After a pretty lousy first campaign, I've started again. This time I'll write reports
Now I'm playing as Lt.Jr. Roland Thorstein. My boat is U-13, a type II A of U-flotilla Weddigen at Wilhelmshaven.
Sept 3, 1939
Wilhelmshaven
17:53 - In port and ready to set sail. The weather is good and the friends and family of the crew are cheering us on. The war just began and anticipation is high, but spirits are good.
Sept 5
AN-38
3:37 - The watch has spotted a coastal merchant. After approaching closer, we conclude that the vessel is German, heading to Wilhelmshaven, and we continue on our way.
5:00 - The weather turns dismal. Skies are overcast and winds are high, whipping up the sea. The rain is pouring and the fog is so thick it's hard to see the bow.
AN-37
16:15 - We received a contact report of a Norwegian vessel close by. After plotting and following the intercept course, we dove to 20 meters to listen in (the fog was still very dense). To our surprise, the SO heard a second contact very close by. I gave the order to give chase to the yet unidentified contact. The odds were that it would be another Norwegian ship, but the British do use these lanes. We surfaced to intercept. At the rendezvous point we saw nothing, owing in part to the fog. We dove again to listen. This procedure had to be repeated a few times, but we knew we were close.
21:00 - We got so close that we could hear the ship pass overhead. I ordered the ship to periscope depth and took a look. There it was, a merchant, dead ahead, maybe a kilometer... I decided to check the range, and was shocked to see 200 meters
As it turns out, I forgot to zoom in - now the stern took up the whole field of view! At this point, we could easily make out the Norwegian flag, and let the merchant go. It quickly disappeared into the fog, becoming invisible by 500 meters. I began to realize that spotting targets in this weather would be impossible. Somewhat dejected, we press on.
Sept 6
22:00 - The fog has cleared and the waves have subsided. Thank heavens!
Sept 7
AN47
13:15 - We have reached the assigned patrol grid. The water is as smooth as glass.
Sept 8
13:00 - The watch spotted two Hurricanes which passed overhead. I ordered a quick dive, and asked the NO to check the depth under keel. Thankfully, we had a fair amount of space. When the hatch closed I could see them coming around to make another pass. We heard two rounds of depth charges, none close enough to do damage. This is a wake-up call. Time to be more vigilant now that we're just off the English coast.
18:20 - Surfaced from the last attack. We were moving underwater closer to the coast in hopes of snagging a merchant in/out bound to Firth of Forth. Now that it's dark, we continue on our way on the surface.
Sept 9
AN-01
8:58 - Another Hurricane. We were much faster to react this time, and we were out of sight before it dropped its DCs. We were not hit.
10:00 - The SO reported a warship. The airplane must have relayed our last position to it. I decided to investigate
10:40 - I spotted the warship by periscope. It was a 2D-River Escort, chugging along at a relatively slow speed. It seemed like an easy target and would alleviate some headache if I could get rid of it now. I fired off one eel, and immediately dove. Taking a listen through the headphones, I could hear the engines suddenly rev up. Darn! I had forgotten about the visible wake. Now it was on to us, followed the wake to our position, and started pinging. I ordered a dive to 60 meters and when the pinging stopped, ordered flank speed. We narrowly escaped the DCs which badly rocked the sub. Thankfully only minor damage was sustained in the aft quarters.
We made a hard 90 degree turn and then ran silent. The DD continued to drop charges, which was nerve wracking for the crew, but we received no hits.
Then the SO reported another warship, fast approaching. Were they going to send the whole navy?! Both ships began to circle and drop DCs all over the place. I did not hear any more pinging however.
Suddenly, though, the boat lurched, and damage was reported in several compartments. Despite maintaining depth at 60 meters we hit something on the seabed. I should have pinged for the bottom - the damage was repaired in minutes, but could have been much worse.
When I was satisfied that the DDs were far enough away and were no longer circling to find us, I ordered periscope depth to observe. We found one off our bow, 5km away, moving away.
14:45 - by now no more sounds were heard, and I ordered the boat surfaced. My crew, and myself, were shaken by the experience, and became fairly fatigued. Several stubbornly wanted to stay at their posts, but I ordered them to get rest. We would need everyone on their toes.
Note to self - before attacking a warship, be sure to fire electric torpedoes only. Despite having 4 torpedoes, we had close to 50% fuel remaining, and made the decision to return to port.
