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And thank you all for your kind words , really :)
Cheers . |
January 2nd , 1943 .
I set sail from Lorient with my "Blackcat" , heading for Grid BD 67 . But I am not happy ... For reasons unknown to me , Kriegsmarine has decided not to give me the Torpido load chosen by me during briefing . I find myself without any Acoustic Torps , Fat 1 are unavailable and all I have to sink ships with my VII-B is 6 TIs and 8 TIIIs . Have they lost their trust in me ?.. Or is it because of my habit to go after Destroyers ?.. I do not know . Fighting against the Royal Navy was already hard enough , but now that the US Navy is taking part more and more every day , I found Kriegsmarine 's decision regrettable , to say the least ... I actually wrote a personal note to Admiral Donitz to inform him of my anger and frustration . :x Furthemore , I had an old battle to resume in Grid AL 35 where I almost lost my boat to the RN , and I was hoping ~requesting I should say~ that Kriegsmarine send me again in the same area as everybody knows that English battleships almost always patrol the same area for months . I suspect that they don 't like theirs Cpt. to take things on the personal level , but again I strongly disagree . The fact is that my own crew was waiting to get back there as well , and for the same reason . History is not repeating itself it seems ... ... I wasn 't more than 120nm away from Lorient when the first Air attack occured . 2 catalinas came at us from nowhere . "Crash dive" ! Re-surfaced 2 Hrs later when my sonar boy heard a faint echo at our starboard , long range . It ended up being a lone small English tanker, probably empty as it was making 16 Kts (!) We pushed the engine to full ahead at 19 Kts , and slowly but surely closed on it . At 3800m , I matched its speed and order my watch officer to get the deck gun ready , explosive shells loaded . 11 rounds later , the Sea was quiet again . One down . Nothing else until our arrival on Grid Patrol . ... 3 days later , still nothing on the horizon ... Crew is playing Chess or cards and fruit juices are going down faster than usual ... ... Enough of this . After a long talk with my No 1 , we decide to sail North , direction Grid AK 38 where we 've been few months ago . It is a Grid where Convoys from Halifax are sailing to Liverpool . With a bit of luck , we should be able to get some tonnage . We found 2 more little tankers on the way . Weather was not on our side and I had to use Torpidoes to sent them to the bottom . We then spent 2 days on Grid AK 38 , searching around for targets but no luck . Where are they for cry out loud ! :x Diesel was now getting low . Time to head SSE , direction BE 33 , near the English coast . Choosing this area is a bit of a risky business in early '43 as the RAF is heavily patroling those coastal waters , but we need some tonnage . I do not want to go back to Lorient with only 3 enemy ships sank . That would be a shame ! Especialy with 11 Torps left onboard . All the lads at "Le Chat Noir" would laught at us ... ... Our journey to Grid BE 33 was ...awefull ! Very bad weather , huge waves , rain , and lightnings striking the Sea relentlessly . The watch crew hated it . And that bloody fog at night ... Even the skies are against us ... When the weather became better , we had our first contact for days . "Aircrafts spotted !" "Crash dive !" Sometimes , you really ask yourself what you did to the Gods to deserve such punishment ... To cut it short , we didn 't see a single vessel for 3 more days and we had to crash dive at leats once a day :( "Cpt. , we 're low on fuel " Alright , back to base . *$&()%^%£ !!! :x The last day was a beautifull day , like mid July . But we 're in February and without any fuel ... ... To my surprise , on arrival to Lorient , I 've learned that I have been promoted to Ltn. Commander !! :o Apparently , I 've sunk more than 500.000 tons in 34 months and 19 Patrols . I told you , sometimes you have to ask yourself ... :roll: :hmm: B. Goelf out . Cheers . |
February 1943 .
