[RoaldLarsen]

U-266, under Oblt. Ulrich Uhlig, set out to sea from its 7th Flotilla base at St. Nazaire, France, on February 1, 1943, headed for its first war patrol. The skies were clear and a light, cool breeze blew in from the north. U-266's objective was sector AM77, 600km west of the southern tip of Ireland.

Uhlig was not feeling very confident about this trip. Just days before they were due to sail, Lt. Friedrich Andrae, his 1WO, was assassinated by the French Resistance. BdU had scrambled to find a replacement. Hugo Rahn was a newly minted Leutnant z. S. who bore a striking resemblance to the LI, Oblt. Richard Rehbein. In the last minute confusion, BdU had somehow mixed up some paperwork. Rahn was listed as having qualified as a Machinist, while Rehbein was sent a certificate of qualification in Flak! The Flotilla Commander would clear that up after U-266 returned to base. In the meantime, Uhlig would have to break in a new 1WO who had barely had time to learn his fellow-officers' names. Uhlig couldn't help wondering if his 2WO, Lt. Hans-Gunther Elfeld, resented the newcomer being placed over him, but Elfeld's facial expression remained unchanged.

U-266 had a green crew. Among the officers and senior petty officers, only Oberfunkmann Hannes Klose had any front boat experience. Ten of the petty officers had no trade qualification at all. The lower ranks did have a slightly greater sprinkling of service experience. Three had even won EK2's in previous boats, but two of these were cantankerous grease monkeys who had never risen above the rank of Maschinengefreiter. Uhlig had only been given time for two brief shakedown cruises before U-266 was designated a front boat.

Uhlig was also unhappy about the state of U-266's equipment. U-266 had no anti-sonar coating, no radar and no sound ranging equipment. The only advanced torpedoes he carried were a single FaT I in tube 3 and a FaT III in forward reserve. Uhlig had tried to obtain more FaTs from the Quartermaster. "Those are reserved for our more experienced Kaleuns", he was told. At least he had managed to get a few more regular type IIIs.

Given the sorry state of U-266, Uhlig decided to approach his patrol area from the south, rather than take the direct route from St. Nazaire. He set a course south-southwest from St. Nazaire until he was most of the way to the Spanish coast, and then headed west until he was due south of AM77. This way he could at least avoid most of the increasingly dangerous British air patrols over the Bay of Biscay. Taking this route, Uhlig felt sure he would be able to safely stay on the surface until he neared his patrol area. As it turned out, he was right. Despite the clear weather, no aircraft were sighted, and more importantly, no aircraft sighted U-266.

On February 4th, shortly before 15:00, Uhlig was reflecting that this would probably be the last day had could remain surfaced, when a radio report was received that a lone merchant had been sighted just 30km NE of U-266's position. "Now we shall see what this boat and crew are capable of", Uhlig thought. "Ahead flank, steer 053!", he ordered. At 16:20, 40 minutes before the anticipated interception, Uhlig himself went up the conning tower hatch and grabbed the UZO. Right away he spotted a smudge of smoke on the horizon "That's why you didn't make 1WO" he thought, eyeing Elfeld, who was watch officer on duty, followed by "If he wants to detect the enemy early, the Kapitaen has to do it himself", but aloud he said, "Battle stations for gunnery attack!" With calm seas, U-266 would never be a more stable gun platform.

Lt. Rahn took his place on deck and began calling out the ranges in a loud, confident voice. "Sounds like he knows what he's doing", thought Uhlig. "Target's apparent speed is 7 knots", said Rahn, "I recommend we commence firing at 3000 metres". "See to it", replied Uhlig. He knew that engaging from a distance and keeping his boat pointing at the target reduced the chance of being hit in a gun duel. He was pleased to see that his new 1WO was also aware of this. "Load HE and aim for the bridge", ordered Rahn. A few moments later the order was given to commence firing. Uhlig winced as the first shot fell far short. "We still leave a lot to be desired", he thought. But the gun crew was to prove him wrong.

There was a flash as the second shot scored a hit, followed immediately by another flash. "Target is returning fire!", Rahn reported calmly. "Slow to Ahead Standard" ordered Uhlig. He didn't want to get too close now that he knew the target was armed, but he needed to get close enough to give his gunners a chance to take out the merchant's deck gun. "Load AP and aim for the gun!" yelled Rahn down to the gun crew.

When the range had closed to about 1700m, there was a large explosion on the deck of the freighter and no more gunfire came from it. U-266's gun crew switched back to HE and began to shoot for the waterline.

Suddenly the freighter changed aspect and started to shoot again. "Perhaps he had a second gun forward, said Rahn. "Slow to one third", ordered Uhlig. This time the enemy gun was destroyed by the third shot. Firing was redirected to the waterline and a few shots later there was a large explosion on the freighter. "She's going down!" yelled the gun crew. "She must have been transporting ammunition", mused Rahn. "There's no way a target that size would normally sink after taking less than 35 hits."*

With its victory accomplished, U-266 turned towards its patrol area at high speed, and slipped beneath the waves to avoid the inevitable air patrol that would soon be flying over the floating wreckage of Uhlig's first victim.

To be continued...

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*What can I say? I'm not using GWX's damage model.