February 5, 1940 AN79
0634 U48 has made it through the Channel once again. Weather got worse during the night: overcast with medium rain and poor visibility. That was helpful, our sonar operator kept alerting us about the warships movement in the area and we could easily cahnge our course accordingly and easily slip through them unnoticed. There were also a couple of merchants contact in the area but we never had a chance to hunt them. We would have had to surface and risk bumping into some warship. The risk was too high. We are now sailing northward and recharging batteries. We will dive in a while to check with our sonar.
0703 U48 just dived and we got multiple sounds contacts: warships south of us as expected but there is also a merchant NW of us which seems to be coming our way. Perhaps we have a target for our last torpedo...
0722 We are diving again after a quick dash on the surface. If we guessed her course properly we should be closer now...yes, we can hear her now...much closer but a bit more to the west than expected...she was on a SE course...perhaps she changed course to the south and is now heading for the Dover area?...mmm...no waship close enough to be an immediate threat...let's surface again and change course to WSW...Ahead flank! Surface the boat!
0734 U48 is down at periscope depth again and I think we are in a very good position! Visibility is really poor but our contact is north of us and at close range and should be visible quite soon. I expect her to be heading almost straight south, so we are slowly crawling to the West.
0737 Ship spotted! She is emerging from the fog right now...a tanker?...yes, seems like a small tanker heading south...she is going to pass behind us...we risk losing her in the fog...back full! We must close the gap...visibility is so poor I don't think they would spot our periscope...
0739 back slow! We are close enough and there is not much time...target range is about 500 meters...speed...I'll go with 9 knots...problem is depth...with this waves she is bouncing like crazy...I'll go with a magnetic set for 5 meters...Ato running fast...AoB...85° starboard...open tube 5...aiming at mid ship...fire!...torpedo is away...seems like she is somewhat slower than expected...Impact!...I love magnetics!...when they work out fine. Got her a tad forward than planned but that's good...she is burning!
0746 She dipped her nose quite often and slowed down to a crawl...now she is going down! Another good target! Time to leave the area, warships are coming from the south but I think we will be long gone when they will arrive here.
Ship sunk! MV Zenith (Small Tanker), 4314 tons. Cargo: Crude Oil. Crew: 15. Crew lost: 4
February 8, 1940 Kiel
0320 U48 just entered the port area. Nothing happened on the way back, we got just a contact in grid AN84 but the weather was so horrible we couldn't have used our deck gun so I didn't try to get close. This storm followed us all the way back here and really I'm going to take a long hot bath to wash away the dirt and cold. This was a good patrol, we managed to sink 11 ships: 3 warships and 8 cargo...that Whale Factory ship was worth the risk, that's a big prize. Warships escorting cargo is going to be an issue. ASW Trawler are an hindrance but if they were destroyer it would be really risky to attack in those shallow waters. We'll see...
Patrol results
Crew losses: 0
Ships sunk: 11
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonnage: 39157 tons
edit: Merry Christmas fellow Kaleuns! Plenty big preys to all of you!
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