Pride comes before a sinking ...

[Obersteuermann]

I was pottering about north of Ireland earlier with a brand new VIIC. Weather was appalling, absolute stinker of a storm (visibility ~600m), so I was making regular dips below surface to have a listen for anything going on in the area.

Luck was on my side, I picked up a large convoy! We raced ahead of it, submerged and I positioned the boat just between where the first two columns would pass. Stopped the engines, popped the scope up, and waited. This convoy had been hit by some other lucky captain before me and the front escort had obviously been sunk. A couple of ships were burning as well.

I sat, snug as a bug in a rug, and let the convoy steam over me before launching torpedoes. I couldn't miss! A Modern Tanker passed about 500m in front of my bows, a Large Cargo some 300m astern. Both went down within minutes of each other. I finished off a burning Nipiwan-Park type tanker, and another Large Cargo that appeared out of the gloom. This was like shooting ducks!

Soon enough, we ran out of eels. I patted the torpedo gang on the back and set course back out to sea, staying at periscope depth while thumbing through my KTB and gleefully adding up my total tonnage. Including earlier victories, I'd sunk about 45,000GRT - not bad for a maiden patrol, eh?

Then it happened. At 0421 my soundman suddenly reported Asdic pings. Next, he reported a destroyer in its attack run! 0422, the cans hit, causing major damage everywhere. Straight after that, the damn destroyer rammed my tower - and that was the end of U-421's maiden patrol.


Yes, my friends, in my pride I'd forgotten that there's no such thing as an unescorted convoy in late 1941. The rear sweeper had literally run straight over me while I was patting myself on the back and thinking myself to be the next Kretschmer. I guess the destroyer's soundman couldn't believe his own luck.

Lessons learned:

a) Never hang around near the surface after an attack. Shoot, dive, get away. There's always those long days in between sightings to read the KTB!

b) Even if the weather is filthy, some clumsy idiot in a DD is going to find you if you're anywhere near the surface. Sod's law, it'll happen when he drives his lousy sardine can right over you in weather which you could have been sailing the Graf Zeppelin around in without anyone noticing.

c) War is unfair!