Any Update?????

Would be nice to have one....

Aye Aye, stand by!

Sorry I have been away.

More follows.

LS

Ah, welcome back LS err....'Crusty' :DL

All shall be forgiven when the next instalment is posted!:up:

:ahoy:

Eagerly awaiting next installment.

Yeah, looks like I've become a salty old sea dog in my absence!

LS

We were catching up with the wolf pack line, already stretched thin by our absence, and further holes in the mesh caused by the bad visibility.

Except they had been ordered further North to cover the North West Approach. So again I had to make Otto burnb his precious fuel.

Willi sighed, with his pencil on the map and looked at me.

"It looks like we've got good old AM53 again Kap".

We were nearly sunk there before, and barely made it home. It's like an autobahn for merchants into the Clyde or Liverpool, but also a buzzing hornets nest of escorts and air cover for the same reason. What they call from the safety of Kerneval, 'High Risk, High Reward'.

Christian used to grunt and say "Well, never mind the reward, let's share the risk out more evenly..."

Before we have to take the Allies on again though, there is a more pressing problem in the Control Room. Willi is refusing to allow a petty officer up onto the bridge, and an argument not short of insubordination is growing. The PO is Krenze. His station is with the electric motors, but he smokes, or would like to smoke, like a chimney. He's excellent at his job, and totally calm under attack, unless he can't have a smoke, then his hands shake as they are doing now, spilling captured Pall Malls from his crumpled pack onto the damp control room deck as Willi tells him again it's too rough to go up there. Even the watch are strapped to the bridge for safety.

"I need a cigarette, Sir!"

"OK!" I watch as Willi takes a cigarette from the pack and starts up the ladder.

""Wait here"

We could hear him unlocking the hatch and poking his head and arm through, and his hand with the Pall mall between first and second finger.

Within a moment there was a shower of sea water down the hatch, and Willi climbed back down with great dignity.

"Here's your smoke, Krenze"

He offered him about an inch of sodden filter and washed away cigarette.

But of course it didn't end there. The challenge was now to invent the patented weather proof u-boat smoking device.

There were many,

Ducking under the bridge was not allowed because even that can get submerged by big waves.

No waterproof capes either. We can't have anyone on the bridge who isn't able to look outwards.

Attempts to waterproof cigarettes with either pork fat or even a desperate attempt with old engine oil proved disappointing to say the least.

An ingenious contraption involving a tin french cigar tube actually turned into a musical instrument instead.

There were others, but as it always is, the answer was very simple.

LS

The poor sod.....I wonder if he's tried this method http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/9154/9fumar1.gif

< Puff >

I gotta say...

< Puff >

That I can relate...

< Puff >

With Mr. Krenze!

< Puff >
< Puff >
< Puff >
:|\\

Quit smoking or nicotine patches?:hmmm:

It's funny really.

The solution put Krenze off smoking on deck altogether. Ironically he couldn't stand the taste of diesel oil.

It still hangs by the ladder. Reuben put it together, but Willi of course painted the lucky Laughing Swordfish on it's funnel and the ingenious lifting waterproof cover, a zippo lighter donated by Doc, surely now long defunct, taped to the side.

Of course the men can come up for air and a smoke out by the Winter Garden, whenever it's safe to do so, but any distraction is welcome. Oscar says that if you put a bunch of bored U-boat men in a scrap heap for a day, they would build something to fly to the moon.

"Or steal something, Doc..!"

"But certainly not write another Shakespeare play..." he added wryly.

Anyway the weather and sea has eased. Christian and his gang are up top and we are pounding along. We are picking up some radio traffic from Wolf Pack Sonnenschein. Another little joke from BdU I suppose.

The other boats on station, some we haven't worked with before, they have reported the odd lone and lucky tramp wheezing through. We all have orders to keep our powder dry and lay low. There is something much bigger out in the Atlantic and heading this way.

LS

As it happened it was Krenze and Reuben lounging on the Winter Garten, in a brief cloudless spell enjoying a smoke and a chat about engineer stuff, when the bomber came.

The thing with them is you don't really hear them until they are really close or overhead, and then the roar is terrifying, and quite likely the last thing you will ever hear.

It all happened at once. Me shouting at Christian not to dive, to stay up at any cost. Him piping down emergency steering orders, and to get the Flak crew scrambled up here now, right now!

The Halifax didn't drop, even though her bomb bay doors looked open. We took some tracer from her as she circled again, only a few rounds sparking off the deck plating and conning tower, but most stitching splash patterns in the sea.

As for our flak gun, we needn't have worried. Krenze knows nothing about weaponry, only machines, but Reuben has been around a fair bit longer. He barks out instructions as Krenze opens the ready-use 20mm shell clips and is shown how to feed them in, while Reuben trains the gun around.

An unforgettable picture, two determined men in their oil stained vests and caps, cigars firmly clenched between their teeth yelling "Come on! Come on you bastard!"

"Keep the plane behind us, Christian, as much as you can. Here she comes again".

LS

OOS: Impulsive as usual, I've been speaking to a publisher about putting the U-46 story into a book after so long just talking about it. First time for everything, and I'm not sure I understand it all, but it looks like I need to shift 200 copies, at least at first for the first print run. Any takers out there?

LS

"Shift"?

If that means advanced sales, I'll gladly be the first. :sunny: