Yet another long and boring report that nobody reads anyway

[meduza]

June 4th 1940, early morning. Kapitanleutnant Alfred Eder was patrolling AM54 sector when he received a convoy report, going ENE, medium speed. It was raining but he hoped it will soon clear.

By the time U-72 made first sound contact with the convoy, the weather did somewhat cleared, although the visibility was still reduced. It was almost noon. The Kaleun decided to shadow the convoy until night, because there were only four torpedoes left, steem ones, and he didn't want to risk the torpedo wakes being spotted. He calculated that by the time of attack the convoy will reach the shallow waters. But he was willing to take the risk, planning to attack on surface. It doesn't get very dark over there in June, but it will have to do.

The whole day passed uneventfully. In the evening a regular sound check revealed that convoy slightly changed course, and slowed down to some 5 kts. A few hours later, the watch crew spotted the lead escort. It looked like a Hunt class destroyer. U-72 changed course and dissapeared in the fog.

It was 22:30, still not dark, when thing went terrible wrong. The strong winds chased away the clouds and fog, and the whole convoy appeared at the starboard, barely 6-7 km away. A dozed smaller merchants and one large cargo, surrounded by 4 escorts.
There was obvious panick on both sides. The u-boat crew yelled sighting reports, merchants zigzaged, and the escorts rushed towards the exposed submarine.

Already in shallow waters, the Kaleun decided not to dive, but to escape on surface, hoping that they will soon be covered by darkness. U-boat rushed to the north, while the shells were falling all around her. One landed near the stern, causing minor damage and some light flooding, which were hastily repaired.



At one moment, it seemed that the escorts lost visual contact with the boat, their searchlights scanned the empty sea. But they were already close to the sub, and they reaquired her. The Kaleun realized that it's pointless to continue like this and they dived to 70 m, almost touching the seabed. At least they won't sink very deep.

After an hour of pinging and depth-charging, U-72 managed to get away. The convoy were not far away, and the chase continued.

It was already downing when the u-boat got ahead of the convoy. The Kaleun easily manoeuvred the boat into position for attack, and fired all four torpedoes, one at the large cargo, and one at each coastal freighter. The boat dived as deep as she could, some 80m.

The expected sounds of explosions didn't come, and the Kaleun realized that his concern about the enemy spotting the wakes was justified. But there was a single explosion one and a half minute later, followed by a bulkhead breaking sounds, so he did hit something after all.



The escorts didn't really have the clue about the position of U-72. They droped a few DCs far away, and continued on their marry way.

Out of torpedoes, Kaleun surfaced the boat and set course for home. Later he found that the ship he sank was 1872t coastal freighter, S.S. Madaket.