ships in sight. The men came out on deck to begin their morning routine but I added a change to it. Grabbing a bottle of wine from the attack periscope room we celebrated our victory and the count of ships sent to the bottom of the sea. We looked forward to our arrival back at port, ready to take on the enemy once again. But upon arrival at dock we got another surprise, we were given command of a new submarine. I made sure that my U emblem was painted on the con because it made that boat mine.

[Greendevil303]

Good read :up:

[Trevally.]

:agree:

[InvisibleDeath]

I am on my bunk for this writing, wrapped in several blanks for warmth, and everyone is pitching in to maintain a watch. If Gott im Himmel ever created hell on earth it is here in die Keltische See. We have been under a constant barrage of rain. Rain that seems to just envelope your entire body in seconds and sucks the life from you like a Vampir. The weather is so bad that after pursuit of a ship for half a day we broke off as we kept losing her and her sonar track in this rough water. And the two ships we did sink had us right on top of the ship and still we could not see her.

In the first case we were in pursuit of a merchant that was moving at a slow pace. We moved quickly in pursuit and found that the weather and darkness totally enveloped us. It was not until we were right alongside her that we even saw the ship. The crews' nerves were on edge as it was like pursuing a ghost ship. My gun crew had a very easy target, but had we moved just a bit faster we would have collided with her as she was portside of us and we were right alongside each other.

In the second case we picked up a merchant making a run into port. Our pursuit brought us close to here but she was definitely trying to make a run to safety. The first time I saw her she was just a blur of white about 200 metres off our starboard side. With a little more speed I could begin to see the backside of her looming above us like a dark wall. I soon learned that any attempts of a runaround would cause us to lose her and have to search to reacquire her. Our only chance of bringing her down was by firing our HEP shells at her stern side until we took our her engines then coming abeam of her to finish her off. This was not good weather for torpedoes; your cannot shoot what you cannot see. So we did not try to do anything but see our third ship. During our pursuit the rain began to let up and the air actually warmed up a bit. We chased her down for several hours trying hard to get close while still in a good position for our gun. We ended up running along her side and giving her hell along her starboard side. But we had not anticipated her dropping speed and making a hard port turn. We made a hard starboard turn at full speed which eventually brought us back in line for drilling her portside. After several shots along the water line, we sent HEP shells into her stern side to try and kill her engines. She must have been carrying ammunition aboard in her stern hatch; one of our shells caused a massive explosion which literally ripped apart the boat and the stern was quite hanging on by a thread. Which brings me to this moment of writing wrapped in blankets.

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee513/MichaelEber/SilentHunter/6a4b8647-16b0-46f6-899f-9d82c6d818c3.jpg

My cook brought me some cabbage soup. I would normally be excited about this but we have been out to sea long enough that everything tastes like diesel fuel and sweat blended together. But it keeps me warm and soon I only needed a single blanket to feel warm throughout. I remember my first outing on a submarine and waiting for my first leave. I thought I'd enjoy the taste of food that did not taste like diesel fuel and sweat. Instead it just tasted like nothing. So this soup, in it's own weird way, was quite tasty.

We continued to hang around the area for nearly a month with only a select few days of clear weather. It was hard because the British were not running any convoys in this area and the ships we found at night were difficult to find due to either the rain, which seemed to fall intensely forever, or the fog that moved in once the rain stopped. Moonless nights due to the fog and clouds added to the difficulties. Yet we managed to locate five ships and we had been in a position to at least use 4 of our eels on them. But it was hard on everyone and at the end of the month we turned and headed for home. As we were leaving the sea we were blessed with the pleasure of shooting up a tanker which quickly blazed and went down leaving only steam and smoke covering the oil slicked water. But once it disappeared beneath the sea, the trip fell into a quiet, boring trip where we frequently wondered if we were still alive and on earth. The darkness, fog, and rain kept us from seeing land for most of that month. And as we moved up the west coast of Ireland the fog made it feel as if we were never moving at all. We were wishing that this trip was a book and we could leap ahead to the next chapter as if Gott Im Himmel could compress time and make it run fast.

During one of the evenings we ran abbreviated watches to enjoy a surprisingly tasty concoction that the cook had made up from the various remaining canned goods we had. While the canned items were a bit mushy he had added some powders to it that made the flavor explode. You almost couldn't taste the diesel fuel. And with that I'm heading to bed.

