My goodness Herr Swordfish!
You keep this up and you might have a best seller on the shelves with the right publisher!! :rock:

Thread stickied.

Finally its a stickey post :rock:

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Thanks for stickying it Gizz!
;) ;) ;) ;)

What took ya so long :-j

This IS a great read. Just like others have said, I would by-pass this thread but glad I didn't this time. :) All I can say is wow!! Can't wait for the next installment. :up:

Mast

Great to see it's been stickied. Now all can enjoy this great story and get more into the mood of the game. Hope to hear more in the very near future. :up: :up: :up:

Agreed. But keep quiet..he might stop posting the story and then we are all gonna have to buy it.

:lol: .

Just tell me where to send the money!! I have transportation arranged below to go pick it up!! :yep:

I dont have! :cry: :cry: :cry:

My own signature transportation was just blown up!

It was time to take the train back to France.

Germany had frankly scared me, but I had a particular reason to get back to St Nazaire, and not just the strange umbilical tie that I felt for U-46 when I was parted from her for too long.

"How will your Uncle cope, Reuben?" I asked as the train rattled back through Belgium.

There had been four young children, three girls and a boy, all heart-breakingly young, none fully understanding what was happening to them. Their parents, and an elderly couple, all of whom had initially regarded me with trepidation and fear, to my shame, when they were enticed down from the attic.

"I don't know, Sir. My Uncle does his best, but there's no ration cards for them. They don't exist anymore."

"Well, we always have some tinned food left over from each patrol. It's not food fit for a King exactly, but it would be a shame to see it go to waste. Maybe next time we come in you could see your way clear to getting rid of it for me. I'm sure the coxswain would lend you a hand; he's good at that sort of thing."

"Thank you, Sir, for everything. But you mean...?"

"Off course, Reuben. If I have anything to do with it, you'll be sailing with our boat, the next time out."

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

We changed at the Gare du Nord in Paris.

Reuben stared wistfully out of the window.

"In all my travels, Sir, I've always wanted to visit Paris, but now..."

"..Now, I just want to get back to the Boat Pens.."

"Me too, Reuben, let's keep pressing on."

Eventually we are arriving back in St Nazaire, and of course the first port of call is the Chat Noir where we know our boys will always end up.

An oily haired 7th Flotilla Desk Captain is there insisting on a presentation and speech, but is given short shrift. The U-46 lads are all around, with raucous cheers, and they get first priority.

It's so good to be back.

Even better is Freddie and his seniors from U-122, absolutely legless at the Bar. He took at least four, and holed at least three more which between me and Stephan who is also there, we took the credit for finally putting down. According to him, the reason U-46 had such an easy time of it was that the Tommies ran out of depth charges stalking his boat. He's always complaining but he may be right. Anyway it's great to see him again.

"And what about Max?" I hardly dared to ask.

Freddie frowned.

"Not so good"

He looked at the drop in my face and laughed

"I only mean he's round the back throwing up! He'll be here in a minute!"

Sure enough, Max came roaring back into the Club, blaming a bad bottle of champagne and then ordering two more.

After much back-slapping the story emerged from U-213's patrol.

Max had spotted the convoy first and got off a quick contact report, but instead of shadowing, he had drove right into them. He took three on his first run. He had to lose a couple of destroyers, who in his words "were very upset". He managed to break off, but sufferred serious damage, including to his radio room which killed Braun, his signaller, *and buggered up the radio".

"We went in next night, but we could only send morse by my Quartermaster touching two bare wires together, and he hardly knows the code at all. That's when we last spoke to you. I got him to send 'Oink'!"

"Anyway the boat wasn't handling well at all, and we only nabbed a small one on the second night, and then they gave us quite a kicking. Nearly lost her then...."

Max paused, and I could tell he was back in his Control Room re-living those desperate moments.

"I've never dived so deep. The boys didn't fancy it much," he grimaced. "Anyway we finally shook them off, and then it was time to haul our sorry arse home. It woudn't do to not get back" he smiled

"This is Reuben Franks", I replied.

"He did make it back, but not his boat unfortunately"

"Yes, we heard about that. Welcome home Reuben" Freddie said solemnly shaking his hand, and Max followed suit.

"He's going to be serving on ours next time"

Which reminded me.

"Is Otto back from leave, fellows?"

"Yes", said Freddie,

"He's over there..."

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

MORE! GIVE US MORE!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Bring on the action. I'm starting to miss the sound of bulkheads imploding. :rock: :rock: :rock: