It Finally Happened

[Brag]

11 May 1941, 5th day of patrol. U-103 IXB. 200 miles west of Gibraltar. U-boat lost with all hands.

With accute perspicacity, I intercepted the large zigzagging convoy at 0315. The weather had turned sour: Moderate seas, rain. Without seeing escorts found myself amid a bunch of small freighters. Managed to get intermittent sightings of a large and a medium merchant. Launched four torpedoes at extreme range. 2 exploded prematurely, one missed. One hit: Large merchant sank immediately. Following my own dictums dove silently to 200 meters. Was not bothered by escorts.

Clear of the convoy, surfaced, plotted intercept for the following evening. followed plotted course at TC32, dealing with tired crew and torpedo reload.

Crash, bang "Das Boot ist bescheldig."
"Alaaarm."
We crash dived. Conning tower, flasck & DG, forward crew, aft crew, electric motors, aft torpedo compartments damaged.

Evaluating: Damage was not severe.
Pinging, destroyer rumbles overhead. We qre at 30 meters (I had slowed the dive not to agravate damage.
"wasserbomben."
Ahead flank. We avoided the DCs.
Off silent running, fixed leaks. Damage under control. Continue dive to 80 meters. Back to silent running.
Destroyer makes another pass. Depth charges explode some distance away.
Haha, we've made it. 5 minutes later we are at 100 meters. The destroyer makes another pass.
End of career

Analysis
Mistake number one. Proceeding in vicinity of convoy in low visibility at more than TCx1
Not considering convoy would change course.
Getting too smug about destroyer's capabilities, not avoiding depth charges by going flank at the moment of drop until the misses were at a greater distance.
Forgot to keep turning ALL the time.
Conclusion: After many succesful attacks, captain got overconfident.

Read the advice on convoy attacks on my webbie. If you don't get overconfident, they will work until you make a mistake.