This time , I left Lorient with a good torpido load but unfortunatly , no acoustic Torps . BdU sent us to Grid AF 47 , near Scopa Flow . After a long chat with my No1 , I decided to use the British Channel . We could have sailed to the Atlantic and simply go around Ireland but it would have cost us a lot of fuel . The VII-B is not known for its very long range and I thought "better to cut short" . The problem is : #1 : The depth is only 180m at most and sometimes as low at 80m #2 : Those costal waters are heavily patroled by the RAF . To this extent , I took one more week off to make sure I had at least 2 good Warrant Officers qualified in Flak gunnery to man our 2 light Flak guns . That ended up being a good move ! :yep: We left Lorient in good weather , which is a shame as I was counting on bad Seas and fog to cover our advance through the Channel . Sometimes , you just have to get along with what you get ... As soon as we reached Grid BF 2. , we started to get heavy Air contacts . Mostly Catalinas . My watch crew did very well and spotted every incoming Aircraft in time . We soon started to take them down as they came . ... After 3 days at Sea , day time under and night time on surface , we had gunned down no less than 10 Aircrafts (!) . 7 Catalinas , 2 Sunderlands and 1 Hurricane , and without suffering any damage or casualties . That was 10 too many ... And we were only third way across the Channel , near Southend on Sea . At that rate , we would have taken down no less than 30-40 Aircrafts before to be in the clear , up in the North Sea . I did not want to bet on such luck , so we turned around to head back for the Atlantic . The british Channel in 1943 was just too heavily guarded for a boat like ours to go through ... We lost 6 days at Sea , and the fuel , without seeing any Ship . To be honest , I don 't think U-Boats are made to take the mighty RAF down . We 're now back into open Ocean , heading for our Patrol Grid . End of message . B. Goelf out . Cheers . First page Report : http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/2...ftsdown5xv.jpg |
Great report, Bernie.
Making a run for it through the ENGLISH Channel on full AA guns is not something I'd like to attempt unless I was in charge of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen all together, but good luck to you! Keep her up and see you back! LS |
Keep at it Kapitan :|\
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Thanks "SwordFish" :) . Indeed it would probably be easier with 2 or 3 Battleships , but I doubt it ... The Channel in '43 is just a nightmare ...
Wilco , thank you for your encouragements :up: . Reports can be a bit boring to read when not much is happening , but such is life at Sea sometimes ... Cheers . |
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March the 9th , 1943 .
We 're back in Lorient in one piece . We shot down 15 Aircrafts and sunk 9 Ships . :P My award box is now full . :yep: Kurt Mannesman , our Chief Sr. Flak gunner , did get wounded during one Air attack , but my medic Team took good care of him and he was back at his station after 36 Hrs . I awarded him with a second Class Cross and 2 bottles of French cognac . The crew did put some money in an empty 20mm shell case and bought him a case of Puligny-Montrachet 1936 ~a very good year as we 've been told~ for good mesure !! Time for a party now . (we 're not in condition to F**k) :lol: Cheers . http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/920/hehe8sf.jpg |
Well done :up:
I have never managed to get all medals as I play DiD and with my learning skills as such I only last 3 or 4 patrols before slipping beneath the waves on eternal patrol. Looking foward to the next installment :|\ |
Thank you Wilco :)
Hum , what do you mean by "playing DiD ? :roll: Btw , here are few tricks I discovered during my time at sea : #1 : During Air Attacks , if your Flak fire is good and heavy enough , enemy Aircrafts do NOT drop depth charges but rather use theirs light guns and run away for theirs lives :rotfl: #2 : a faster diving U-Boat is a good U-Boat , and at that game , nothing can beat the VII-B : 30 secs flat and even less if you 're already going ahead full . Crash diving when you 're making 19 Kts can be as short as 27 secs . :P #3 : Same apply for surface fights against Destroyers . Making 19 Kts and zig-zaging while your crew man the deck gun and you at the UZO firing acoustic Torps from the "hip" can cripple a Destroyer in no time . You just need guts ! :up: #4 : in calm weather , do not hesitate to engage enemy marchants/Cargos/Tankers with your deck gun as far as 4000m . At that distance , they rarely return fire and if they do , they miss . Make sure to match their speed to avoid changing range too often . Keep your Torps for large Convoys and task Forces . #5 : If you are up against one Destroyer ~and one only~ fight at periscope depth . This way you can fight back with your Torps . Face him and turn 25 Deg starboard/port at the last moment ~before to get rammed~ then go back immediatly on your straight line and fire at him using your stern tube while the bugger is turning around . Keep your speed up . :up: B. Goelf out . Cheers . |
Guten Tag, Bernie!
