Since i've got nothing better to do at the moment, heres an excrept from Han's Groebeler's book, "Steel boat, Iron hearts" . (he was a control room mate on U505 from its first war patrol up to it's capture).
Ironically, this incident was on his first war patrol. Which was to patrol the area south of Freetown, down into the hip of africa.
Quote:
Emergency diving several times a day to escape from aircraft caused fatigue and frustrations, which also begain to tear at our nevers. WIth no success to show for our labors, our crowded boat became a pressure cooker of emotions. Off-duty personnel begain to succcomb to Blechkoller .... the so called "tin can disease". A psycological condition casued by prolonged confinement, its classic symtoms were the outbreak of "baloney-quarrels" between boys who argue and fight over nothing.
Situations like these seperate a real leader from a mere giver of orders, and KapitanLeutanant Lowe now showed himself to be a commander of the first rank. He sensed the mood in the crew and decided to create a little mental diversion during this lull in the action.
Stetching his orders a bit, Lowe ordered u-505 south of our offical operational area. On April 1, we crossed the equator, an occasion requiring the crew to undergo the ancient baptism of rituals of Neptune.
The cremony was celerbrated on the uppder deck of the boat with the entire crew in attendance. After an appopriate fanfare, King Neptune appeared on the bridge to preside over the rituals, complete with flowing beard and trident. An extra touch of hiltarty was provided by our baby-faced ensign, who had the embarrasing task of portraying Neptunes lovely mermaid wife.
The other veteran sea dogs in the crew, also dressed in makeshift costumes, took devlish delight in subjecting us first timers to a wide variety of elaborate rituals and good-natured tortures. Quite alot of water and rought scrubbing was required to wash the dirt of the northern hemisphere off our skins before we could enter the southern half of King neptunes Empire!
Of course, we were told, it also required to be cleaned out on the inside to. Depending on how many "bad points" one had collected, we were each required to eat a certain number of speciallly prepaired laxative balls made of flour and caster oil. Pepper and other evil-tasting spices were added to the mixture to enhance the entertainment. If we couldn't swallow the golf-ball sized pills without chewing, we were assisted in the endeavor by a water house in the mouth. Then we would pull down our shorts, and crawl out onto a long plank extending from the side of the boat. There we sat on a large hole drilled through the plank until the caster oil provided the final amusement.
Without a doubt, it was the most foolish and memorible april 1st any of us would experience. When it was all over, we each received an award document from King Neptune, attesting to our accomplishment. It may sound strange, but getting that silly little piece of paper did much to fullfill the Kaptianleutnant's very serious purpose of raising our morale.
|