Minute of Silence
 

Lasty night, as making my 27th patrol, U-123 was sunk, all hands lost.
I had to imagine the odds were against me last night. Left Kiel at Oct/1941 on my way to patrol grid AL29. The problems begun right after I left Scotland 20 Km behind me.
First, a DD comes out of nowhere, and beeing unable to dive due to shallow water, I engage the DD with my deck gun. After some 2 or 3 minutes of duel, the DD finally sinks, but it leaves my u-boat with 65% of hull integrity, 2 officers and 1 petty officer dead. They were under my command from patrol 1. At that point, while letting their bodies slip to the cold water, I realized how much we, as skippers, get attached to our crew members, even if it is supposed to be a game. Believe it or not, it's not easy to let them go.
Still far from my patorl grid, I decided to go forward and have the job done. About 70 Kilometers away from our patrol grid, we stumbbled upon a convoy in the middle of the night, with rough waters, rain and heavy fog. The warning came too late, when they were 400 meters away. Suddenly hell broke loose. Searchlights and starflares everywhere. It gave us almost no time to dive, but we managed to do so even if it was too late, since we had been spotted already by an escort. Managed to fire the 4 bow tubes, sinking 1 DD and and a C3, but failed to detect a destroyer approaching from my tail due to the pandemonium.
Got depthcharged and without any chance to run away, not even at flank speed, we sustained heavy flooding, and most of my crew died almost immediately.
Seconds after that, we passed the crushing depth limit....
Few hours later at BdU ,U-123 was reported as "Lost At Sea", all hands lost..... :cry:
I feel so sad....
CapZap

I salute your crew and join you in a minute of silence.

Amen.

They have a place reserved in the Walhalla for you and your proud warriors...

Bro they are on eternal patrol!:rock:

Submariners dont die they just keep on hunting!:lol:

:roll:
:oops:

27 patrols in two years!?! wow, they deserved their rest, but not in that fashion.

Use you hydrophone regularly. That had saved you i think.

Thanks Abel.... I don't like spending 28 days at port after finishing a patrol, so I stay there no more than 1 week...
Buaaaaa :damn:
CapZap

My sincere condolences.

Kapitaenleutnant Krumbiel, U-66

Well, I see a few things we all learned the same hard way :

- stay away from shallow waters...
- in bad visibility conditions (wind rain and fog) spend as little time as possible on the surface - only to reload batteries. It prevents the "DD that comes from nowhere" and the hydrophone gives you long range warning on contacts...
- when you're down to 65% hull integrity, best thing to do is head home asap...

Congrats by the way, takes some balls to sink a DD with the deck gun...:D

Caps off. Me and my men salute you.

In the pre-radar days, I've had more success with staying on the surface than traveling underwater. I've had destroyers pass within four hundred meters or so on the surface and not notice me, whereas if I'd been underwater chances are they would've heard me.

Or maybe I'm just lucky.

Salute! U-123. :cry:

Mis condolencias a las viudas de su equipo.

Another U-boot and its crew are lost. How are we supposed to win this war?

:nope: