Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Riley
Tonight's events
12th Nov
After 3 days of pretty much the same as before,diving at dawn,dusk,working out how much distance we made surfaced etc we bumped into a small merchant in AL55 heading east,possibly from Halifax.The night was dark and very calm.We decided to give him a warm welcome on his peaceful little voyage.I swung the boat round north in order to put him just on the border of extreme visibility,about 3km.I then straddled him at 90 degrees,monitoring his position in the scope.After about 30mins he was confirmed at doing 92 degrees at 7kts.
We raced ahead of him for our first attack,which was set for a submerged attack at 500m.Approx 1 hour later he came into view,and I made all the neccessary preparations for the electric torpedo.Depth was set to 3m with an impact pistol.Fire angle set for 10 degrees to target.
05:00
fired 1,torpedo passed across his stern by about 0.5m.Was sure all settings were correct,leading me to conclude that my fire angle was wrong,and should have released the torp sooner.This was our first proper test with the electrics in the fore tubes,being so used to the faster steam torps.
Immediately swung north again and put about 2km between us.I then blew tanks at full speed and decided to engage the target in a broadside gun duel.Target managed to fire only 2 rounds in entire engagement which fell well short of us.
06:26
merchant finally sunk bow first
rds fired in engagement - 34 (unskilled gunners)
tonnage - 2.618 (a bloody waste of time in my opinion)
.................................................. .................................................
Not the best start on our maiden voyage 
Hope we can ammend our poor start with sinking a huge load of Russian supplies and vodka further north in our patrol zone.
|
Latest Events (only important events recorded now)
13th Nov 1942
Day 8
09:30
AL24
Attacked by group of 3 PBY fighter bombers based at Iceland.Caught on the surface and unable to man guns or crash dive in time,forced to run at high speed outrunning the first attack run,managed to dive shortly afterwards,no damage.
This has forced us to change our tactics in this area now,submerging throughout the entire day,surfacing only at night to recharge.
14th Nov
Day 9
AL31
03:26
Looks like weather is starting to deteriorate as waves are picking up at 7mps,still clear however.
23:45
Finally entered our assigned patrol area.Patrol ends at 23:45 on the 15th November,after which we head for our 2nd patrol in the Denmark Strait,to intercept any traffic on its way to Russia,my primary objective.
15th Nov
Day 10
11:47
Picked up a merchant sound contact while patrolling our area.Preparing to shadow submerged in daylight,ready for a night surface attack.If waves calm down we may go in for the kill submerged at close range,if not or they worsen then it will have to be a surfaced attack at medium range (2500-3000m)
Merchant course seems steady at 335 degrees.
Will attempt to run decks awash in daylight at 10kts,with sound checks every 15mins.Merchant also appears to be moving not much faster than us as we still have good sound contact on it as sound strength (volume) still sounds quite strong.
12:59
Bomber formation suddenly appeared ahead of us while running decks awash,immediately dived without delay,bombs way off,no damage.
14:17
Another Bomber attack,this time they were almost above us,then opened up with MG fire on the rim of the conning tower,frantically dived again,no damage,bombs landing quite close this time.
There is a blessing however to all this chaos with the planes,the more we have to endure them the more we understand and begin to hate them.We are getting the better of them slowly but surely.
16:21
While stalking our current contact we pick up another contact,this time moving much slower and sounds heavier,making it our new target,breaking off from our current pursuit.
Decided to run decks awash for 30mins,then submerge for 30mins,hoping to lessen chance of air attack considerably while still allowing us to make vital ground using the diesels,taking the stress out of draining the batteries too soon...could be an excellent tactic.
Tactic is working very well,making good ground on target,who is now steady bearing east,and appears to be heading away from us.
Looks like we may have our first contact with some Russian shipping after all
16:50
Almost sundown,after which we will recharge our batteries while running at high speed on the surface to intercept our new target.
The men are in high spirits now after realizing our new tactic when having to shadow targets submerged,all the while being in dangeous (air attacks) areas like this one.
End of report
.................................................. ..................................................
So far so good
