Here's some heart-pounding fun that happened on a 1940 campaign.
I raise the periscope and check the convoy's speed and distance, then quickly lower it to prevent being detected. There must be at least a dozen ships! It’s now late afternoon and they’re traveling at a leisurely 7 knots. “Ahead slow!” I order. Again, I raise the periscope and decide on what targets I’m going to attack. I choose a C2 cargo and a small merchant.
Targets are 1000 meters and closing, my heartbeat races! “Up periscope,” I order. 900 meters and closing! I check weapon’s control - all four forward tubes are loaded and ready. 800 meters and closing – just a few more meters until the merchant is at optimal target angle! I activate tube one and fire! The torpedo leaves a trail of bubbles and is right on course! No time to savor watching the torpedo impact, I quickly activate tube two, enter the firing solution and fire! Another torpedo hisses out of its tube! The cargo ship wasn’t at optimal angle, but time’s running out. I rotate the periscope to see a destroyer bearing down on us, much closer than I expected! My mind races. I can’t turn and run as the three warships will quickly find me. I locate the closest merchant ship, head toward her at flank speed and descend to 50 meters, figuring I can hide underneath her. Then there are two loud booms, both torpedoes hit their targets! The small merchant is breaking up and sinking, but the C2 is merely wounded and limps away, listing to port.
The merchant ship I’m headed for is getting closer, but so is the destroyer! “Enemy is pinging us!” the sonar man reports. We're not going to make it! The destroyer launches a barrage of depth charges and they explode around us rocking the sub! The helmsman grabs a bar to keep from falling. “We’re taking damage!” he shouts.
“Compressor damaged!” “Flak gun damaged!” “Radio damaged!” A pipe bursts in the command room and sprays water!
I’m finally in the merchant’s wash, but due to damage our speed is only 7 knots. However, I’m close enough and the destroyer has to veer off its attack run. I’m somewhat relieved, but now the merchant knows I’m using it as cover and is veering left and right. Keeping close takes quite a bit of maneuvering and sometimes I swing out to one side or another. The destroyer circles around, waiting for me to make a mistake. Then it and the merchant work together, with the warship passing in front of the merchant, who veers sharply left or right, trying to set me up. As it swings in front of the merchant it deploys more depth charges, but I stick close to the merchant avoiding further damage, all the while my batteries are quickly draining at flank speed - this can’t go on much longer!
The destroyer stops circling the merchant and just hangs around. She could be out of depth charges. I decide to test this by leaving the cover of the merchant and going silent running. If I’m wrong it means certain sinking. The warship starts pinging us and begins an attack run. It passes directly over and . . . no depth charges! By now the other warships have reached us, but with silent running and being far enough away they can’t get a good bearing on me. They drop some depth charges out of range, then head back toward the convoy. But the destroyer stays on my tail, waiting for the inevitable surfacing so it can take us out with its amour-piercing rounds. This goes on for hours; fortunately at slow speed the batteries don’t drain quickly. Then I realize, you idiot, you’re too shallow! I descend to 90 meters, the destroyer can no longer track us and turns around.
I secure from silent running, increase speed to one-third and head for the surface so the flak gun and radio antenna can be repaired.
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