U47 - Lt.z.S. Willi Hartmann - 4th patrol - Dec. 1939 121600 - in Wilhelmshafen

Back in Wilhelmshafen after an exhausting and hectic patrol. Only the day after the first report here the weather turned to calm seas with sunny sky and we got the opportunity to use the deck gun plenty. After some sinkings in the Orkney gap we proceeded south along the British East Coast. Experienced for the first time some enemy air patrols - none came near us. Used one of the last torps to bag a Large Merchant after having gunned it first.

In the Thames Estuary we had the boat's first real unfortunate incident. Another Large Merchant approached us on an eastbound course out of London. I decided to use the last torpedo on it. Let it come quite close and sent a magnetic-fuzed torpedo under it on very short range. It worked excellently but the ship proceeded towards North-East with little loss of speed. We followed it for a while. A couple of MTB's turned up and hung around. As it seemed they were gone we surfaced and gave the victim the last gun shell and started to perforate its bows with the 20 mm FLAK gun. Suddenly one of the MTB's turned up and before we could dive it had killed one of the observer crews in the tower. The Merchant pressed on. After that I decided to pull out and proceed home, so we never saw the Large Merchant sink.

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U47 - Lt.z.S. Willi Hartmann - 5th patrol - Feb. 1940 011600 - in Wilhelmshafen

Back in Wilhelmshafen again after a very quick patrol, left on the evening of Jan 28th. No transfer to larger boat type as Onkel Karl was not happy with the surface skirmishes on the previous patrol where a crew member was killed.

The assigned area this time was AM11, just South of Iceland. However, only half way across the North Sea we ran into a large convoy from Norway to England, more than 30 ships. They went without lights and escorted by naval vessels so they should be valid targets. When we returned we got very little credit for, as I see it, a rather good performance inside little more than an hour. Some of the targets were neutrals.

We approached the convoy from its forward port side. There were two destroyers, one on each side. They did not discover us before I fired a salvo at a Large Merchant and an Ore Carrier, 3 torps in all. All were duds! Before we could do anything else we had to defend ourselves against the approaching destroyers, going down to periscope depth. They were J&K's. Both were hit with G7's on magnetic fuze on minimum distance as they approached from the fore, they went down rather quick.

I then considered it safe to surface but then a third J&K popped up from the rear of the convoy. Down again, but only after we had received some damage. All the foward tubes were now empty so had to lure him on from the fore to sidestep and take him with an aft torp as he turned around behind us. Never fails!

After that it was totally Texas. We went up again and alternated between using the deck gun and torpedoes, sometimes both. In the end we were out of everything. As dawn approached we had followed two burning Ore Carriers for several hours but they refused to go down. I turned tail and proceeded back to Wilhelmshafen.

Two days later:

When analyzing the patrol, based on B-dienst intelligence, one or more of the 3 first torps must have had some effect. No hits were observed or heard but a fire was observed on the first Large Merchant.

Patrol 5 - page 1:

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Patrol 5 - page 2:

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U47 - Lt.z.S. Willi Hartmann - 7th patrol - Apr. 1940 080203 - Outside Narvik

We left Wilhelmshafen on the evening of Mar 31st. Patrol 6 was aborted due to technical problems. After having spent 24 hours in the mission area (AN36) we received new orders to proceed north along the Norwegian coast. Operation Hartmuth is on - part of Unternehmen Weserübung - the invasion of Denmark and Norway! The North Sea and Skagerak is crawling with German naval and transport units. Our mission: To secure the German naval assault on Narvik. The British are bound to react violently!

There are at least three other German U-boats in the area. On our way in the Vestfjord we bumped into a Norwegian guard ship but quickly threw him off in the bad weather.

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U47 - Lt.z.S. Willi Hartmann - 7th patrol - Apr. 1940 100122 - Outside Narvik

Yesterday morning several Kriegsmarine transports passed us on their way in to Narvik. The occupation force was already in place. We have been warned of an approaching enemy task force, obviously on their way to Narvik, too. We just recently picked up echos of five enemy ships proceeding at high speed in our direction and the first one can already be seen in the periscope - a J&K.

