Busy writing another episode for us I hope!! :rock:

"Get him on deck, Bruno. Treat him with the respect that becomes an officer."

The enemy captain is hauled up onto the decking, as provisions are handed down.

We salute each other.

"I have no tea, I'm afraid Captain, will you take some hot coffee?"

He nodded assent tiredly

"Reuben, send down a flask of coffee, black and strong!"

When the coffee arrived and we sat down underneath the bridge, he relaxed noticeably. A few of our boys were passing food and water down to the life boats, and even sparking up cigarettes.

"We're going to have to leave you to your own devices, soon Captain, but I'd hate to think that noone would come by to pick you up?"

"That's ok" he chatted. "We were here to pick up a convoy, and help it in to Liverpool."

"Are there enough escorts to come looking for you?" I asked with all concern.

"Oh yes, two destroyers and a couple of corvettes, like ours.

"Here, have some more coffee, and here's some chocolate."

"I'd hate to leave you out here, outside the path of the convoy, where should you be, and we'll make sure you get picked up.

"That's ok, we were just at our RV when..... when you hit us."

"How long will they be, do you think? I can't take you on board myself, and we have other things to do, we have to go back to Germany for a refit; we haven't even got any torpedoes left, but I'd hate to cast you adrift if your friends weren't coming shortly?"

Yes they're supposed to be here at 0200

""Well then you'll need a flare. To attract them to you.

"Hand me down some flares will you!"

"As soon as the convoy arrives shoot a flare and you'll be saved"

Oscar is leaving the nearest life boat, having tended to some minor wounds.

"You're such a con artist, Rollie" he whispered.



LS

Gotta love idots:doh: They make us average folk look better!:up:

"Good luck Captain, maybe see you after the War"

"Cast off and go about, Bruno. We chugged gently away from the lifeboats.

"Prepare to dive on my command, Bruno; I'm just going below.

"Viktor get that morse key tap dancing!"

"Yes Sir!"

'To BdU and all callsigns, from U-46

Corvette sunk, HMS Tulip (- get Willi in here to give you the position, Willi! Into the radio cabin if you please!)

Expect convoy northeastbound to Liverpool with four escorts at my grid at 160200. Request any boats or aircraft to converge. U-46 will be the reporting boat.

Send.'

"Hans!" I peered round the corner.

"Yes, Sir!"

"I'm going to take us down, for a while, so that you can listen better on sonar. Give me a shout if you hear anything. Victor can you still receive if we trim the boat right down?'

'Yes, Sir!"

"Good man. Otto drop us, and switch to electric. Joachim, inspect the forward tubes, Viktor, as soon as you hear any signal at all I want to know. With any luck it's going to be a busy night."

LS

Christ! talk about "Careless Talk Costs Lives" :yep:

not exactly a light hearted thread anymore....LS, have you updated your story site, or considered an email thread, of some sort? or post the story to a blog, where we could pull it down from an RSS feed?

Just a thought

Grand story, keep it up. have you ever thought of expanding it to a true story, so its not so dialogue driven?, sorry, as i also like to write, sometimes i stick my nose where it might not belong... ps if anyone wants to read anything ive written pm me, or check my blog....im Vest Wearing Punk

Oi
Trav,

Thanks guys. In answer to America Person, I'm so IT illiterate, that I 'm not sure what you mean or certainly how to do it.

I did have a stab at a website (laughingswordfish.net) but it has got hopelessly behind the story. I haven't given up on it yet though. I've been trying to put some real u-boat photos on there

The other idea is to embellish it into a book, and I'd like to do that, even if I have to self-publish. My boss has given me some useful contacts for that.

Of course the problem is that the story hasn't finished. The War still has 4 more years to run, and the U-46 is still afloat! I'd have to publish it in installments.

Thank you for all your very kind comments and suggestions, they really do keep me going

Kind regards,

LS

"Sir! I have three messages"

I raced to Viktor's cabin.

U-100 on it's way back. still has four useable torpedoes, and as always is itching to use them.

U-971, a green boat straight out of St Nazaire, but which has picked up the call and is steaming full ahead towards us. Good Lad. Emerson, I think his name is.

And Max, in U-217 who has taken a couple just south west of us, but now is racing and reloading to the new hunt. The party wouldn't be complete without the Happy Pig!

"Third watch under the ladder! Prepare to surface Otto!"

LS

"Otto, can you ask Hans if he can still hear if we increase speed? We can't see a thing in this sea"

"Ok, Cap"

Then it happened. We might have moved a fair way off, but there was the flare, shooting brightly into the night sky.

From Hans: "Getting slow engine noises, Sir, many!"

My God, it worked.

"How many boats in contact?"

"Just U-100, Sir, she is north of us. 217 and the new guy will intercept later tonight.

Willi shows me the chart.

It would be better if we could make a concerted attack from different angles and stretch their escort defence to it's limit. But we can't wait. I know U-100. It's a good boat with an aggressive commander. He will have seen the flare already and be homing in. Let's go for it.

"Flank speed, Willi. Show me some smoke stacks!"

LS

LS, the blog is simple almost like a forum, and you publish posts, and can edit them, people can post comments, you can also upload pics, generally they're ones you've taken or images you've made yourself, but there maybe ways around that...for an example of what I'm talking about, see my blog(link in sig) for a better idea of what I mean, and if you want ill be glad to help set you up....


nice little set up, can't wait for the attack to start...

PS: on my Blog I'm Vest Wearing Punk:up:

Oi
AP

LS has inspired me to start writing down my own patrols reports/stories. But I won't be sharing as I am not nearly 1/10th the writer he is. More just for my own fun and diversion.

Keep 'em comin, LS. I've just finished getting myself caught up on this thread and I'm loving it.

Now play smart, too. You gotta keep Herr Kaleun alive for Heidi :up:

As U-46 picked up speed and veered around, I spared a thought for that corvette captain that I duped.

"Don't be in any rush to get onto another ship, my friend; maybe you're no worse off where you are..."

LS

The smoke threads and the silhouettes start to take form as we pound through the night sea.

"Come on Friedrich, pick three or four out for me, don't waste our torpedoes on little barges"

He gulped and stammered.

"It's hard to tell, Sir should I....."

"Tankers first if we can, Friedrich, although they are usually hidden inside the convoy, but no army or air force can do anything without petrol, even ours. So they are a priority target.

"There Sir! First shot at that merchant on the quarter bow, probably seven or eight thousand tons, after that we'll see if we can sneak in to have a go at the oilers and....."

There was a huge boom and a great orange explosion from the far side of the convoy

"It looks like U-100 has beaten us to it, Bruno."

"That's not fair, Cap, it was our convoy"

"It still is, Bruno, my friend. Look through the binoculars.. What do you see?"

"All the escorts are chasing off around the other side of the convoy, Sir"

"Would this be a good time to put in an attack, do you think?"

Bruno smiled, and before long we were crashing through the waves towards the rows, the dark shapes on the black sea.

"Now Bernie is probably down and reloading. He'll be ok, if I know him. We can take the heat off by striking from this side; before they know it, we'll have the Royal Navy dancing all over the place. Later we have two more boats joining the party.

"OK, drive straight in to the forward edge of the convoy. One torpedo, one ship this time; let's not be extravagant. A cripple is as good as a sinking, as long as the rest of the pack turn up. But make them all count boys.

LS

There's going to be hot time, in the old town, tonight!!!!:rock::rock::rock:

I've just found this thread, and finally finished reading all the installments. I have so say this this is an absolutely amazing story, and like many others, I am officially hooked :D

Keep up the good work, and i can't wait for the next update!

Cheers,

Dan Biddle