U-51 Kapitänleutnant Hans Felix Hartmann

[CPTLTJASON]

Due to technical difficulties I had to restart the patrol (after lengthy troubleshooting)

7/30/1939 Baltic, Kiel 05:20 hrs. 1st day at sea

A 550 foot Soviet motorship quietly departs Kiel Harbor. No fanfare, well-wishers, flowers, not even the seagulls were there to bid the ship farewell, riding low in the water its she is loaded to the brim with cargo . Having sailed now for over an hour she came across an incoming liner, the 18,285 grt S.S. KURMANN of the HAPAG Line passengers snapped pictures of the Soviet ship and waved to the officer on the bridge. As she passed to port the lights of the ship illuminated the stern which donned her name KOSTROMA and homeport MURMANSK. What theses ordinary onlookers did not know what this Soviet ship was part of Hitler’s plan the ship in fact was Schiff 35 and her crew.................................Die Piraten des Diktators.

The Soviet officer seen standing on the bridge is the Kommandant of Schiff 35, 37 year old FregKpt.z.S Hans Felix Hartmann (Spanish Cross/Gold). Looking back at Kiel harbor for one last time, he is the only one aboard who knows that they will be at sea for years and may likely never return. As the lights of Kiel fade into the horizon the first two stanzas of the Hymn to Red October come to mind,

“Cold, hard, empty.

Light that has left me,

How could I know that you would die?

Farewell again, our dear land.

So hard for us to imagine that it's real, and not a dream.

Motherland, native home,

Farewell, our Motherland.”