U-100 "Blackcat" at Sea again

[Bluewings]

Since not a lot of Cpt. have the desire to keep others updated on theirs whereabout , I decided to post AARs (After Action Reports)
on my boat , VII-B U-100 nicknamed "Blackcat" .

Just left Lorient after minor repairs with 4 more boats , including the now well known U-46 "Laughing Swordfish" and some others ...

Heading for AL14 . Beautifull weather , for us as well for Allied Patrol Aircrafts .

#1 : Sank 2 Small Marchants with our 88mm . Bad luck for them ...

#2 : Grid AL14 quiet for 2 days before BdU send a Covoy report heading right toward us , 250nm SSE . Moving to intercept ...

#3 : US Convoy heavily escorted by 4 Destroyers . One I have never encountered before : Somers (1850 T) This one came at us full speed zig-zaging ! Dived to 80m , floaded Tube 1 (acoustic Torp) , waited for him to get tired to chase a ghost then sank him with a flank shot .

#4 : Convoy composed mainly by big Tankers and few Cargos . Only 3 small Marchants . Creeping slowly amongst them before to go to peris depth and attack the tankers .

#5 : 2 T3s and 1 T2 sent to the bottom , with a C2 for size , before the escort react . I used Impact set to 9.5m as I do not trust mag in the middle of a Convoy as Torps tend to get confused ...
Fired another acoustic to a US Flower Class but missed .

After 25 mins of swinging around , Aircrafts (US ?) start heavy bombing runs where I was 5 minutes earlier , calvalry 's always late !
Nevertheless , the escort 's pinging hard and closing in . Had to go 120m deep silent running . Cannot reload ... Senior Torp Warrant pissed off .

Escaping slowly North to surface 25 nm away to get tubes back into shape . My early contact report did not bring any friendly to help . Where are they ?.. (C' Mon Swordfish !)

After accelerating to 19 kts ~thx to my boosted engine~ while following a paralelle course , I finaly catch up with the convoy again . This time I make myself seen by surfacing early on purpose to attract the escort . The Flower goes down to an acoustic and a Clemson soon follow by a TIII on its flank .

A C2 needs 2 torps to sink . Fired 2 T1s ~ never mind the bubbles now~ at a C3 but the bugger refuse to sink
The last Destroyer , another Flower , gives me hard time by escaping my last acoustic on tube 4 . A long dance follow before Aircratfs come again at me . 'had to dive deep one more time as the Flower sent depth charges like rain over London .

Enough is enough , going back to Lorient with very little left ...

Cheers .

[Bluewings]

Btw , every Cpt. must know his boat . So , on tne VII-B , what is and where is that station ?
a cookie to the winner


Cheers .

[Coolhand01]

Periscope view in the conning tower....I like chocolate chip...CH

[Kaptan Tommy]

So Coolhand01, did you get your cookie? :|\

[Bluewings]

Nice one CH

Here is a whole plate for you


Cheers .

[don1reed]

...dang, those are mighty tempting, but my sw deletes 'em all

[Bluewings]

don1reed , see my Senior seaman-cook when i 'll be back in Lorient . He will be glad to give you some

Cheers .

[Bluewings]

This time BdU sent us to Grid AL35 .

Weather was good but windy . Did not see anything on the way , but as soon as we arrived to Patrol Grid , a HUGE Convoy was there !
Sometimes I wander if BdU is not using a kind of cristal ball ...

Been spotted right away by a US Destroyer . My sonar man did get an incoming Radar "bleep" . I just had time to ID the foe : another Somers Class , before to dive to peri depth and turn 25 deg Port .

My maneuver did not fooled him a bit . It came at 25+ Kts straight at us with bells and whistles . After shaking us from left to right with Depth charges I decided to go deeper to 50m while turning slowly Starboard at 3 Kts .

The fact is I did not want to loose contact with the Convoy who was near by . A 10 minutes dance followed , until we got 3 more Hydro contact . 3 more Warships heading our way

Things did start to get worrying ... Dived a bit deeper to 90m , same speed , same heading . The Convoy was now getting closer .

I was about to ask my boys to get us to 50m again when BANG , Bang BAAANG !!! Boat rolling from side to side again . That was ...very close

I started to wonder how to get at least a good 200m away from the Destroyers when "Depth charges in the water" again from the sonar room .

Another close miss ! But we 're still not taking water and damage report was nil . Enough of this S*** !!

Convoy was now 3280m at our 12 O'clock , passing by . Ordered Flank speed , periscope depth , to go up as fast as I could .

Now , they were pinging hard on us . "We 've been detected Sir !"
Time to raise the scope and quicly aim from the "hip" at a T3 and launch a Type I Fat Torp and we were down to 50m again , but this time with the Destroyers right on top of us .

"Torpido Impact Sir !" While the T3 was sinking and Depth charges banging on our starboard , I raised speed again to flank , turned hard port and lauched a decoy , then took the boat veeery slowly to 150m . That did the trick .
For about 3 minutes , then Bang , bang , bang again .

