[MantiBrutalis]

As experienced by captain Georg Braun, 28th February 1941, 21:03, U-104 “Lucky Halibut”, 220km northwest of Vigo.

“Current depth 25.”
“All stop. Hear anything?” I look for Max at the hydrophones.
“Nothing, sir.”
“We’ll wait. They should be here any minute.”

Minute. Two. Three.
I hear Jürgen walking around the control room, calming down the rookies: “Keep your mouth shut, eyes on your work. You’re safe now. If you want to remain safe, do exactly what I tell you to do.”
Rookies. Scared even when there is nothing out there. I scratch my chin. They should be here, we are exactly where we need to be. Another few minutes pass by.

“Max?”
“Nothing,” he replies.
Maybe we aren’t where we need to be. I go back to our notes, check the calculations, but nothing new comes up – we did these calculations like never before. They should be right here, right now.

“Max?”
“Still nothing, sir.”
“Dammit. Well, we will wait here for at least an hour, maybe they slo-“ Ping! Ping! Ping!
Surprise, fear and panic overwhelm my mind for a fraction of a second, then my brain starts working again: “Ahead flank! Dive!” “Sound contact! 20 degrees, closing fast!” “Don’t panic! Keep doing your work!” “What? How?!” “All men forward! Where the hell are you?!” And all the time, the loud pinging reminds us that death is coming for us.

Every men in the U-boat looks at exactly the same time upwards. The pinging stopped, only to be replaced by the screws of a passing ship.
“Hard to starboard!”
We can hear depth charges entering our underwater world. Then – Bam! Bam! Bam!