[UKönig]

Got tired of ole U-73 and decided to put her away. The war was over (pretty much) anyway so I have no regrets.

The end came around March 1st 1945. U-73 was patrolling the North Sea. On a whim (as is usual with that guy) the Kapitän decided to raid the British city of Hartlepool. U-73 found 4 tankers (3 large and 1 small) and sank one large and the one small because they were better placed for side on shots. The other 2 ships were well protected by the pier walls and would require a trick shot from the pattern runners, of which I am none too fond.
U-73 sank a V&W class destroyer on patrol outside the anchorage. I had raised the scope for a quick view of the situation, when a flight of bombers spotted the mast. That in turn called the attention of the destroyer, and he made right for our estimated position. We sent a torpedo his way, and after a runtime of 1'35" a loud explosion. Up scope in time to see a fireball bursting out of the forward magazine, and the ship assume an immediate nose down attitude. Crew falling off the decks or being flung into the waters, a few managed to begin lowering life boats, others tossing rafts over the side, a bloody mess.
It was when U-73 was on its way out from Hartlepool that our end came. A Short Sunderland in a flight of four got a lucky hit on the stern which disrupted the trim and forced the stern out of the water. We had only made it about 2-3 km from the harbour proper so it was still pretty shallow. Once the stern came up, and the location fixed, the other planes began to attack. Damage quickly began to mount so the only thing left for us was to abandon ship. Blow ballast!! Emergency Surface!! The uncomfortable irony was that the survivors of U-73 (the whole crew less the 1WO) were picked up by the same trawler fleet that rescued survivors of the destroyer we sank. That made for a rather awkward ride back to Hartlepool, where we were later sent off to a British PoW camp...