Right , let 's go deeper . At 170m , crew started to get nervous .

Bang , bang , BAAANG !! We rocked like Elvis on stage
Ok , let 's try even deeper , 200m with a slow zig-zig at 3 Kts .

It is when I realized that I wasn 't going silent running and the crew was still loading Tube 3

That explaind everything . "Beginer 's mistake" I thought . Slow turn Port again at 1 Kts while increasing the depth to 220m . The hull was now screaming for mercy !

20 minutes and a pint of cold sweat later , we were in the clear .
So the Convoy .

Time to go to peri depth again , just in time to discover that a medium fog was now blurring everything . The Convoy must be more than 12 nm East now . I rotated the crew , ordered to surface and start the chase .

Next time , I 'll be a bit more carefull . There is still plenty of Oilers to sink ...

Cheers .

[Laughing Swordfish]

Nice one, Bernie!

Keep them coming. The sinkings too!

LS

[Bluewings]

I 'll try Lt. , I 'll try ...

But it would be easier if U-46 was around :hmm:

Cheers .

[galahad]

Right on guys, you are an inspiration to nub's like me

[Laughing Swordfish]

'Bernie', you know that glass of Chateau Lafitte 68 is waiting for you anytime we put in together.

I wondered what happened to you after we reached that dispersal area outside the Bay, and now I know you went at the enemy like a Wild Boar!

Or should I say a Wild Cat? Don't use those nine lives up too quickly, but tell me all about it, next time we're in.

Sorry I couldn't be there Kamerad, I'm still on my old stamping ground, casting for either really big fish, or dragging my hook back empty.

Willi tells me that Madame has put your emblem up over the bar in the Chat Noir, which is fitting. And no harm will come to you while it's up there, but you know what a supersticicious fool he is sometimes

Just take care, Kaleun!

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[Bluewings]

D. Bunsen , Madame actually asked me if she could hang our emblem over the bar , and you know her smile , I coundn 't say no .
I think she wants to get a collection of them , it must be good for her business ! ' just kidding . She 's a charming lady .

I heard from some French folks that she lost her husband at Sea before the war , during a storm I 've been told . Apparently he was a fisherman ...

Next time we 're at Sea , let me know your Grid Patrol and I 'll let you know mine . After the usual 48 hrs seach pattern , we could try to meet half way if BdU don 't give us further Orders .

But we 'll have to make sure to run the Patrol on slow to spare fuel ...
I know it 's a bit against the rules , but we don 't need to tell the Old Donitz of all our whereabout , as long as we keep sinking ships .

After all , 2 Boats can do much damage by working together and the "Old Wolf" will forgive us if we bring back a good tonnage

B. Goelf out .

Cheers .

[Bluewings]

We 've finaly catched up with the convoy .

But it went from bad to worse ...


I managed to bring U-100 to torpido range , sonar indicating 1850m , made surface and launched 1 T III to a juicy C3 at a 63 bow angle and was about to acquire a new range for the following Tanker Class 2 when my sonar boy shooted :

"warship approaching fast , bearing 092 !"

I slew the peri to the indicated bearing just in time to see a Flower Destroyer about to ram us !

Diiive !!!

Too late .

A screaching sound of twisted metal and down we started to go .
I immediatly send my Weapon officer who is a first class repair man to the stern quarter , which was taking water . His repair Team followed right away and started to work on various leaks ...

First damage report indicated that our bridge had been hit too , soon followed by another report from our Senior machinist screaming :

"Water in engine room !"

That wasn 't good . Not good at all .
The boat was now loosing its plane and was going down , stern first .
As the boat ' s nose was pointing up , I ordered full speed ahead straight , but with little effect . We were still going down !

Sending every available man to repair station , I started to think about ordering the Chief to blow ballast when a second report came again from the engine room :

"Batteries damaged Sir , acid in the water !"

At that time , we were going down at a rate of 1 meter per second .
Crushing depth was going to be reached in less that 4 minutes ...

...

At 200m , the hull was down to 88% .
At 210m , down to 86% .

Rivets started to fly in the command room and valves blowing up .

At 220m , hull was at 82% .
At 230m (!) , down to 80% .

But my brilliant repair Team who was now working theirs guts off , with the hope to save both theirs lives and our boat managed to stop all leaks .

U-100 "blackcat" stabilized herself at 240m (!!) , and started to rise slowly with the engine now going at third ahead only , but that was good enough to me ! :P

I immediatly ordered hard port 90 deg and at 160m , switched to silent running as all repairs were done .

...

We stayed an hour more under before to surface , Convoy and Destroyers gone .
We headed back to base with only 3 enemy ships sank , and a badly damaged boat , but everybody was alive and well .

US navy and the RN hammered us this time ...
But I 'll with back !



Cheers .

[Wilko]

Brilliant story

Look foward to following your next cruise after repairs :|\