February 4, 1940 BF33 Let's play hide and seek! - part 1
0322 Dover, Calais and all those warships patrolling the area are now behind us...we made it through!...U48 is now on the surface to recharge batteries and get some fresh air. We had to keep changing course to avoid enemy ships. Most of them were probably torpedo boats...but that made it too risky to surface and move quickly through their lines. There were also a couple of cargos sailing NE but there was no way to get close enough to attack or even just establish visual contact. Weather is now overcast with little wind and moderate visibility, sea conditions are not so bad. We are sailing SW, my plan is to stay closer to the french side during the day and move toward the english side during the day.
0502 U48 just dived and we already have two sound contacts...both merchants, one NE of us and the other one West of us. Both seems to be closing.
0514 U48 is now moving WSW to intercept the cargo heading for the channel. Will attack it first to prevent her getting any closer to the Channel. Will try to make it quick and intercept the other one soon after.
0602 This seem to be a Granville type freighter...possibly French...going 6 knots...let's adjust our course slightly to the southest to have a better angle...the other target is moving at medium speed and getting closer...I planned to use our deck gun but there are three warships, possibly torpedo boats, coming this way...think I'll use two eels on this one to make it quick and then move north to intercept the other one
0611 her she is: a nice fat French Granville...will shot a salvo using tubes 2 and 3: Ato running fast, depth 4 meters, impact pistol, spread 2 degree...opening tubes...aiming at mid ship...fire!...tube 2 away...tube 3 away...running time 28 seconds...begin reloading the tubes...let's wait and see...come on...one torpedo just went off too early! A dud!...Impact!...right ahead of the structure...that started a small fire...hopefully it will suffice...were the other torpedo not be a dud she would be down already...
0617 she is already very low and slow...fire is getting on and off, they are struggling to suppress it...looks good...she is not going anywhere so we will now move north to intercept the other one...just spotted it through our periscope...hopefully it does not change course...ahead full!
0648 ahead slow!...our target is a Coastal Freighter going 9 knots on a SW course...she did not change course nor is zigzagging...weird...I would have used the deck gun on such a small target but those torpedo boats are now hollering nearby that Granville, which makes things difficult...I'll have to use a torpedo. Granville does not look very good: dead on the water and very very low...I bet she will go down very soon
0700 Granville going down right now! Which is good since there are two more warships coming our way: one from the Calais area and one from the Dover area...but we are now almost ready to attack this British Coastal Freighter
Ship sunk! SS Cassequel (Granville-type Freighter), 4707 tons. Cargo: Paper Products. Crew: 107. Crew lost: 13
0702...tube 1 ready...Ato running fast, impact pistol, running depth 4,5 meters...we are about 1800 m off to the south...aiming at the bow area...open tube 1...fire!...lower periscope! Ahead flank! Hard to port! Those warships are coming straight our way and while the one coming from the French side sounds like a Trawler the one from Dover is most likely a destroyer by the sound of it. I want to move away as much as I can before they are too close, pity these torpedo boats are still in the area or I'll have surfaced and run for it.
0704 ...ahead slow...Torpedo should hit any seconds now...raise our periscope...let's check if...Impact!...almost missed her, got her right on the nose...no visible fire...searchlights are scanning the waves...let's scan around, perhaps we can spot those other two warships...Torpedo boat engaging us! Lower periscope! Ahead flank! Down to 20 meters!
0706 Torpedo boat must have been in our baffles and probably spotted our periscope! We suffered no damage...but they are not the problem now, we have a warship running fast toward us and she sounds very much like a destroyer...let's change course to north...
0711 We have now a total of 5 warships lurking overhead...we got pinged briefly and I must confess I had cold feet for a moment there...but seems like they don't have a proper fix on us and are searching a bit more to the south...changing course to north was the right choice...lucky me. Coastal Freighter slowed down to 2 knots and is zigzagging away...
0723 U48 is shadowing this freighter...she is still zigzagging at 2 knots and we can keep the contact...all 5 warships are somewhere ESE of us and still sniffing around...I'd love for them to move back to their patrol areas...
0757 U48 was able to slowly get ahead of our target but now things changed once again...Coastal Freighter changed course to west and increased speed to 3 knots...or perhaps it looks so since it's not zigzagging anymore...also, we have a new warship contact straight ahead of us and all our friends from the previous party still close back there: an A&B destroyer, an Armed Trawler and three torpedo boats...I guess we must use one more torpedo...let's increase speed a bit more and get ready to use our stern tube...
0803 all is ready: Ato running fast at 5 meters, impact pistol, distance about 700 meters...open tube 5...aiming just ahead of the funnel...fire!...ahead full! Lower periscope!
0804 Impact! And she is sinking, at last! Time to run and hide once again, warships increasing speed already.
Ship sunk! SS Abinger (Coastal Freighter), 1872 tons. Cargo: Coffee. Crew: 33. Crew lost: 19
0811 Warships in the area but quite a bit south of us...the one from the west did not come our way...U48 will keep crawling away as silently as possible...
0842 All warships have left the area now...we will wait a bit more to be sure they are well gone before surfacing. Batteries are not that bad and oxygen is still good. Two attacks, two ships sent to the bottom, 5 warships succesfully evaded...on the other hand we had to use four torpedoes while two should have been enough...not very efficient...we are now down to 3 torpedoes, two Ato in the bow and one in our stern tube.
|