In early June 1940 whilst returning to W/haven after expending all my torpedoes attacking a convoy South West of Ireland, I encountered an ASW trawler and a small merchant north west of the Orkneys - I sank the ASW Trawler with the last of my deck gun ammo and dispatched the merchant with over 300 rounds from the flack gun. I had activated the flack gun because I had been expecting a possible air attack but no planes were observed despite the calm and excellent visibility - so I decided to see if I could use it on the ship - there are no orders possible to get the flack gunner to fire on a ship so I fired the gun myself and after what seemed like an age it started to catch fire and sink slowly!
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - April 291452 1943 - BE62 - Patrol 19 |
U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - May2nd 1943 - Lorient - Patrol 19 |
U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Aug 29th 1943 - Biscaya - Patrol 21 |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Sep. 040442 1943 - Lorient - Patrol 21 |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Nov 111217 1943 - AK63 - Patrol 22 |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Nov 121208 1943 - North Atlantic - Patrol 22 |
Quote:
Sink them all! |
Quote:
Thank you - Hals und Beinbruch für Führer und Vaterland and all that! Drei schnaps und ein bier and we're on to it.....! |
U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Jan. 3rd 1944 - North Atlantic - Patrol 23 |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Jan. 100910 1944 - AK18 - Patrol 23 |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Jan. 101455 1944 - AK18 - Patrol 23 |
Large - yes, neutral - hmmmm
the radio message sounded promising: "Large neutral convoy". 200+ km away: Nope, too far. But ... the convoy found me - hours later, early morning, same message but closer. Still on its course. I decided to lie low and take a peek, maybe shadow during the day and attack at night.
This is what the sonar officer told me when the convoy was about 8km away: http://imageshack.us/a/img837/1656/u1cy.jpg Large, indeed. But - four warships ? come on, this is only my fourth patrol. I can handle one destroyer with luck, but four?. While I waited for the convoy to pass, I took a peek: http://imageshack.us/a/img21/6093/ybg8.jpg A closer look at the "lead" ship (hm, first row, third from right. Why "lead" ship?) http://imageshack.us/a/img196/1725/2n2i.jpg Must have been the lead ship, because it has a Greek flag. The only other (hm, is carrying tanks compatible with neutral status?) "neutral" ship was another Small Merchant with a Norwegian flag way back in the convoy. The juicy rest: 1 Large Merchant, 1 Ore Carrier, 1 Whale Factory, 3 Medium Cargo, 12 more medium merchants, and four warships (1 V&W, 1 A&B, 2 J&K destroyers) ... all of them British. "Neutral Convoy", my a**. I'm beginning to see the point in "sink em all" ... |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Mar. 011329 1944 - DQ39 - Patrol 24 |
U-123 Type IXB, July 5, 1940
Grid square AM-14. It is near dusk and a calm flat sea. We just weathered a 2 day storm that burned more fuel than we really wanted to. As we were on a heading of 270, my 1st WO cries 'warship spotted!'. I race to the conning tower and see a British Black swan in front of us, about 8000m dead ahead. I watch him for a bit, and notice it is heading north, then south, then north again. What are the odds of this being a lone ship? I linger longer than I felt comfortable, worrying we could be spotted in this glass smooth sea. Then, out of the haze, the first line of the convoy appears. I order a dive to 14m, rig for silent running, 100 rpm's on the electric motors. The hydrophone operator reports the 20 ship convoy is headed strait for us, with a heading of 090. I order a turn to port, to bearing 000. Once we reach this heading, I order all stop and men to man the torpedo rooms and damage control. I raise the periscope briefly, and pick out 2 medium tankers for the bow to get, and a whale factory ship for the stern tubes. We wait in silence as the black swan and her convoy pass over head. I raise the scope, we are dead center of the convoy. I quickly launch my forward tubes and stern tubes at their targets, and come out of silent running. 700m to the target...... and all 4 bow tubes miss. They fail to detonate. :/\\!! But, the whale factory ship has both a magnetic and contact torpedo's hit! I hold my breath, and keep the scope on a constant swivel checking for the escorts (there were 8, 4 swans, 4 hunt I's) and they are coming my way. 2 bow tubes were reloaded and one stern. I set all to contact and fire what I have. one at the whale factory, and both medium tankers. All 3 hit, and both tankers explode! The whale factory keeps plowing ahead though. Looks like she might get away...... I had one more torpedo load in the bow, so I fire it into a granville freighter. And.... impact! The granville starts sinking by the stern. The swans are closing fast..... Rig for silent running, 100 rpm's, dive to 100m, heading 300. after 15 minutes, we hear bulkheads groaning..... it was the whale factory ship! We creep away silently and clean without a single depth charge being dropped. The swans never detected us! Headed for Brodeaux, as BDU says it is available for resupply. 1 granville, 2 medium tankers, and a whale factory ship. Not a bad haul (and yes, I alerted BDU to the presence of the convoy, but never was asked to shadow). Being low on fuel, I can not afford to follow the convoy for another attack. |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Mar. 071818lst 1944 - North Trinidad - Patrol 24 |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Mar. 120354 lst 1944 - SW EE61 - Patrol 24 |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Apr. 261757 lst 1944 - NE CF86 - Patrol 25 |
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U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Apr. 270235 lst 1944 - NE CF83 - Patrol 25 |
Dark ship
I don't know if this is the right topic but it does have some relation:I am in September 1939, patrolling off the Norwegian coast (AF87) and I encountered a Norwegian coastal tanker with no lights:hmmm:.From the first time i guessed it was an allied ship (not neutral) and i intended to attack it:up: but I confirmed its flag at a range of 900m :/\\!!.Is it possible for a neutral ship to travel without lights?
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