jason10mm
10-25-05, 11:04 AM
Captains diary, U-554, page 76:
Damn, so there we were, AM28 on 5 May 1941, down to 3 bow torpedoes and 1 stern eel after taking on a convoy. WeI got the jump on a lone C Class destroyer steaming south at 25 knots. One into her side and we can scratch one hunter from the seas!
We are feeling happy, ready to head back to port and get the destroyed dive planes fixed when the sonar picks up MULTIPLE warship contacts heading our way fast, from the south! Was this destroyer moving to join a larger Task Force? Apparently so! Out of the midnight gloom steamed a mini-task force centered around a majestic King George V Battleship. All of the other ships were destroyers or frigates. She was moving at least 20 knots, so I had to act fast. We leaned hard to port to try a 90 degree shot with our last 2 bow fish at her, but she was too fast. One eel was steam, so I ordered it set to run fast and set the depth to just under the targets keel with a magnetic pistol. The seas were calm enough to try.
Off goes the eel as the massive warship steams past us, oblivious to our tiny periscope. Destroyers are on every side as we hold our very breath. My only hope was too slow the ship down so our slow electric torpedos could finish her off. I anxiously watched the second hand crawl around the stopwatch in the red haze of the conning tower. 5...4....3....2....HIT!
I raised the scope to see a jubilant plume of white wash over the decks of the battleship. We got her! Looked too far forward to take out the propellers, so I expected the ship to make it past us, injured but unbroken. As we dove deep to escape the vindictive destroyers, my hydrophone man gave out a victorious hiss as we heard sounds of collapsing bulkheads and the screams of steel plate ripping apart coming from the stricken ship.
Could it be? Had our lone torpedo broken her back? The horrifying cries of the dying ship echoed through our boat, only a few hundred meters away. There could be no doubt, the battleship was sunk!
We dove deep to avoid the destroyers, all of whom were in confusion after the loss of their capital ship. Perhaps they thought it was a mine, or a munitions explosion, because they gave no serious effort to find us, instead trying to rescue sailors floundering in the oil coated seas.
We then made our way to the south....towards home.
Damn, so there we were, AM28 on 5 May 1941, down to 3 bow torpedoes and 1 stern eel after taking on a convoy. WeI got the jump on a lone C Class destroyer steaming south at 25 knots. One into her side and we can scratch one hunter from the seas!
We are feeling happy, ready to head back to port and get the destroyed dive planes fixed when the sonar picks up MULTIPLE warship contacts heading our way fast, from the south! Was this destroyer moving to join a larger Task Force? Apparently so! Out of the midnight gloom steamed a mini-task force centered around a majestic King George V Battleship. All of the other ships were destroyers or frigates. She was moving at least 20 knots, so I had to act fast. We leaned hard to port to try a 90 degree shot with our last 2 bow fish at her, but she was too fast. One eel was steam, so I ordered it set to run fast and set the depth to just under the targets keel with a magnetic pistol. The seas were calm enough to try.
Off goes the eel as the massive warship steams past us, oblivious to our tiny periscope. Destroyers are on every side as we hold our very breath. My only hope was too slow the ship down so our slow electric torpedos could finish her off. I anxiously watched the second hand crawl around the stopwatch in the red haze of the conning tower. 5...4....3....2....HIT!
I raised the scope to see a jubilant plume of white wash over the decks of the battleship. We got her! Looked too far forward to take out the propellers, so I expected the ship to make it past us, injured but unbroken. As we dove deep to escape the vindictive destroyers, my hydrophone man gave out a victorious hiss as we heard sounds of collapsing bulkheads and the screams of steel plate ripping apart coming from the stricken ship.
Could it be? Had our lone torpedo broken her back? The horrifying cries of the dying ship echoed through our boat, only a few hundred meters away. There could be no doubt, the battleship was sunk!
We dove deep to avoid the destroyers, all of whom were in confusion after the loss of their capital ship. Perhaps they thought it was a mine, or a munitions explosion, because they gave no serious effort to find us, instead trying to rescue sailors floundering in the oil coated seas.
We then made our way to the south....towards home.