Sadly noone had a camera to picture the spectacle. In any case I would probably have forbade it. Sinking ships is one thing; it's all we're supposed to do. But recording the demise of sometimes beautifully crafted ships, and always with sailors like us in them, unless for military or probably propaganda purposes, isn't something I encourage.
Some people on the bridge always do take pictures of course, and some of them are up in the photo gallery of the Chat Noir.
Of course Heidi knows what we do for a living, but I don't really want her to see them.
There's also a load of pictures taken in the fore-ends and the engine room, mostly half naked, oily grubby men larking about for the camera showing pennants, writing war-like joke messages on torpedoes, wearing silly hats, or just showing their arse; which makes the girls laugh and I am sure are shared around BdU and FdU where they both work. According to Dieter the Nurses ward too. The girls keep teasing me for a a picture of myself posing by the periscope.
I always smile and say no, and the last time I saw her I said "You can have the real picture when I come home".
That made Heidi cry.
And I'm starting to understand that war is harder on those who wait.
Now though we still have a patrol to complete, ships to sink, people inevitably to kill, and to avoid the same happening to ourselves.
We head back north-northeast towards the killing grounds of the Gibraltar Straits
LS
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