U-43 based at Wilhemshaven.
Ordered to patrol BE83
October 9th 1939. Left port at 13:00 and set course for AN14.
Arrived at AN14 at 23:07. 23:09 watch officer spotted a slow moving merchant, it was a Granville type freighter moving away from us at north east. In light of our poor position to the enemy ship, I decided to steer north at ahead flank to get ahead of them, and once ahead I called to steer west and then called for periscope depth and ahead slow. Once in postion I stopped all engines and waited for the ship to come into perfect firing range but as we were waiting at 23:55 the sonar operator heard another merchant not too far away moving directly towards our position, it was headed east. Once the Granville was in a good position I fired 3 torpedos in a spread, scored 2 hits but she never sank so I called to surface the boat and finished her off with the deck gun and she sunk at 01:12. I called for the watch crew and set a westerly course at ahead standard. The second ship came into view at 01:35 and it was a large freighter heading east. I instantly asked to change direction to south and at 01:45 I called for periscope depth and again, we waited for her to come to us. She was moving very slowly and took a while to move into position, but at 02:30 I fired 3 torpedos at her and this time all 3 hit. She stayed afloat for another 10 or 15 minutes before she sunk. We surfaced at 03:00 and returned to our original course on ahead flank. We saw no more ships for the rest of our journey towards BE83 and it was looking like we might not get anymore sightings until we were around half way through our patrol. At 08:40 on the 13th October the watch officer called ship spotted, I looked Through the UZO and saw not 1, but 2 merchants headed towards us, another Granville type and a small tanker. We carried on our course while I decided what to do, and which to attack 1st,but while I was sat thinking, the decision was made for me, they spotted us so I had only 2 options left, the deck gun, or get as close to the Granville as humanly possible and blow her out of the water, then deck gun the small tanker, so I set to periscope depth and ahead flank, and set course to get close to the Granville which was now doing a dance all over the place to get away, but I had other plans. I got to within around 800 metres and fired 3 torpedos at her, and asked for back emergency. The torpedos hit and she started sinking soon after, a called for ahead slow and turned the boat right and surfaced, the tanker was only some 700 metres away, and I called for the deck gun crew. They engaged the tanker and she sank around 10:15. Satisfied with the tonnage we had acquired I set a course back to base and on the 16th October we returned home to Wilhelmshaven. Thanks for reading
