U-45 "Der Wein" Eighth Patrol

[ECV56_PolTen]

U-Boat Type VIIB U-45 "Der Wein"
It's been a while since my last patrol; real life interferes with the virtual Kaleun
To make things more interesting, I changed the realism settings and activated the NO MAP CONTACT UPDATE option, getting a realism level of 68%. With this option, whenever I spot a ship I won't have his position drawn on the map, and in case of hearing it with the hydrophone I won't have the black line guiding me to it; it would be a challenge for me since I am very used to that information.

April 5th, 1940.
Before going to the BdU to get my new orders I ask my chief engineer it there is something we could do to have a better performance for our sub. He comments that a new set of AFA 27 MAK 80F batteries have arrived to Wilhelmshaven, with a lower recharge time than the standard MAK 70; I ask him how long it would take to install them on the Der Wein, and answers "three days". I give him the go ahead and he departs to do the necesary paperwork.

April 8th, 1940.
New orders have arrived; again, a useless patrol zone, AF73, I don't know why they keep sending me to these places with almost no enemy transit, unless they are expecting some attack from Norway



April 20th, 1940.
Our date of departure; the time, 02:43 AM... somebody at the BdU really hates me. I order to start the diesels that roar evenly. We advance at 1/3, with the watch at the conning tower looking sharply to avoid some sleepy fishing boat; I don't want a ramming incident.



(Somebody tell the bearded one to look FORWARD)
03:08 I ask the radio officer to get the intel information using coded communications, and I climb to the tower to find a clear night and a beautiful moon at our back.



Some minutes later, the radio officer brings me the intel, as usual, in English... we are Germans, you moron!. We beat him with some boots and wet newspapers for the next 20 minutes.

Intel report (just the first part).
Patrol 8
U-45, 2nd Flotilla
Left at: April 20, 1940, 02:43
From: Wilhelmshaven
Mission Orders: Patrol grid AF73

---Mission---

Primary Patrol Area: Norway Sea

You have order to patrol sector Quadrant AM and distract any destroyers operating in that area from our surface vessels.

---Standing Operational Orders for all U-Boats---

All ships in USA zone, not exhibiting illuminated nationality markings to be regarded as hostile. Freedom of attack permitted against liners showing no neutral markings, & against those darkened (except for navigation lights).

U-boat commanders to open the sealed envelopes for Op. Hartmut (Invasion of Norway), & disregard previous assignments. This operation ceases on 25 May. Any Commander on patrol during this period, must open their orders & proceed accordingly.

I take special attention on the Op. Hartmut (Invasion of Norway) part; that must be why they keep sending me to those lousy areas.
We continue our journey.



04:30 Just as the previous patrol, we meet a pair of Hipper Heavy Cruisers; just beautiful.



Day goes on without further events.

[ECV56_PolTen]

April 21st, 1940.
06:21 We reach deep waters and I order to submerge to 75 meters for a sound check.



Nothing interesting to report for the day.

April 22nd, 1940.
08:13 We surface to ventilate and recharge batteries.
08:18 Once on surface I climb to the tower; the sky is completely overcast, with medium fog and 10 m/s winds. A lightning strikes dangerously close.



20:00 Without seeing a thing we slow down and submerge to 70 meters. We beat the radio officer again, just for fun.

April 23rd, 1940.
07:30 On surface again. There are less clouds, but we have a 15 m/s "little wind"
08:03 Radio report. Enemy tas force detected in AF53, NE of our position, traveling at 15 knots; no way to catch them up.



14:53 We reach AF73 and submerge to start our patrol.

april24th, 1940.
07:15 We surface to ventilate and recharge. The watch climbs to the tower.
As one could imagine, nothing happens. I get even with the radio officer, damn bastard.
15:00 The 24 hours patrol is complete, I decide to do the same we did the previous patrol and plot a course from north to south of Ireland, where we should find more commercial and militar transit toward the british islands; the navigator tells me we have fuel to spare as long as we keep standard or lower speed; we would like to trave faster, but when it is not possible, it's not possible; in anger, we beat the radio officer.
16:29 C2 cargo spotted, enemy flag, we are so happy to find some action that we beat the radio officer.



With heavy seas we start to get as close as possible without being detected.
16:51 I fire tubes I and II.

[ECV56_PolTen]

The first shot gets the mark.



The second one fails; the radio officer is the one to blame, lets hit him.
17:00 While my men reload the tubes, I reverse course; I don't want to use tubes III and IV since they have electric eels, more suited to attack warships without a vapor trail, I have a steamer on tube V. I fire when I have the solution.



Nevertheless, the C2 refuse to sink. To frighten those gay sailors (no pun intended), we get closer on a parallel course.



To show them our macho ways, we bark, spit, and insult them. Since they don't seem to get the message, I decide to show them just how fierce we really are, so I call the radio officer to the tower, and in front of the terrorized british we beat him furiously.
We get some distance for a new shot; tube I is ready with a steamer. I point and click, hitting near the bow. Finally we hit a critical spot since the ships explodes and breaks in half.



The captain and some survivors reach the lifeboats. I keep watching for a while, thinking if I should shoot them with the flak. I get rid of my sadist wishes and return to our course. I look back with the binoculars and see the captain and some sailors beating other man that seems to be their radio officer.

April 25th, 1940.
11:23 The sonar man detects what seems to be a frigate, Black Swan type closing fast on a 082 bearing (this man have a wonderfull hearing, not like the useless radio operator ... lets hit him...). I decide not to take risks, and slow down to 1 knot and rig for silent running.
11:56 The warship is lost in the distance, we maintain our depth of 70 meters, and just to drain the adrenaline of the close encounter we beat the radio officer with some bamboo canes I stored in my desk.

April 26th, 1940.
06:00 Rain and fog again; this sadden the crew, so I suggest to sing along some Bandana songs (as another captain use to say, I was a poet and I didn't know it)... and in the meantime, we beat the radio officer.

April 29th, 1940.
Days go on without events. To the north of the british isles I submerge at day and surface at night.
06:15 Rain and fog keep falling; Some 9 m/s winds.

April 30th, 1940.
09:42 It stopped raining, but the wind is at 12 m/s and we have some thunders.

[ECV56_PolTen]

May 1st, 1940.
Rats! Woking man day, a holiday find us ... working. Just for being holiday I decide to NOT beat the radio officer.
06:39 Radio report; with fear, the radio officer gives me the message. Large Convoy detected at AM17 (we are at AM45, somewhat close), in an easterly course at 7 knots. We calculate along with the navigator and estimate that we can reach them in 12 or 13 hours at 13 knots ("The Hunt", excelent tutorial). "How wonderful!" I shout, and the radio officer runs to hide at his post; strange. I order new course and set the diesels to 13 knots, let's party.
17:46 Another radio message informing about the same convoy; we are on track and close to them.
18:13 In the mist we spot a Flower corvette (what kind of war name is "Flower" corvette?); obviously part of the escort. We go silently to periscope depth.
The sonar man have to take off his headset saying there is a very loud noise out there; he can barely identify the contacts.
Curious, I look through the periscope and the sight is unbeleivable. This is the mother, father,and granny of all convoys.



I try to spot the escort, but all I can see is the corvette zigzagging in front, nothing else.



I order the sonar to report any movement of the corvette, I don't want nasty surprises. Meanwhile, I try to identify the ships, I remember a fellow captain in the U-46 that mistakenly attacked a neutral ship and ended his career at the OKM; what a shame, he's a good man.
There are ships from practicaly the whole world; British, Americans, Belgian, Greek ...
I concentrate only on the british. We get closer abeam the convoy.
18:54 I fire tube III on a T2 tanker; one shot should be enough to put her ablaze. With tube IV I fire on a C2 cargo.
18:58 Impact on T2, with the expected results.



Seconds later, impact on the C2.



Chaos begins; the convoy disorganize, every ship start to zigzag in a disordered manner. Solutions will be harder now.
I look the sonar man, that says the corvette have reversed the course, but don't seems to have found us. With the engines stopped she can't hear us; strangely, they don't ping us; worst for them.
18:59 Fire tube I.
19:01 Impact on another C2.



