Q: Where did you go after that?
Up to the north side of the sector, so that any German patrols wouldn’t find us. I knew that once a submarine lost its advantage of surprise, it was useless and would be hunted down if it stayed in the same place. So I always knew to keep moving, to keep the enemy guessing. The weather got cold for the next couple of nights, and we stayed out a hundred kilometers from shore, listening to the radio and waiting for further instructions.
Q: When did you get your next order?
We got a report on the radio, around 1:30 in the afternoon on July 30th. Fleet intelligence reported an enemy convoy seen leaving Alten-fjord, westbound - that was about 600km away from us, or a full day’s sailing. I knew we couldn’t catch it, but I requested permission from HQ to shift to that area regardless so we could reconnoiter the approaches to Alten-fjord and Soroysund. Soon after, we received permission, along with information detailing known enemy minefield barriers at the entrances to Soroysund. We immediately set course to 160, speed to standard ahead, and exited patrol area No.3 at 12 knots.
The following day and night were quiet. On the radio, there were reports of enemy submarine sinkings in the Baltic and Black Sea, while the government announced the formation of the State Committee for Defense under I.V. Stalin himself. The sun stayed in the sky throughout the night, and by morning there was a drifting mist in the cold air. The first watch - it was headed by Kislayev, this red-headed guy who was always scratching his chin - wore their sweaters and caps on deck to stay warm.
They woke everybody up at 5:15 in the morning with an emergency dive, after they saw an aircraft approaching. The watch weren’t mistaken - as the boat was submerging, two explosions sounded in the water, luckily well away from us. We were certainly spotted, so I decided to stay safe and ordered the sub to remain submerged for 12 hours, in hopes that the enemy would decide that we were a false contact and give up their search. We surfaced again at 17:25, with batteries quite drained.
For some time, it was quiet. At 21:00, as always, the nightly news came on the radio - with reports of “battles on Murmansk, Keksholm, Dvina, Minsk and Lutsk directions”, and Finns advancing along with the Germans. But I did not get to finish listening to the news that night - because 7 minutes in, another emergency dive followed after report of an aircraft. At first it didn’t seem like he saw us, but as we settled in to 40m depth, the sound of a distant explosion rumbled somewhere behind us, and then another one a couple of minutes later. The pilots must have seen and bombed our wake.
Our batteries were still half-drained, so we surfaced after a couple of hours. The mist was blown away by strong winds overnight, but now we had an impressive sea to contend with. We’d made it to our destination, and took up patrol just north of Loppa island, near the entrance to Soroysund. There, we ran into another German Vorpostenboot on coastal patrol, but we kept our distance from him, hoping to find some better torpedo targets and avoid being detected. Mercifully, there didn’t seem to be any planes closer inshore.
To be continued...