[Bosje]

Everyone is miserable. Our muscles constantly ache from the shivering. Cold cold cold. All I can think is cold, all I can breathe is cold. The food cold, the drink cold, my tobacco cold. No sign of the enemy for an entire month, while we are freezing our arses off in the Arctic. I was under the impression that here, at least, we had air cover and surface units roaming around, sending the Murmansk convoys to the bottom and informing us of the positions of the remaining ships, so we can finish them off. But there is nothing here, just cold. We are sailing up and down through an empty sea. Smooth as a mirror. Void of life. Cold, bored, colder still, balancing on the edge of insanity. What the hell are we doing here? I am actually hoping for a storm, just to give us something to do, something to take our mind off the cold. Morale is at an all-time low, hardly any fuel left: we go home tomorrow.

Contact! Finally our routine peek below the waves pays off. Just when I wanted to vacate this hell of ice. No merchants, only fast screws. We close in at flank speed. Radar detected. We go below and sneak our way to a position that will hopefully prove adequate, they are moving fast though, we will only have one shot. Now we must slow down or they can hear us. Through the periscope: a large superstructure. Later: A hull to go with it. A sleek and beautiful hull. A German hull. Heavy cruiser, Graf Spee or something similar. I consider killing it but I find I am not completely insane. Yet.


We are on our way home but I am still desperate for something, anything. We take the slightest detour with the last drops of fuel: The Faeroer, the waters are fully controlled by the enemy. I have probably gone mad, I don't care.


Radar contact. Dive, listen. No merchants, just warships. Deja vu. If they are German again I am going to shoot them with my Luger. I can see the officers start to worry about me. They think I lost my wits and they are right. I should be relieved of my command but Hans is nowhere near strong enough to carry this boat on his back. Certainly not after the past couple weeks. I slide over to Klaus in his shack and listen with him on the earpiece. Fast screws, lots of them. Old and worn out engines, still working like crazy long after they should have been scrapped. I recognize that sound, vintage destroyers. My enemy. I wake up out of the madness: this is actually it! The enemy! I need some coffee and I need to kick the crew into action. Battle Stations! Hans on the observation periscope, I on the attack periscope. Let's have a look at our prey. It is the first morning of 1943. Happy new year, mister Churchill.


Klaus breathes from his shack: 'Capital ships, heavy units!' A second later I see them: Battleships. I do not recognize them. They are not English, I am sure of it. What the... 'Hans, can you identify them?' He flips through the pages of the ship identification book frantically, but he is taking too long. They are steaming very fast and they will be almost on top of me in seconds. 'To hell with it! Flood tubes 1 through 4! Down periscopes.' I make a quick estimation: 'line up tubes 1, 2 and 4 for a 3 degree spread, impact pistol depth 5 meters, target speed 21 knots.' A second later: 'Up periscope.' The attack periscope shoots up and down for half a second, I only catch a glimpse but it is all I need. A fourstacker is headed right for me and the rest of the image consists of an enormous battleship, begging to be destroyed. 'Range 800 meters bearing 340, fire NOW!' I am afraid I am too late, the torpedoes need to make an very tight turn to port to even catch this big old lady, the taskforce is steaming so fast. The destroyer is going to pass over our heads any second but I am sure they are not yet aware of us, the taskforce was on a straight course. A perfect keel formation on the battleships. 'Full speed ahead, go deep!'


We dodge under the destroyer and then pop up again to periscope depth as the torpedoes strike home. Two explosions followed by a roaring crescendo: we must have hit her rear turret magazines. The fourstacker drops depthcharges like a startled dame drops her purse: a reflex, not even close. Periscope depth, hard to port! I still have two torpedoes left, let's make the most of them. No point in staying hidden now. Up periscope! A quick full scan. The battleship is already gone, nothing left except burning water. Complete annihilation. Then I see the fourstacker and I see the flag she is flying: Yanks. Strange, I never even considered we would encounter an American battlegroup here, that's why I failed to identify the battleship. Ah well, it doesn't matter now. A light cruiser presents herself squarely to my sterntube. It will be an impossible shot but I try it anyway. Tube 5, LOS! One torpedo left, tube 3. This is a new torpedo, it can run in a ladder pattern, nobody knows if they even work. I make a complete mess of the calculations which have to be done inside half a second, I set the eel loose so that it will hopefully catch one of these escorts in the flank while they go after us. If it actually works it will be pure luck rather than skill. And we dive.


I am not comfortable, I do not know this enemy. This is the first time I get anywhere near them and they know exactly where we are. But the boat is ready for the game: she has been fully repaired and we have a new toy. Something called Alberich coating, it is supposed to mess with their Asdic. 'Starboard 30, ahead 2/3, dive deep!' A quick word to the boys: 'We got her: a big old battleship. Now it is their turn. Be ready for it.' Nobody cheers just yet. The next series of depthcharges explodes. Roughly where we launched our first eels, we are nowhere near there anymore. 'Schleichfahrt, level off at 100 meters.' Obersteuermann Petersen gets the chalkboard ready, Alfons prepares the damage control party and the rest of the crew go and play dead in their quarters. Let's see how the Yank plays this game. Whomp! And another series of rumbles. The cruiser? There is no way to tell. Intelligence will confirm the kill, perhaps. Some day. For now, I must focus on getting out of here.