SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Touch the Darkness

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Earlier this week, Uboot 93, commanded by Oblt. Z. S Avon von Vonnegut, was sunk at sea, with all hands lost.

Here's the U-93's final patrol story:

Early evening, March 1, 1942, Uboat 93 left its mooring in the concrete bunker in the port of Brest, France. U-93 was a sparkling new type VIIC Uboat, with a veteran captain and crew in control, moving above and below her deck like ants in a colony. The weather was fair, the waters deceptively calm.

The U-93's outbound journey was somewhat uneventful, though she did detect two distant enemy warships patrolling for German Uboats trying to leave the Bay of Biscay, just like the U-93. But Captain Avon von Vonnegut instinctively maneuvered her Uboat to avoid the unwanted encounter. Her interest wasn't in sinking warships. Merchant vessels was the target of choice and none appeared to be nearby, according to the Uboat soundman's readings.

An uneventful week and a half later, the U-93 arrived at her designated patrol area, several hundred kilometers due south of Iceland. It was freezing and the crew was worn down from days of nothingness and from the Atlantic swells that this part of the ocean was known for. There was a radio report of a lone cargo ship in the area but the U-93's search for its first victim was unsuccessful.

Another 3 days of vast ocean emptiness would pass before the U-93 was contacted by German Naval Command and told of a possible convoy route a day's journey to the south. The U-93 obediently went there but after 24 hours of patrolling empty waters again, even her captain was becoming despondent.

On March 15, another radio message was received by the U-93. A large convoy was reported less than a day's journey to the south of the U-93's current position. Captain von Vonnegut radioed back an acknowledgement and set course at full speed for the killing field. It should take less than 18 hours to travel there. The crew had suddenly revived. There were grins of excited anticipation on everyone's face. Even the Uboat's dual engines seemed to run to a beat not heard by the crew until now on this journey.

Shortly after racing south, during the early morning hours, the U-93's 1st watch officer spotted a warship 7 kilometers to the Uboat's stern, heading west. Captain von Vonnegut went up to the watch tower. It was a British Dido class cruiser, a larger enemy warship than von Vonnegut had personally encountered in her career until now. A quick dive to periscope depth and a 180 degree turn allowed the U-93's soundman to determine if the cruiser was alone or was escorting some potential prey. It appeared to be on its own, so Captain von Vonnegut ordered the course resumed on surface to the reported target area to the south.

Less than a half an our before midnight, a radio report came in, pinpointing the Allied convoys present location. They were heading on a straight line, east northeast, about 40 kilometers southwest of the U-93's present position. Captain von Vonnegut ordered the crew to be at the ready and the torpedoes set for attack.

It was a beautiful site to the U-93's crew. Through their binoculars, there began to appear large merchant ships of all sizes, one after another, about 6 kilometers away. The captain ordered the ship turned 30 degrees to port, to attack the convoy at midpoint from the convoy's northwest flank. Eyes on the bridge were peeled, carefully scouring the area for signs of escorting warships but none were to be seen - not just yet, at least. This convoy was several columns deep, with at least 10 large ships in the outer row facing the U-93, each ship a respectable distance from the ship in front of and behind it.

Captain von Vonnegut had designated the first target, a large cargo ship, some 2500 meters off the Uboat's bow. At about this time, the 2nd watch officer sighted a Flower Corvette some 3600 meters to the U-93's starboard side, heading from the rear of the convoy in the general direction of the U-93.

It was past midnight, the skies were clear, no moon was present. Yet the ocean was rough, so much so that Captain von Vonnegut had ordered all torpedoes fitted with impact pistols and set for a depth of 2 meters. Magnetic pistols had proven greatly unreliable in the past in such rough ocean conditions and von Vonnegut was not aware of any mechanical breakthroughs made back at the German munition factories.

Travelling at flank speed on surface, Captain von Vonnegut issued the fire order for tubes 1 and 2 when the U-93 was 500 meters away from its target. The U-boat was then steered to port, with plans to cut in front of the target's bow and select the next target, a medium size oil tanker, from the convoy's 3rd column. Two large, almost simultaneous explosions from the U-93's torpedoes were just then seen, breaking the stricken cargo ship in two and setting her on fire.