19:02 Fire II, while I order every man available to reload. This is where I pat myself on the back for taking the precaution the day we sank the C2 near our patrol zone to transport the external torpedos to the internal reserves; good boy.
19:05 I fire tube III over a T3 tanker, but fails and hit a C2 behind it; oh well, an impact is better than none.
19:12 I spot a liner, 24.000 tons, not to chivalrous on my part, but since she wears a british flag I fire tube I
19:15 Impact on the liner. She catchs some fire and starts to slow down, we may have hit the engines.

[ECV56_PolTen]

19:26 I U-Turn and fire again with tube V to the T3, failing again; Rats!, I would like to see her explode.
19:37 I U-Turn again with tube IV reloaded and fire on the liner.
19:39 Torpedo hits the mark and the liner stops close to a pair of C2 already damaged and dead in the water.



19:45 With the last torpedo in tube V, I try a new shot on the tanker, but she ruins it varying speed and course. Where is the radio officer?!!... No, let's focus on the task at hand... just for now.
Ok, I don't have more torpedoes, but I have a deck gun, with a liner, and two C2 ahead, and one more in the ditance, all dead in the water.



We keep submerged wainting for the rest of the convoy and the corvette to sail away.
20:30 Impatienly I surface, but surely the ships spot us and radio for help, since the sonar officer yells that the corvette is coming back, very fast... woozies. We submerge again and wait. A few minutes later the corvette returns to the convoy; they must think we run away.
22:00 With the convoy gone, and no warship sounds near, we surface and start the slaughter.



I order to fire at the liner with HE shells. The gunners score almost everey shot, but we run out of HE shells and the liner is still afloat; tough one.
We load AP and fire on a C2.
22:17 After some hits, she sinks.



We attack the liner again.
22:20 This time she gives up.



Attack on the second C2
22:29 Another one to the David Jones' locker.



We march at 1/3 toward the third. At firing distance we fire the deck gun, sinking her at 23:00



In a questionable decision, since I don't have any torpedo left, I continue going east trying to find the convoy.

[ECV56_PolTen]

May 2nd, 1940.
01:00 We spot the corvette at starboard, heavily listing astern; it seems that they met another U-boat. Ahead, we spot the smoke colums of the convoy and barely see some ships damaged or listing. We surely have another U-boat here... Wolf Pack, baby! Ha!



Just for fun, I order to attack the corvette with the deck gun and the little ammo left, but at the third shot they return the favour and use their spotlights. Wit only 13 shots left I stop pressing our luck and dive away.
23:25 On surface we send our patrol report, and the BdU orders to return to base... No! Really?

May 3rd, 1940.
16:51 The chief engineer reports the fuel reserve at 50%.
21:43 By dead reckoning the navigator estimates we are south of Torshaven and North of Stornoway, british waters.



May 4th, 1940.
06:33 On surface, we are jumped by two Walrus planes that drop their bombs but with minor damages to the deck gun and flak. When they are turning for another run I dive.
In rage I order the radio officer to beat the watch guard for not seeing those planes; with tears of joy in his eyes he thanks me deeply and grabs a nearby crowbar. We level at 70 meters.



22:00 I go to periscope depth, and look around; with no ship or plane in sight we surface to ventilate, recharge batteries, and do some minor repairs.

May 5th, 1940.
06:00 Down, 70 meters.
11:02 Sound contact; warship closing fast on port, long range. Slow down to 1 knot and rig for silent running.



11:24 The warship starts to move away and half an hour later she's gone.
13:55 I secure from silent running, and accelarate to 3 knots, ahead slow.
22:00 Periscope search before surfacing to recharge.

May 6th, 1940.
I submerge during day and surface at 22:00. Rain again, lousy weather.

May 7th, 1940.
Since we left the danger zone we keep on surface to reach Wilhelmshave as soon as possible.

May 8th, 1940.
We are at 800 km from home.
12:52 Fuel reserves at 25%

May 9th, 1940.
09:48 We arrive at Wilhelmshaven. We sunk 6 merchants with a total of 61.000 tons. BdU lets me promote three men and give medals, three Iron Crosses 2nd class, one first class, and 12 U-Boat Front Clasp.



Te "Der Wein" is the top scoring sub of the OKM. To celebrate we have some beers at the local bar and beat the radio officer.

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P.S.: No radio officer was harm while writing this report.