Patrol 3 (9/26 - 10/11) Sent to patrol AM19, but a far more devious plan was to be carried out under secret orders (Yes its Scapa Flow)
U-27 moved NNW, angling approach Scapa Flow from the east after passing South of the Shetlands. While passing through the shipping lanes between the Firth of Forth and Norway several contacts were made and sunk with gunfire.
As U-27 approached Scapa though, the weather turned bad. With conditions very poor, U-27 had to wait...while doing so... two destroyers maintaining long distance patrol circuits were sent to the bottom with impact hits. With the weather finally beginning to break U-27 moved closer to shore but a freak wave was going to make sure that U-27 did not escape the storm totally unscathed. Fortunately the bow scraping the bottom did only minimal damage.
With the weather breaking U-27 infiltrated through the eastern pass into Scapa Flow and quickly located the HMS Royal Oak. Four torpedoes were sent at the battleship, shallow to avoid nets. It turned out that the 3rd and 4th hits were entirely superfluous as the 2nd torpedo aimed at the B turret magazine found its mark.
Over the next few hours U-27 would add the Tribal destroyer attending the Royal Oak. The Auxiliary Cruiser. The V&W destroyer patrolling the western third of the bay just barely avoided a torpedo by making a scheduled turn 10 seconds before a G7e arrived. That miss nearly came back to bite U-27 in the ass later but as it was dark and a G7e the destroyer was not alerted to the attack.
With the twilight of dawn arriving the floating dock was added to the tally. As U-27 moved across the north west quadrant tragedy almost struck. The same V&W that was missed so recently was making a patrol pass and the Captain misjudged where the destroyer would turn. Instead of passing astern, the destroyer passed in front of U-27 and turned. The corner of the destroyer's ASDIC arc solidly passed over the boat. The crew of the U-27 went white as the Captain turned the sub into the destroyer's turn. Sacrificing distance to the destroyer in order to keep the acoustic profile of the submarine as small as possible. Knuckles were white all around. On the nearby destroyer a tired ASDIC operator furrowed his brows trying to decide if he was actually getting a return after a night spent searching the harbor over and over again...For a long moment the destroyer continued its slow turn...and then continued on the next leg of its patrol. No alarm had been raised.
Feeling relieved... the U-27 crept across the north side of the harbor...keeping the periscope down as dawn slowly transitioned to morning. After all...the anchorage positions of the two V&Ws on the east side of the harbor were known, there was no reason to check the position.... what could possibly go wrong.
Finally in position, with 2 torpedoes left and two stationary targets left (2 V&Ws) the Captain quickly snapped up the periscope and rattled off the first torpedo. Turning the periscope quickly to confirm the exact orientation of the patrolling V&W's I nearly had a heart attack when the scope was completely filled with a warship... seconds later I really, really wanted that first torpedo back. It turns out I wasn't the only thing sneaking into Scapa Flow harbor the night before. 1.5 km almost direct astern next to the wreck of the Royal Oak was the HMS Hood.
1 torpedo...either a near guaranteed kill on the V&W or a chance (albeit a slim one) to take out the Hood... The last torpedo shuddered out of U-27's stern tube and raced true to explode with a magnetic fuse directly under the Hood's B turret.... it hurt the pride of the Royal Navy badly...but it wasn't enough.
With all torpedoes expended the U-27 slipped out the eastern pass. The hunt for merchants continued as U-27 moved back towards the Shetlands. With 20 rounds left the weather worsened again and we headed for home. We qualified a second Petty Officer in radio/sonar. Not surprising as the crew got ALOT of practice tracking destroyers on the patrol.
Total tonnage 126k, 20 ships, 7 warship, 13 merchants. HMS Royal Oak, HMS Scotstoun. 5 destroyers.
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