Translated to English by Doc
'Bleichrodt' Snyder
Part II
Realism settings 76%
We got used to the boat in the meantime, it was time to commence our
duties. Brest, 1943, the "good times" for U-Boats are history.
Approching the target areas had turned into a suicide squad since long.
Our orders were to reach and patrol square BF33. I decided to put to
sea at night and was greatly surprised that our FC had even organized
a farewall-party. We listened to our national anthem. Possibly for the
last time?
I ordered slow ahead. The boat takes on speed and drifts slowly out
of port.
Most of the time during the approach to target area, was drill. The
crews' experience increases noticeable. These experiences are important
because re-organizing boat and crew after the patrol will depend very
much on that bonus.
Then - all of a sudden and without warning - contacts via Funkmeß
and hydrophones.
Our first enemy encounter, and even a large convoy.
.
Our position couldn't be better. We sat right in front of the convoy,
excactly on its main course. We went down to periscope depths, we could
hear the sound of hatches being shut, followd by eager footsteps. The
crew was upset. One hour later, we reached firing range and calmly commenced
our work.
Torpedos hit.
Angry machinegunners and artillery were shooting at our periscope. Even
with their ship sinking.
I ordered all personnel available to the bow for recharge. I wanted
to be ready for attack as soon as possible.
Then a scary scream from the radio room: we were spotted! Destroyers
came up from 150° very quickly. I watched him running at us through
the periscope. I ordered to slow down, trying to get him into 180°.
Coordinates were entered. It looked like the one we had to deal with
was a hotspur, very well. The destroyer approched at speed of 36knots,
leaving him no chance to spot our eel. At a range on 750 meters, I fired
off a stern torpedo. We increased speed and continued on the same course.
Like having been bound to a line, the destroyer followed and we managed
a direct hit on his bow.
His speed overplus fell off and he began to bend over and finally sink.
But we shouldn't come away with this that easily. Another destroyer
appeared. We were out of torpedoes and therefore, my desicion fell to
silent running. The DD stopped and began to scan the proximity. This
was no newbie at all. Then, the first attack run.
Wheh! That wasn't bad, but we managed to evade. Again, he stopped and
started listening. What to do now? More destroyers arrived at our position,
he had called for reinforcement. Undoubtable, ther are differences between
the DD's AI-commanders. It seemed that their level of experience played
a role, too. They were four by now and all of them stood with stopped
engines, trying to detect me.
Then, the went over to attacking. Always three of them started their
runs, leaving one behind that sounded me.
Hell came down on us.
Of course, these attack runs didn't leave us without damage.
We managed to escape in 3 hours by silent running. Back on the surface,
we started re-chargement with the external torpedoes. We sent a status
message und repaired the boat. We even received a congratulations radio
message from BdU.
More to come in part three of my review.
vT
