Misadventures of U47 (aka Sea Hunt minus Lloyd Bridges/SCUBA gear)

[frau kaleun]

You're welcome!

[krashkart]

"Otto."

Karsten, standing close to the bedside of his companion, placed his hand lightly on the young man's forehead.

"Otto. You are going home, my friend.", he spoke, quietly, conscious of the rift that had opened in his heart since the flashover in the Channel.

He wiped away a tear that had somehow broken through his youthful rigidity. His own boots, he thought, had become the boots of a tyrant, leaving welts on his soul as they had so many years before. Bring yourself together, you lazy.... His mind began to spin as the waters spilled down over his cheeks.

............

November 6th, 1939

I received a call from port police this morning, bringing me out of my slumber in a terrible way. I had seen it coming... I never wanted to admit that his constitution would falter so early. I had already seen four of my own friends go in much the same way. Sooner or later the heart simply gives up on them. They never come back, no matter how much you want them to.

They had found our sonar operator sitting quietly at the lighthouse, his one remaining eye fixed upon the seas before him. Unresponsive. The coroner told me that the bullet had passed all the way through, taking a portion of his left temple with it. His passing had been instantaneous.

I stayed there a while at the side of Karsten Zinke, son of a successful Berlin contractor and a doting housewife. And for the first time in nearly twenty years I allowed the dam to burst. I cried until I could feel my heart exploding; no point in trying to stop it. All I could think was, "That was number five..."

[frau kaleun]

Iz it can be group hugz time nao?

[krashkart]

Nein nein Fraulein. lol I always wanted to say that.

*gives The Frau a bear hug*

[frau kaleun]

*sniffle*

Thanks. All better now.

[krashkart]

Patrol Log of Werner Mahn


13th of December, 1939 - 0418 hours

Grid AM61, 56km North of Ireland

Had received word of large convoy some six hours prior to this writing. Convoy sighted approx. 0108 hours.

Spotted lone merchant 8km NE of convoy, sailed to engage and hopefully distract escorts. Engagement successful. Turned back toward convoy.

Proceeded with observation of convoy, sailed around 3/4 box pattern to rear of formation. Satisfied with observations. Trailed convoy for approx. 120 minutes with matched speed, no escorts sighted. Closed to engage with deck gun at approx. 0300 hours. Fired one torpedo at trailing merchant, immobilized it, gave order to fire gun. Decided to finish it off with second eel. Success!

Attack proceeded over next hour with negligible resistance, seeing no response from escorts. Unsure at time of their presence. Final merchant began to sink at 0359 hours. Spared neutrals. Broke off engagement and turned SSW toward assigned patrol area.

Very happy with diversionary tactic. Able to destroy entire convoy with two torpedos and 174 rounds 8.8cm. One escort sighted, approx. 6800 meters NW and behind us, well into our atttack. Perhaps communications were poor. Escort was small trawler, which continued sailing southwest as we cleaned up the few remaining merchants. Fired one aft torpedo, and lost sight of escort shortly thereafter. Fate of ship presently unknown.

It is now 0424 hours. Crew ecstatic! As they should be. Gun crew becoming very proficient. Recommending Carlewitz for qualifications on flak guns. We have encountered many hostile aircraft since leaving port.

Patrol far from over. Enroute AM53 for 24-hours R&R, expecting perhaps increased Brit patrols in this area on our way back home afterward.

............

Included below is photograph of map during encounter. In upper-right corner, where the image becomes very blurry, is marked the merchant used as diversion. Plot shows approximate course sailed during observation prior to attack.

[krashkart]

Originally posted this up in the "Tell us what you are up to in your campaign" thread and now archiving it here for reference/further editing. Also, I must apologize for my current inaccuracies in naming the different regions of sea and ocean on the map. I just came to realize that the Western Approaches are actually north of our patrol area, west of Ireland! I am not a man of the ocean... yet. But I will try harder to get everything correct.


January 12, 1940

Just returned to Wilhelmshaven and glad to be back. This patrol was exciting, but very long and incredibly stressful. It was our second consecutive patrol to the Western Approaches, to the same grid as last time.

Encountered more warship activity throughout the Channel than expected, and plenty of merchants. My attempts to conserve our cache of torpedoes was mostly unsuccessful, although the English and the French are now short one destroyer apiece. Additionally, the French will be missing one of their gun trawlers.

Upon completing our patrol we scouted north into the Irish Sea, encountering numerous aircraft. Spent much of the daylight hours submerged. We did manage to send a small portion of fighter-bombers into the ocean. Their aim is terrible at this point. Some of their depth charges exploded nearby, but no harm was done.

Perhaps 20 hours into our reconnaissance I realized that Bdu had contacted us the day before, reporting a possible task force well northwest of our position. Despite our best efforts to intercept, nearly four days had elapsed by the time we reached the area. We found only empty ocean.

The Brits harried us with their aircraft all along the way, one encounter being so far from any shore that at first I thought perhaps the task force could be nearby. Spent an additional 48 hours scouring the surrounding ocean and found absolutely nothing.

We steamed back home, passing north of Scotland. Again, more aircraft, but there was some moderate merchant activity east of the Scapa Flow area. Gave the gunners something to play with.

My crew and I are exhausted beyond belief, and quite demoralized over missing the task force. Perhaps another day we will succeed, but for now it is a glass of Beck's, two plates of hot unspoiled food, and as much sleep as I am permitted.


Note to self:

The crew are overdue for rotation. Dismiss WO after next patrol, if it is possible to promote his subordinate. He has earned his own ship.