(Story) U-46 puts to sea again

[Kpt. Lehmann]

I believe Neal Stevens is the forum boss. You might start there sir.

[Laughing Swordfish]

"Red light on!"

Second Watch started gathering by the ladder in the Control Room.

Putting on wet and clammy oilskins. Muttering sleepily.

"Periscope depth, if you please Chief?"

Quiet commands were issued to his control men
I clambered up and had a sneak preview.

Nothing in the sky, and with the shake of Hans' head I was confident that that there was nothing on the surface either.

"Surface stations"

"Bring her up Chief. Tell the Cook to bring some hot coffee forward"

I turned to Willi.

"Up second on the ladder, Quartermaster, and take one of your ensigns up with you. Let's get a good star fix"

Bruno is organising the ready-use AA shells, he's my 2nd Leutnant
A young man, don't know why they call him Bruno, other than I've never seen a frightened bear called Bruno.

"Surface"

U-46 kicks upwards again, just on her diveplanes. A little ballast blown, and she surfaces magnificently. The Chief is watching his dials but I know him too well, to know he's smiling.

Young Bruno, Willi and the lads are already through the dripping conning tower hatches, and binos in place on every quarter.

I can afford to saunter up after them. Watch Willi take his fix, and instruct the midshipmen in astral navigation

Except I can't.

Now that we're on the suface and the weather seems to have abated.

Viktor is working hard on the morse key, and scribbling hard on the note pad on his table.

[Nopileo]

I haven't been very active here lately, as I'm having a serious backflash on Rome: Total War (and Barbarian Invasion), but this thread I have to follow.

Thank you for keeping us posted on U-46's endeavours! (...and thank you moderators for the e-mail notifications on new posts )

[Laughing Swordfish]

Viktor is scribbling furiously.

His detective novel cast impatiently to one side, as I hover in the radio room doorway.

I don't know how he knows it, length of message, character groupings, or the morse 'signature' of every sender anywhere.

Everyone high or low, Navy, Army or Luftwaffe, 'leans'on the key in an individual manner. Struggles with one character, booms through with the next set, morse keying to the highly trained listener is like listening in on a highly privileged party line.

They have to be decoded yet, but Viktor has already sorted ot the wheat from the chaff.

"Damned weather report requests!" He exclaimed, as a with a sweep of his arm, various bits of paper were consigned to the far reaches of his tiny working space.

"This one, Sir!"

He waggled a lone finger at me, catching my eye

"U- 469! SOS in Clear!"

(Young Stephan on his first patrol with 7th Flotilla)

I turn to shout for Willi, our Quartermaster and Navigation Officer, to find he is already poking his head over my shoulder.

"Plot for U-469's last position. Tell the Chief to stand by for flank speed. More to follow. Move!"

Willi dashed away.

Now Viktor is writing fast. Ignoring his Kapitan, both phones clamped to his ears, staring at the receiver as if it was speaking to him personally

A few low oaths, and the odd muttering as he pencils down the codes, cursing foully against his damp paper

I wait there powerless until he has finished.

"U213, I'd know Wolfie anywhere......"

(That's Max's boat, Hundmann is their signaller.)

"Well, what!" I yell

Only Viktor in his position, and at a time like this could have got away with it.

"Quiet, Sir! It's a long message. Let me hear it all!...."

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[Serverdaemon]

More... More... More...!!!!!!!!!


S

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Yes yes MORE MORE .... WE NEED MORE!!!

[Laughing Swordfish]

The other seniors and officers are congregating in the control room as if by some unspoken summons.

I am sifting through the messages that Viktor has punched through the Enigma machine for me.

U-213 saw them first. Got off a full salvo by all accounts. One confirmed, cargo only, estimated 8,000 tons, one tanker hit observed , but still making way.

Then just repeated "L ..L ..L ..L.. L"

'Laufen'

Our pre-determined code for a boat trying to escape

(Run, Max, Run!")

I thought of Max and his lucky pig back home. He would surely make it again this time? No way of knowing, of course, and that was the worst.

He had managed to give us the last course and speed of the convoy he'd attacked. It seemed to be coming up parallel to the Portuguese coast, and then just risking it due North West and strike for home.

Oscar came past from what we call the Medic Bay, and spotted me staring at my map of the Atlantic.

"Basically just a big bit of blue paper."

He said cheerfully

"It's a testimony to the ingenuity of mankind, that we can chase each other around and kill each other on it." he continued

I fixed him with a stare.

The last desperate report from U-467. Young pups out from Kiel too soon, still twisted in my hand.