I know we've argued long and hard about this in the 'Cat' with no sober conclusion, but for what it's worth: I prefer to have a fully manned Watch to give us early warning of the RAF, discretion being the better part of valour! Rather than one watch officer and one flak gunner. Dead Is Dead. That's what it means. No magical means of bringing ourselves back from Davy Jones' Locker, but you and I already know there is only one chance in this War, hein? The VIIB's do get under quickly, but once under, I've been grateful of my VIIC's robustness to take me much deeper, and cope with attacks better, and that has been more important in the long run. I know you like chasing after destroyers, you old rogue! It'll be the death of you one day, God forbid. U-46 doesn't have any acoustic torpedoes, we've had enough trouble with the normal kind. Again, the wolf picks his fight with the lion very carefully. The main prize is the herd! Yours, Lt de Bunsen, U-46 |
Guten Tag Raoul ,
My watch is always 1 Officer ~qualified in Watch , Gunnery and Flak~ , 1 Sr. warrant qualified in watch and 3 sailors . My 2 Flak qualified warrant Officers are waiting near by the command room , usualy playing Chess at the officer table . I allowed them ;) . The VII-C is a bloody Panzer ! It 's a U-Boat Tank ! :lol: I saw one colliding with a fishing French trawler in Lorient Harbour without even stopping ! The French fishermen had only time to jump in the water while cursing the U-*** and all its ancesters ... Shame on that Kaleun ... Taking one or two DDs out open the door , and the Convoy is yours , Herr Kaleun :cool: Catch you later at "Le Chat Noir" , drinks are on me Raoul :) B. Goelf out . Cheers . |
You've got it Herr Kaleun,
I hope that imbecile at least put a small white pennant up! LS |
By the way you're right, Bernie,
Sometimes the only way in is to breach a hole in the escort screen. Depends on the situation. But I like to steal past them if I can, and start launching away like Kretschmer, right in the middle. You could release all 5 tubes blindly and still hear the explosions. Plus it puts the escorts in a hell of a flap. They can't shell you even if they can find you, they shouldn't (but sometimes do) drop depth charges with survivors in the water. Best of all, our own prey's engines and propellors provide the noise camouflage for when we drop down and swim under the convoy on same course and speed, while we clank and swear around with the tube reloading. And of course directly under a big convoy the escorts don't have the same freedom of manouevre on the surface. Mind you, a merchant rammed us once when we got too cocky, and on my last patrol I tried stand-off tactics, so I suppose it's horses for courses. Schuss!, Rollie |
Indeed , fighting from inside the Convoy 's path works well .
But when the Convoy starts to go "Pear shape" , it becomes dangerous to stay at periscope depth . What I mean is all marchants start to brake up theirs lines and it ends up being a sort of "Traffic Jam" :lol: With you in the middle :down: ... It is why I mostly fight from stand-off position . :up: ..................................... This time , we hammered the British . We found a Convoy coming from Gibraltar , probably heading for Liverpool . We spent 8 Torps for 4 Ships sunk . One was a Destroyer , the rest were tankers . Nice juicy T3s ... The escort gave me a hard time mind ... I had to leave the fight twice as it was getting too hot for my liking . We then proceeded to our Patrol Grid (AF 78) . I took a short-cut again within English coastal waters but we had to crash dive often . The Sea was bad , not allowing us to defend ourselves with the Flak . We found another Convoy coming from the US near our Grid . We headed for it ... I managed to put our boat in perfect position to launch 2 TI Fat 1s and sent 2 T2s straight to the bottom for starters . It surely put the escort in a veeery bad mood . They started to use trigonometry on us and we quickly found ourselves closely surrounded by 4 angry Destroyers . It took us a lot of time and hard maneuvers to save the boat . They were pinging in turn , then doing theirs attack runs , dropping depth charges all over the place , then pinging again ... As if that was not enough , the RAF came too . And as it turns out , they sank one of their own Destroyer ~a Flower Class~ while bombing the area !! :o :lol: They had someting like 2 Catalinas , 2 SwordFish and a couple of Hurricanes for good mesure . God , it was hot ... The Grid was AM 18 . After a while , I managed to get some distance and came back for some more tonnage . I had time to fire 2 TIIIs , both missed , then a TII