May 13, 1940. I have safely returned to Wilhelmshaven after the most harrowing mission of my career. After an uninteresting tour of the coast of Norway, which was occupied by Germany for its own safety to protect it from further Allied treachery, I rounded England. I had hoped to find numerous ships off the northern coast of England, as before, but the skies were teaming with aircraft and I had only modest success. I headed for Torshavn Harbor, which was similarly disappointing. I sank a moored destroyer and headed south. I tried the northern entrance to the Irish Sea, but I had no success there other than finding a few sailboats in winds so extreme that shots were impossible.
Finally I headed further south where I finally hit gold: A convoy moving along at at 6 knots. I located two steamers straggling behind at 4 knots and sank the first of the two with no difficulty. A frigate came to investigate, but I was long gone from where he looked for me. An hour later I set up a firing solution on the second and sent it to the bottom. Four hours later I caught up with the convoy again and sank another ship. Again the frigate came searching for me, but by the time he followed the trail of bubbles I had left that location. He never found me.
Back on the trail of the convoy I found it impossible to stay on the northern flank of the convoy because another convoy heading in the opposite direction made it impossible. I switched convoys and it was here that disaster nearly struck. An unusually clear day (coinciding with the installation of the 16 km atmosphere mod) resulted in the destroyers seeing me well out beyond my normal 8 km end-around range. Even at 16 km I was still detected and finally in desperation to make progress I foolishly went to 1/3rd submerged in an attempt to make progress. The frigate heard me and began pinging me relentlessly. Soon he followed up with a few depth charges, but I dodged most. Unfortunately he got a lucky shot in and I found myself sinking and nearing crush depth. U-48 was in dreadful danger so I was forced to throw off all attempts at stealth and I called for flank speed, maximum surface angle, and blew ballast 3 different times. The flood control and pumps finally got things under control and I was able to go to max depth again, but for some reason U-48 would not hold her depth at low speeds! Frantic to evade my pursuer, I was nevertheless forced to go at 5 knots to keep U-48 from sinking like a stone.
Battery power was running out and I was desperately heading towards a shallow zone so that I could bottom her and wait the frigate out. Fortunately for me the escort finally gave up and I surfaced with the last of my ballast. Battery power was below 25 percent, but it recharged within a few hours. I radioed other captains to see whether they knew what was wrong with U-48. Most advised abandoning the pursuit and returning to base, but I knew in my heart that I would never be happy with that decision. I engaged a lone ship and after hitting her with a torpedo sank her with my deck gun. I was less than 20 km from the convoy and was afraid that the frigate would show up again to harass me. Fortunately he did not get the beleaguered ship's distress call.
As discretion is the better part of valor, I decided to sink another lone ship to the south, but soon I realized that the convoy's southwesterly course intersected the target's. I knew then that it would be impossible to catch her and sink her without detection so I abandoned that plan and went after the convoy. With three forward torpedoes left, I spotted the jewel at the center of the convoy–a fine cruiser waiting to be torpedoed. At 3 km I let fly with a perfect salvo, but sadly another cargo ship interposed and took both torpedoes sinking immediately. The third torpedo scored a perfect smokestack hit on another ship sending it to the bottom.
But now the frigate was back on the trail with fresh depth charges (restored, I imagine, by the save and restore operation). Again and again he pounded my position until he finally scored another light hit on the same section of the sub that had previously been damaged. Once the damage was repaired U-48 magically regained her buoyancy and I was able to slip away at 1 knot, at 99 meters below the sea. By this time CO2 was high and I surfaced only to find myself 14 km from another warship, which promptly began shelling me. Cursing my luck, I crash dived with what little oxygen I had and began the cat-and-mouse game again. It took another 40 minutes, but I slipped away from him too by turning at flank speed into his baffles and then dropping to 2 knots. Once he had turned around again, I went to 1 knot and managed to slip away. I surfaced and rounded England again on the way home where I spotted a patrol craft and a ship behind it. To my surprise the ship was traveling at an astonishing 14 knots, but I carefully put my stern on the ship and sank the tanker with a single torpedo. The patrol craft followed the bubbles to my location and buzzed around angrily, but it had no depth charge ability and so I easily slipped away.
On the way back I encountered another tanker and tried the same tactic. Trying again to ensure a single shot kill I aimed for the smokestack at the back of the ship, but I missed cleanly and with winds at 13 m/s I threw in the towel and headed for home. I was so happy to be headed to port that I threw conservation to the wind and sped across the North Sea at full speed.
I feared that U-48 was in horrible shape from the depth charges that had caused her to sink nearly uncontrollably. To my surprise, the repair crew told me that U-48 had 95.16% hull integrity. Other than the radio antenna and the observation periscope (both kaput) the boat was in excellent shape. The Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU) had given us up for sunk as we had stopped all radio contact after the loss of the antenna. They were happy to see us safely in port.
Final Result:
40,096 tons
1195 renown
Promoted Gotthard Becker and Wolf Steinmeier to Stabsoberbootsman
Certified Alois Mülbach proficient at repairs.
Awarded Iron Cross second class to Heinrich Gabelmann
Awarded Iron Cross first class to Peter Weller
Received:
Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves
Command of U-108, a new type IXB boat.
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