The adventures of Rolf Luxem

[Fader_Berg]

Patrol II


We left Kiel for a patrol mission in AN26 at 22:30 on the fifth of november 1939. I remember that the weather was good, which my mood was not. It was the second patrol for most of us, including commander Herman Rimkus. Only a few men had done more patrols before ending up here. Fritz Auffermann with seven patrols, Heinz Beugholz with eight and Willi Pannenberg with five. They all got a iron cross second class. I pretended not to be impressed when I saw them - the medals, that is - but I was. Most of all I was qurious what they've done to deserve it. Last but not least we've got Otto Kakuschke with six patrols, but he ain't got a iron cross. I wondered what he had -not- done to not deserve one.

Anyway... we reached the patrol grid at eighth or ninth of november at noon. I can't recall exactly. The weather had taken a turn and was quite ugly. Wind speed up to fifteen meters per second. The sub was bobbing around like hell. It's a miracle that you actually can steer the thing. We where patroling at the surface on the days and at periscope depth at nights. The sea was completly dead of contacts. Suddenly, on the eleventh we where getting some contact reports. All on the same time. But they where too far away to hunt down in this weather. After that the sea went quiet again.
On the night Rimkus did a hydrophone plot and managed to sink a costal frighter. He later decided to set course for a raid along the british coastline.

On the fifteenth of november 06:30 we recived a contact report to a target north west of us and Rimkus decided to engage. Two hours later at 08:25 a coal freighter was going down. But the best was yet to come...

Around 05:00 the eighteenth, I woke up to do duty at the helmsstation. We where all still as Leutnant Rimkus was hydrophone plotting a merchant closing up on us. Current depth was twenty meters to avoid the sub from moving in the rough sea, beeing a type II and all. He plotted the last bearing and ordered full ahead and surfaced the boat. Ten minutes later we went under again to posision the target.
Robert Schmied at the hydrophone told that the target was a bit closer than expected. And Rimkus was able to spot him with the periscope right away. A little miscalculation but we had him right there. Rimkus ordered back one third after some planning with leutnant Fritz Hella at the navigation, to get in a good position. Sixty degree AOB and set for magnetic pistol. Some think he's a gambler with the magnetics. Especially in this weather.
The target was a small merchant moving at five knots. The torpedo depth was set to 8.2 meters, ~1.5 meters under the normal draft. Everything was set and we where left off to wait, wait and wait. Five minutes later the torpedo was away. It's a thrill to wait for the for the sound of a strike. Suddenly Rimkus breaks the silence with a wispering "Verdammt!". Something had gone wrong. But what and how did he know? The torpedo should not have struck just yet. "That's not a small merchant.", he told. The sweat was dripping off the tip of his nose. "It's a granville. What's the draft of a granville, god dammit!". I browsed the RM like the nervous wreck I was. "6.1, sir!"... "Sheiße!", he responded in furious anger.
As the draft on a small merchans is 6.8, the torpedo went way too deep and missed the target. Rimkus ordered full ahead and surfaced the boat when the target had passed us and where 1.5 km away. We managed to run ahead without being detected, and did it by the book this time. Ninty degree and impact. It was beutiful to hear the explosion. Rimkus did let us know that it was a perfekt hit in the bow. He ordered us to surface to watch her sink. I went with him up on the bridge and took a photo of the poor bastard.

The last torpedo struck a small merchant just a couple of days after. Though it was a perfect keel hit - according to Rimkus - we only managed to damage it. Heinz Beugholz wanted to get loose on it with the flak and Rimkus let him shoot a couple of rounds. We left her crippled floating as a dead fish. Heading home...

That's all for now.

/RL

Unknown Granville explodes in AN59 - 07:28 18.11.39

[timmy41]

good read

Ja! I like that, too.

[KL-alfman]

nice one!
keep them coming!

[Paul Riley]

Fader Berg,
Stay away from them bloody magnetic tips,at least for the time being.Impact is far more reliable.
Maybe the techies could come up with better magnetic designs later on,we shall have to wait and see.
Good Granville photo you included,I like the blurred effect,was that done with photobucket?

[maillemaker]

I thought the photo was a real photo, at first!

Steve