The Horror
 

Took a severe beating during a depth charge attack by a destroyer, i thought i had them evaded but suddenly damage reports started pouring in, whole screen shaking, killed a number of the crew, stern was a wreck, we were taking water quickly. Everything up to the aft command room hatch was flooded chest deep and rising. Evacuated all of that.

I had my chief engineer trying to repair a hole in the port side of the command room. but it quickly became obvious he would be unable to repair it before the whole command room was flooded.

Bodies laying on the floor everywhere in the command room, it was a massacre.

evacuated the command room.

Now it is my chief engineer and 3 surviving sailors in the bow compartment.

Passing through 140 meters now. Heavy groaning. nothing to be done at this point.

Forward command room hatch gave way, heavy flooding in the bow command room and torpedo room. Evacuated to the forward torpedo room, water there was only chest deep but not taking water at this point.

Came to rest on the sea floor about 150-160 meters. Our only hope was to send the chief engineer back aft with his rebreather and start the slow repair process.

Pressure on the hatch was too great, it couldnt be opened.

there i stood in first person view, looking at the two other sailors who were panicked. This was it.

Soon, the batteries, which were still providing light would go dead plunging us unto darkness.

then after a while we would pass out from using up all the oxygen, and we would die.



makes you think. Wonder how many found themselves in that exact scenario IRL

Well, the Kriegsmarine alone lost 30,000 men on their boats, so probably quite a few spent their last minutes/hours that way. It's a very sobering thought.

Awesome story, thank you for sharing!

I cannot imagine how terrifying a situation like that must have been in reality. Very sobering thought indeed!

I think about that all the time whenever I read "Uboat lost, all hands"... What happened to that boat, were the sailors lucky enough to be killed in the explosions that racked the boat? Did a few immediately die while others slowly succumbed to the flooding waters? Or... Did they watch and listen in horror, as the boat slowly descended to the murky depths, with no hope of gaining control of the boat back. Nothing to do but listen to your own thoughts and the cries of those who can't accept their fate. yikes... ::salute:: ::tears::