War story: A close call on U-123.

[Vikinger]

U-123 is my sub iam commanding. A lovely IXC ship.

But this day i was close to loose her.

On a long patrol in the caribbean.

It was during early morning 18 juli 1943 in grid ED83.

My sonarman picked up some radar signals.

I tought i give it a go and investigate it. And as i closed in on a good interception course my sonarman picked up 2 more radar signals.

First i thought it was a task force but then my lookout spotted some merchants whit escorts ships.

I could count to 8 big fat tankers. 4 was US ships and 4 was Panama ship. And also 3 escort ships. 1 corvette and 2 JC Butler class destroyers.

I orderd periscope depth and slow speed. They where coming right into my arms.
A perfect prey and i was in perfect attack position.

It was still dark this morning so i had good cover from that and also the sea state was rough and windspeed at 11.

I sneaked in and just waited at 15 meters depth. I got the 2 JC butler perfectly lined up whit 1 of them 1000 meter astern and the other 800 meter abeam.

I had loaded aft torpedo tube whit an falke accoustic torp and so also tub 1 and 2.

Scope up,, get the solution and fired my stern first, and then same procedure for the bow tube.
down scope, waited,, waited,, and then BOOM.,, and a few second BOOM again. i had hited both of them. They didnt sunk but they was crippled coz the Eel had blown thier propellers away.

They started to shoot a lot of starshells. But they where confussed and didnt know where i was.

now when i took care of the 2 deadliest threat to me. I raised scope and took aim.

It was a feast. I emptied all of my torpedoes i had in the torpedoe room but i saved 1 falke. I had now 1 accustic left in my bow and 1 in my stern.

I had managed to sink 4 medium tankers.
And crippled 2 destroyers.

Time 07:37 Ship sunk M/V Thorsholm (Medium Tanker), 12011 tons.
Time 07:39 Ship sunk M/V Montezuma Castle (Medium Tanker), 12007 tons
Time 07:42 Ship sunk M/V Mirza (Medium Tanker), 12008 tons
Time 07:45 Ship sunk M/V Eulima (Medium Tanker), 12009 tons


And a few minutes later one of the destroyer also sunk.

Time 07:47 Ship sunk USS Samuel B. Roberts (JC Butler Class) , 1350 tons


At this point i was quite happy, But i had made a huge misstake.
Where is the last escort ship, the corvette.
I started to look for her. and suddenly i spotted her. She came right on me in cover of a sinking tanker. I nearly paniced and fired away my last bow Falke at her. I thought ahhhh thanks krieigsmarine for the accustic torpedo.

I "cheated" a bit here and i wanted to follow the torpedo.
As it closed in on the target i saw it did go right at her propellers but just when she was about to impact the Eel changed course a bit and hited the rudder.

A Big CLANGGG sound and the Eel did not explode !!!!
And it lost track of the corvette and vanished in distance.


Darn , the corvette closed in on me and all i had left was an falke in the stern.

I dived down to 20 meters, slowly started to turn my sub so i didnt reveal my position. Then i heard depth charges in water but it was not close so the corvette did not know where i was.
then up to periscope depth,, scope up, looked for the corvette. DAMN rough sea. Then i spotted the corvette. She was right behind me. But she was extremely close to me. about 400 meters. A quik solution and i fired my last accoustic at her. Down scope and dived to 15-20 meters at full speed.

I waited for the explotion but it didnt come. I "cheated" once more and went to free cam. The Eeel had missed it first run but had turned around and was just behind the corvette. The corvette had closed in om me and was just 100 meters away. They knew where i was coz of my full speed.

Then to my amazing i saw just when the Eel was about to hit, They turned of thier engines so the Eel lost track of her and went just past her hull.

Then i saw the Eel started its search pattern and had found a new prey.

WTF it was me, my lovely sub. The torpedo went after me.

Now i paniced. I turned of my engines like the corvette did and all i could do was pray.

The torpedo lost track of me also but it came just 10 meters from my hull from the stern to the beam alongside the sub.

Here can you se how close it was. I managed in the panic to take a screen of it.
The Eel has just passed my sub and you can se the trail of it above the conning tower.





As soon it had passed me i let out a big phiiuuuu,,,

Then i remember the corvette.

God damn she was coming right on top of me. I order crasch dive but it was to late. She dropped a well aimed depthcharge that landed right on top of my conning tower.

It destroyed all of my AA guns.

3 compartment had flooding the engines was damaged , both electric and diesel.

I had no propolusion. Glas was breaking ,Pipes bursted out water. People was screaming. The light went off.
And i was starting to sink,,,

I orderd all aviable crew to damage control and the rest to the compartments that had flooding.
It was a race against the time now.

My hull had suffer damage so i had only 69% left so i didnt know at all how deep i could go.

I sunk,,, 50 meters, 100 meters and here we recoverd from flooding in 1 compartment. Still sinking, 150 meters, it starts to creek loudly on my crippled hull. The light came back. 170 meters, 190 meters,,
I got a report: Kaleun we are taking damage.

1 more compartment was recoverd from flooding so now we had only one left,, but still no propolusion.

I order blowballast tank. If it work we will surface but then we have 2 dangerous ship around us so i guess we end up in prison camp for the rest of the war.

Ballast tank blowed, and at the deep of 203, it stopped, then she slowly started to raise. She went up to 170 meters and then she started to sink again.
At 190 meters all compartments was recoverd from flooding. But i was still sinking.

Order to fix the electric engine.

I had to blow ballast tank 4 times, and my sub went up and down like a jojo. from 200 meters up to 110, and then down again.
I didnt had much compressed air left for more than 1 or 2 ballast blowings but then my sub started to pick up some speed,, slowly, slowly, 1 knot,,,, 2 knot,,, 3 knot and now i could controll the deep. The crew had manage to fix one of the electric engines. just in time

mean time all this happend the corvette tossed depthcharges around me but noone of thos hited me.

I managed to sneak away. And after 3 hours we had lost contact whit the ships and surfaced. The sub was a wreck.

All guns was destroyed. 1 deisel engine and electric engine was destroyed.
But we had 1 working electric and deisel engine left.

After a few weeks we manage to return to our homeport at Lorient.
I bought a bottle of beer to my crew

Non had died during this patrol but my thoughts goes to that corvette that manage to avoid 2 falke accoustic and nearly got me killed by my own Eel and then his precisly depthcharge drop that nearly got us killed also.

But this is the life of an Kaleun. Now our faitfull U-123 is fully repaired and we are order out on our next assignment.

The war is getting harder and harder.
I wonder if we will survive untill its end.

Ps: I must say that this incident was the most thrilling and heartpumping event i ever encounter in this game.
Started out as an easy attack but become a fight for the life of my crew and sub.

[fabel]

Nice story

[U-104]

[NealT]

I can only imagine what the real U-boat crews must have gone through...

Well done!

[Brag]

Vikinger,
That's some heart-pumping action. Congratulations on completing a difficult mission!

[Gezoes]

Holy cow, that was intense and a nice read! Let us know how it goes on, must be something with the number because I am also in command of U-123 LOL

[Jimbuna]

Rivetting stuff...well done

[Dallass_Drake]

Good read