So far I was pretty lucky. Currently I'm still in 1941 in my second career due to lack of time
. My recent night convoy attack near the Canaries went like a charm. Almost too easy in fact. The DDs were completely inept and I managed to sink a T2, a T3 and a C3 while damaging one C2, which I finished off after it fell out of the convoy. BUT I had one SH3 encounter I remember quite well.
It was on my second patrol in October 1939. I was leaving Wilhelmshaven in my Typ II and decided against using the long route around the British Isles and headed for the Channel. I waited for nightfall about 50 km east of Dover and when a moonless night came I started westward. The sea was calm and the visibility was good. Since I was so used to more or less blind escorts at night in early wartime (from AOD) I only registered the presence of several DDs in the area, but paid little attention, since I thought they wouldn't be able to spot me in any case. This turned out to be an error in judgement, since an armed trawler started turning towards me. This didn't alarm me very much, since I thought he was just on a routine tour and accidentally heading in my direction. Second error in judgment. By the time I realised that he was on my tail he was already pretty close, and shelling me but I managed to slip under and avoid any damage. I rigged for silent at about 25m and crawled a small turn to the right and ran straight north. This went on for a few minutes, and the trawler already seemed to have lost me since it was moving away. So I pushed my luck, went up to periscope depth and had a look around. Third error in judgement. The trawler was much closer than I expected, and he seemed to have spotted my scope, because he did a u-turn and sped towards me almost ramming my conning tower while I was trying to get some water above the boat. Due to the fact that the Channel simply is very shallow I again stayed at 25m and tried to escape westward. This time the trawler was already closer and didn't lose me as quickly, and what was worse was the fact, that a second ship was approaching from the direction I was heading. So I had one behind me and one in front of me. Great. I kept my front towards the incoming DD (as it turned out) but it was no use. With no room to maneuver (especially downward) and two escorts cornering me I decided to shoot the torpedoes I carried on the DD and then turn away towards the trawler since he posed less of a threat and I silently hoped that I might get the DD AI to do something stupid like depth charging the trawler. So I went to periscope depth, asked my watch officer to calculate a solution, let loose all three eels at 600m distance and, revving up my motors to maximum speed, I turned and ran towards the trawler. But I had pushed my luck to far, since the DD was unimpressed by my attempt to sink him - needless to say all eels either missed or didn't detonate. He caught up with me before I could reach the trawler, pinged me and set loose several depth charges the exact number of which I refused to remember. I turned several times before the DD finally had a lucky shot, and a depth charge crippled my rudder. My last resort was to sink to the bottom at silent running and try to sit it out. No such luck. On the next pass I got several leaks and - after the announcement that a third warship was approaching - the DD made his next pass sinking me. All hands lost.
What did I learn?
- Stay alert
- Never trust to be invisible at night.
- Never trust an escort to have lost you.
- Keep out of the Channel unless you have at least several 8 inch guns and heavy armor or a Typ XXI with magic torpedos.
- Always set your torps to magnetic pistol, and aim below the ship when attacking from bow or stern, to have at least a limited chance of success. My torps were set to detonator pistol and I'm sure they all just bounced off the hull.