Post by BlitzPig_Rivet on Apr 26, 2005 0:36:33 GMT
As you can see by the title I'm now on patrol 11 and still with my trusty VIIB U-47. I've now been re-located to St. Nazaire.
All was well until my orders came through. "Patrol grid AN52!" What?? Why didn't they send me there when I was based at Kiel? Well it was a long way back up the west coast of Ireland and up past Scapa again, so I elected to try and sneak through the English Channel. This was a bad mistake in December 1940.
I thought I was doing well, (I got a C3 Cargo on the way), until I reached the Dover Strait. Man, it's sewn up tighter than a gnat's chuff ;D. I got bounced by just about half the British fleet! There were about 5 destroyers, numerous armed trawlers (some with DC's), and to add to the irritation a couple of torpedo boats. There were others being alerted by the minute.
I thought "Man, this is it, but I'm not giving up." Now that old Channel isn't deep and with all those ships spread around me like the tentacles of an octopus, I didn't have many options. My hydrophone guy was spinning that wheel like there was no tomorrow and whispering contact headings.
There could quite possibly be no tomorrow. I'm not sure how, but one destroyer ended up on the bottom, it certainly wasn't me - I was just trying not to be noticed. After some evasive knuckles and other maneuvres (and getting nowhere) I decided to hide beside the stricken destroyer, silent and on the bottom. By this stage my stern dive planes were already destroyed together with both the deck gun and the flack gun. We had bad flooding in the stern torpedo room but my well qualified repair crew did an excellent job and managed to repair the leak and pump out the water.
After about 5 hours of this cat and mouse, a lucky hit by a DC destroyed both periscopes. I wasn't getting anywhere like this and hull integrity was down to 30%. I figured I'd be just about out of the Strait, and in another 30 minutes it would be dark. Co2 levels were rising and I needed to surface soon. I decided to go for broke. I ordered full speed ahead when the enemy were behind me. The hydrophones were ok. There was no point ordering flank speed as the engines were already damaged and it was no faster than full.
So, here we are trying to outrun destroyers at a maximum submerged speed of 6 knots. It's getting desperate, I'm blind, stern dive planes out, very little oxygen, deck and AA guns destroyed and bridge badly damaged. The stern Sub-Lieutenants quarters were also destroyed
. I have no idea how, other than alternating between full speed, knuckles, and going silent, but eventually the sounds of the props were getting fainter astern. Had we done it? Had we finally shaken them off? It was dark now, and if we didn't surface now, I doubted that we ever would. I owed it to my veteran crew of 10 patrols to try.
I gave the order, "Surface the boat". Like a tired leviathan struggling for it's last breath we broke the surface into a starlit night. We'd made it - for now.
My crew, repaired what they could which consisted of the bridge and uzo. We are now limping our way to Wilhelmshaven, the nearest friendly base. I thought that given the state of the boat, it was the most prudent thing to do.
Now comes my question: Do you lose renown for docking at another base and without reaching your patrol zone? In addition, do you get credited for any sinkings you made on the way?
Whatever the answer, I think it would be foolhardy to continue with a boat as badly damaged as this.
Um, I think I'll give the Channel a miss next time, (providing I get back ok)
All was well until my orders came through. "Patrol grid AN52!" What?? Why didn't they send me there when I was based at Kiel? Well it was a long way back up the west coast of Ireland and up past Scapa again, so I elected to try and sneak through the English Channel. This was a bad mistake in December 1940.
I thought I was doing well, (I got a C3 Cargo on the way), until I reached the Dover Strait. Man, it's sewn up tighter than a gnat's chuff ;D. I got bounced by just about half the British fleet! There were about 5 destroyers, numerous armed trawlers (some with DC's), and to add to the irritation a couple of torpedo boats. There were others being alerted by the minute.
I thought "Man, this is it, but I'm not giving up." Now that old Channel isn't deep and with all those ships spread around me like the tentacles of an octopus, I didn't have many options. My hydrophone guy was spinning that wheel like there was no tomorrow and whispering contact headings.
There could quite possibly be no tomorrow. I'm not sure how, but one destroyer ended up on the bottom, it certainly wasn't me - I was just trying not to be noticed. After some evasive knuckles and other maneuvres (and getting nowhere) I decided to hide beside the stricken destroyer, silent and on the bottom. By this stage my stern dive planes were already destroyed together with both the deck gun and the flack gun. We had bad flooding in the stern torpedo room but my well qualified repair crew did an excellent job and managed to repair the leak and pump out the water.
After about 5 hours of this cat and mouse, a lucky hit by a DC destroyed both periscopes. I wasn't getting anywhere like this and hull integrity was down to 30%. I figured I'd be just about out of the Strait, and in another 30 minutes it would be dark. Co2 levels were rising and I needed to surface soon. I decided to go for broke. I ordered full speed ahead when the enemy were behind me. The hydrophones were ok. There was no point ordering flank speed as the engines were already damaged and it was no faster than full.
So, here we are trying to outrun destroyers at a maximum submerged speed of 6 knots. It's getting desperate, I'm blind, stern dive planes out, very little oxygen, deck and AA guns destroyed and bridge badly damaged. The stern Sub-Lieutenants quarters were also destroyed
. I have no idea how, other than alternating between full speed, knuckles, and going silent, but eventually the sounds of the props were getting fainter astern. Had we done it? Had we finally shaken them off? It was dark now, and if we didn't surface now, I doubted that we ever would. I owed it to my veteran crew of 10 patrols to try.I gave the order, "Surface the boat". Like a tired leviathan struggling for it's last breath we broke the surface into a starlit night. We'd made it - for now.
My crew, repaired what they could which consisted of the bridge and uzo. We are now limping our way to Wilhelmshaven, the nearest friendly base. I thought that given the state of the boat, it was the most prudent thing to do.
Now comes my question: Do you lose renown for docking at another base and without reaching your patrol zone? In addition, do you get credited for any sinkings you made on the way?
Whatever the answer, I think it would be foolhardy to continue with a boat as badly damaged as this.
Um, I think I'll give the Channel a miss next time, (providing I get back ok)
, with no small part of it coming from myself. Phew!!! When we actually surfaced, the first thing that entered my mind was the quote from the Captain in Das Boot - "You have to have good men. Good men, all of them."
