Thanks guys.

U-46 is still well and truly alive, but paradoxically she has to spend a lot of the time 'sunk' - ie submerged. To stay alive.

I'm sure there are better U-boat aces out there.

But I'll do everything in my power to fight aggressively, and to bring her back in one piece; and to live to tell the tale.

At the moment we reckon we're on to the Ark Royal, more follows.

Kind regards, LS

"You're right, Sir, it's Her"

By now all three of us are cramming round the eyepiece, like the little boys we once were.

"Battle stations! And do wake up that slacker of a Chief Engineer . He'll want to see this. "

Ever since Ernst took that tracer in the Wintergarten, I've had a sense that Otto and a lot of the seniors have wanted some revenge.

Well, a U-boat on the surface is no match for a bomber, travelling at 500 times our speed, and with that fatal third dimension of the air. And I have always dived rather than giving battle, given the choice.

Ernst and that brave pilot managed to kill each other, but not us.

My Chief and Ernst went way back. It took him hard at the time when we pulled Ernst down bleeding and mortally wounded, and in the still of the Control Room, as Oscar pronounced Ernst dead, Otto swore vengeance on all enemy aircraft

And now we maybe have the chance to redress the balance.

Otto is breathlessly on my shoulder.

"Take a look my friend. She's still a long way off, but getting bigger by the minute."

"That's her, Sir!"

"You see anything smaller dotted around her, Otto?"

"Destroyers, Sir, and quite a few of them"

"Yes, Chief and thats our problem. They shouldn't be able to see or hear us yet. But to get into a decent attack position is going to involve getting north of them.

Before I talk to my Number One on the tactical considerations, can you pull U-46 out of a hole once again, because we're bound to take some punishment whatever we do."

Otto's eyes gleamed.

"We're here for moments like this, Kaleun"

"That's good enough for me, Chief. We're at battle stations and I want our best people up. See to it at your end of the boat. Don't worry I'll call you forward when we get a good shot at her.

"Christian! Willi! Around the chart table now! Viktor! Get off a contact report! Steer further north, Reuben, surface the boat and flank speed. We need to get ahead of them!

Bruno, have your men under the ladder, I'll be up later.

Joachim, get the foreends and tubes cleared for action.

This could be history we're writing here, tell the boys it's the Ark Royal!"

Lt de Bunsen U-46

:rock: :rock: :up: :arrgh!:

Mast

HOOOYAH!!!! :rock: :rock: :rock:

Lt de Bunsen

I know i asked this question before....but please..confirm to all of us... that read this thread every single day...that you actually just accidenty ran into the path of the Ark Royal?? And are telling us the result of that encounter

A few posts up he wrote:
So, just give him some time, LS has got a life besides playing SH3 (I think ;) )

Bruno's boys were up on the bridge like squirrels as soon as we'd equalised pressure and the last hatch opened.

Even Otto, usually so miserly with his diesel, was now running the engines for all they were worth. And getting a suspiciously higher speed than he claimed the U-46 could ever do before.

We had to race ahead, whilst keeping a respectful distance, but still stay in long range visual contact. In other words we had to copy the zig-zag of the task force (and Joachim thinks he can also see the battleship Renown amongst the screen of destroyers), whilst not losing them. but not being seen.

A tricky game, but Bruno, at his best, kept us in sight of the Tommies now starting to be silhouetted even at that distance by the setting sun, as we gradually seemed to creep ahead, and constant recalculations of two courses and two speeds brought us closer to a reckoning at dusk.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

We instinctively ducked in surprise. Who the hell was firing at us?

BAM BAM BAM BAM

"Flugzeug! Rot Eins Da! Da! Dahinter! Folgen nach Grun Zwei. Links! Links!"

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

It was our own Jurgen on the ball, blazing away with the 20mm and calling out the enemy aircraft's passage near the stern of the boat.

It was a swordfish. A funny looking bi-planed torpedo bomber. We could see after our initial surprise that the torpedo it once had underslung was gone. And it also had problems of it's own. Jurgen must have clipped it with a couple, or it was already hanging on from some earlier tussle. Either way it dragged itself up higher away into the sky (it must have been looking for the Carrier against the sunset just like we were)

"Damn it!" I shouted

"It's ok Sir, good old Jurgen soon saw him off!"

"Yes, Holtz"

"But it's all his big brothers we have to worry about now..."

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

OOOOOOOooooh.... you are in trouuuuuble now! :(

"We can expect company, lads, but hold your nerve. If we dive now we'll lose them."

"Damned good eyes, Jurgen! He won't be back in a hurry!"

(Although his friends will)

Jurgen turned round briefly to acknowledge and then was back clearing his gun and kicking the empty 20mm cases over the side, slamming a new magazine on, and calling for the next ready use ammo box to be broached and a Number Two to stand by.

Excellent.

"Bruno, keep going full pelt. Steer out of their pattern to the North East, and then we'll exaggerate back to the North West. I'll be up again in a minute.

Of course below decks everyone is desperate for news, and men always fight or perform better if they have some idea of what is going on. So through the pipe:

"Kapitan to all stations. We are in contact with an enemy carrier force. We reckon it's the Ark Royal, it's long range yet, and this is going to be a long night."

"That noise you heard was Jurgen in the Wintergarten shooing away an old British crow!"

There were loud cheers.

"It does mean that we have to be quick on our toes, men. Let's not mess about."

More cheers, and everybody seemed to be up.

"Christian, take some extra men up on the bridge for air watch". And (in a whisper) "Double the hands available for damage control."

"Reuben, get aft and look after the engines; Otto, you have the Control Room while we're up top."

"Joachim, I don't need to tell you we'll only get one run at this. Get off and do your thing. But I need your finger on the button the very second the time comes for those eels"

"Coxswain, make all checks, and stow kit securely, if anyone want's to go to the heads now is the time, before you lock it."

"Willi, I've pushed us out on a wider tack, but I expect some pursuit already after that brush with the plane. Can we run ahead in time, and cut in. Let's check the chart."

Willi smiled and looked at me.

Crazily superstitious most of the time, but always cool in action. A chinagraph pencil in one hand as he sharpened it with a bosun's clasp knife with the other.

He held up the pencil.

"This is all we'll need to sink her, Kap!"

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

It was an edgy night, but not for long.

We'd seen a picket destroyer, and glimpses of the carrier, Otto bless him was running his diesels into wire wool just to edge us ahead into an attacking position.

Maybe we got too close on one tack, they knew all along after that torpedo bomber came limping back, that they had a u-boat out there. Maybe they were refuelling, or loading ammo, I don't care .....
"...as long as they're not cleaning the rust of the depth charge runners, Herr Kaleun!"

"Yes, Christian," I grinned.

Of course the skill was to keep into contact with the Carrier at ams length and get ahead until nightfall, while being pushed out all the time by the escorts, who weren't sure who else had turned up for the party and didn't want to be drawn into a feint and lave the big ships open. Stephan last heard seems to making modest claims like us, Bernie in his charging U-100 will hate to have missed this show if he could get back on time, because he last reported even further West.

Willi comes up with his watch.

"Want to get below, Kap, you're no good to us frozen?

"Thanks Willi, maybe I will have a cup of cof...

"ALARM!"

The boys are flying down the ladder and only really using it to break their fall. Johann and his mate come flying through us after the watch from the gun, his mate still holding the last bracket of AA shells.

"Throw them away , Neumann!"

"But Sir, we.."

"You're blocking up the hatch, in a submerging uboat which is not now watertight, boy!"

Otto as efficient as ever already has the bows down.

The first shot that zips across our bows is from the starboard.

We make sure everything is clanged shut and everybody put to battle stations. We're already crashing to 50 and that won't be enough.

"Damned destroyer nearly outflanked us, lads!"

"Aren't we supposed to be stalking them?"

"Otto, Christian, it now makes sense to make your circle to port. We've now found ourselves inside the outer screen, I know it's an impossible range, let's just get up to 13m depth so we can see.
We have at least one destroyer up our stern, and presumably more to come. between us and those ships.

"Otto for God's sake give me periscope depth, and flood tubes one to four"

"Joachim give them a salvo, metre spread, maybe a tail shot if we're lucky, because we're not invited here.

A violent hiss of the tubes and surge of the boat, but I knew, and the officers knew, at this range and with our torpedoes, it would be a lucky hit on something

That destroyer was now very close, at least one.

"Close bow caps! Hard a-port to 190"

Let's at least sneak out to the south if we can't outrun them to the North, and hopefully box round. And hopefully the escorts will lose interest quicker.

"Deeper, Chief and slow.

Joachim is still standing watching the red and black dial of his stopwatch

"It's ok Joachim, my decision, and it was really a long shot or nothing.

And then the ever louder churning of propellors start to come,.

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

Ruh ROH!!! :-? :o

Wow, I was afraid that the famed U-46 had been destroyed! Keep the water out of the people tank, Kaleun ;)

I can't wait any longer when is the book coming out great stuff :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up: :up:

Great stuff, Herr Leutnant. I stayed up late reading these a few nights ago. :) You really ought to publish these in print form...I think they'd be very popular among folks like us.

Roger that! ...and we can say "We knew you when...."

Seriously... this would make for a great book.

:ping: :ping: :ping: