U-45 First Mission - Photo Journal

[VonApist]

U-45 sailed from port on October 3rd. Its first wartime patrol after an extensive shakedown to make sure that boat and crew were up for what was expecting them.

En route to grid AM52 , tower watch spots a coastal freighter. Seas are calm so the Kaleun decides not to spare a torpedo. Warning shot across the bow. Crew abandons ship and its time for gunnery practice for Helmut.



And she explodes! Fireworks all over the place as the crew cheers. My LI brings out a bottle of Schnappes. Our first kill of the war.




Reaching patrol grid with no other contact. Empty ocean all around us. Its been 13 days with no sign of merchant shipping. Crew is getting restless.



Our luck changes when tower watch spots a Large Merchant. One torpedo fired and we surface the boat to finish her off with the deck gun.

She splits in two and dissapears beneath the waves!



The ships name was "Victory", I pencil it down in my war log.
My crew is superstitious, as all U-boat crews around the world. The consider this sinking a good Omen. Everyone is in high spirits as we decide to enter the Irish Channel to look around, watchfull of mines and destroyers ....