U-100 "Blackcat" at Sea again

[Bluewings]

Cruise ??

Tell my Machinist and repair Officer that it was a cruise

lol !

Cheers .

[OS3 Slickvic]

Great stories! The only thing missing is the month and year you set sail. Inquiring minds want to know.

[Laughing Swordfish]

Yes, great story. Now I have yet another boat to care about!

There may be some discrepancy, but the last time I saw Kaleun Goelf was U-100 charging off out of the Bay, armed to the teeth and ready to go, round about the Summer of 1941.

Knowing him and his crew, I'm not surprised he soon sought out trouble.

Good hunting, Bernie, and keep your signaller tapping!

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[oFZo]

Originally Posted by OS3 Slickvic

Great stories! The only thing missing is the month and year you set sail. Inquiring minds want to know.

Exactly! That certainly helps to improve the mental image I have with your stories!

[Bluewings]

I indicated in my reports that I was using Type III torpidoes as well as Type I fat 1 .

Type III became available in French Ports early '42 and pattern-running Torpidoes (fat series) late '42

Nobody clicked on this ? :hmm:

I am in December 1942 .
--------------------------------------
Regarding the U-46 "SwordFish" Novel , I let the Author carry on his own story the way he sees fit .
Lt. De Bunsen , an old friend of mine , only has to remember that ~so far~ U-100 "Blackcat" was still alive up to December 1942 .

I have to say that I am glad and proud to be present in his "Memories"
--------------------------------------
On a more personal note , I only do "reports" while R. De Bunsen is a talented writer . I am certainly not trying to "emulate" his work or style . This is beyond my abilities .

Furthermore , being a Frenchman , English is not my native language and it is already hard enough to put my ideas into words . I beg your forgiveness if I somehow mistreat English language

B. Goelf out .

Cheers .

[Bluewings]

And thank you all for your kind words , really

Cheers .

[Bluewings]

January 2nd , 1943 .

I set sail from Lorient with my "Blackcat" , heading for Grid BD 67 .
But I am not happy ...

For reasons unknown to me , Kriegsmarine has decided not to give me the Torpido load chosen by me during briefing .

I find myself without any Acoustic Torps , Fat 1 are unavailable and all I have to sink ships with my VII-B is 6 TIs and 8 TIIIs .

Have they lost their trust in me ?..

Or is it because of my habit to go after Destroyers ?..
I do not know .

Fighting against the Royal Navy was already hard enough , but now that the US Navy is taking part more and more every day , I found Kriegsmarine 's decision regrettable , to say the least ...

I actually wrote a personal note to Admiral Donitz to inform him of my anger and frustration .
Furthemore , I had an old battle to resume in Grid AL 35 where I almost lost my boat to the RN , and I was hoping ~requesting I should say~ that Kriegsmarine send me again in the same area as everybody knows that English battleships almost always patrol the same area for months .

I suspect that they don 't like theirs Cpt. to take things on the personal level , but again I strongly disagree . The fact is that my own crew was waiting to get back there as well , and for the same reason .

History is not repeating itself it seems ...

...

I wasn 't more than 120nm away from Lorient when the first Air attack occured . 2 catalinas came at us from nowhere .

"Crash dive" !

Re-surfaced 2 Hrs later when my sonar boy heard a faint echo at our starboard , long range .
It ended up being a lone small English tanker, probably empty as it was making 16 Kts (!)
We pushed the engine to full ahead at 19 Kts , and slowly but surely closed on it .

At 3800m , I matched its speed and order my watch officer to get the deck gun ready , explosive shells loaded .

11 rounds later , the Sea was quiet again .
One down .

Nothing else until our arrival on Grid Patrol .

...

3 days later , still nothing on the horizon ...
Crew is playing Chess or cards and fruit juices are going down faster than usual ...

...

Enough of this . After a long talk with my No 1 , we decide to sail North , direction Grid AK 38 where we 've been few months ago .
It is a Grid where Convoys from Halifax are sailing to Liverpool .
With a bit of luck , we should be able to get some tonnage .

We found 2 more little tankers on the way . Weather was not on our side and I had to use Torpidoes to sent them to the bottom .

We then spent 2 days on Grid AK 38 , searching around for targets but no luck . Where are they for cry out loud !

Diesel was now getting low . Time to head SSE , direction BE 33 , near the English coast . Choosing this area is a bit of a risky business in early '43 as the RAF is heavily patroling those coastal waters , but we need some tonnage .

I do not want to go back to Lorient with only 3 enemy ships sank . That would be a shame ! Especialy with 11 Torps left onboard .

All the lads at "Le Chat Noir" would laught at us ...

...

Our journey to Grid BE 33 was ...awefull ! Very bad weather , huge waves , rain , and lightnings striking the Sea relentlessly . The watch crew hated it .
And that bloody fog at night ...

Even the skies are against us ...

When the weather became better , we had our first contact for days .

"Aircrafts spotted !"

"Crash dive !"

Sometimes , you really ask yourself what you did to the Gods to deserve such punishment ...

To cut it short , we didn 't see a single vessel for 3 more days and we had to crash dive at leats once a day

"Cpt. , we 're low on fuel "
Alright , back to base . *$&()%^%£ !!!

