What would you have done?

GJO · 01-12-14, 11:12 AM

It is August 1940 and I am heading for my new base at St Nazaire having enjoyed a successful 38 day patrol out of Kiel - 11 ships sunk for around 33,000 GRT. It is foggy and I have just one torpedo left (an electric Type II) - so before the last few hundred kilometres needed to gain the relative safety of the French coast, I submerge to have a listen on the hydrophones - the hydrophone operator reports multiple contacts closing fast, I wait until the the contacts have started to overtake me, come up to periscope depth, raise the attack periscope and there, right in front of me (bearing of 351 degrees) looming out of the fog at a range of 2000 Metres, is the unmistakable silhouette of a Nelson class battleship - somehow, I was well inside the escort screen, and the only other visible targets were small merchants and a tramp steamer - I guess if I had been cool headed, I would have fired my last remaining torpedo at one of these smaller ships but in a mix of optimistic hope and fear, I rigged for silent running, let loose my torpedo at the battleship and dived to 150 metres straight on and straight away . . .

I registered the torpedo impact but by this time I was already down to 40 metres and I eventually crawled out from under the convoy, with no indication of pursuit, to arrive safely at St Nazaire the following morning.

Nothing appeared on my log to indicate that the battleship had been sunk so perhaps I should have used my torpedo more effectively but this might have taken time to set up and thereby increased the risk of subsequent detection. What would you have done? And, if only I still had more torpedoes left - firing all four forward torpedoes at the battleship could surely have sunk it . . .

01-12-14, 11:12 AM	#1
GJO Engineer Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: On the Oxford Canal in England Posts: 202 Downloads: 40 Uploads: 0	What would you have done? It is August 1940 and I am heading for my new base at St Nazaire having enjoyed a successful 38 day patrol out of Kiel - 11 ships sunk for around 33,000 GRT. It is foggy and I have just one torpedo left (an electric Type II) - so before the last few hundred kilometres needed to gain the relative safety of the French coast, I submerge to have a listen on the hydrophones - the hydrophone operator reports multiple contacts closing fast, I wait until the the contacts have started to overtake me, come up to periscope depth, raise the attack periscope and there, right in front of me (bearing of 351 degrees) looming out of the fog at a range of 2000 Metres, is the unmistakable silhouette of a Nelson class battleship - somehow, I was well inside the escort screen, and the only other visible targets were small merchants and a tramp steamer - I guess if I had been cool headed, I would have fired my last remaining torpedo at one of these smaller ships but in a mix of optimistic hope and fear, I rigged for silent running, let loose my torpedo at the battleship and dived to 150 metres straight on and straight away . . . I registered the torpedo impact but by this time I was already down to 40 metres and I eventually crawled out from under the convoy, with no indication of pursuit, to arrive safely at St Nazaire the following morning. Nothing appeared on my log to indicate that the battleship had been sunk so perhaps I should have used my torpedo more effectively but this might have taken time to set up and thereby increased the risk of subsequent detection. What would you have done? And, if only I still had more torpedoes left - firing all four forward torpedoes at the battleship could surely have sunk it . . .