Desperate Measures

[Keelbuster]

So I take on this nice little convoy in the Gibraltar approach, October 1943. Radio says 5kts so I smile and flank it. After a hydrophone check I surface and get surprised by a patrolling Catalina. I duke it out and manage to bring her down by manning the quad-AA gun myself. It feels good. I get in position and watch them approach. It's glassy-still, and about 10pm. Just one lead escort - turns out to be a Buckleys. Behind it is a medium cargo, a medium tanker, and a small tanker. Easy money. I let the Buckley pass then think - darn - I probably should have just sunk it and then had my way with the merchants but it was too late - he was passed and was snaking. I line up and hit all three ships, with the two tankers breaking up immediately. The medium cargo burns but keeps going. I get deep and go across the convoy - but too loud. The Buckleys finds me - pinging me from what must have been like 2km away. And boy is he pissed. He drops sets of 10 charges at a time, sometimes twice per run (like one run, then turn slightly, and fire take a second run before turning around - I'd never experienced this!). I do the usual evasive thing but he scores a hit and messes up the stern some. I have to run and fix things while he lines up for another good run. Bam - again - flooding amidships and more damage to fix.

This goes on for a while more. I usually don't use decoys for a single pursuer, but he seems so determined and skilled that I start letting them go. They do nothing for me - I can't shake him; he immediately picks me up on active sonar again after each DC run, and he seems to ignore the decoys compeletly. He lands a major hit - all devices on the watch tower are DESTROYED. Basically, the patrol is over. The career might be too. I start to get panicked and send decoys out in bulk, flanking as best I can while trying to keep him astern of me. At one point he goes after a decoy and I run like hell. I get a few minutes peace, thinking I've escaped, and then PING - back again on active. I just can't shake him. More DCs - seemingly an unlimited supply. Then I run out of decoys.

This has gone on for an hour and a half. I can't lose him. I risk my brittle hull and go down to 220m. Phew, she holds. But still no luck - the crystal clear water is like an open window. I can't shake this bastard. Pretty soon we're gonna be Buckley's Mixture. In my mind there's only one desperate option remaining - to come back to PD and take him out. In between DC runs I load the forward tubes. More close hits and flooding. I start my ascent. By the time I'm at PD, he's approaching astern. I have NO PERISCOPES. So I get a bearing off the hydrophone and fire my stern tube down it. Miss. I do a little dive to 25m to avoid getting rammed and then he's overtop and passed me. He DCs like crazy, but luckily they're deep. Back to PD. Open all bow tubes. He's zigging left. I fire each tube at 5 degree intervals, starting 10 degrees to the left of his bearing. Waiting....then... BAM. One of them gets him. 'She's going down!'. I surface to see the burning hulk slip under the waves. Massive elation throughout the boat: desperate, but still alive. Time to break out the rum ration.

Now to begin the return journey to Nazaire with no periscopes, no radio, no radar warning receivers. Hoping to get back by the old method - travelling by day and crash diving when the planes show up....