The last day was a beautifull day , like mid July . But we 're in February and without any fuel ...

...

To my surprise , on arrival to Lorient , I 've learned that I have been promoted to Ltn. Commander !!
Apparently , I 've sunk more than 500.000 tons in 34 months and 19 Patrols .

I told you , sometimes you have to ask yourself ... :hmm:

B. Goelf out .

Cheers .

[Bluewings]

February 1943 .


This time , I left Lorient with a good torpido load but unfortunatly , no acoustic Torps .
BdU sent us to Grid AF 47 , near Scopa Flow .

After a long chat with my No1 , I decided to use the British Channel .

We could have sailed to the Atlantic and simply go around Ireland but it would have cost us a lot of fuel .

The VII-B is not known for its very long range and I thought "better to cut short" . The problem is :
#1 : The depth is only 180m at most and sometimes as low at 80m
#2 : Those costal waters are heavily patroled by the RAF .

To this extent , I took one more week off to make sure I had at least 2 good Warrant Officers qualified in Flak gunnery to man our 2 light Flak guns .
That ended up being a good move !

We left Lorient in good weather , which is a shame as I was counting on bad Seas and fog to cover our advance through the Channel . Sometimes , you just have to get along with what you get ...

As soon as we reached Grid BF 2. , we started to get heavy Air contacts . Mostly Catalinas . My watch crew did very well and spotted every incoming Aircraft in time .
We soon started to take them down as they came .

...

After 3 days at Sea , day time under and night time on surface , we had gunned down no less than 10 Aircrafts (!) .
7 Catalinas , 2 Sunderlands and 1 Hurricane , and without suffering any damage or casualties .

That was 10 too many ...

And we were only third way across the Channel , near Southend on Sea . At that rate , we would have taken down no less than 30-40 Aircrafts before to be in the clear , up in the North Sea .

I did not want to bet on such luck , so we turned around to head back for the Atlantic . The british Channel in 1943 was just too heavily guarded for a boat like ours to go through ...

We lost 6 days at Sea , and the fuel , without seeing any Ship .
To be honest , I don 't think U-Boats are made to take the mighty RAF down .

We 're now back into open Ocean , heading for our Patrol Grid .

End of message .

B. Goelf out .

Cheers .

First page Report :

[Laughing Swordfish]

Great report, Bernie.

Making a run for it through the ENGLISH Channel on full AA guns is not something I'd like to attempt unless I was in charge of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen all together, but good luck to you!

Keep her up and see you back!

LS

[Wilko]

Keep at it Kapitan :|\

[Bluewings]

Thanks "SwordFish" . Indeed it would probably be easier with 2 or 3 Battleships , but I doubt it ... The Channel in '43 is just a nightmare ...

Wilco , thank you for your encouragements .
Reports can be a bit boring to read when not much is happening , but such is life at Sea sometimes ...

Cheers .

[Bluewings]

Cheers .

[Bluewings]

March the 9th , 1943 .

We 're back in Lorient in one piece .

We shot down 15 Aircrafts and sunk 9 Ships . :P
My award box is now full .

Kurt Mannesman , our Chief Sr. Flak gunner , did get wounded during one Air attack , but my medic Team took good care of him and he was back at his station after 36 Hrs .
I awarded him with a second Class Cross and 2 bottles of French cognac .
The crew did put some money in an empty 20mm shell case and bought him a case of Puligny-Montrachet 1936 ~a very good year as we 've been told~ for good mesure !!

Time for a party now .
(we 're not in condition to F**k)

Cheers .

[Wilko]

Well done

I have never managed to get all medals as I play DiD and with my learning skills as such I only last 3 or 4 patrols before slipping beneath the waves on eternal patrol.

Looking foward to the next installment :|\

[Bluewings]

Thank you Wilco

Hum , what do you mean by "playing DiD ?

Btw , here are few tricks I discovered during my time at sea :

#1 : During Air Attacks , if your Flak fire is good and heavy enough , enemy Aircrafts do NOT drop depth charges but rather use theirs light guns and run away for theirs lives :rotfl:

#2 : a faster diving U-Boat is a good U-Boat , and at that game , nothing can beat the VII-B : 30 secs flat and even less if you 're already going ahead full . Crash diving when you 're making 19 Kts can be as short as 27 secs . :P

#3 : Same apply for surface fights against Destroyers . Making 19 Kts and zig-zaging while your crew man the deck gun and you at the UZO firing acoustic Torps from the "hip" can cripple a Destroyer in no time . You just need guts !

#4 : in calm weather , do not hesitate to engage enemy marchants/Cargos/Tankers with your deck gun as far as 4000m . At that distance , they rarely return fire and if they do , they miss . Make sure to match their speed to avoid changing range too often . Keep your Torps for large Convoys and task Forces .

#5 : If you are up against one Destroyer ~and one only~ fight at periscope depth . This way you can fight back with your Torps . Face him and turn 25 Deg starboard/port at the last moment ~before to get rammed~ then go back immediatly on your straight line and fire at him using your stern tube while the bugger is turning around . Keep your speed up .

B. Goelf out .

Cheers .