-----------------------------

I was dreaming that I was being pursued by a huge cyclops that towered over me. Worse, the beast knew meine namen. No matter how hard I ran he managed to grab my shoulder, shake me about, and call my name. As I realized I was waking up I opened my eyes to see my number one trying to awaken me; his eye patch hidden in the dark shadows leaving that single eye visible. I had to fight from laughing for he was a bit sensitive that everyone was making fun of him. It would harm my command if he thought I laughed at him. Sucking in my breath I asked what he wanted as I turned towards my desk as if to look for something to hide my smile.

"We have a sound on sonar and it is a bit different from what we have heard before. Come and have a listen!"

The hydros picked up a sound all right. It was deep and throbbing like huge props that were struggling to rotate through the water. Our hydro man listened and told me it sounded like it was only about 20 degrees off our starboard side and it was not too far ahead of us. We would catch up to her in no time at all. I went into the head and ran a small amount of sea water over my head then went to meet with the Navigator. He estimated our location to be about 1/3 of the way up the Irish coast. There were no air fields but it would not matter since it was night and heavy fog. In spite of what sounded like struggling props he estimated, based on his measurements at regular time intervals, that she was running at 10 knots. I had the men pass word around that to stay alert and to double the watch as we made yet another pursuit in the fog. As we slid through the water we could begin to hear her off in the distance as it ran. The next hour or so was a careful ballet of moving about trying to get a glimpse of her then moving out to avoid being seen. Our patience paid off as she began to solidify, unwrapping her silken veil of fog and revealing her lovely skin of steel. I ordered that we go decks awash so that we could stay more invisible to our target and began trying to figure out what we had. The deck was huge with several decks visible in the rear. A second bridge-like area was forward of that. I thought we had a possible troop carrier but I could not be certain of what we had. I knew, though, that if it was a troop carrier we would come under very heavy fire once we attacked.

As we sped through the inky blackness I leaned against the railing trying to come up with an approach that would minimize our damage. Then it hit me. I laid out my plans with the bosun and had him connect with the correct teams to prepare for our next careful dance of death. Once everyone was ready and in position I leaned forward to my tube and ordered to execute the move. We began a run away from the ship, increased speed once she was out of sight and then turned back into her dropping our speed down as she came back into view. The timing was perfect as we had a nice view of her rear portside as well as her bridge. I leanded forward and gave the next command to come up to surface. I then went to the UZO and after setting the TDC gave my command "Los". I listened as I heard the tube flood then the sloosh of the eel heading to her tasty target. Leaning forward I gave the next command "Time". One minute and twenty-seven seconds sir. As we started our stopwatches I called for the gunner crew to take position and mark their aim. The loader kept his eyes on me as the team kept the gun on the ship. When the second hand approached that magic moment, I brought my hand up and down and the gunners opened fire on the rear bridge.

It was a sight to behold. The shell hit the bridge followed almost immediately by the torpedo hitting the rear third area of the ship. The gun crew quickly reloaded and fired their next explosive shell on the forward bridge area. We had a good solution and soon there was a second explosion. I called down to them to fire at the waterline. And shells began to run her length as the captain managed to make his ship take a hard turn to port. As we slowed to cut hard behind her then run around to her other side, she opened fire on us with her guns. I called to the gun crew: High Explosive Rounds take out those guns. One was quieted after only two shells and the other was causing only an occasional ping against the sides of the boat. As we began to move into position, I called for the ship to turn hard to port. But instead she kept running straight out to sea away from our quarry. I called for a stop of engines and the crew reported some damage to the ship. With a few bangs and a lot of curses I soon heard a report to give it a try now. We fired up engines and took a course that should have put us in position for either guns or torpedoes well ahead of her. But as she came into view it appeared she would try to ram us. I called full reverse and we pulled back just as she began to come too close for comfort. The guns opened up and we basically covered her deck and structures with explosive rounds then, as she passed and began a run away from us, firing several shells into her rear.

