After months of shore leave, the game keeps attracting me so i'm back again...
Friday 1st of september 1939, 1.43 am, U-51 a type VII-B is slowly leaving Wilhelmshaven. War has not begun yet... Our mission is to patrol western approaches...
07SEP39 AM53 We intercept and attack an enemy convoy escorted by 2 destroyers. We fired 4 torpedoes aimed at 4 different ships including a 8.000 tons tanker in the middle of the convoy. Despite a distance of roughly 4.000-5.000 m, the attack was successful with three ships hit and all of them sank minutes later... SH3 commander shows no tanker but an ammunition ship sank and two medium merchants.
07SEP39 AM53 Convoy HG-1 was attacked by U-51 in AM53 north of Ireland. The uboot fired 4 torpedoes, hit and sank three ships and left the scene undetected.
13h47 SS Ramona Nell, medium merchant 20, 6.159 tons
13h48 SS Radbury, medium merchant 16, 3.904 tons
13h49 Escaut, ammunition ship, 6.085 tons
08SEP39 AM57 14h15 Lookouts detected a ship on a northern course, close examination shows an england medium merchant. We fired one torpedo on a surface attack which hit forward. We shelled the boat and eventually sank it.
14h15 SS Kingsbury, medium merchant 16, 3.905 tons
13SEP39 AM94 We headed South to the celtic sea and St-George's channel to hunt target of opportunity. After 3 days and 3 nights a british ore carrier was torpedoed. We got 2 misses or duds and 4 torpedoes were fired to sink the 8.000 tons cargo.
21h08 SS Thalthybius, ore carrier, 8.169 tons
18SEP39 At 8.00 the hydrophon officer told us that fast warships were approaching. A quick sweep confirms this information. Mnutes later smokes are seen on the horizon going roughly towards us. Three Southampton class light cruisers in line rushed on a 90° course, steaming at high speed. We set up an attack on the second and the third as they pass 1500 m in front of us. speed: 30knots! attack on the second ship has to be abandonned and we fired 2 torpedoes to the last cruiser. first torpedo is a straight runner (i don't know what went wrong with tdc), luckily the second torpedo found its mark and hit the ship amidships. Machines stopped for a few seconds then start again but the ship slow down and develop a list to port. At 9.00 the cruiser sank. The 2 remaining cruisers left the scene without looking for survivors.
18SEP39 A small task force consisting in 3 light cruisers HMS Birmingham, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield was going back to Loch Ewe after an exercice patrol in the north atlantic. While steaming at 30knots on a non-zigzaging course, the last ship of the column the HMS Sheffield was torpedoed and sunk by U-51. The torpedo hit amidships, ripped a 30ft hole in the port side and knocked down main electrical power. With pumps off, the flooding became soon uncontrolable and the ship sank within 10 minutes. HMS Birmingham and HMS Glasgow didn't attempt to save survivors for fear of another attack by the u-boot (which happened in WW1 when RN lost HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue all sank by U-9). They radioed position and beaconed nearby ships to the sinking. Despite this there were only 259 survivors of the 700 people crew onboard.
9h00 HMS Sheffield, Southampton lightcruiser, 10.725 tons
27SEP39 AN11 10h51 Intercepted and sank lone merchant with torpedo and gunfire.
SS Polydorus, medium merchant 34, 3.498 tons
30SEP39 AN34 11h11 Intercepted and sank polish large merchant with our last torpedo, sea state prevented us to use deck gun. Eventually the ship sank 1 hour and 15 minutes after the attack.
SS Umtali, large merchant, 8.846 tons
01OCT39 10h03 U-51 docked at Wilhelmshaven after its first patrol.
8 ships sunk for 51.291 tons including the 10.725 tons HMS Sheffield
__________________
|