SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - (Story) U-46 puts to sea again

Laughing Swordfish · 07-30-11, 05:59 AM

"Trim the boat down as much as you can, Chief" into the voice pipe.

Willi and I have all eyes on the convoy still well over 3,000 metres off. Christian is making sure his boys are covering their quadrants, sea and sky. The flak boys are up too, also scanning the heavens. It'll be a hell of a race for the hatch for all of us if we get bumped.

But for now we just need to get into some decent range without being seen. Willi has picked out three targets. We are waiting for them to zag away from us on a more parallel course and show us their flank.

Two are tankers, they can go up like a flare with one torpedo, or stubbornly struggle on with three hits. The other is a medium size merchant for all that I can see of it's superstucture and masts..

"Let's have another one, Willi. We don't usually do this, but we're going to fire a spread at longer range, cause maximum alarm, diversion and hopefully a bit of damage, then cut away and loop round again while Joachim's boys earn their pay reloading double-quick. We have to get at least one hit though".

Willi grinned. "That one, Sir. about four or five thousand tons, look they're turning!" He pointed out again.

We now swing to port to line ourselves up, and Willi works feverishly to send down four separate firing solutions, one for each tube. Even if they miss, they may travel on and hit something else in the convoy which would be almost as good for what we want to achieve.

The range is getting shorter by the minute, while we feed data down below, and the dials are set in the control and torpedo room.

"Chief, swing us out 100 when we fire, have the fore-ends ready and all men needed helping to reload."

Zig-zagging for a large convoy is always a complicated business, and no easier when some of the marshalling escorts are engaged in contact with a U-boat. We're counting on that, and have been monitoring their pattern for some time. Now is the time to catch them, because they could veer off or towards us again at any moment, and even our faster eels at this range will take precious minutes to find their target.

"Now or never, Willi! Give the order".

He looked across from his binos, and gave me the broadest smile.

"Thank you Kap".

"Eins durch Vier, alles los!"

We watched the wakes as they hissed away, even as the Chief was immediately pulling us around to our new course. I think the Amis call it 'Shoot and Scoot'

And then, as I knew he would, Willi shinned down to the base of the conning tower, pressed his fingers to his lips and touched our Laughing Swordfish emblem for good luck.

LS

07-30-11, 05:59 AM	#1433
Laughing Swordfish Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: London Posts: 713 Downloads: 1 Uploads: 0	"Trim the boat down as much as you can, Chief" into the voice pipe. Willi and I have all eyes on the convoy still well over 3,000 metres off. Christian is making sure his boys are covering their quadrants, sea and sky. The flak boys are up too, also scanning the heavens. It'll be a hell of a race for the hatch for all of us if we get bumped. But for now we just need to get into some decent range without being seen. Willi has picked out three targets. We are waiting for them to zag away from us on a more parallel course and show us their flank. Two are tankers, they can go up like a flare with one torpedo, or stubbornly struggle on with three hits. The other is a medium size merchant for all that I can see of it's superstucture and masts.. "Let's have another one, Willi. We don't usually do this, but we're going to fire a spread at longer range, cause maximum alarm, diversion and hopefully a bit of damage, then cut away and loop round again while Joachim's boys earn their pay reloading double-quick. We have to get at least one hit though". Willi grinned. "That one, Sir. about four or five thousand tons, look they're turning!" He pointed out again. We now swing to port to line ourselves up, and Willi works feverishly to send down four separate firing solutions, one for each tube. Even if they miss, they may travel on and hit something else in the convoy which would be almost as good for what we want to achieve. The range is getting shorter by the minute, while we feed data down below, and the dials are set in the control and torpedo room. "Chief, swing us out 100 when we fire, have the fore-ends ready and all men needed helping to reload." Zig-zagging for a large convoy is always a complicated business, and no easier when some of the marshalling escorts are engaged in contact with a U-boat. We're counting on that, and have been monitoring their pattern for some time. Now is the time to catch them, because they could veer off or towards us again at any moment, and even our faster eels at this range will take precious minutes to find their target. "Now or never, Willi! Give the order". He looked across from his binos, and gave me the broadest smile. "Thank you Kap". "Eins durch Vier, alles los!" We watched the wakes as they hissed away, even as the Chief was immediately pulling us around to our new course. I think the Amis call it 'Shoot and Scoot' And then, as I knew he would, Willi shinned down to the base of the conning tower, pressed his fingers to his lips and touched our Laughing Swordfish emblem for good luck. LS Last edited by Laughing Swordfish; 07-31-11 at 05:40 AM.