Story of U-53 - part 1

[VonApist]

November 1942 , aboard U-53 somewhere in the North Atlantic

“This is pointless” the tall bearded figure mumbled, hanging his Zeiss binoculars around his neck. He had been alone on the bridge for the past 2 hours, his only company being his binos, a lighter and his still sealed pack of Mokri’s. He wiped his wet face for the third time in the past minute. Sea spray and the relentless rain had made Oberleutnant Stephan Kloss wet to the bone, water penetrating his thick, hooded anorak. He could feel ice cold water trickling down his spine. It made him shudder.
But he could cope with rain. It was the howling wind that was driving him mad. If this is not a gale force wind, then what IS a gale force wind? So much for BdU weather reports, Stephan snorted.

He leaned towards the hatch. “How much time left Herbert?” the Oberleutnant shouted, trying to make himself heard over the, almost unnatural, howl reverberating from the boat’s radio antennas.
“45 minutes Sir. We are approximately at 80%” his Chief Engineer replied.
“Ok Herby. I’m coming down. I had my share of rain for today. Ask Alois and Karl to come up for watch duty until batteries are fully recharged. No need for more people on watch, visibility is close to zero anyway. And ask Jorg to prepare a hot cup of tea, extra sugar for me”.

“Guten Morgen Herr Kaleun. Lovely weather. And what a refreshing breeze!” Alois shouted at the top of his lungs trying to get heard, as he emerged from the hatch.
“Guten Morgen, Alois. 45minutes and that’s it. Do you think your aristocratic ass can hold on that long in this weather?” Stephan enquired with a playful grin.

Alois’ Prussian heritage was one of the boat’s favorite subject for jokes. To his credit, Alois was fine with it. Well, most of the times. Teasing aside, the crew held their Bootsman in high esteem. And this was not only a result of his abilities and experience. Alois, despite being the offspring of a wealthy aristocratic family, chose to serve in the U boats - as opposed to many of his friends who chose to “skip” active duty on the back of their family connections. For this, Alois has earned a lot of respect from everybody on the boat and from most U boat crews back at the base.

“Here we go again” Alois sighed, taking the binoculars from Stephan’s hands as the captain climbed down the conning tower’s hatch.
With this, Alois turned to Karl.“ Son, if I see a smile on your face you’ll be up for watch duty 24/7 until we head back to St Nazaire” the blonde Bootsman hissed towards the youngest member of the crew.
“Now, I need you to keep your eyes open. It’s going to be daylight in less than an hour. No chit-chat. Keep focused. The only words I want to hear from you are either : Ship Spotted or I need to take a dump. Nothing else. Have I made myself clear sailor?” Alois barked towards the young buck, who sheepishly acknowledged.
With this, Alois raised the binoculars taking a sweep at the horizon, already soaked by the rain and the stinging sea spray.