who sank a small cargo . It was night time and my radar guy did not get an incoming pair of Catalinas . They dived on us ~unaware of the danger~ and completly hammered our forward deck . We lost one 20mm Flak gun and the other one was badly damaged . The main problem is that I lost my attack periscope too ! :x Stern Quarters started to flood but luckily , not badly enough to put the boat in jeopardy . I crash dived to 30m only as I was not sure about the damage reports yet . I was thinking about Hull integrity ... We surfaced soon after to find the remaining Destroyers on Patrol near by . The closest was a Clemson , about 2000m behind us . As it was still night time , I took the risk to send my Repair Team out to fix our Deck and the damaged Flak gun . While they were fixing and welding , I launched a TI Fat2 ~one of those handy defensive rear Torps~ with a short pattern ~800m~ and a close max range ~1000m~ . And it did the trick !! :hulk: The Clemson went up in flame with a big bang ! We did not get the time to fix the forward casing ~who was damaged too~ and quickly dived to 120m , went silent running , set a different course and finaly escaped for good . On the way back to Lorient , we found 2 small Merchants sailing together . Bad luck for them , down they went . That was a good Patrol overall and we later had a good Party at "Le Chat Noir" where "Madame" offered us her finest Champagne while some of the lads went upstairs with a couple of nice French girls :yep: B. Goelf out . Cheers . |
October 27th 1943 ,
U-100 left Lorient for Grid Patrol AF45 . Torpido load : 6 T3s , 3 T1s , 2 T1s FAT1 , 2 T2s FAT2 , 1 Acoustic . We recieved our new Flak-guns ~ the latest 38s~ as well as the new decoys "Bolts 2" . At less than 85nm from Lorient , we had our first radar contact , bearing 358 long range . We were not in deep waters yet ... Something told me that it surely was a British Destroyer , and indeed it was . Coming straight at us at 25 knots . Sea was calm so I dived to snorkel depth and set speed to 14 Kts , while turning starboard 20 Deg . At 2500m from the Destroyer , I launched my one and only acoustic torp , waited a bit then crash dived to 60m , adding 20 Deg more starboard . ... "Torpido missed , Sir" . Right , time to hide ... Few missed depth charges later , the Destroyer ~River Class~ gave up the cat and mouse game and head up West at 9 knots in straight line , leaving us behind . Checking my Weapon officer , he gave me a wink ;) "Time to hunt him down !" Periscope depth , right behind him , but the enemy was now over 3500m in front of us . Ok , " snorkel up" , speed to 15 knots and we started to gain on him , slowly but surely . 2000m behind him , I fired a T3 set to magnetic , 1m under its keel and waited ... "Torpido impact , YEAH !!" The bugger 's behind went up in the air by at least 2 meters while its bow went straight under ! It sank in less than 10 secs , like it was "crash diving" !! Everybody was cheering ! ... We did not see anything until Grid AL52 , when BdU sent us a report of a small Convoy heading our way , 85nm on our starboard . I set up an intercept course and soon , we were in visual contact : 3 C2s . mmm , lovely ! 6 Torpidos later , the Sea was quiet again :|\ 2 days later , we fought 3 bombers . 3 less for the Brits to play with ... hehe ... We rescued a pilot , put a bullet in his head and left his body for the fish to feed on . I hate seeing someone drowning ... I 'm a Wolf , and not a nurse or a baywatch :stare: ... Our Grid Patrol was empty , we did not see anything even after patroling it for 48 Hrs . With 6 Torps left onboard , I decided to give Scapa Flow a little visit . We 'll see how it goes ... B. Goelf out . Cheers . |
Why, Bernie?
Why? Tell me you were making a sick joke? I know you, you probably were? The unbreakable law of the sea is for all mariners to come to the aid of another in distress, if they can. In War we are the the ones who usually cause that distress in the first place, and if we should do so, and kill seamen without warning, or leave them to an uncertain fate on a raft, then so be it. No Tommy will ever mourn over our deaths, as terrible as they will probably be. They will probably crack open beers as we have done, over a sinking. Yes, BdU has said that experienced shipwrecked sailors shouldn't be allowed to survive and join another ship, to transport more war material against Germany. I say they have never been in in the water, and reached out a hand for rescue even from an enemy ship. If we're executing people at sea now, here's my Cap and Medals... Lt de Bunsen, U-46 |
Raoul , I am not joking . I never joke at Sea .
