Modern Buccaneers (a U-Boot story)

[HM.Medico]

Modern Buccaneers
Thursday the 1st of September - 1939

I dropped myself into the command room for U-53. She was a fine boat, a type VII-B. The crew looked fresh faced and ready – most of them rookies.

Little did my crew know what orders I had been given from BdU, we were to raid a port.

BdU didn’t care which port, as long as we “cause as much damage as possible to enemy shipping with minimal damage to your boat.” Don’t know about minimal damage, but I plan on keeping these non-qual air breathers alive.

“Herr Kaleun” my Chief engineer says “The boat is ready to go”
“Excellent” I reply, “Have the Nav Officer plot a course for the British East Coast”
“Ja Herr Kaleun” came a yell from behind me, looks like he heard me anyway.

I climbed up onto the bridge to find what the rest of us called the “Adolf Gang”. All but one of them was called Adolf, and one of the sailors below was trying to get up here, he had the same name as well.

“Tag Herr Kaleun” Said the Watch Officer, Adolf Carlowitz.
“Tag Herr Carlowitz” I said, avoiding the ‘A’ word. A small chuckle emanated from the group, until, suddenly, we were jerked backwards as the engines kicked in to Ahead Standard. U-53 was on its way.

I went back down below again and called most of the sailors and petty officers off watch. It was plain sailing (excuse the pun) from here on in to the east coast.

In my bunk

I look at my photo on the table. It’s me holding my soon-to-be wife in my arms. I smile, Eva is the most beautiful woman I have ever met. Once I return we’ll be married, she’s taking care of the preparations now.

Suddenly I hear a call from up top, it’s one of the Adolf Gang, sounds like Bahn.

“SHIP SPOTTED! BEARING 324! LONG RANGE! CLOSING!”
The deck exploded with laughter. The rest of the team being rather well seasoned.
“Bahn you dunkopf, it’s one of our own! And a schnellboot at that!”
I could imagine Bahn turning bright red over the matter, at least he won’t make the same mistake again.

Friday the 2nd of September – 1939

Nothing out of the ordinary really happened today. Our SONAR operator Axel Bauer proposed a chess tournament. I said he could if he brings the pieces and Wolfgang (a torpedo man) brings the board, only problem was they forgot both! Fortunatley Axel was able to ‘liberate’ some paper from the notepad and create everything they needed. I told them to not start until after we sink our first ship to which Wolfgang replied “No Problem, we’ll be playing thirty seconds after Donitz says we can attack!” This resulted in an onslaught of cheers from the crew, and a grin from me.

Saturday the 3rd of September – 1939

We took her down to periscope depth today, just to see how we behaved with no eyes. We picked up the sound of a warship on bearing 122, but when I upped scope she was German so we dropped the glass again and went for another sixty knots or so with our ears open.

Once we surfaced again I talked in private to the navigation officer, telling him and my other commissioned friends only of my plan. We were heading to Hartlepool for a dock raid.

Within ten minutes Axel picked up a transmission from BdU. It was short, it was sweet and it was simple, but it made everyone on board happy as hell.

“Commence hostilities against British shipping forthwith.”

How could we refuse? I checked my watch. 10:31 AM, I decide to hurry up a bit.

Tuesday the 6th of September – 1939

We were about a hundred knots from Hartlepool, close to the Brits at last! I ordered us to dive to periscope depth; we were going to be here for a bit.

I swear to god if I hadn’t taken Bauer off the hydrophone he would’ve had a heart attack. Four bladed screws coming from every which-way, but everyone remained obedient. I rigged ship for silent when we got within ten knots and we crept in silently.

BINGO! We reached the port and got in without being heard. I asked the new man on the phones to check for warship screws within twenty knots but he heard none. This could get a bit hairy.

I ordered the glass up and looked around. In front was a C2, slightly to the port bow was a costal merchant, and blow me away, aft was another one. The bugger behind us was sitting right in the middle of the harbor entrance! I decided to give him what for and sent one torpedo back and forth, slamming into the two ships before I checked for warships again and surfaced.

Through the hand-glasses I could see the shocked look on the Tommies faces! My crew scrambled to the deck gun and sunk the last ship before we slipped below. Not a moment too soon, a four bladed screw was just fifteen knots away! I ordered ship to silence and we slipped away.

When I was ten knots from the port I ordered all stop, we needed to hear our baffles. When the sounds of our screw died down I almost died in fright! The damned ship was right behind us! I ordered ahead slow and got right next to the bugger. He never knew and swam ahead of me. Perfect.

I ordered the glass up and to have the torpedoes ready. GOOD GOD IT WAS A DESTROYER! My Weapons officer was looking through the observation scope just below and in front of mine. Quickly we scratched out a solution together and fired.

It cracked right below her stern keel, she had no chance and went down. I sent a report to BdU and sailed onwards. About 10,000 tonnes of ships sunk so far.

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Hope you liked my first chapter. Yes, this is how I have been playing, note that it's Vanilla SHIII. I'll put pictures on as soon as I figure something out. HOW TO PUT MY LOGO ON! If someone could please tell me with detailedinstructions that would be great. Anyway, I'll post when I play again, thanks for reading

[sunvalleyslim]

Great story HM.medico................Keep up the good work

[Kaleu. Jochen Mohr]

verry nice one mate