Not till they can sink me!

LS

Heading down towards the Estuary is a sobering experience. They are still trying to repair the deep water dock after the raid. St Nazaire is the only dock big enough for our last big battleship, the Tirpitz. So she's still biding her time in Norwegian fjords, with no decent outlet into the Atlantic (and look what happened to her sister)

Those Tommies knew what they were doing all right.

Doc comes up and offers a cigar.

"Better grab a smoke before we're out into the Bay eh, Rollie? Where to this time?

We're just pushing out West as far as half our tanks can take us, Oscar. It's a plan of sorts. There are other boats out there. It's just this Biscay Bay, we're like fish in a barrel crossing it. Suicidal, a firing squad...!

Give me a last light then, will you?"

And we both laughed.

LS

This is out of the story, and I do apologise.

But I know there are some German speaking friends out there.

What it is, I have been asked to act in a film which is set in a POW Camp, and they want me to be the Camp Commander. And I have to be perfect by Sunday. (Talk about a fast ball!)

The other lines will be spoken in German-accented English, but I really need help from anyone out there who can put these few lines into German for me:

"He still isn't in a fit condition for proper questioning. Captain Frings, leave Captain Hodgson here for now, we need to keep him seperate from all other inhabtants. we need information that he possesses to be uncontaminated through other soldiers' idiocy. We need to know why they were here. I believe he has information on the next British attack. Post two guards outside this room, and keep me updated on his condition over the next day"

That's it. I didn't write it, but I guess it will be subtitled so we can't mess with it too much, but I'm hoping someone could help me translate that into a shorter German version. I'd be very grateful.

Thanks, LS

We are almost out, on the Western edge of BF. God knows which quadrant, the weather is so bad.

A couple of scares from the sky maybe, but nothing worse. At least Otto can check his diving times and trims, and I'm glad to say the U-46 seems as nimble as ever. But there is wear and tear on the crew.

After we surfaced from the last alarm, I came up to join Willi's watch. He immediately turned to me and gestured at one of his bridge crew. Young Halli.

Despite anything the watch officer could say or cajole, the lad was gripping the rim of the bridge tightly with both hands, his binoculars dangling uselessy from his neck and fixed stare.

"You ok, Halliman? It's a heavy sea up here isn't it?"

No response.

"Halliman?"

It's hard to say with the spray, but I think he's crying.

"Willi, I'm going to submerge the Boat, get Halliman below and get him to Oscar. don't isolate him, have Doc talk to him in the wardroom, and some hot tea sent forward.

Actually we could all do with some"

"That's true enough Kap.....Hey Halliman!"

He jerked around.

"Come on, lad. The Doc needs you and me downstairs for a minute. Any chance to get out of the rain eh!"

And he prised his fingers off and led Halliman gently down the ladder. He's been with us almost from the start, and he's still only twenty one years old.

Willi winked as they headed down the ladder

"I'll get Christian to kick one of his gang up to replace him......"

LS

More fuel http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...headbanger.gif

Some time later we had a really good call from the the bow lookout of Third Watch. Tienst, another kid, but good eyes.

At least one stack, aproximately 3,000 tons could be more or less, by the silhouette of her.

"Just one Joachim, come on, let's keep your record up!"

By now we had got ahead through my and Willi's stalking, and dived again.

Our torpedo hissed away set to a shallow setting with an impact pistol.

And my Weapons Officer didn't disappoint me. The Bang and huge shudder through the water told us what we needed to know.

I left Christian to confirm and log it, and poked my head through the Wardroom curtain, where Oscar is sitting with Halli.

"We sank another one men....!" I began cheerfully. And then noticed quite how tightly Halliman was gripping his tin mug, how much it was shaking and rattling against the table, and how much he was spilling out in all respects.

LS

"Er kann immer noch nicht verhört werden. Hauptmann (Army/Luftwaffe Captain=Hauptmann, Navy is a bit trickier, but I am guessing it is army) Frings, lassen sie Captain Hodgson fürs erste hier. Wir müssen ihn von den Anderen getrennt halten, damit die Informationen nicht durch irgendwelche Idioten beschädigt werden. (That part is a bit tricky. I am guessing this is written information, otherwise this needs to be changed). Wir müssen herausfinden, weshalb sie hier waren. Ich glaube, dass er Informationen über den nächsten Britischen Angriff hat. Stellen sie zwei Posten auf und geben sie mir Bescheid, wenn sich etwas ändert."

A question: This dialogue sounds a bit cheesy. What movie is this for?
And you might be better off to interrupt this dialogue, otherwise it just sounds like cheesy evil overlord exposition 101. Better might be something like this:

"(assessing the prisoner)Er kann immer noch nicht verhört werden.(turning away to Frings)Hauptmann Frings, lassen sie Captain Hodgson fürs erste hier. Wir müssen ihn von den Anderen getrennt halten, damit die Informationen nicht durch irgendwelche Idioten beschädigt werden. (lighting a cigarette/doing something - just anything, don't rattle it off). Wir müssen herausfinden, weshalb sie hier waren. Ich glaube, dass er Informationen über den nächsten Britischen Angriff hat. (walking out) Stellen sie zwei Posten auf und geben sie mir Bescheid, wenn sich etwas ändert"

But admittedly, that is just my (very limited, as I have only acted in three plays up to now) opinion.

Nice of you to jump in and try to assist Paul. But you must have missed that his request was on Wed 2/6, and was needed by Sun 2/10 :hmm:

Thanks anyway Paul!

In the end, I typed it into babelfish or Babylon or whatever, and it seemed to make sense to my rudimentary German knowledge, and just cuffed it on set! I'm sure your version was better, although I'm quite proud that I my cut-down version was pretty close to yours but I was definitely under the clock!
Noone else could speak German, so in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King!

The script was a bit cheesy, so I ad-libbed quite a bit.

The producer and director won't name the film yet, but they threw a lot of pyrotechnics at it, in battle scenes (before my bit, unfortunately).

But it was filmed on an old WW2 airbase on the English South Coast, which was interesting from the point of view of our game.

Thanks again, LS

We caught another one the next dawn. Bigger and one shot. There are still these people who think they can creep through without escort.

I left Christian and Willi to it, and ducked down into the Ward Room

He was sitting there with Doc.

"Hello Halliman, hows it going? How are you feeling? That last explosion you heard would have been another 5,000 tons at least!"

I plonked myself down in Otto's regular seat

"Halli..... we all have the right to get scared at times. Except for Officers. For us fear is forbidden on the grounds that we are too stupid to recognise it!"

That at least brought a smile to Halli's face.

"Listen Halli, it's only natural to be afraid, or just to have your nerves frayed; we're in a very dangerous business. To let you in on a secret, Kapitans very occasionally get the wind up too, but we have a big advantage when the chips are down.

Firstly these Type VIIs are made to last, the Brits have hardly made a dent in the U-46 yet. (Actually they had and we both knew it, but these boats are remarkably resilient)

And secondly my confidence comes from knowing I have a superb and brave crew, who will never let me or each other down.

You are one of those crew, Halli.

What do you say? Want to get back upstairs and rejoin 3rd Watch? They'll be pleased to see you.

Come on, I could use some fresh air myself ....it's the only advantage of the job!....."

LS

Good show LS! :up: :up: :up:

Hey Folks!
The next installment may be delayed a bit...Rumor has it LS may be making a trip to the Academy Awards in Hollywood for a possible nomination for an Oscar tomorrow! :o
;) :up:

More like the Raspberries mate!

And I have to tell you it's warmer on the bridge of your boat riding the Atlantic Wave, than a long derelict RAF base in Dorset (and with jackboots two sizes too small!)

It was fun, but anyway........

LS

Third Watch don't even notice him at first. They are constantly raising and lowering their binoculars as they observe their quadrants out to sea.

But Willi, standing in the middle does, and manages three things at once, he salutes me, shouts greetings to Halliman (Hey Halli! Where have you been, you skiver, we need you up here!") and horse kicks the nearest watchman to him who turns and ..

"Halli, what happened, did you go below to get your cigarettes dry?"

"Give us one then, you sly dog!"

"Come on, mate, U-46 is already 2-0 up on this patrol, just like Hamburg v Munchengladbach, in the final tomorrow, oh I forgot! You support those St Pauli minnows!"