First , that British man was a RAF Pilot who was bombing us , not a sailor . Secondly , we 're not allowed to take prisoners onboard and you know it . Thirdly , the man died quicker . I would rather die from a bullet than drowning slowly ~alone~ in the middle of the cold Atlantic ... Because you 're my friend , allow me to tell you something : Keep your Cap and your Medals and get a grip , we 're at War . I am not proud of what I 've done , but it had to be done . Actually , I did that poor man a favor :yep: B. Goelf out . Cheers . |
U-100 is now 68nm West of Scapa Flow .
The weather is bad , which is good for us , with big waves and a light fog . We avoided 3 Destroyers by staying just under periscope depth . They can listen and ping better if our boat is deep ... It was actually hard not to fire at them . But my goal is to make it to Scapa undetected ... We lost a lot of time playing cat and mouse with them , even if the cats were never aware of the mouse being around . The crew was worried and I had to use my authority to maintain discipline and moral high . One of my machinist even came to me to ask me to turn the boat around ! :o I draw my Luger while shouting "How dare you !" :stare: Luckily for him , Franz ~my weapon officer~ took him back to his station . For few minutes . the Command room was silent , you could have heard a pin drop . A good speech on the interComs and everything was back to normal ... We counted no less than 6 Destroyers patroling the straight . To be honest , I even thought about giving up ... Only the reward of sinking a main Battleship kept me going ... 2 1/2 Hrs later , we were in Scapa Bay . I ordered periscope depth and started to look around for target of opportunity . To my surprise , the Sea and nearby harbor was empty ! "Where are they ?" 15 minutes later , I spotted something . Moving closer , I had a good look at it . " Fiji Cruiser ahead , stationary , distance 3200m" I moved slowly to 2000m and ordered full stop . From there , I fired one T3 , pistol set to magnetic , depth 5.5m . Only a anti-sub net could save her now ... I kept an eye on my Jungsmann clock and 2 minute later ... "Torpido impact !!" then , " Unit destroyed, YEAH !!" I stayed there for 2 whole minutes , listening and looking around . No reaction whatsoever ... "Surface the boat !" Sea was now quieter , small waves but the light fog was still there . I ordered ahead standard and started to scout around for a good 5 minutes . Nothing more ... We went down to periscope depth again . At least, we did resupply the oxygen as the boat was stinking carbon oxide like hell . For some reason , probably the 6th sense of the veteran sailor , I raised the peri just in time to see a wave of aircrafts approaching ! I counted no less than 13 of them !! :o Then , my sonar man reported a long range contact coming our way , making very fast . Then a second one , and 2 minutes later a third one . While I still had time to do so quietly , I pinged the bottom : "Depth under keel : 5m" "Increase depth by 3m , speed to 3 knots" I left the command room and headed for the sonar . With a hand on my sonar man 's shoulder , I kept a carefull ear on the nearest approaching Destroyer . I wanted to present only the bow of our boat , to keep a low profile ... It missed us by a hair , 250m port ! "ahead third !" 3 minutes later , same manoever again with the second incoming Destroyer , at very slow speed . It worked again . I was about to do the same with the third Destroyer when the first one turned around and started to ping hard . "Engine fullstop !" It started to get hairy ... I was running out of options ... So I waited , praying ... Luck came to our help . One of the Destroyer headed on our back starboard and started to drop depth charges 400m behind us . Soon afterwards , the Aircratfs started to drop bombs on the spot designated by the depth charges . My sonar man had to take the headphone out of his ears , the sea was getting VERY noisy ! I immediatly ordered flank speed , straigh ahead , for 2 minutes . Then , "Engine fullstop" again ... And we waited , without moving , for 1 1/2 hour . ... 5 Hrs later , we were back in the Atlantic , safe . :P I promissed myself to never go back again near a British Port . Ever . B. Goelf out . Cheers . http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9823/fiji6zq.jpg http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1392/fijidown7vp.jpg |
Crazy, Bernie!
See you back at he Chat Noir, you bad black cat! LS |
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