The Phantom

[GoldenRivet]

January 1944


The Bay of Biscay

Targets are few and far between. Tonnage claims from across the various theaters have slowed to a trickle. The allies... have stopped making mistakes. There is rumor of a new band of allied radar which our FuMB cannot detect, and with the growing number of losses i need very little convinving.

As we cleared Brest, france I was watching the gulls play on the wind all around the boat. My moment of quiet reflection was broken buy a sudden outburst of anti-aircraft artillary followed promptly by screeching air raid sirens. I ordered the men to take to the flak guns but fortunately for us we got little use out of them. As we cleared the harbor, thick black smoke climbed into the sky behind us, the port of Brest was ablaze. Hopefully our fellow U-boatsmen, friends, girlfriends and well wishers made it to a safe location before the bombers let loose of their deadly load.

We were jumped four more times in the bay transit by Churchill's flyers. Fortunatley my crew is seasoned and capable and we managed to get the boat under before the enemy aircraft could formulate an effective attack against us. Despite the sour direction our little conflict has taken of late they remain confident that they can sink any ship on the sea.

Our first really close call came two nights later. We were hunting by hydrophones, within about an hour of surfacing to recharge the batteries. Ernst was scanning his hydrophone receiver like a man with an obsession. Suddenly, without any warning, we were being pinged. Our agressor still had some distance to cover as the pings were several seconds apart.

"Ernst." i whispered.

Ernst was concentrating deeply and either ignored me or did not hear me say his name.

"Ernst!" i raised my voice "Where is this phantom bastard?" i asked

Ernst looked at me from his hydrophone station through the hatch as i leaned into the opening.

"I dont know sir... he must be directly behind us." Ernst said

the look of surprise on his face gave me a bit of a chill. I had completed almost a dozen patrols with him and when it came to the sounds of the sea through his hydrophone... Ernst was never surprised.

I turned my attention to the Chief.

"Dive planes set for normal dive, rig for silent running, rudder fifteen degrees to port"

The order to rig for silent running was a bit redundant i guess, when the first ping hit our boat every man aboard U-401 could have heard a mouse farting in Picadilly square . It was only a matter of turning a few degrees before Ernst heard the low rumblings of a destroyer.

"Sound contact sir." Ernst whispered "Warship, moving dead slow and closing on bearing 190 degrees."

"Alone?" i asked

"Yes sir I think so." Ernst said

I looked back at the chief engineer.

"This Tommy is lucky today... he has found himself right in our baffels." I told the Chief

The chief scratched his head as he glanced at the depth gauge which was now passing 70 meters. The pings still several seconds apart.

"What do you want to do?" he asked

"Well... we dont know what kind of toys this little bastard is playing with up there, take her down to 180 meters, keep the shallow turn going, and deploy decoys at 80 and 100 meters." Those were my orders to the crew... silence and evasion.

"he who fights and runs away-" i said perking my eyebrows

"-lives to fight another day." the chief interrupted nervously.

As we neared 100 meters the destroyer increased his speed and matched our change in direction. This tommy wasnt going for either the 80 meter nor the 100 meter decoys. The moment Ernst reported splashes we went ahead flank and tightened our port turn. The explosions rocked the boat severely, but all compartments reported clear. As we neared a southeasterly heading we stopped the turn. The British destroyer had now lost us in his baffels.

"Now it is his turn again..." I said

The destroyer made a hard turn to starboard. I had a pretty good idea that we had lost him when he made the turn away from us. He continued a rather relentless assault for about 45 minutes against the decoys. We had quite easily given him the slip.

"Nice work gentlemen... that was absolutely text book." I complimented the crew

As Ernst reported the destroyer fading to the northwest we came to periscope depth and i took a look at our "phantom". A hunt I Class Escort Destroyer. The target was moving slowly away, and we were perfectly aligned for a bow shot straight up his screws.

Against my general rule of not attackign destroyers i sent a spread of two torpedoes for our "Phantom" set to drtonate under the keel magnetically. Both Shots missed, and the destroyer was none the wiser that he had even been shot at. It had cost me two torpedos to try and show this phantom who's ocean he was really in. And it had cost him a fair amount of depth charges. Though we had both exchanged blows... we both slipped away emtpy handed.

Three hours later we surfaced to recharge the batteries. The remainder of the evening was uneventful.

The next day, we once again surfaced just before dawn to recharge the batteries. It wasnt long after we fully recharged when Ansel called out a radar warning activation. Assuming it was an incoming aircraft we made a slow dive to Periscope depth.

Through the observation scope i scanned the barely lighted horizon for any signs of smoke as Ernst scanned for the sound of beating props.

"Sound contact sir---" Ersnt said

"Yes... I see him." I interrupted. "... it looks like our phantom is back, and he is making plenty of smoke for someone!"

(to be continued)

[TarJak]

Nice work GR! Can't wait for the next installment.

[JG10r_Bull]

that's a good little read Sir

[Deathfrombelow23]

Very nice read! Can't wait to hear what happens to U-401. Too bad you didn't have a Zaukonig acoustic eel to shoot right up the Destroyer's baffles. Or... do you??

[TomcatMVD]

Damn tommies!
Good tactics out there Kaleun! If you ever stop by Brest, I could use some evading lessons.

[Jimbuna]

Ya lucky begga

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Excellent read, awaiting more!

[GoldenRivet]

continued...

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=130330

[Brag]

Very good read!