(Story) Running on coals.

[StarTrekMike]

It was a dark night in Lorient, the party inside the officers lounge was loud and could be heard throughout the base as the men inside cheered and drank to the success of comrades and freinds. I looked inside a window while smoking a turkish cigarette to see the big band play a happy tune while crews from many boats attempted to dance and drink at the same time (a nearly possible feat).
This was a good time for my crew and I, we had two solid patrols under our belt and the boat was still intact and all were well. Our last patrol yielded three confirmed merchants but they were only small boats and all were travelling alone. The boat was still young and we all felt as though the next patrol could bring us within range of a larger target or even a convoy, a convoy would be a true test of skill and I relished the thought of executing a successfull assault and scoring enough hits to sink at least four or five boats.

The next morning I dragged myself out of the very comfortable bed and ate my last full breakfast with the morning sun shining into my large window next to the table. The base newspaper was spread before me showing our victories in the atlantic and the stories of a couple of commanders who completed daring attacts with spectacular results against the royal navy...I hope that I will see myself in this paper after my next patrol, my men need to feel like they are getting recognized and my vanity would be fulfilled.

A couple of hours later and at least four cups of coffee and I finally arrive at my boat. It was a type IXB with the latest engine and battery upgrades, it looked very large in it's dock compared to the smaller type VII's next to it and gave me a sense of pride that my men had a little more room to move around in than the other folks...this was a boat made for longer distances and armed for longer battles. The men were gathered on the deck in tight ranks and full uniform to greet me.

"Good morning Kaleu, the boat and all hands are ready for departure" my second in command Karl Kahler said happily. He was the best friend of everyone on the boat and also mine...he could make anything happen with these men and they trusted him to the end.

I stood straight and at attention and passed my eyes over all the men in line. "good good Karl...we have our orders and I want to get out of here straight away".

Karl broke formation and stood facing the crew, "Dismissed!...get to your departure stations, first watch starts now!"

I took position in my usual spot in the control room and leaned against the map table. "take us out and into open water Karl...ahead standard".

The shuddered and lurched forward as the two massive diesel engines came to life and made the sound I have come to know as the heart beat of the boat. We exited the port and made open water in a very short time while a small trawler ahead of us waved us off and bid us good hunting.


Three days pass en route to our patrol grid without any real action as the men enjoy the sunny weather and the still fresh food. I take the time to read a couple of good books and catch up with my letters to not so close family (I will mail them on return).

SHIP SPOTTED! comes down the ladder and I leap out of bed to find out if this is a joke from a bored crew...it's not. I climb the ladder and grab my binoculars to see a medium sized merchant with a british flag waving ignorantly on the mast.

"Karl give me flank speed, Peter get your men on the gun and get it loaded." I say as I search the deck of the merchant for possible deck guns or AA.

The boat rushes to the merchant at almost 20 knots while the men start ranging in the gun for a easy surface attack after I give them the warning shot to abandon ship.

"Get off your boat! we sink it in 20 minutes!" I yell while waving my arms. The sailors on the merchant look at me odd as if they can't understand what I am saying till I tell my men to open fire off her bow. All at once I see life rafts hit water and men leaving the boat for her fate.

"Such arrogance to sail alone and unarmed in these waters, eh Kaleu?" Karl says over my shoulder while I smile in agreement as the last of the sailors is safetly away from the doomed merchant.

"offenen Feuer!" I yell before round after round slam into the hull below the waterline and the ship begins to give up.

Twenty rounds later the ship is broken and sinking to the bottom while my men look for usable debris to salvage for the trip. and I put another mark on the gun carriage for a total of three.

"Still only a single ship Karl...not enough." I say looking down at the oil slick in the water.

Karl looks at the men fishing clothing and some random cans of food out of the water. "It is still early Kaleu...we are sure to sink the royal navy before to long" he says with a smile.


We arrive at our patrol grid with no more sightings and only a couple of playfull diving drills to make sure we still know how to dive the boat and keep trim. The radio has been active with reports but all were just to far away for us to catch. I tell the men I plan to set up a patrol coarse around the grid in a series of tight circles diving every hour to check for sound contacts.

