A commander who fired at merchant between it and the shoreline, so strays won't hit civilians:nope:

He also stopped a Greek merchant and requested that they pick up survivors from a ship he had just sunk. When he saw that they weren't going to do so, he chased them down a second time and threatened to sink their ship.

There is a wonderful account of his exploits in "Operation Drumbeat" by Michael Gannon. In the video interviews of Hardegen in the documentaries U-boat War and Battle of the Atlantic, he strikes me as a highly intelligent and affable fellow. I wish I had the opportunity to meet him.

IIRC he started off as a flyer but was grounded due to a leg injury which left him "unfit" for combat duty.

He transferred to the KM and the u-boat service and somehow wherever he went after his grounding by the Luftwaffe, his medical history always reached his new superior officers too late for them to remove him from whatever assignment he'd just been given.

I think by the time it caught up with him as a u-boat man, he'd already proven himself as a commander so there was no question of him being transferred ashore because of it.

:DL
Me too. Probaply a good officer to serve with.

I think he really was a good U-Boat Commander and he had a great Crew. :salute:

"On 26 March, Hardegen attacked the American Q-Ship USS Atik (3,000 GRT), mistaking it for a merchant freighter. After torpedoing the ship, Hardegen surfaced to sink her with the deck guns, only to find the Atik trying to ram him and opening fire on him with guns that had been concealed behind false bulwarks. Making a getaway on the surface, U-123 received eight hits and one of the crew members was wounded fatally. Approaching the Atik submerged, Hardegen sank her with another torpedo."

Unbelievable, that a submarine could handle so many hits. :o

An exception to the rule.

Well a submarine is really small and not armored. So they must have shot with rubber balls.. I mean if they hit the ship it must have more then just a small hole. :hmmm: Or they had really small guns. If i think right it had 4x 100mm guns.

It only took one bullet to penetrate the pressure hull and the U-boat was no longer a 'submersible'.

I would guess small arms fire that would penetrate the bridge walls but not the pressure hull.

I wonder if you could "fother" a u-boat, at least to periscope depth? If it was just one shell hole? Of course, they didn't have canvas, but I bet you could make a go of it.

[EDIT] If you had canvas.

[EDIT] Belay that. Obviously not. I could delete this post, but I like to have a public record of how boneheaded I can be.

Yep....I meant 20mm and above :)

I keep my deck gun mounted for the simple reason that you never know when it might come in handy. Deck gun shells are more plentiful than torpedoes and if I can conserve my torpedo supply by sinking a ship with the deck gun, I'll do so. Of course the situation has to permit doing something like that. I won't use it close to enemy shores or air patrol zones, for instance. Especially later in the war, the risk is just too high.

Early in the war, it is excellent for picking off stray merchants, stragglers from convoys or already damaged ships that need a little extra "nudge" to help them sink.

One thing I have learned is: always check if the merchant is armed before trying to use your deck gun! :dead:

Thank you. Misery loves company, and I'd hate to think I'm alone in the world.

Absolutely correct. Always investigate.

Or your gun crew can look like this.