April 7, 1942
0200hrs
approx 500 mi W of Ireland
Heavy seas, Heavy fog, heavy rain
U-456 steaming due E, recharging batteries. Game running at 256tc. I'm reading a magazine when suddenly all hell breaks loose! Reports of heavy damage, system failures, flooding.....! I drop my mag and rush to the damage control station only to see half the after compartments destroyed and crew dead. I try and make it to the bridge, but we all die before I can get there. Screen says something about collision?!? I don't even know what hit us, destroyer? cargo ship? I expected this kind of thing from a aircraft, but hoped to have more warning for a ship, even in a storm, than that. Maybe a destroyer with who picked us up on radar and charged straight on through the storm at us???
Oh, well 'dead is dead' and on to a new career.
I'll bet lots of subs were lost during the war and their crews never knew what hit them. You're just there one minute and gone the next. ouch.