There was a thunk. That is the only way I could describe it. A shell hitting below the line, going deep within her steel shell, and finding a mark to trigger her explosives deep below the water. That thunk, though, was soon followed by a massive explosion sending bits of the ship into the air as part of it's structure creaked and groaned debating in a painful way whether to remain standing or finally collapsing to the deck below. And then....it stopped. Her engines were dead. Our engines were cut off a long time ago. And the air grew dead quiet as this ship sat still in the water with only her momentum moving her forward. I pulled up my binoculars and looked at her. Smoke was pouring from every opening in her. Every window, every air stack, every opening created by our shells was pouring black smoke. And yet, no flames could be seen from outside. A chill ran down my spine causing me to shiver for just a moment. Everyone above deck stood quietly watching as if in a trance. The ship had slipped into a position where as we turned we would come back about to her port side. I called to the gunner team to finish her off and soon the rounds broke the shell of hades and the flames were out upon her decks in no time at all. Once the guns stopped, all that could be heard was the quiet rush from the fire, like a massive beast making a long last breath, and the screams of the men who were in the flaming sea of oil that covered the surface of the water about her structure. I'd seen all that I could see and ordered that we continue our route home. Observers reported that this was a large tanker and not a troop carrier.

Our travel home took about two days and it was almost stretched into three. The problems with our rudders seemed to also affect our dive planes. We could not dive until we got home and during those two days we were being shadowed by warships off in the too-close distance. We played cat and mouse. For two days we kept running ahead of or behind warships until we were finally past the blockade, around the northern edge of Scotland, and into the ocean heading home. When we pulled into the docks we were met with a large band and many pretty girls throwing flowers our way. We were heroes. If only I felt like one.

[InvisibleDeath]

Sie sind eine sehr schlechte Jungen.

[InvisibleDeath]

Ja, wirklich ungut.

I think you meant to say: ja, wirklich beleidigend

[InvisibleDeath]

We had done a full circuit and restocked our ship, repaired bullet holes and damage, taken a two week rest in the bunker and now we head back to sea.

We were patrolling the east coast of Brittain once again and our assigned patrol area was not the best. To stay within our patrol zone AND the AOO we ended up pressed tight against the shoreline in shallower waters. we were fortunate during our passes that the fog and rain usually returned as we approached the southern area where a known airstrip was. So we remained unimpeded by planes during our hunt. We spent a total of 9 days without any sightings except distant warships so we jumped when a sighting of a convoy was reported.

We were at the northern end of our hunting grounds and the convoy was at the southern end. We turned hard and ran our engines at full speed. I did not want them to get too much of a run on us so we pushed our boat hard. And as we moved into position to begin our hunt, they sat about 3000 meters to the south of us when we picked up a hard signal of yet another merchant to our north east. After a great deal of internal debate I ordered the crew to head for the hard signal. We figured that we could quickly dispatch this ship and then return to our convoy.

Our run north actually was quite simple and we moved within range of the merchant very quickly. However the fog and darkness made it impossible to see the ship. It took another two hours of wagging the boat back and forth before we finally came upon the telltale wash of a merchant ship ahead of us. My gunner crew was thankfully able to dispatch this tiny ship rather quickly and as we left a burning mess in the sea, we headed to the south at full speed to regain our convoy. As she slipped out of our vision, watch reported seeing her go nose-up as she began to sink.

I plotted a course that would intercept these ships based on our projections and quickly raced to the location. It was very late in the evening when we arrived and there were no ships to be seen or heard. Sonar picked up nothing as well, the water was dead quiet. Playing a hunch that I had aimed to high I ordered the boat to run fast in a southern direction for another half hour. This time it paid off. A very faint screw signature was picked up but not in our vicinity. It was to our southwest! Marking where the ships were guessed to be located I figured that the ships had made a turn for a southern run down the coast. Since we had completed our mission objectives for the area, we ran hard to the south to catch up with these two ships.

What I thought would be a simple task covering a few hours turned out to be a challenge that spanned an entire 24 hour period. We would begin to catch up with the ships then they would leap ahead whenever we would do a sonar check of their position. We had to do the sonar checks because we would run for hours since our last check and find nothing at all where we would expect the ships to be, and I did not want to risk rushing to the south when they had made another turn out to sea! But this pursuit had taken us to the southern edge of England and if we did not catch them soon I feared they would end up in heavily protected waters once again.

We had their path tracked and a general course of the two. One set of screws sounded small while the other pair had a much larger signature. We estimated they were pushing themselves around 11 knots so whatever they carried they wanted to reach their destination quickly. I laid out a course that had us running between the two ships and ordered the crew to push as hard as possible to get every ounce of speed out of her. We were going to catch these two now or never! It took several more hours and the sunrise might have been coming up. It was hard to say with all of the fog that constantly surrounded us. I hate England.

The first ship that came into view was a small, modern cargo ship. How disappointing it was not a ship of good tonnage. We lined up a solution for a surface torpedo attack and I let go with tubes 1 and 2. We were to make survivors think they hit a mine instead of being taken down by a submarine. The torpedoes were supposed to hit for and aft but the speeds must not have been running well. One eel ran in front and the other behind the ship with no take-down at all. Screw it, we were not letting these two escape. My gun crew threw explosive shells at the bridge first and the engines second. The remainder of the shells made short work of her and she was heavily involved in fire as we headed off for the second ship. We were happy to say that the fog was so thick that the other ship had no idea what happened to her partner....as long as our first shells had taken out the captain and the radio!

It was not long before the second ship came into view. A tanker most definitely and she was running without being aware that we could see her. I must assume that since she failed to change course or begin evasive maneuvers that the first ships radio was destroyed by our initial shells. We tried to setup a good firing solution for the eels but we had no success. It is always difficult to get one when coming up behind a fast ship with a good captain. So we took on the same firing solution as before: explosive rounds into the bridge followed by hits on the engine and screws. This tanker, though, was better protected and would not give up easily. She began a hard turn port and we followed her. What we were not aware of was that the knife fight had begun.

We were on her starboard side and she moved port side to keep her smaller rear in our direction. We cut hard to port to follow her. As we moved she cut to starboard and we followed. My gunners tried to put a round in her aft side but the waves pushed us up and it sailed over her and splashed in front of her. She made a second turn to port trying to avoid any broadside exposure. We made a hard port turn and I was giving orders for steerage from the con, visually guessing where we should head next. As we cut harder into her turn and saw some of her side, my gunners let loose with one or two shells. But she had made a hard turn starboard and minimized any damage she could have received. Her was was creating some large waves making it harder for the gunner crew to get a good solution so I ran hard to her starboard side and ran up at an angle to come broadside. I felt as if we were reliving our pasts as pirates in wooden ships with this fight. She was running a good 300 to 800 meters in front of us and the fog kept her just inside our range of vision. At times, as we fired our shells it was difficult to tell if we hit her or not. There were no secondary explosions but then there have been none even when we fired on the bridge! She was a tough enemy, this tanker.

She had begun another hard turn as we closed distance once again and we had lined ourselves up in such a fashion that it did not take much to change our alignment with her. She was cutting hard to starboard and we ran perpendicular to her cut which made her turn actually open her side to us instead of the cut protecting her side. I ordered the crew to drop engine speed to slow so that the waves from the tanker would be minimized, however it seemed that the waves hitting us broadside made it harder to get a good solution on the tanker. The first two shells struck broadside, the third shell hit somewhere around her decks (which finally caused secondary explosions) and the third hit her below the waterline in the engine compartment. A dull flash beneath the water caused my gunners to raise a cheer. But I soon realized what it was she was doing. While our focus was on shooting her, her focus was on doing a hard about and ramming us. She was heading straight at us at full speed and we were sitting ducks. I called down for extreme reverse speed and hoped I'd realized what she was doing in time. Meanwhile I ordered my gunners to fire at the bow to try and make her take in water quickly. Her bow grew in size much faster than I'd ever want to see happen and I held my breath as she came running at our bow. I swear she was aiming for the gunner crew. She was bearing down on us quickly and it seemed forever for the engines to get us moving in reverse. I could hear the men around me quietly saying prayers knowing that if successful we would end up in the enemy hands from our lifeboat...if we survived this strike at all. We bit. We bit into the water. We bit hard with our screws and as the bow of the tanker approached we slid away from the destructive powers of her bow and positioned us for a series of shells...positioned by herself...each fired straight ahead inter her broad side below the water line. With each devastating explosion my ears rang, my throat burned of cordite, and we all felt the secondary thunks of internal explosions within her as well.

My ears were ringing and it took a good quarter hour for anyone on deck to be able to hear well again without that constant ringing that dulled the ear pan. And as this beast of a tanker slid away I watched as she began her movement towards the long, slow slide beneath the waves into her briny grave for a long and eternal sleep. Flames finally began to appear on deck and it was not long after that we heard secondary explosions from inside. The damage had been done and all that was left was for this ship to digest herself, via these internal explosions, until there was no more ship left. Instead of my normal routine to turn my back on a victim and head beneath deck, I took a moment to salute a truly noteworthy opponent. This was definitely a defining moment between us trying to find who was best in an up-close knife fight. And he had almost won.

[Aktungbby]

:Kaleun_Applaud::Kaleun_Salute: