Battle of the Atlantic (X)
 

November 1937 (Berlin)

Admiral Erich Raeder frowned with disgust as he watched the presentation being made to to the German High Command, which included Hitler himself. The room was also filled with the rest of the Admiralty of the Kriegsmarine. Raeder took some comfort that some of his fellow admirals were also frowing at the presenter.

"...so as you can see, the current path our navy is taking is one that will only lead to defeat." General Admiral Karl Donitz said to the crowd. There was some outbursts and jeers from the men watching his presentation.

"Silence." whispered the Furher. The room went quiet. "Continue Admiral Donitz."

Dontiz nodded and continued, "If we were to ever face war from Britain and France, our best naval weapon would be the U-Boat. Britain especially is vulnerable to a campaign agaisnt their merchant fleet. By focusing the Kriegsmarine towards the U-Boat, we would be able to immediatly carry out a plan of action if we are ever threatened by British aggression. A plan that would make them think twice about attacking us."

The room was silent, but Raeder knew that his dream of big battleships was gone. The look in the Furher's eyes let him know that Dontiz had captured his imagination with his U-Boat agenda. How could it come to this? Raeder was sure when he was summoned to Berlin last year it was to be promoted to General Admiral of the Kriegsmarine. Instead he was told that Donitz had been given the post. He let out a long sigh and continued to frown.


December 1939 (London)

Winston Chruchhill took a long drink from his glass and set it down on his desk. It was late. He wanted to get some sleep, but his country was at war and it was his job as First Lord of the Admiralty to do his duty. He reached down and picked up the report that was placed on his desk and began to read.

To: First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchhill

Re: Report on the capabilities of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine)

TOP SECRET

This report has found that our navy and government has seriously underestimated the strength of the German Navy. The lack of big surface ships has hidden the fact that under the command of General Admiral Karl Donitz, the Kriegsmarine has take large leaps in regards to submarine warfare. Although we knew this was the focus of Donitz, until now we had no idea to the extent of the success they have achieved.

The most astonishing fact is we now know that the Germans are beginning to put a very advanced Type X boat into service. We were able to capture some blueprints on a prototype of this design, but at this time are still breaking it down. Nonetheless this U-Boat is proof enough that the Kriegsmarine has been planning a war against our merchant fleet for many years. Although most of their U-Boat fleet is made up of Type VII and Type IX designs, it is now clear that the new Type X is the future of the Kriegsmarine.

Also disturbing is the advancements in acoustic homing torpedoes and the refinement of "Sonar" technology. A report with more details on these findings will be presented soon....

Also found....

Chruchhill put the report down and got up to pour another drink.

i am now addicted to Wreford-Browns Type XXI in 39 mod so i decided to write a little story (inspired by Weib Pinguin's writings) on how in an alternate history this could have happened.

More to come.

Late-January 1940 (somewhere in the Atlantic, east of Spain)

Lt. Gordon Beck watched from the bridge of U-111 as the fireball that was once a British merchant burned in the growing distance. It was the fourth merchant that he and his crew had sunk on their first full war patrol on U-111. Beck said a little prayer for the crew under his breath, nodded at his watch officer and climbed below into the bowels of the U-Boat. In the dark of the night the rest of the watch followed him down.

The control room of U-111 was alive with activity. It was just past 2am. Perhaps time for a rest. He hadn't slept since they were just off the coast of Ireland.

"Chief, make your depth 45m. Lets get under this rough water for a few hours. The crew deserves a rest."

A few minutes later, Beck was resting on his bed. He was proud of the crew and his boat. He was proud that he was given command of one of these new Type X boats. He couldn't imagine going back to those Type VII's or Type IX cows that he had sailed on so much before the war. Soon the entire Kriegsmarine U-Boat fleet would be made up of these wonderful vessels. They cut through the ocean like a knife through butter. Silent, deadly and loaded with torpedoes. Beck smiled as he drifted off to sleep.

Interesting alternative history gord, but this is reason I quit modding the game to have a Type XXI in 1939. It spoils you rotten for the regular U-Boat fleet. It's hard to go back to 20 minute torpedo reloads and crawling away underwater at 2 knots when you've had the future. It's sort of like having a P-51 Mustang in a World War One aerial battle. You rack up the points but the challenge is gone. Another thing is the career game makes no allowances for what your sleek wunderboots are doing. There is no Operation Sealion or possibility of British surrender and the Allies still come ashore in Normandy in June 1944 no matter how big a dent you've made in Allied shipping.

of course. but i have been playing SH3 for a long time and have tried it all. This is probably my last hurrah with this game. And I am having fun with it so really thats all that matters.

The second point is, I dont really think the "Wunder" U-boats would have prevented Germany's defeat anyways.

In all fairness it is fun to see it how it performs in 1939. :DL It's curious to speculate on what sort of desperate countermeasures the Allies would have had to come up with had it been availiable from the start.

Nice alternative story gord :yep::up: Nothing wrong with having " outside of the box " options playing the game. After all, it's just that, a game.

With regards to the XXI, and what might have happened had it been available earlier, do a search here as the topic has been discussed previously.

Anyway, look forward to more Battle of the Atlantic stories.

thanks RDP. I will check it out. When studying a bit on the pre-war german navy, its interesting to think what would have happened if more people listened to Donitz. He wanted the entire fleet to be U-Boats. If he had his way there would have been 300 U-Boats ready to go by 1939. Of course, Raeder thought he was a coward.

I do enjoy reading WWII fiction here but I digress;

The VII is not a cow, like the IX sonar magnet.

keep it up Gord96, very interesting and fun WWII fiction read:salute:

Muahahahah, it's catching on :arrgh!: Soon we will have flotillas of Type XXI Wunderboots and nuclear-powered Type IIs with red-triangle targeting computers running around the atlantic!

Still somewhere in the Atlantic

Beck awoke from his sound sleep. That was nice, he thought to himself. He really was tired. His first First Officer, Georg, saw him sit up from his bunk and walked up to him.

"Report..." mumbled Beck.

Georg handed his captain a cup of coffee. "Sir. We are still at 45m. Battery's are at 79%. We have a faint sound contact bearing 030. Will is having trouble keeping a fix on it. I was just coming back to ask if we can increase speed to see if we can find out what we got."

"Aye. Ahead standard. Change course to the last known bearing of the contact."

"Yes sir!" Georg nodded and turned to the control room, shouting out the commands to the crew.

Georg was a good man. He would have his own boat one day too. They hadn't known each other until he was assigned to U-111 under Beck's command, but he quickly showed he was a very smart officer . Smarter then Beck probably. Beck had always figured he himself had mostly got by on his daring and leadership. He didn't think of himself as a "great" naval officer. Oh well, someone thought he knew what he was doing to give him command of U-111....

"Sir. We have the contact. Bearing 025. Most likely a merchant. Long range." came a shout from Will that snapped Beck out of his stupor.

"Adjust course. Ahead full. Come to 30 meters."

Beck took a long drink of coffee, stretched his arms and walked towards the control room.

"Lets get to work..." he said to his crew.

Continued from last post...

"Up periscope."

There she was. A lone little freighter. After a quick pursuit it was now 0600 and through the periscope Beck could see the merchant struggling through the heavy seas. He looked down and thumbed through the identification book.

"Hmmm. Yeah. This is it. A coastal type freighter. Not much tonnage, but we gotta do what we gotta do." Beck said to himself. The boat was directly in front of U-111 at about 1100m, stern swinging wildly in the waves. "Not the best setup for a shot but a good time to test out these new torpedoes."

He looked over at Georg and began to feed him the target info. He thought about trying out the new sonar system that U-111 was equipped with, but decided to do it the old fashioned way. He wanted to see what these acoustic eels could do.

"Ok. Flood tubes 3 & 4. Set both for 8m. Steady. Tube 3......LOS!"

Beck heard and felt the torpedo leave the boat. Just over a minute until impact. The wait went by quick as the eel detonated under the stern of the freighter. A explosion and large fireball soon followed. The crew cheered as Beck watched the boat veer to port.

"Tube 4. Come to 350. Steady. Tube 4.....LOS!"

The second eel left U-111. This one a standard type. The freighter's sharp turn setup the perfect shot.

BOOOOM!! The freight disapeared in a massive explosion. Beck could see sailors and large pieces of the boat fly off into the darkness.

"She was carrying something big Georg. Ammo or bombs perhaps."

Georg nodded. The crew cheered. Beck said a prayer.

"Radio message sir!" came a voice from below. Beck climbed down into the control room and read the paper that the radio operater handed him.

TO: U-111

FROM: BdU

Proceed to Spanish port of Cadiz to rendezvous with German supply ship Thalia.

"Hmmm. I wonder where they are sending us now?" asked Beck to himself. The original plan was to go to a grid just off Freetown. Perhaps with these new orders BdU had something else in mind.

"Surface the boat. Ahead standard. Come to 090."

3 days later....

Beck let the warm water wash over him. This was the life. After spending so much time on the older U-Boat variants where you would go weeks without washing or a shave, the inclusion of a shower on the Type X was a very welcome thing. Almost as welcome as the freezer in the galley. Fresh food was important for crew morale.

The last few hours had been quite exciting. As they made their way towards Cadiz, they picked up a small French convoy on the hyrdophone. After a spirited pursuit they had attacked, sinking a medium cargo vessel and another small merchant. The escort, an armed trawler, was helpless to prevent the sinkings. The pursuit had taken them further out into the Atlantic. After the battle, Beck ordered the boat to snorkel depth to recharge the batteries. Within an hour they picked up another possible convoy. Upon making contact with BdU they were told to scrap Cadiz and pursue the second convoy. Now back at underwater using the snorkel, Beck decided he would have a shower as U-111 closed in.

"Perhaps a scotch will be in order tonight." Beck said to himself.

Great story! I really enjoy the read, keep it up