Westbound Gibraltar Escorts--Bad News

[Brag]

There is a tricky convoy that spawns in Gibraltar. The only good thing about it, it is difficult to intercept as it changes direction frequently.

In bad weather the escorts are super efficient, must have radar early in the war. They finished my first GWX carreer as I was overhauling the convoy on the surface in low visibility. Their guns blew the sub right out of the water.

Now this:

28 July 1940
Having figured out the convoy changed course every 25 kilometres, I positioned U-53 for an ambush. When I made sound contact I was only 10 kilometers off the convoy's course. I moved away, repositioned, and dove to PD. Sound contact indicated we were on the convoy's path.

We went to action stations expecting the convoy in 45 minutes. Visibility was about 300 meters.

Soundman reported warship approaching very fast. A few seconds later, we heard weak pinging. Through periscope saw a Black Swan passing us 150 meters away. It dropped a load of depth charges.

I stayed quiet but began deep dive.

Shortly, we had 3 escorts and they were pinging us. We were at 30 meters when one of them made a pass overhead and dumped DCs.

Flank speed got us from under that salvo and down to 80 meters. Two ships at a time must have been depth charging. I never heard so many explosions so close together before.

No mater what we did, they had us. Pass after pass was right on top until the convoy arrived overhead and we manged to skulk away.

I don't know about you, but I'm leaving those Gibraltar convoys alone.
Now I need a drink.