Goodbye U-49, hello U-65

[Panser]

The sad time to part ways with my beloved Type VIIB, U-49 has arrived. Having transferred to 1st flotilla at Wilhelmshaven anticipating a move to a French Atlantic port made it no easier when that fateful message finally arrived:

BdU to U49: Base changed to Lorient.

She has seen me through a year of war, almost to the day. Eight patrols with three different flotillas for a grand total of 390,744 GRT sunk, 116,000 of those being some of Britain's finest warships. There have been highs and there have been lows; The time when a troop transport off Norway tried to ram us and narrowly avoided ripping the conning tower straight off or the time we got badly tangled in a sub net and grounded near Lerwick, having to limp home badly damaged. Similarly the patrol in which we sunk both HMS Hood and HMS Nelson, and of course, the patrol we just finished.

Eleven days from start to finish, departing Wilhelmshaven and returning to Lorient. A 10,000 tonner torpedoed in the strait of Dover. A small merchant gunned on the deep water line of the English Channel, then finally the large convoy intercepted in BE39. Four separate attacks against the same convoy over 36 hours, sinking two tankers, two large merchants, an empire freighter and a medium cargo for a grand total of 65,569 GRT.

On returning to Lorient, a promotion to Kapitäleutnan and Oak Leaves to go with my ritterkreuz await me, but also the offer that cannot be refused:

We're offering you a type IXB. U-65

Farewell U-49. I'm sure Oberleutnant zur See Philipp Baumann, a Knight's Cross winner in his own right, will take good care of you.