"Hey, Halli! What particular stretch of this godforsaken ocean and sky would you like to stare at this time? You can have mine, but it looks a lot like yours and everyone elses!"

Back slapping and hugging, incongruous as it is in layers of clothing and oilskins. Someone took his sou'wester off and ruffled his dank wet hair.

Willi and I stood back against the periscope mount, and watched the four men laughing, and passing looted Canadian chocolate around.

I noticed the outsider from the group. Janeck from Second watch, his eyes red-rimmed with salt, wind and fatigue having served nearly two consecutive watches on the bridge as a replacement. But before I could intervene, Halliman went straight over to him, and took his Zeiss binos back.

"Thank you Jan, I've got this station again now. I'll take your next watch, and double on yours if..."

And he turned to me and his Watch Officer

"Yes, that's ok, Halliman."

"Janeck. Thank you and well done. Get some uninterrupted rest now. Report to the 2nd Watch Officer, that he is to take Halliman up on his next watch instead of you, but don't wake him, or he'll shout at you in his sleep! Go on junge, get yourself below and get some rest. Just tell him I said so. Get the Coxswain to organise it. He's always awake"

"Jawohl Kaleun"

After he stumbled tiredly down the ladder, Willi turned to me.

"Is Halliman ok"

"I think so Willi, but that is a question I should be asking you, he's on your Watch. We have to know our own men"

My Navigator's face was crestfallen, he has a lot of other duties apart from Watch Officer after all, but we can never neglect the men.

"It's ok, Willi, we've been turning the boat round pretty fast between patrols and repairs and the other incidents, without much leave rotation, so I'm to blame for that.

Willi nodded.

"But it's bad luck to break up the crew too much"

"Yes I suppose it is, especially by depth charge, Willi; if the crew are too tired and even one or two of them lost their nerve for a moment like young Halli, that's how we make the last mistake"

I clapped him on the shoulder.

"We could all do with a break, but..."

"..'but there's a War on'.."

Willi smiled as he finished the same mantra probably being repeated on both sides of the Channel. I'm staying up on the bridge.

"So come on my friend. Let's finish it quicker. Find me some more ships..!"

LS

And we did find them. Almost in a straight south westerly line, another three, two picked up by Willi's 3rd Watch, and at least one by Halliman spotting the top of a mast or funnel off to his quarter in the middle of the storm.

Approximately 3,000 or 4,000 tons each. Impossible to tell in this weather, but 5-0 to us! (Of course just one strike the other way, and that's the whole game over).

Anyway, it's time to submerge.

"Omelette Day!"

With that Bruno brings his gang clanging and clattering down the hatch, and Otto and his Control Room men easing us down to 20 metres, out of the waves.

There are many overpowering smells in a U-boat: diesel and various human ones being the worst; but when the Chef decides to use all the eggs before they spoil, every man can smell the frying pan on those two small stove rings. We don't know how he does it, and he has been sought after by other Kapitans, but we don't tell him

Omelette Day!

Even Christian's Watch who have just got into their bunks still half wet are up and ready. Everyone eager for their equal slice.

We're not completely without fresh rations yet, but nothing survives long on a U-boat, and perhaps that could apply to everyone, but certainly the eggs. And Kuki always throws in some onions or potato or sausage, or peppers and garlic, maybe some cheese. Pretty much anything goes, that won't last forever

My job is to stand with Kuki in his tiny galley, and distribute the omelettes, already presliced to the various watch and compartment seniors, who in turn take them back through the boat still piping hot, and ensure everyone get's a portion.

The Kapitan and officers wait till last on these occasions. The men are always fed first. But I was delighted like a child to discover a sliver of bacon, some onion, and a piece of potato, and what could have been spinach in mine. In our Control Room, and I guess, around the boat, similar delighted discoveries were being made, and ate with gusto.

"Christian, we're pretty much in the patrol area now, get Otto to find us a nice thermal layer with no cross currents at slow speed, and give the boys as much rest as we can. Get Viktor in with Hans, one-on-one-off, and a good listening watch".

"Yes Kap, but one last thing Sir...?"

"Yes Christian?"

"I got two slices of sausage in mine, did I beat you this time..?"

LS