Guess they forgot something...

dmlavan · 10-23-07, 12:49 AM

It was late March 1942. U-163, a new Type IXC boat, was on its second Paukenschlag patrol off the East Coast of the United States. After a week of rough seas and no contacts, the crew was getting discouraged.

While doing a hydrophone check one night, the radioman detected several merchant ships closing on a perpendicular course. Surfaced the boat, and made a slow approach with decks awash. Coming towards us, only 6000m away, were two orderly columns of merchants and tankers. Did several sweeps with both binoculars and the UzO, and confirmed something was missing... the escorts. Dove again to make sure they weren't off in the distance, but the hydrophones picked up nothing.

This convoy continued to close, unaware of the danger lurking ahead. A few hours later, U-163 sped off. The final tally: 2 steamers and 6 tankers for 73,000 GRT total. Escorts found: none. Not sure if the escorts had been drawn off earlier, or if the convoy had sailed without them. Either way, it was an easy kill and a quick jump up the Aces ladder for the Kaleu.

10-23-07, 12:49 AM	#1
dmlavan Weps Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Jacksonville, FL Posts: 351 Downloads: 69 Uploads: 0	Guess they forgot something... It was late March 1942. U-163, a new Type IXC boat, was on its second Paukenschlag patrol off the East Coast of the United States. After a week of rough seas and no contacts, the crew was getting discouraged. While doing a hydrophone check one night, the radioman detected several merchant ships closing on a perpendicular course. Surfaced the boat, and made a slow approach with decks awash. Coming towards us, only 6000m away, were two orderly columns of merchants and tankers. Did several sweeps with both binoculars and the UzO, and confirmed something was missing... the escorts. Dove again to make sure they weren't off in the distance, but the hydrophones picked up nothing. This convoy continued to close, unaware of the danger lurking ahead. A few hours later, U-163 sped off. The final tally: 2 steamers and 6 tankers for 73,000 GRT total. Escorts found: none. Not sure if the escorts had been drawn off earlier, or if the convoy had sailed without them. Either way, it was an easy kill and a quick jump up the Aces ladder for the Kaleu.