It read simply:

'Bombed. Unable to maintain depth. Sinking. Abandoning boat. BE SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS......'

Their grid location wasn't that far from us, since I'd been loitering near the lad's position on the northern end of the screen, from the beginning

But to intercept the convoy instead, meant an immediate turn South

Maybe they had got out in time, or at least some of them. But maybe they drifted away, or drowned or froze. Maybe the Brits are picking them up. Maybe they're waiting to pick the likes of us up and bag us too? It's a thousand to one chance.

Oscar can always read my thoughts.

"If it was us, Sir, I'd hope for any odds to be fished out".

My last message was from BdU and of course it overrides all others.

"Attack and destroy convoy. Act decisively!"

Well the last bit of that crumpled message sheet could be construed as having been obeyed.

"Otto, full ahead both, new bearing 350. Yes, Willi were're heading North, give me that search pattern again. Coxswain, stand the Third Watch ready, and flak gun. Have some dry clothes ready. Oscar you'd better clear some room just in case. Tell Bruno to have the covered lamp ready, I'll be up in a minute. Break out flotation aids, dinghies and whatever. Tell the Cook to fire up his stove. Get Hans up We may not need his sound gear, but we might need his bunkspace. Willi bring us in on that search. "

I grin at Oscar, as he goes about his business.

"Enough mayhem for you Oscar?"

A harassed seaman stumbles groggily past on his way forward.

"I hope someone does the same for us" he grumbles bitterly

Oscar smiles and let's him pass.

"That's the whole point, isn't it Herr Kaleun!"


Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[Serverdaemon]

Woo-Hoo!
Go Herr Kaleun, go!


S

[U-104]

[Laughing Swordfish]

I should admit that, being a Noob, I first thought that those icons were a symbol of someone leaning against a wall and puking up!
I'm glad it's not!
Anyway, back to sea...

LS, U-46

[Laughing Swordfish]

"Shut her down to quarter speed, Chief" I murmur into the pipe

"We don't want to come all this way and then run the silly buggers over"

We have both 2nd and 3rd watches up. Some of the 3rd watch, rudely awakened, are manning the fore decking and preparing for, basically, man-overboard drills. Once the gravity of the stuation has been explained to them by the Coxswain, they are bent silently and diligently to their duties.

"We're in the right place, Willi"

"Yes Sir"

It will be a miracle

The ocean is flat for once and the sky is clear. Dawn is soon approaching. As much as we want to rescue our kameraden, we don't want to share their fate. I notice more than one hand concentrating more on the sky than the sea.

"Anything, Bruno?"

My Second Leutnant shrugged and shook his head, then returned to his binoculars.

"Well we've done our best.......

"Light on the port stern!"

It was Johann, our new flak gunner, hastily traversing to engage.

"Hold fire, boy!"

All the seniors are crowding into the Wintergarten, making use of the 20mm irrelevant in any case.

"What did you see, Junge?"

"Just a glow, like a flicker, over there", he pointed in a most un-nautical way.

We followed his rough steer. Peering into the early morning dark.

"Stand by to crash, men!"

"There it is again, Sir!"

And this time we saw it. Maybe only 500 metres off.

Damned fine reckoning by Willi.

"Bruno, tell Otto hard to port, cut to electric motors and steer 197, slow speed and gently does it. Expose the signalling lamp to them, but don't light up the whole of the bloody Atlantic."

It was a rubber dinghy, in fact two roped together by their resouceful Chief, and with a few half-dead souls gibbering and clinging to life by the side.

Twelve in all. Hauled out of the water by 3rd Watch and ushered below. Two needed to be carried down for Oscar to work on

I could hear the coxswain from up here calling for hot drinks and dry clothes

The Chief made sure all his men were on board, before giving me his best salute

"Your Commander?" I enquired.

"Gone, Sir. Stayed with the boat. Brave in the end"

He shook his head tiredly

"The other officers too. The ones that made it out. Lt Hoffmann made way for the lad with the broken arm. He just slipped away. I suppose he was more injured himself than he was letting on.

He looked on the verge of tears

He patted his chest pockets and came up with a cylindrical double tube. Both empty.

"Funny, Sir. I was just lighting up my last cigar when you happened along"

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[U-104]

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Laughing Swordfish,

Your story is fuel for all of us. It is an inspiration. For those of us hard at work modding the game... it keeps us going.

I hope you are considering making it a novel.

Wow man... I am speechless.

All ahead flank LS!!!

[U-104]

[wetwarev7]

Man, every time I get tired tired of SH3 and writing my own journal, I read something like this thread and it makes me want to keep playing and writing. Excellent story!