Starting Return Passage Attn: Karl Donitz

[GoldenRivet]

May - 1942 - Just had one of the most successful and immersive convoy attacks of any career to date!

In an 4 day long engagement with a convoy which i stalked day and night for about 350KM i managed to send 46,631 tons to the bottom!

Here is the whole story - I'll Try to keep it short.

I Departed Brest, France with intentions to patrol off The Coast of New York and New Jersey. The weather was lousy for almost the entire voyage, i chased down a few sound contacts but due to the weather i was never able to get a visual let alone form an attack!

Managed to bag two small freighters traveling in convoy with one another and that was IT! i decided to dock with U-461, tanker up, and head for home.

Spent a day with the crew of U-461. collected their mail, refueled and headed out for the return voyage.

I planned my trip to pass just west of St. Johns in grid square BC43, from there i would proceed due north to Grid Square AJ87 before heading East toward home. I did this in the hopes of catching a few lone merchants along the way.

Instead what i stumbled upon by blind luck was a convoy, 4 or 5 columns across, heavily escorted. I snuck into attack position and scanned the gaggle of ships by the light of an early morning sunrise. it was a mix of American, British and Canadian Ships, mostly small merchants and tramp steamers. Near the center of the convoy, and close to the trailing edge were a large Tanker, Small Tanker, medium Tanker and at least 4 Liberty Ships and a Large Cargo.

With Targets selected i let lose a spread of two torpedoes at the medium tanker and Large Tanker.

They were the closest and most likely to be hit.

One torpedo hit the medium tanker and sent it ablaze, the other missed but struck a nearby granville-type freighter. The large tanker took both fish and split in half.

At this point i broke contact and stalked the convoy again until sunset.

On Day Two of the engagement, i fired a spread of two at the Large cargo and a Liberty Cargo.

The large cargo sank, the liberty cargo only took one hit. i assumed the other fish to be a dud - the ship sailed on.

On day three i established an attack position with the intent of sinking the damaged liberty cargo and perhaps one of her sister ships.

making use of my remaining forward tubes and my stern tube I managed to sink the damaged liberty cargo, yet the untouched ship only seemed to take light damage and sailed on.

On day four, i finished off the final Liberty Cargo with a stern shot.

The escorts nearly got me on day four with a couple of close calls with Depth Charges, but for the most part they showed little aggression.

About an hour after breaking contact for the last time, i began to sail toward brest once again, and spotted a Type VIIC .

Hopefully he has the same luck!