After breaking off from the convoy, we headed east to reload from externals. 2 days later we encountered the same convoy. This time no escorts are seen...
Worked our way in for the Revenge Class BB. Fired 3 torpedos with only 2 hits. Fired 1 more and down she went.
HMS Royal Sovergeign sinking
While we had the reloads might as well try for 2 more. 2 Whaling Ships were just the other side of the BB, so what the heck. Took them both out of the war.
Then the trouble startes. Back behind the convoy trying to keep up are 2 Great Lakes Freighters. They're no problem but then the sonarman calls out 2 warships closing. Looking thru the scope we see 2 Flower Corvettes bearing down on us from a distance. Time to run and run we did. Ordered the deckgun crew topside to fire on closing Corvettes. Being a bit over confident they think the Freighters are firing on us. They fire back and end up taking out one of the Freighters.... I thought we got rid of Bernard. Meanwhile the Corvettes are closing. We dive and head for 120 meters at Flank. At 120 they're on top of us dropping DCs as fast as they can. We change course and take a can in the fore bunks/torpedo room area. Flooding is fixed and finally we go "Silent" at 1kt. After a few twists and turns "Full Stop" is called and we sit patiently.
Both Corvettes run back and forth dropping DCs with us in the center.
All miss and after 45 minutes of not "seeing" us they head off to join the convoy..... And we slip away to head for Lorient, making it home for the Christmas holidays and the New Year.
Back at Lorient the gun crew received their Iron Crosses and promotions. I received the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and was promoted to Kapatan Leutnant. Total tonnage for this patrol was 73,435. I at least made the 73,000 club.
The crew gets the right to Howl after this patrol.