I'm not good at telling stories, but these two are going to be short ones.
First death kissed me when I tried to go through Der Kanal (La Manche or English Channel). Mistake followed mistake... First mistake was trying to pass Der Kanal. Second: I run at 10 knots speed that was much too fast. Third: I did it on day with good weather and high visibility. Fourth: Of course I was surfaced. Fifth: I was running (I hear you laughing loud) at 4096 time compression... When I saw "Ship spotted" report it was much too late to do anything. A destroyer damaged my sonar before I managed to dive, so I was completely blind under the water. Her friends came very soon, some 2-3 more destroyers and other smaller units, like trawlers/patrol craft. No chances in such shallow waters. I couldn't believe that, but I was still able to live for 15 hours... But finally they got me in the morning, when my batteries went flat and the oxygen went to the red area... DC-d to death. Type IXB, February '40.
Second time it was much faster. Somewhere around AM52 I prepared for an attack on an east-bound convoy. Went sumberged, silent running, machines stopped, waited for the convoy to get closer, all the time listening at the sonar (never raised my scope). Then the lead escort started to ping me (?!). I immediately ordered 2 knts and dived deeper. When it stopped pinging and went to attack run, I ordered flank speed and hard turn left. I was still like about only 20 metres deep. She dropped her depth charges very precisely. After the first boom I saw multiple damage reports and immediately after the second and third blasts I saw the death screen. Had no time to switch to the damage control room. Launched a 'blind' spread of torpedoes, don't know if any of them hit anything. Type IXB, December '40.
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