The Rock and the Hornet's Nest

JDinAUSTX · 05-10-20, 07:45 AM

It wasn't due to any special tracking skills of my own which lead me to find them, just blind, dumb luck. Our accidentally being in the right place at the right time.

We'd finished our work just to the southwest of the English Channel, and with four torpedoes remaining, three in the bow and one in the stern, I decided to head back towards La Rochelle. Then we stumbled upon a large convoy.

I noticed we were in a pretty good position already, so we maneuvered just a bit, went silent, hid the periscope until they were passing right in front of us. Raised the scope to witness lots of juicy freighters, plenty of escorts and following all of them - the Illustrious escort carrier.

Time to see who wants to be a Sea Wolf. Very carefully, and expecting to have it all go south on me, I maneuvered in perfectly behind the carrier and sent all three T5 "Zaunkönig" torpedoes from my bow tubes right at the tailpipes of the Illustrious. Of course, I cut my motors - as I've had a scare with one of the T5's turning back on my boat before. Expecting to get a dud, a miss or two, I was quite happy to see all three explode under the stern of the carrier in rapid succession. Serious damage. Sinking as a couple of aircraft got off her deck before she started to go under the waves.

Now, to see about getting out of there alive. But you don't hit a hornet's nest with a rock and not have hornet's come after you. It wasn't too much later, we were low on air, sitting snug on the bottom of the ocean and being pounded by depth charges. One of my crew had a heart attack, and the boat was given a hearty stinging by the furious Brits.

Eventually, we limped quietly away, and then after surfacing made a run back to base in France. I think my U-Boat now has a permanent scar - the pump will run all but a meter of water out of the boat, so I'm reminded of how close we came to being full of sea water.

05-10-20, 07:45 AM	#1
JDinAUSTX Swabbie Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: Olympia, WA Posts: 13 Downloads: 62 Uploads: 0	The Rock and the Hornet's Nest It wasn't due to any special tracking skills of my own which lead me to find them, just blind, dumb luck. Our accidentally being in the right place at the right time. We'd finished our work just to the southwest of the English Channel, and with four torpedoes remaining, three in the bow and one in the stern, I decided to head back towards La Rochelle. Then we stumbled upon a large convoy. I noticed we were in a pretty good position already, so we maneuvered just a bit, went silent, hid the periscope until they were passing right in front of us. Raised the scope to witness lots of juicy freighters, plenty of escorts and following all of them - the Illustrious escort carrier. Time to see who wants to be a Sea Wolf. Very carefully, and expecting to have it all go south on me, I maneuvered in perfectly behind the carrier and sent all three T5 "Zaunkönig" torpedoes from my bow tubes right at the tailpipes of the Illustrious. Of course, I cut my motors - as I've had a scare with one of the T5's turning back on my boat before. Expecting to get a dud, a miss or two, I was quite happy to see all three explode under the stern of the carrier in rapid succession. Serious damage. Sinking as a couple of aircraft got off her deck before she started to go under the waves. Now, to see about getting out of there alive. But you don't hit a hornet's nest with a rock and not have hornet's come after you. It wasn't too much later, we were low on air, sitting snug on the bottom of the ocean and being pounded by depth charges. One of my crew had a heart attack, and the boat was given a hearty stinging by the furious Brits. Eventually, we limped quietly away, and then after surfacing made a run back to base in France. I think my U-Boat now has a permanent scar - the pump will run all but a meter of water out of the boat, so I'm reminded of how close we came to being full of sea water.