This 10th patrol in February 1940 was extremely fruitful. I arrived at Thalia resupply ship near Cadice, and since it was relatively early in the war I decided to have a look in Gribaltar, to see if there were anything juicy enough to send to Davy Jones' Locker.
So my crew and I took our U-51 toward the STrait and on our way in we encountered a Tribal-class DD (afterwards we discovered it to be HMS Afridi). It did not detect our presence and we could position ourselves, favoured by the darkness, in a 90° firing position. For good measure we shot two torpedos at it. We let the aals go and were rewarded with a stern hit that left it burning and then it sank almost perperndicularly. No survivors: on 227 sailors, all were claimed by the sea.
We made our way to Gribaltar, but my sonarman detected a small convoy of what we discovered to be French ships, two of them escorted by an Armed trawler. The escort leading them steamed on oblivious to our presence, and so I could put a couple of magnetic-set torpedoes in a
Grosses Frachtschiff. After the explosions it started to list heavily to port, but we could not wait and follow it, we had to continue to the British base (on account of being surprised by dawn in the vicinity). Before leaving my Weapon Officer suggested to send a torpedo to the other ship following, and so we did. But it was likely a dud, or poorly aimed, as nothing happened. Anyhow my sonarman heard crushing hull noises, that indicated that that ship went to say hello to Neptune.
Upon our arrival in Gribaltar, after evading the weak surveillance of an Elco and an Armed Trawler, we arrived in the richest target environment that I have seen in my patrols so far. I thought the juiciest target would be HMS Southampton slightly north of the commercial piers, but imagine my surprise and that of my men when peeking through the periscope I saw something very similar to a battleship. No, not similar, it WAS a battleship, anchored opposite to the port. Better still: it was HMS NELSON!!!!!!!!!!!
My WO and I quickly prepared a firing solution and as soon as everything was ready three magnetic a-type eels were on their way. 3 minutes 40 seconds went by, slow ever so slow, and then through the periscope...
KabooM!!!!!!!
Kaboom!!!!!!
Kaboom!!!!!!
We hit the battleship under the keel at an AoB of 20° if I remember correctly.
The Tommies on board that giant shot at once an illuminating shell (oh, they DO illuminate, if you ask me), but we were on our way out, submerged and quiet. After a while I got the message "Enemy unit destroyed". I let my men cheer and whoop for a while before recalling them to order.
On our way back, given that everything was silent as if nothing had happened (after all, there were no explosions aboard Nelson, it simply sat on the seabed), we used our stern tube to sink another Tribal-class nearby, namely HMS Huron. This one exploded and sank with "great balls of fire" all around and above it but nothing happened in the port once again (weird brits, must be deaf, was the comment that could be heard in the conning tower).
We managed to return to Thalia without incidents, apart that an unfortunate Coastal Freighter happened to cross our path and was promptly sank using our last stern torpedo with a clean hit just below the main deck.
Total: 48155 Tons!!!
And quite some medals, specializations, and promotions to distribute among my men. ANd a Ritterkreuz for Oberleutnant z.S. Heinz Lehmann.
