[ijnfleetadmiral]

U-45 Scores Retribution for Mers-el-Kebir!

Captain's Personal Log

We departed Wilhelmshaven in mid-July 1940 and headed south for our patrol assignment of Grid DH71, the farthest out we've been sent yet. En route, we learned of the British Navy's betrayal of France at Mers-el-Kebir, and were sent to patrol in the Straits of Gibraltar in hopes of scoring some retribution. Not wanting to waste precious time, we instead decided to head right into Gibraltar itself and see what was there in terms of pickings. We approached the naval base by the long way, transiting the Strait by way of the North African coast, and didn't even spot so much as an Elco en route. As we headed in, we were shocked when the only things we picked up on sonar were Elcos, MTBs, or ASW Trawlers, none of which had sonar. Nonetheless, we rigged for silent running and hunkered down for the duration, saying silent prayers as we did so.

Navigating by our charts, we crawled in without raising our periscope once so as to avoid detection, and arrived off the base right at dawn. Popped the periscope up to discover the weather was horrible; a huge rainstorm was blanketing the area. I face-palmed in aggravation at the sight of rain, rain, and more rain...had we come all this way for nothing? Well, before we go, might as well attempt to find a lock on something, fire a couple torpedoes, and get the hell out of dodge. At least we could then say our efforts weren't a total loss, right? I idly scanned the blurry shapes in the gloom. We were in excellent firing position; only 3,500 yards from most of the shapes. However, I wanted to make this one helluva surprise, so I took my time in picking our target.

Let's see...C2 Cargo ship...nah, too typical. Tramp Steamer...you're kidding, right? C/D-class Destroyer...put that in the 'maybe' column; if we miss her, we're in deep doo-doo. Two Southampton-class CLs berthed close together...two fish at each would net us a nice score for sure. Looks like that will be our most-likely target, but we're not quite done looking around... Ooh...a Troop Transport! A rare sighting for us indeed! Wait...what's this? Crap...she's on the other side of jetty...we fire at her we'll just be pumping torpedoes into the docks...that lets her out. Well, I guess the two Southamptons are going to have the honor of being sunk by us in this daring raid. Wait a second...there's something else on our side of the jetty that Troop Transport is moored at; let's see what she is by using the 'Lock' feature on our periscope.

Mein Gott..DAS HOOD!!! PERFECT firing position!

Four torpedoes...maximum depth for target...spread three degrees...torpedos, LOS!!! Turn around for a stern shot...same depth setting...FIRE!!! Pray, meine herren...pray like you've never prayed before in your lives!!!

Two minutes go by...TORPEDO IMPACT! 1, 2, 3, 4...and 5!!!! Get us out of here...now!

Five minutes later...breaking-up noises...SHE'S GOING DOWN!!! Raise periscope for a look in time to see the pride of the Royal Navy capsize and sink at her berth, with just part of her keel and her two starboard propellers remaining above water. Quickly lower our periscope and continue our escape. The escorts are going insane, but after four hours we've worked our way clear of the harbor and back into the open sea. The rest of our patrol was uneventful; we sank three more merchants for a total of just over 53,000 tons before returning to Wilhelmshaven in early August 1940. I'm now just over 289,000 tons for total tonnage sunk. 1940 is proving to be a VERY good year for U-45...here's hoping our extreme good fortune continues!

(Signed)

Hossel