U-122 Patrol Report #2

[Zero Niner]

What's this about one of the forward tubes not being able to be reloaded?
Sabotage/malfunction, or a bug with the Type IXB?

[LeafsFan]

There is a thread about it. It was a bug that no one else has seen.

HB

[Mooncatt]

nice succesfull patrol good shotting

[Jimbuna]

Franke surfaced the boat, and the crew quickly reloaded all the tubes except tube #1 which mysteriously would not function.

Hmm :hmm: ...if your using SH3Cmdr then it's probably the sabotage/malfunction at work.
Nice report

[LeafsFan]

I don't use sabotage and malfunctions. What happenned was that I emptied all my tubes in a submerged attack on a convoy, after I evaded the escorts I surfaced, and relaoded all six tubes. All the other five tubes worked as usual, but in tube one you could drag the torpedo over the slot, but it would not "stick". IN patrol #3 I have been using Tube 1 as if it was a external tube. When I am down to five forward torpedoes, I will use #1 and see if I can reload it.

HB

[LeafsFan]

War Patrol #3 U-122 type IXB
For the third patrol, Oblt Franke was assigned a patrol zone off the west coast of Africa, and was ordered to reconnoiter the South Atlantic too ascertain the levels of shipping in the area. The first week was uneventful, as the boat travelled towards its patrol zone. One week into the patrol a British merchant M/V. Wrangell was sunk to the north east of Madiera. The next month saw little British shipping, just many neutrals. East of Ascension Island, two merchant ships, M/V Custer and S.S. Rich Mountain were spotted traveling together and sunk with a combination of torpedoes and Gunfire. Franke decided to check the approaches to St Helena, and its port Jamestown. A submerged approach was made at dawn of December 30th, and much to his surprise several ships were at anchor. The first attack resulted in the sinking of the destroyer HMS Daring. Three hits were recorded on what was thought to be a Dido class cruiser, but it was not evident that the ship had sunk. After evading the rather ineffective ASW patrol of an armed trawler, and reloading the torpedo tubes, another approach was made. The cruiser which was the Fiji class HMS Nigeria, had indeed sunk. Torpedoes were fired at three small merchants and an armed trawler, HMT Margate. Hits were recorded on all. Once again Franke made his escape. By now night had fallen, and U-122 was running on the surface. After reloading again, Franke decided to make sure of the targets of the second attack with a surface night attack. As it turned out only the trawler had sunk. In the attack, the three small merchants; S.S. Mount Pindus, the S.S. Ophelia Hera, and the neutral Greek ship S.S. Harmonic were sunk. Upon clearing the area U-122 was down to one stern loaded torpedo. Oblt Franke decided it was time to return to port. The return voyage was entirely uneventful other than the spotting of several Vichy French Ships close to port.


M/V Wrangell 25/11/40 6049 tons CF96
M/V Custer 26/12/40 9850 tons FM39
S.S. Rich Mountain 26/12/40 2388 tons FM39
HMS Daring 30/12/40 1375 tons FU28
HMS Nigeria 30/12/40 10725 tons FU28
HMT Margate 30/12/40 540 tons FU28
S.S. Mount Pindus 30/12/40 2625 tons FU28
S.S. Ophelia Hera 30/12/40 2098 tons FU28
S.S. Harmonic 30/12/40 1898 tons FU28

9 ships for 37639 tons

Cumulative Total

34 ships for 202,952 tons

[LeafsFan]

War Patrol #4 U-122 type IXB
U-122 left Lorient on March 1st 1941. North East of Madiera a pair of merchants were spotted on the surface at night. A close approach revealed that they were British and both were hit with one torpedo each. Unknown to KL Franke M/V Robin Locksley was armed with a 3 inch gun and her crew opened up at once. As Franke order the dive a shell hit the water very near the hull forward. The new few minutes were a cacophony of noise as the crew fixed a minor leak, and in the control room Franke sank the Locksley and M/V Empire Lightning after expending several torpedoes. Upon surfacing it was noted that the pressure hull had buckled. East of the Cape Verde Islands a inbound convoy was spotted just at dusk. Conditions were not favorable for a night surface attack as visibility was good, and seas were dead calm. There were three escorts present and with the buckling of the pressure hull in the forward torpedo room KL Franke did not want to chance a depth charging which could be expected in a submerged attack. He decided to try a surface attack from long range. The first approach was off the port beam, two torpedoes were fired at three largest merchants. Six hits were heard, and U-122 was able to escape easily to reload for another try. This time two hits were heard on a tanker, and due to very erratic maneuvering by ships in the convoy a small merchant was hit by a torpedo intended for a larger ship. It seemed like that some ships had sunk, but due to the great distance it was B-Dienst that confirmed the following. The initial pass had sunk S.S. Suamico, M/V Dalhousie, and M/V Kilauea and the second pass had sunk S.S Cometa and M/V Elk Hills. With a functioning torpedo forward, and a broken torpedo aft, course was set for Lorient at a higher speed than was usual due to the high levels of fuel remaining. The voyage to base was uneventful, and U-122 was returned to base on March 29th . After this patrol 2WO Johannes Rahn was reassigned duty onshore.

M/V Robin Locksley 08/03/41 5752 tons CG77
M/V Empire Lightning 08/01/41 12074 tons CG77
S.S. Suamico 18/03/41 11855 tons EJ39
M/V Dalhousie 18/03/41 12216 tons EJ39
M/V Kilauea 18/03/41 5944 tons EJ39
S.S Cometa 19/03/41 2337 tons EJ39
M/V Elk Hills 19/03/41 9655 tons EJ39

7 ships for 59833 tons

Cumulative total

41 ships for 262,425 tons