U-621 is back in port

[GoldenRivet]

... But our patrol was nothing to brag about really.

On 18 July 1942 at 0340 hours we maneuvered to intercept a sound contact in grid square BF17. After locating our target through the scope it was identified as the 1800 ton Coastal freighter S.S. Mountain Wave.

"Our torpedo probably costs more than this rust bucket"

i calculated speed while looking through the scope at the target.

"Damn thing is probably hauling fruit! where are the tankers?"

I decided the tiny tub wasnt worth a torpedo and we were on a bad intercept angle anyhow so i surfaced about 1500 meters ahead of the ship and commenced shelling her. The only gun on the S.S. Mountain Wave is mounted on the stern. Good for dealing with U-boats who are chasing her down... or surface attacks from port or starboard. But there is an arc ahead of the boat where the gun cant concentrate its fire.

We had an easy time of staying ahead of the ship as she zig zagged. After shelling her waterline for several minutes there was a series of massive explosions.

"I dont think she was hauling oranges." the watch officer commented

"No, probably not." i agreed

we departed the area as the ship left a trail of firey debris floating on the surface.

Later that day at 1900 hours we maneuvered to intercept a sound contact, or rather what came to be a pair of sound contacts. Through the scope i observed the S.S. Norness, a 1900 ton coastal freighter and the S.S. Delphin, a 2100 ton small merchant. Again neither ship was probably worth the torpedoes but since there was two of them - and they were both armed - i opted for a submerged attack.

Firing one torpedo at each ship resulted in two misses... the speed calculation was incorrect! after correcting the problem i sent another salvo. The Norness took a hit in the bow and the Delphin went undamaged by what the hydrophone operator reported to be a dud torpedo. I brought the stern tube around and fired a stern shot at the Delphin which completely obliterated the little ship.

"What a costly little engagement that was." i said.

After returning to course we made visual contact with a fast moving American Whale factory ship... in broad daylight. She was bristling with defensive armament and moving much faster than our submerged speed. I knew our only option would be to zig zag in on her to within a fair distance and conduct a schnell boot like attack.

As we rushed in, tiny blasts could be seen all over the whaler, shells could be heard passing overhead and splashing into the sea. fortunately for us the sea state was fairly rough which meant she would have a little more trouble than usual training her guns.

after closing to within 2,000 meters of the massive whaler, her defensive fire was getting uncomfortably close. i computed a quick solution against the zig zagging target and fired a spread of two.

The massive ship turned hard into the torpedoes. this skipper had his whits about him... by increasing the angle of impact, he reduced the chances that the torpedos would fuse. his plan worked.

This whaler had earned the right to make it to port. His fate may be met on the sea one day... but that day was not today. We turned away from the engagement while the massive ship steamed away over the horizon at better than 12 - 14 knots.

We surfaced at dawn and loaded the external reserves. as the loading hatch was closed the lookouts spotted smoke on the horizon. a destroyer. We submerged. Much to our surprise this destroyer was being followed by an armada of merchants.

After closing in onto the targets within the convoy we sighted the closest most reasonable targets we could find and fired our remainint torpedoes. diving away from the incoming destroyers we were never really detected. But heard impacts against the 10,000 ton large merchant we aimed at. sinking sounds and secondaries followed.

out of torpedoes we returned home with a mere 15,879 tons of total merchant shipping to claim.