[Walruss]

War Diary, U-30
1 Sept 1939
Lnt Z.S Werner MÜLLER commanding

My first command, and on the eve of war. Though it's not been officaly stated as yet, the men feel it coming. Even I feel it coming. My father told me I would see it in the men, in the orders... we've been tasked to patrol the Rockall bank. Many British merchants traverse those waters, and our orders demand stealth en route. This will be no show of force.

Our troops crossed the border of Poland within half an hour of us leaving port. My brother marches with them.


3rd Sept 1939

We received a radio message today. War with England. The hunt is on.

12 Sept 1939
Nearly two weeks at sea and this morning we came across our first target, a British merchantmen coming in at about 3,500 GRT (M03B). The weather was calm for the first time in 3 days and the men were itching to go, so I took a risk and surfaced a 1000 meters off his bow and ordered the gun crew to action. 5 Shells below the waterline and the cargo is on it's way to the bottom. We gave the crew directions to land and some biscuits. They seemed surprised, almost as if they didn't know a war was on.
The men

24th Sept 1939
The Rockall bank proved useless for anything but storms and a few bouts of seasickness amongst the younger crew. I admit I myself felt queasy a few times, however I managed to contain it. After 3 days patrolling our grid, I decided to move south towards the Chanel. At midnight our luck changed dramatically when out of the storm A large merchant running dark loomed across our bow. It was a true test of the torpedomen's performance as they had very little time to prepare, nor I to aim. He was close, though, and one of the 2 eels hit home, blasting a hole in her just aft of her funnel. The other either missed or malfunctioned. Regardless within half an hour she had sank, and we continued on. The weather prevented any rescue efforts, I have no doubt at least some men died in that storm.
It is the fate of those who brave the seas in these times, I suppose.

The morning afforded us a scare or two. A pair of Destroyers... J/K Classes both if our intelligence shows true. I've no idea if they were hunting us or simply patrolling, or perhaps moving south to reenforce France's navy.They did not spot us, and sailed into a near-perfect shooting position. I fired all 4 forward tubes and dived as deep as the shallower waters close to France would allow... sonar reported 2 misses, a malfunction and then there was an explosion that must have deafened the poor man as everyone on the boat could hear it. We evaded the other destroyer's depth charges for two hours, but he never came close. It is still nerve wracking to sit 100 meters below the surface and hear the hollow booms... sound travels well and without the sonar it is hard to tell how far away those booms are until they rattle the cutlery...
We escaped unharmed as he had given up after a few hours and so we headed back north, in the opposite direction.
I am happier to have shot at something that can shoot back, and the crew are singing still. We all know that there will be times where those Destroyers will have us at the disadvantage, but for now we sing.


26th Sept 1939

Encountered another small merchant today, near the channel. A converted passenger ship perhaps, but not large. We sent her to the bottom from below the surface. We are too close to england to chance a surface attack or use the guns. Another torpedo malfunctioned, failing to detonate. This is happening far too often for my liking, but the men can't solve the defect here. They think it the fault of the detonators, that can only be fixed by newer ones.

Ordered a course back to Wilhelmshaven. Fuel and Food are running low, and we have only two eels left in the bow tubes. We've not touched our external stores or our stern tubes, but the weather is simply too rough to fix that and we can't shoot if we starve.

28th. Sept
Another Merchant sunk- this time near Ireland. A single bow torpedo left, and still no chance to retrieve the external. Stern tubes still full but fuel is dwindling slowly...


10th Oct 1939

Arrive in port in the morning. I need a bath.
And a shave.


Patrol results
Crew losses: 0
Ships sunk: 5
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonnage: 22293 tons