March 1941 and BdU has assigned me a patrol grid just south of Freetown. I set off in my trusty Type VII from St Nazaire expecting a long and fruitless voyage. For some reason Freetown never works for me, give me the North Atlantic anyday. I just never seem to find anything worthwhile
So when my lookouts shouted out a ship sighting on only our second day out I got a bit of a shock. Travelling at 8 knots to conserve fuel we had only sailed about 300 km from harbour. Since I rarely see German ships outside of ports my second thought was 'Hunter/Killer Group'. (My first being 'Bugger!)
Looking through the binoculars I could make out what looked like 3 ships in line abreast sweeping straight towards me. Fighting back the tears I went to the uzo to try and lock on to the middle one to determine the course. What I had thought was 3 ships approaching was actually the funnel and 2 masts of a ship travelling at 90 degrees to my course. A troop transport the uzo said
After changing my pants I plotted the next course of action. I was guessing it wasn't one of ours and although in reality the British would never sail an unescorted troopship down the French coast
I was hoping the computer didn't know this. I decided to proceed as if it were an enemy and set up my attack submerging at my preferred ambush point. I was prepared for a British (shoot) german (dont shoot) or even Spanish (shoot cos I have never forgiven them for that penalty shootout in the 2002 World Cup)
What I wasn't prepared for was a Swedish troop transport cruising in the Bay of Biscay in the middle of a war. What were they upto? A surprise attack or just bringing the lads for a bit of a cruise?