[Gargamel]

“Kaleun to the Bridge! Smoke on the Horizon!”

I turned and looked up at the conning tower ladder. I had been at the chart desk, re-doing the math for what must have been the hundredth time. 2 days ago U-46 had reported a convoy heading toward our position. Onkel Karl seemed to know what he was doing, shifting us here from the supposed shipping lane we had been in. Ever since we received the report, we had been on a run to the south trying to get into position to attack.

As I stepped towards the ladder, one of the lookouts came sliding down the ladder.

“Gustav! Where are you going?” I asked, “Your post is on the bridge!”

“One minute Kaleun!” he said, holding up one finger. He ducked through the hatch and ran towards the front of the boat.

I grabbed a pair of binoculars and hurried up the ladder, and turned the officer, “Wolfgang! Where is Gustav going?”

“It’s alright Kaleun, he has my permission, and he’ll be right back.”

I frowned, lookouts can’t do their job inside the boat, but for now I’d give them the benefit of the doubt.

“Well then, what do you see?”

“There’s thick smoke on the horizon, about 35 degrees to starboard.”

I raised the binoculars to my eyes and looked in the direction he pointed. There I saw a diffuse dark cloud on the horizon.

“Fog?” I asked, not really believing it.

Wolfgang looked at me, incredulity on his face “With this weather sir?”

I grinned, the weather was still dead calm, not a cloud in the sky, still warm for even September, especially this far from shore. “Yes, your right. That must be it then, little earlier than I planned.”

Right then, Gustav returned to the bridge, carrying a satchel. I looked at the bag, then to Wolfgang, who just had a sly grin on his face, as if he was privy to a joke that I knew nothing about.

“Apologies Kaleun, I don’t like to keep this with me on watch.” He proceeded to open the satchel and pull out the largest pair of binoculars I had ever seen.

“Perkele Gustav!” I exclaimed.

“Sir?”

“Nothing, just something my grandmother used to say. Where the hell did you get those?”

“My uncle works at the observatory in Berlin. He gave these to me as a gift, said they may find better use looking for ships than stars. Problem is, they are too big to use for scanning, too shaky, but they work okay for seeing targets way in the distance.” With that, he leaned his elbows on the edge of the bridge and peered through the massive binoculars. He was right, they were almost twice the size of the UZO, and no way anybody could hand hold them steadily.

“Gustav, when we get a chance, talk to a machinist about making a brace for those, they may come in useful.”

“Aye, Kaleun!” He replied with a grin.

“Well then, what do you see?”

“Just smoke sir, but it’s definitely a convoy, I can see smoke from individual stacks, but I can’t see any ships yet.”

“Gustav, if you ever leave my boat, I’ll pay you a month’s wages for those” I said.

“Your month’s wages or mine?” he answered with a grin.

“We’ll see son,” I said, “Which direction are they heading? Can you tell?”

He peered for a few moments more, “It’s tough to tell Kaleun, but my best guess is about 20 degrees Port angle on bow, coming towards us.”

I looked at Wolfgang, and could tell he was doing the math in his head too.

“About 20 degrees to port should drop us right in front of them in about an hour at this speed?” I asked him.

“Aye, sounds about right Kaleun” He replied.

I nodded, heading for the hatch, “Be alert men, we’re going to drop down a bit, try to stay dry.”

“Aye Kaleun!” came the enthusiastic reply.

After I climbed down the ladder, I turned to the Chief, who waited for some of the good news, “Chief, run us at decks awash, increase to full speed. Convoy is sighted, we’re going to try and get in front of them.”

“Finally!” He said, turned to the crew at the helm, and barked orders.