It was from BdU alright, and reading in between the lines Viktor decoded, I could sense that this had come from Onkel Karl himself, and he wasn't best pleased.

Since our report the Flotilla and BdU must have been working overtime.

With a pang I worried about Heidi worrying about me.

At least she knows the Swordfish is still up now.

Our people want the satchel back, and on no account are we to peek at it beforehand. The temptation of which was so great that in the end, I had to lock it away.

Along with 'Bruno's Luger' as they are now calling it. I think he secretly likes the whole gunslinger image, and he deserves it. He's the youngest of my watch officers and I sent him into an ambush.

But we are not to return with it, oh no. We still have torpedoes left and are not far from the Gibraltar station.

We are to stay out to do our proper job. And it was that line on the message, which explained Doenitz's terse tone even by morse. No more messing about with spies, we're in the shipping business.

My main concern was not the bloody satchel, but Gerhardt. Oscar is doing his best, but we need to get him to shore and into safe hands soon.

Well, that's being taken care of.

Two boats, both known to us, and from our flotilla are heading back from patrols further out to sea. America to be exact.

I smiled when I read the first one. U-82.

U-82 is Taub's boat. Slightly maverick and individual as all good U-boat commanders must be, he has the skull and cross-bones emblem of the Jolly Roger on his tower, and hoists the same flag even in the attack. They say Eberhardt's crew are enjoined only to drink rum, and make their victims walk the plank.

That's nonsense of course, But U-82 is one of a growing trend of Type VIICs who have broken every rule and crammed every space, even the fresh water tanks to push more diesel reserves into the boat to get to the New York coast and back.

Doenitz is always outwardly angry, but we think he's secretly pleased with the spirit of his ubootwaffe.

Anyway Taub is coming back empty in tubes and almost in tanks. He'll have some white pennants to raise at St Nazaire, but now he is being redirected to RV with us on his way. Take the satchel, and more importantly in our case to get Gerhardt back.

To be sure, because pushing u-boat models around on a map at Kerneval is always risky, another returning boat, also from the Americas, and apparently also out of eels is heading to us too.

They must really want this satchel.

The second boat is a newer Type IX, U-777, We know him too, and Joachim went through gunnery school with ther opposite number. Georg Harmann runs it and is already putting up an impressive tally on the unprotected Amis shipping lanes, where they are still showing lights, and apparently you can watch the girls sunbathing through the periscope, you can get so close.

Anyway we never get those cushy jobs. Georg's U-777, with it's Olympic Circles on his Tower, is also out of torpedoes, and also reckoning on our forecast position.

"Whoever get's here first, Rollie, go out to meet them" Oscar says grimly. "Gerhardt has to get to a proper hospital..."

LS

Whoopee!

I also hate it when my backspace suddenly makes my whole post dissapear, but no hijacking for me. Good update!

Surely you write these in notepad or Word then copy and paste????

Lose the post, sure; lose the content, wtf????

Hey, that's a plan!

Mind you it would require preparation and forethought, and I was last in the line for those!

LS

Great to see we are back in business LS http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...s/thumbsup.gif

Another chapter wasted. I forgot to write it offline first

You see Steeltrap, we English are incapable of learning by our own mistakes.

Pretty much like every other nation, come to think of it.

Can't bring myself to type it all again, so I'm off to the pub to calm down. I can do that, because it's night time here, and you blokes are probably just having cereal and coffee!

Being English has it's moments, guys!

LS

Seen on a T-shirt: "Learn from the mistakes of others. You'll never have time to make them all yourself."

You mean like the mistake of sending all your best cricket players to a far-off island a few hundred years ago??

:haha:

You got me there Steeltrap, but we can still whip you at a proper sport like football!

LS

We've been running a slow pattern in the RV area and listening out on the radio for a day and a night now, and then it's Willi who calls it down.

"Kapitan to bridge!"

It was a good spot from Oppenheim, one of his lookouts, I could just see the dark shape of a submarine through my binos.

We watched her for a little while, to be quite sure.

"She's one of ours, Willi. Flash the lamp, and steer us in".

"Otto rev it up down there, we've got a date"

"All yours Willi, I'm going in for a moment"

I clambered through to the middle of the boat.

Oscar was busy applying the last of our clean dressings to Gerhardt's chest.

"Hey Gerhardt"

He smiled weakly

"Better spruce yourself up, your taxi is arriving. You'll be home before you know it, and we want you looking your best for all those pretty girls in Dusseldorf"

Doc's face lit up, and was already unpacking the fold-up stretcher.

"Can you get a bearer party, please, Rollie?"

"They're already here, Oscar"

Dieter and three other men from the dinghy that took part in that ill-fated expedition have come back from the fore-ends, four huge brutes, but who now tenderly lower Gerhardt out of the PO's bunk and onto the stretcher and gently strap him in.

"Ok boys, stand by; let's see where we are"

Back on the bridge, Willi has the lamp blinking away, and the flak gun manned and scanning the sky.

The other boat is much closer now, and I can see her own light flashing back.

A flag appears on the periscope mast. Black with the skull and crossbones, the Jolly Roger.

"Hey, it's Taub alright!"

Coming alongside another boat requires considerable skill from both boats, but Willi is on the ball, and before too long we are both making about 2 knots and sidling up together. Both watches scanning the skies.

"Good hunting, Taubie?" I hailed.

He grinned and gave me the thumbs up. Although he and his crew did look very tired.

"It's a piece of cake over there; we've run out of white pennants, can we borrow some of yours?"

"Cheeky monkey!"

"I hear you've had a bit of an adventure yourself?"

"You could say that, we've got an important passenger for you"

And then I ducked below again

"Come on then Gerhardt, it's time for you to leave the party"

The boys then did the difficult task of easing the stretcher through the hatchways of the boat and up the ladder, and then across to U-82 with safety ropes. Carefully taken below in the same fashion.

"Give our love to Germany"

Out came the satchel, carefully handed over, and good riddance.

"No peeking, Taubie!"

In return he passed over a case of Bourbon, several cartons of Lucky Strikes (the man really is a pirate) and also some slightly damp copies of the New York Times, and Hollywood News. They went round the boat in no time. The lads couldn't read the words, but they loved the pictures.

With a last wave of good luck, we parted. U-82 heading for home, and U-46 back to work.

I composed a confirmatory message for Viktor to send to BdU and then dived and headed away from the RV until nightfall.

One quick inspection of the boat before I write up the log.

Engineer Sammels has knocked his head on a piston.

"Live with it for a bit, Sammels, the Doc is sleeping now.."

LS

Hooray! He's Back!:D

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

Excellent,reading this always gets me in the mood to fire up SH3/GWX,Top stuff:yeah:

it took me over a week of trying to read a lil bit every day to get through your posts and I must say excellent...

I would hope my patrol reports are even 1/10th as good as what you are writing...can see the mental image when reading most excellent!

"Over to you Bruno, I'm going below, even you can sink those two..."

We have two small merchants not more than 2,000 each working their way across our bow. After the escapade off the Lanzarote coast, I need to get my young lieutenant's mind back on the game. They should be easy shots.

"Report to me when they're down, not before"

He fixed my gaze.

"Yes, Sir"

He got us in to 700 metres without any reaction from the merchants. A nice stealthy stalk. A steady chant of target data is going down the voice tube

My number Two turns and smiles at me.

"Going for it Sir!"

"Damn right! Let them go Bruno!"

"Los!"

He had the confidence to only use two torpedoes. Other boats have used the full salvo in their first run.

Otto has already had the sense to turn the boat out of the attack, in case there is any escort, and we are driving hard away from those two ships, but we can still see the surface trails that the bubbles make, and in my judgement, at least one of them will find it's mark.

We watch them stream and hiss towards their targets.....

LS