In the meantime, the U-93 was preparing to fire the next two torpedoes at the tanker that lay straight ahead. What Captain von Vonnegut had failed to notice was the Liberty transport ship right behind the cargo ship just sunk by the U-93. The Liberty ship's crew had spotted the U-93 and both of the Liberty ship's deck guns, along with smaller guns, began to fire on the U-93. With the U-93 in close range of the Liberty ship, at least 2 of the deck gun shots directly hit the U-93's tower and hull. Captain von Vonnegut was forced to dive the U-93 to periscope depth.

By diving under the surface, the U-93 had lost much speed. When von Vonnegut raised the periscope, she realized that she was now on a collision course with a large merchant ship passing 50 meters in front of the U-93's bow. Orders were issued to reverse engines at full speed but it was too late. The U-93 smacked head on into the merchant ship, throwing everybody and everything to the floor and damaging the Uboat's tower and forward compartments. The captain kept her cool, the engine room crew responded quickly and soon the U-93 was in reverse out of harm's way.

The captain peered through the scope and was delighted to see than instead of the medium size tanker due ahead of the U-93, there was now a large sized tanker in its place. Orders to surface and for full speed ahead were issued. Once surfaced, the U-93 once again picked up speed. This time there appeared to be no armed merchants who had sighted the Uboat. When the U-93 was within 500 meters of the tanker, torpedoes 4 and 5 were fired. Moments later, the tanker burst into flames, sending large pieces of its deck flying into the air in all directions.

Intoxicated with success, von Vonnegut ordered the boat around 180 degrees to aim its stern torpedoes at another Liberty ship that was travelling right behind the sunken tanker. The U-93 fired the aft torpedo some 950 meters from the Liberty ship. Immediately after firing the torpedo, another torpedo was loaded into tube #1 in the forward compartment. Seems like everyone's adrenalin was pumping at maximum rate. Von Vonnegut quickly orders another 180 degree turn to port, to set up the 2nd torpedo shot against the targeted Liberty Ship. During the turn, the already fired torpedo hit its mark, sending smoke and water plumes high above the decks of the Liberty ship, She seems to be carrying airplanes on her deck. Several of them had caught fire.

As the U-93 almost completed her turn towards the damaged Liberty ship, a searchlight is seen some 2 kilometers off the U-93's starboard bow. It's a Flower corvette. She doesn't seem to have yet sighted the U-93 but Captain von Vonnegut wastes no time diving to periscope depth and turning the U-93 starboard to fire loaded the fore torpedo at the corvette. At a distance of 1350 meters, Captain von Vonnegut orders the torpedo fired. Just then, however, the corvette changes course and the sound of sonar pinging can be heard by all of the U-93's crew. Needless to say, the torpedo and the corvette never met.

Emergency dive orders were given. Course changed quickly with the rudder set hard to port. Depth charges are heard but they explode harmlessly to the U-93's starboard size and way above her.

Then another pinging sound joins in the chorus of the corvette's. Another ship. Something bigger. Faster. A destroyer.

While shifting course and engine speed to evade the following volley of depth charges, damage reports begin coming in from all around the U-93. At a depth of 70 meters, this shouldn't be happening but the damage previously caused by the deck gun hits on the U-93 and the head-on collision against a merchant ship were too much for the U-93. Captain von Vonnegut and her crew desperately try to raise the U-93 to a safer depth but the U-93 would not oblige this time.

Just then the depth charges hit. The first one slammed near the U-93's midsection, hurling everyone onboard against the starboard side of their compartments. The 2nd depth charge came right after, ripping open the U-93's hull in the forward torpedo compartment.

The screams of the crew could be heard by Captain von Vonnegut in those last fatal seconds, as the lights flickered off, the cold waters rushed in and von Vonnegut touched the darkness she would never see again.