Almost a day later we catch the sound of screws on a hydrophone check and it sounded slow...a promising sound that could be a large tanker or merchant. I order the boat to that coarse at the best possible speed while I cursed the sea for getting choppy hours ago.

We came up on the ship as the rain started and I struggled to see what flag she was flying and if she was armed before we got to close and they could spot us.

"Ready forward tubes one and two, set pistol on one for magnetic and two impact...fast speed." I yelled over the sound of the diesels and the rain hitting the deck.

I peered through the UZO to see the ship was a large merchant with a british flag on top...and one muzzle flash from the aft deck.

"Crash dive!" I yell as the first shell hits the water near us and we all scramble to the ladder. I take my position in the tower and get the attack periscope ready while yelling for the men to listen for a turn to port where we can get a decent shot and score at least one hit with the eels.

"ship zig-zagging Kaleu...I will try to find a pattern to time." Joachim at the hydrophones yells to me as I wait for the boat to dive to safety.

I hear a loud clang and a bang as a shell hits us and the boat shakes from the impact.

"Damage report!" I yell from the tower.

"We took the hit well but I need to take a look from outside to see if the shell did any real damage." Karl states calmly over the din of the men.

"Contact turning port!" Joachim yells with excitment as I yell for the men to get ready to fire.

"steady...not yet...tube one and two...Los!"

I feel the boat equalize as the eels leave the tubes and sail to the merchant just four hundred meters ahead. I take note of my stopwatch as I hear two large explosions and order the boat all stop.

"good job men!...the boat is going down!" I say as the crew erupts with cheers up and down the boat and Karl nods from below.


A day passes as we search our zone...I run the diesels slow to conserve the fuel and run underwater as much as possible while trying to wait out the storm before we head underway for the return trip...maybe another boat will send a weather report of our route home soon.

more on next post....

[StarTrekMike]

We have been heading home in this foul weather for what seems like many days while I plot a very wide coarse that will take us as close to the british isles as we can go and still maintain enough fuel to get home. The food is stale but not rotting yet and the stench has come on full force now.

I sit at my bunk making some fuel estimates while Karl comes over with a cup of coffee that has more in common with bilge water than makes me comfortable and sets it down at my small table.

"any word on a convoy?" he asks as he sips at his own cup.

"no...BdU has not sent word of anything close enough to us to make any difference, I do however think we may get lucky and spot something." I say taking a sip with no small fear of vomit coming after.

He sits down on the bed next to me and sighs, "what ever we get is enough for the mission...the real goal now is to get home."

"I just want the men to feel good about it...they need to feel the joy of getting a big score and names on the wall at the officers club...hell I need it!"

Karl pats me on the back and heads to the control room while I lay back and tell Joachim to put a record on the turntable, the sound fills the boat and seems to put me at rest enough to sleep.


"Contact Merchant!" Karl yells with his head sticking down from the tower.

I leap out of my sleeping state and grab my hat and a pack of smokes. When I get above deck I see nothing but a small grey dot on the horizon that could be smoke.

Peter the watch officer looks intently through his binoculars "no sight of the flag yet but I think there may be more that we can't see yet...I can almost see more smoke."

I order flank speed and wait till we can get a better view of the target while Karl orders torpedoes ready and all tubes to be ready for solutions. the dot gets bigger and I begin to see more ships in my binoculars...could this be it?

"I can see a british flag Kaluen!...it is a convoy!" Peter yells with excitment as I notice that the water is calm and it is almost like god himself made the tide steady for us.

"Plot and maintain a coarse that will put us ahead and a'beam of the convoy...dive as late as possible" I tell karl as I light a cigarette and take a minute to steady my fast beating heart.


A hour or so passes as we reach a position that will get us a good firing solution and a reasonable chance to escape while we wait for the large lines of ships to get in range.

"depth at 12 meters Kaleu" Karl states as I peer through the periscope and pick out my targets and keep a eye out for warships.

"set all torpedo speeds to fast and get damage control ready just in case" I say while leaning against the scope.


"Contact warship...moving slow and on coarse with the convoy...bearing 194 degrees." Joachim states while he slowly spin the hydrophone wheel with one hand and keeps the other against his headset.

I bite my lip at the though of a warship...we need to strike fast and hope all the eels hit on the first try. If we get caught we could be kept under for hours while we wait for them to give up...or we could be killed.


After some waiting the ships enter range and the sun goes down, I notice a destroyer that is close enough to hear us if we start moving underwater...would it be worth trying a surface attack?...could we dive in time to avoid the deck gun fire?

Karl looks at me with concern as he can see that I am considering a surface attack while we have the new moon and a dark sky to hide us.


"Surface the boat and get ready for flank speed...get the deck gun crew ready while we fire the first wave of torpedo attacks." I order as I hear the rush of compressed air blowing water out of the ballast.

We spend the next short while sneaking around trying to find a entry point where we can fire our eels and make possible deck gun kills on any small merchants while we make our run.

"The destroyer has spotted us!" karl says with a tinge of fear in his voice.

"flank speed forward!...torpedo tubes one through four fire!" I yell as everyone starts doing jobs we have been waiting to do. "I want to make a clean dash and fire our stern tubes at any targets we can...it may be a blind shot be it is worth a try".

"Lets hope it is worth it tonight...we may make the papers anyway" Karl says with a wry smile.

I see the torpedo trails meet hulls with only one miss and three hits on two ships, one is split and will sink while the other lists to the side and stops it's screws (this is a big one). The deck gun crew wait for the last possible second to fire while we ram right into the center of the convoy. The moment they open fire on a small merchant I hear at least three guns reply from the convoy.

"Some of the merchants are armed!" Karl yells as he takes cover from a splash off our port side. "destroyer bearing 310 and another at 194...they are fireing!"

"Hold us steady on coarse and fire stern torpedo tubes on my order...tell the gunners to finish that big one before we have to dive and lose it."

The gunners fire true shots that send the damaged ship to the bottom and then finish the small merchant with as few shots as possible...the destroyers shots get closer and the merchants are also filling the sky with shells.

Loud clangs erupt from at least two points on the boat as shells make glancing blows against the hull, the destroyers are close enough for accurate shots.

"one of the destroyers is approaching our stern!...ready a shot!" I yell along with TDC data with hopes that we can kill one more before we absolutly have to dive.

I look through the UZO as it inches to firing position at 320 meters. "ready...ready...Los!" I yell as the boat lurches from a near miss off the bow.

The torpedo trail is visible as it slams into the destroyer right below the stack and it lets off a spectacular explosion...I can't tell if it is sinking but I know it won't be going anywhere.

"We have to dive sir!...we can't take the pounding up here anymore!" karl yells over the explosions and gunfire.

"Crash dive and then silent running at 130 meters". I order as I head down the ladder.


The boat inches below the water and slips to 100 meters before we start hearing the pings of sonar...still faint but probably enough for a blurry return. we engage silent running and everything becomes a low whisper.

This is where things get rough.



More tomarrow when I have had some sleep.

let me know what you think so far.


Mike

[FIREWALL]

This is a good read Mike. Will be here tomorrow for more.

[nikbear]

Keep up the good work

[bookworm_020]

Great work! Looking forward to reading more!

[Task Force]

Vary nice, will come back in 2009 to read the rest.

[StarTrekMike]

The boat has been at 100 or so meters for no more than five minutes and already the men look like they have been under for a year. This was only made worse as the ASDIC pings became louder indicating that we were being pinpointed by at least two destroyers (not counting the one we hit.)

"fast screws coming from bearing 350...splashes in the water!" Joachim blurted as he braced for impact.

I bit my lip and grabbed the map table in anticipation as the first of the depth charges exploded close and put the boat into a chaotic mess of exploding lightbulbs and high pressure leaks, this was not the worst it could be.

"We are taking water in the stern torpedo compartment!" Karl yelled as he listened to the aft compartment damage report.

I looked around at the mess and found that most of the crew was already busy getting the boat ready for another round of charges in hopes that we can control the level of damage and wait out the destroyers.

"Depth charges in the water!" Joachim yelled from the hydrophone compartment.

The explosions started distant but moved close enough to make the hull feel like it will twist itself apart, more leaks erupted from pipes and the lights flickered and died. the boat took this pounding for at least five minutes as it seemed the destroyers were criss-crossing eachother on attacks to add firepower.

The lights were off and that indicated that the boat was without battery power. I looked around hoping to see some emergency lights kick on, Karl turned on some worklamps and the light revealed the extent of the internal damage with all the damaged gauges, pipes and controls...it would take time just to get this boat fit to surface.

The next round of depth charges were much closer and we could feel the boat pitch to the stern as the depth meter showed that we were indeed sinking...this was not going to end well if we hit the ocean floor to fast or even worse if we did not hit the floor at all.

"Depth at 220 meters!" the helmsman barked as he scrambled to regain control of the dead boat.

Karl was looking at the map with a flashlight. "We will hit bottom at 270 meters but we need to level the boat and slow the decent".

I scrambled to the stern compartment dodging men who were already smartly moving forward to try to level us off. The aft compartment was a mess of broken pipe seals that spewed water that only added to the small pond that was forming already.

"how long till we can get this worked out?" I asked the engineer over the din of the leaks.

"I need a couple more men to help back here...I should have the leaks stopped in a few minutes, assuming we don't get attacked again". he said without looking away from his work.

I pointed to two seamen and ordered them to help on the leaks while I moved forward to the control room to prepare our next move.

Minutes pass as I wait for the boat to slow down enough to level off...I could still hear leaks from the aft and my hands were starting to shake...I put them in my pockets before the men could see.

"our rate is slowing...we will make a soft landing if we can level". Karl said with hope in the slight uplift of his face.

The indicators showed that we were slowly raising the aft section and I counted the seconds before the boat hit the ocean floor a little to hard for comfort but not enough to damage the boat...it was over if we could lose the destroyers.


The depth charges were going off in the distance but only one or two at a time, this meant that they wanted us to think that they know where we are...I don't think they know we can go this deep. this goes on for hours as we slowly put the boat back together.


Five hours pass as the rest of the electrics are restored and the air startes to get more and more stale. the men rest to conserve energy and oxygen as I sit in bed and write a short letter and pack it in a waterproof bag. We were going to try to surface soon and we could only hope that they left.

I walk into the control room and order us to blow ballast and rise, the hydrophone has heard nothing for hours and we need to go home. The hull moans as we leave the bottom and begin to rise slowly.

The boat shudders as the electric motors kick on and add speed to our ascent and I assume position at the periscope ready to take a peak when we reach ten or so meters.

"fore and aft tubes prepare for solutions just in case...we don't want to be caught without teeth". I say as the water clears the periscope and I spin it around gently but swiftly. The sea was clear till I hit the stern and saw a destroyer starting to make a turn to make chase.

"Stern tubes set for my solution!" I yell as I hand the figures to Karl.

Through the periscope it seems that the destroyer is not trying to make this a fast process...they are only going 3 or so knots in hopes that we have not seen them (I kept the periscope low). I knew that we could get a hit but only if he kept this speed.

"torpedoes ready" Karl says behind me.

I wait a few seconds to savor the kill and then I order them to fire. I see two streaks of bubbles rush to the ship that is a mere 350 meters away and smile as I see the boat split in half as a explosion erupts from a munitions area or something of the like. The boat sinks quickly and I see survivors in rafts already...good sign.

We all rush to the tower to get some fresh air and smoke...the air feels so good when you did not think you would feel it again...the men and I were elated.

We all noticed at once that the first destroyer we hit was still off in the distance and we could barely see it.

I took range with the UZO and ordered the boat to get into attack range...one more and then we go home.


The end.