Yesterday German transports passed us on their way to Narvik:

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Five solid sonar echos - the first one can be seen:




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A few minutes later - this does not look good. One destroyer was hit but the others avoided their torpedoes when they all turned in our direction. I should have known on that range.

No torps in the forward tubes - the crew work as fast as they can. I might get one with my aft torp, then I have to go down to reload. Problem is they will hear us working.

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U47 - Lt.z.S. Willi Hartmann - 7th patrol - Apr. 1940 100245 - Outside Narvik

Back on the surface! Phew, that was a close one. As it was they hindered each other and with some fancy turning I was able to put the aft torp into one of them before we went for the depths. I chose not to reload but go on silent running. These guys were not very clever at sub-hunting but the heavy seas also probably helped us. We were able to get out of the circle quite fast. They gave up half an hour ago and proceeded towards Narvik. So now only 3 RN destroyers can pester our forces there. We are reloading as fast as we can.


Back on the surface:

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U47 - Lt.z.S. Willi Hartmann - 7th patrol - Apr. 1940 180900 - Wilhelmshafen

Only a few hours later the three remaining RN destroyers returned from Narvik (Originally two further were sunk and one heavily damaged in the fjord by the German detroyers). They went straight into our ambush, one was sunk right away, the others after some extensive use of torpedoes. As it were when we surfaced again I had only one torpedo left. What to do? Wait for more RN units or return home to reload with one torpedo for self-defense.

Anyway, after having taken a day's break and starting up again........CRASH TO DESKTOP..!!! We had probably been too close to the large landmass. One never know about these.

So, on it again - this is then the second Patrol 7! Went North again and took up position further inside the fjord, having sunk a British Medium Cargo on our way in. Morning April 10th and the historical RN destroyer flotilla pushed towards Narvik. We were able to sink all 5 within 18 minutes. They behaved very badly, had obviously no idea who they were up against....:)....

We stayed in the area to guard the Narvik inlet. Three days later there was plenty of action again. Steaming in the fjord came a large flotilla of RN destroyers - and a Battleship! HMS Nelson! Well, anybody with the faintest knowledge of military history know that historically it was HMS Warspite that went to Narvik, but who cares?

I concentrated on the Nelson, let the the first destroyers pass. As was already instructed from the BdU I first fired one impact and one magnetic fuze torp with a proper spacing. Both were duds! Then the circus started again! We were able to hit three of the escorting destroyers. After a short hunt the remaining followed Nelson towards Narvik.

Well, it had to return. When they showed up again we had positioned ourselves farther in the center of the fjord. Weather fortunately had deteriorated, not easy to detect our periscope as we used it only intermittently. Two torpedoes left, they were for Nelson! I decided to fire one as early as possible albeit with good enough angle to be sure the impact pistol detonated. It hit! No reactions to see, though, except from the escorting destroyers. Now I had decided to just lay still and hope not to be discovered. The earlier destroyers had not been very skilled at hunting us and I had used an electric torpedo so that its track could not be traced back to us.

It worked! They passed us, following the Nelson westwards. It steamed on, its speed a little slowed down, but still too fast for us as we turned after them on slowest speed, submerged.

As their outlines disappeared in the rain-filled mist we surfaced and increased speed, hopefully to catch up with the Nelson in case it developed any problems caused by our hit. At the entrance of the fjord a new problem arose. There were British destroyers on guard. They were close to the shores and it took some while for them to start a chase but in the meantime we had been fired upon and had to dive again with a consequent loss of speed. At one time we had to turn in again to throw them off. Strangely, only one of them only used asdic once or twice.....

So, we had to take the slow course, went out in the middle of the fjord again and proceeded submerged westwards with constantly diminishing battery power. Finally, after having turned a sound we surfaced again to proceed at max. speed south-west out the Vestfjord, hoping to catch up with HMS Nelson. No luck, though, at our way we received several air reconnaissance messages transmitted via the BdU that Nelson kept the distance. Also, that there were a string of RN destroyers going in the same direction, heading for their home ports in England. Twice we were caught up and had to dive to let them pass.

I finally decided enough was enough and set course for home.

Burning RN destroyers in the Ofotfjord:



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Not too much tonnage but never-the-less. For once our assigned targets were enemy naval vessels. Sorry no Nelson on the list. Big disappointment:

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