[Bosje]

Two tin cans take it in turns to blow the hell out of the decoy behind us. The blackboard is getting crowded with all the chalk marks. 30, 40 and still more are being dropped. But nowhere close to us, it seems we are slipping away. 2 more destroyers are circling around the site, we have to stay very quiet. I am building a mental picture of what is going on above us, based on what Klaus can whisper from his shack and I imagine the escort commanders up top doing the same. We do hear the occasional ping, out of spite I guess, but so far we are just all here, doing our thing. Waiting for the other guy to make a mistake.


'Screws closing fast, bearing 200' I can hear them even through the hull: a propeller churning through the waves behind us and getting louder very fast. Verdammt! Have they found us? 'Klaus, track him for me'
'Getting louder, coming up through our port side and closing. 220 degrees..235 degrees, 240 degrees, 245 degrees, 246, 247...248...249...now coming straight at us, getting very close!'
I close my eyes. He is going to be above me in seconds. But he did not come in a straight run. It was a big turn, a semi-circle ending exactly above me and starting somewhere behind us. Behind us where they are still bombing the empty sea, the decoy has long since died. Either this bastard is at the beginning of his attackrun and he already found us, or he is at the end of his run and turning to listen for suspicious sounds. He is now very very close, my mind is racing, the crew around me are closing their eyes, their faces tensely screwed together and their bodies involuntarily crouching, to make them feel smaller and somehow less vulnerable. The LI whispers urgently: 'Herr Kaleun?'
I make my decision: 'maintain 50 rpm, port 20 rudder, planes on dive.' As an afterthought: 'and don't let her slip below 120 meters.' I watch the needle of the depthgauge creep down, very slowly. Too slowly if the charges are already on their way. Any man would have ordered insane speed ahead by now, to get the hell away from under this bastard. The enemy, now almost on top of us, suddenly slows down, then stops. He is listening. Then he leaps forward once again, accelerating very fast and passing directly over us. Verdammt verdammt verdammt. No splashes though. I tell the LI to double the rmp to 100, getting us going at 2 knots for a couple of seconds. It will hardly move us at all but our position will at least change a few meters deeper and away to port. The needle slips past the 120 meter mark. 'Hold her there, LI!' Death awaits a few meters below my feet. If a bomb explodes near the hull now, we will probably be crushed instantly into oblivion. But nothing happens. I was right about the bastard above us, his turn ended above us by coincidence. '50 rpm, LI'


I turn towards Hans to explain my decision, he has to make the same calls some day when he gets his own command. But he is standing in a small puddle and a sharp smell of ammonia reaches my nostrils. He has pissed himself. The rest of the crew are huddled near the forward and aft hatches to the control room. They should be lying in their bunks now, being very quiet, but I let them be. 'Don't worry boys, they are just trying to scare you. Don't give them the satisfaction, we will pull through just fine.' But it took just one look to see that the enemy were, in fact, succeeding admirably. I give them a wink and continue my lesson to Hans, ignoring the piss. 'They are trying to push us, press us into making a mistake. If we had gone to full speed ahead just now, he would probably have heard us as soon as he stopped. And those other boys around would have heard us too. They lost us after the first run and we have been silent ever since. Always remember this: when you get below 100 meters, think first, then think again, and only then: act. Never give away your headstart unless you are absolutely sure that they have you. And then, once committed, give it everything you have: as deep and as fast as possible.'
The LI turns his head for a second, grinning. 'Genau wie Bumsen'. Some of the boys display a hint of a smile, then Klaus calls out: 'Fast screws closing, bearing 150 coming up on our starboard.'
There we go again.



The Duke