[ijnfleetadmiral]

Captain's Personal Log
16 May 1940

After our New Year's Day present of a Southampton-class light cruiser, I didn't think much could top it, except perhaps a battleship or aircraft carrier, but those are fairly hard-to-find targets. Certainly, you could try and sneak into a fleet anchorage and pick one off like a duck in a shooting gallery, but

1) There's no guarantee that the harbor you choose to stroll into will have the target you're searching for.

2) Even if you manage to get in and fire torpedoes, said torpedoes might be duds.

and perhaps most sobering of all,

3) You can take your shot and possibly win glory, but there's little to no possibility you'll get out alive.

Anyway, back to my story. On our very next patrol, in those very same waters, we came upon a patrol of a V / W-class DD and two Auxiliary Cruisers. Fired three torpedoes at one and a fourth torpedo at the other, dove deep, and prayed. All four torpedoes hit, both targets subsequently sank, and we escaped unharmed. Our final patrol tally ended up just shy of 40,000 tons. Most impressive, nein? We returned to port to much fanfare...only to find no Knight's Cross awaiting U-45's Captain. While exceedingly disappointed, I passed out medals to my crew and released them on leave.

Fast forward to this last patrol. We patrolled in our assigned grid off Norway (sighting zilch, not even so much as a fishing boat) and then headed down to the Dutch / Belgian coast. We sank two armed trawlers and then decided to get brave and head directly into Rotterdam in an effort to surprise the Dutch. There was no resistance to our approach, and we managed to get into the harbor successfully...only to find it empty except for one of our own tugboats! A FRIENDLY tugboat inside an ENEMY port! We gave up in disgust and headed back out to sea. Later that evening, I decided to get even bolder and so we headed in to see what was off Dunkirk. The verdammt sea wall blocked a possible shot at several VERY nice targets (a Large Troop Ship among them), but we managed to find an auxiliary cruiser docked against the seaward side of the wall. Put three torpedoes into her and sank her, along with causing every escort in the harbor to lose their minds. Got away clean here as well.

Our patrol has just ended; after leaving Dunkirk, we sank a Large Cargo Ship and an Empire-type Freighter to empty us of torpedoes, and returned to port with yet another score of close to 40,000 tons...only to find that no cure for my itchy neck was forthcoming. I am currently the #1 ranking Ace with just over 200,000 tons sunk and I still have not yet received my Knight's Cross. What must I do to get recognized? I can only hope that this non-recognition now will be made up for in spades down the road. Until next time.

(Signed)

-Hossel