As experienced by Herbert Krauss, 28th February 1941, 21:41, U-104 “Lucky Halibut”, 220km northwest of Vigo.
“The ship is leaving north,” Max whispers.
Finally it ended. The enemy didn’t waste too much depth charges – the first 15, which were close, but not really on the mark. And then the other few just minutes ago, as their sonar showed something which wasn’t there, pretty far away from us. But beside the first attack, there were no pings. Maybe their sonar broke or something. I don’t know, I don’t care. We all now wait for the next explosion – the captain’s face was getting darker and darker since the surprise, and we know what is going to happen. He is going to get very angry at somebody. And… here we go…
“What the hell was that, Max!! Before we dived there was nothing miles around!! How comes that minutes later, a destroyer falls from the sky right in front of us!! Explain!”
“I-I-I don’t know, s-sir. I just didn’t hear it,” poor Max replies. There is a feeling within me that I should defend my comrade. But he did nearly kill us all.
“I figured you didn’t hear it! But how?! It was right in front of us and it had to be doing God’s speed to be at us that fast!”
“I don’t know, sir. I don’t know.”
“Dammit, man. You nearly killed us!”
“I am sorry, sir.”
“Sure you are!!”
The first watch officer interrupts the fight: “Captain, what now?”
The captain calms down a bit, and with a lot of focus, you could manage to detect a faint smile on his face: “They let us live. Let’s catch up and repay the favor.”
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