Patrol 6 (12/27/39 - 1/24/40) aka "Close encounters of the destroyer kind"
Grid BE 59
After the somewhat lackluster previous patrol (compared atleast to the earlier exploits of the U-27). Spirits were lifted as the crew got to spend Christmas ashore in Wilhelmshaven. As one of the most successful u-boats of the war...
To Date:
2 battleships (Royal Oak, Nelson)
1 battlecruiser (Hood)
2 cruisers (Southampton, Auxiliary)
7 destroyers (assorted classes)
...the Captain was hard pressed to find a single example of a crewman managing to buy his own drink for the duration of the stay. Even the maintenance workers got a break as for the first time since the U-27's first training patrol the Captain had managed to bring the boat back without a scratch on it. (collided with sub-nets patrols 2 and 4, strafed on patrol 3).
It was lucky then that U-27 had checked out a petty officer as a medic at the end of the last patrol. His skills had grown after treating half the crew for seasickness for 2 weeks straight during the previous patrol. The crew was recovering from hangovers as U-27 motored out of the harbor...the talk though being about how the Captain had been observed avoiding mirrors, or stepping on cracks between the paving stones, and alternately throwing salt over his shoulder as he walked to the berthed submarine...
"I don't care...if it prevents a repeat of the last patrol I'll do anything," he had said... the crew had to restrain him a moment later from training the deck gun on a black cat that had come around the corner of the nearest quay warehouse.
Still off to the Shetlands to make the well practiced turn to port. An early prize was found in a motor vessel (100 tons). The Watch Officer joking that the Captain should have left it go so it could grow up to be a bigger catch. Still it cost little as the Captain sent it to the bottom with the 20mm flak gun.
"I missed you two...," he sighed.
Another medium sized target was found soon after and a Granville class was added, this time by the actual deck gun. However, the weather was not going to cooperate for much longer. Still it was only 9 m/s seas instead of 15 m/s...it could have been worse. U-27 was less interested this time in the Hebrides...figuring that we might have been overstaying our welcome. Also other U-boats were beginning to report mine strikes farther and farther out. U-27 thus passed further away from the Scottish coast this time. Traffic was minimal and nothing worth firing a torpedo at was found.
It would be into the Bay of Biscay in BE 39 that the first major engagement would be fought. U-27 detected a small to medium sized convoy defended by only a single C&D class destroyer....which had apparently not been in refit any time recently as it was lacking ASDIC. However the destroyer's skipper was apparently quite determined to prove the adage that its not about the equipment, its how you use it. The hydrophone operator's chart tracking the destroyer would later be hailed as a early example of modern art under the title 'Abject Linear Confusion'.
Needless to say the Weapon's Officer was not keen on the idea of shooting a torpedo at a destroyer that was twirling around like a Bolshoi ballet dancer. If the destroyer had ever gone in a straight line for any appreciable length of time it was likely that the U-27 would have destroyed the entire convoy through a combination of torpedoes and gunfire. As it was, every major ship in the convoy was systematically claimed until by morning the only thing that remained was a handful of small and coastal merchants. Without ASDIC the destroyer was utterly impotent as U-27 always moved after firing, followed by reducing the engine RPMs to under 50. The best the destroyer could do was was depthcharge in roughly the area the sub had been.
Unwilling to shoot torpedoes at minor vessels, especially with daylight arriving and after sailing all the way to the Bay of Biscay off the NW corner of Spain, U-27 broke off after radioing the convoy's location.
There was a little hilarity that followed as the sub settled into a slow patrol of BE69...atleast until the Navigator reminded the Captain that we were supposed to be in BE59. The Captain cursed whoever chose the font on the map and moved the sub to the correct grid. On the way the sub encountered the largest prize of the patrol..and unescorted large tanker. after a few more days and intermittent encounters with mostly small tonnage vessels the Captain decided to move back North more into the convoy lanes coming out of the Western approaches.
The maneuver was rewarded as U-27 picked up a medium sized convoy outbound through the northern Bay of Biscay. However it was at this moment that U-27's greatest archfoe returned. 15 m/s winds and monsoon grade rain.
Having picked up the convoy in the wee hours of the morning U-27 would atfirst simply shadow the convoy. This became difficult as the only way to do was by hydrophone and the convoy was moving at a decent clip, 8 knots..faster than the VIIB could make under electric power, especially faster than the VIIB could safely make in the vicinity of the convoy as there were two destroyers this time and the lead one did have ASDIC, though the trailing destroyer (another C&D) did not.
This necessitated alot of diving, surface running, and position checking that became increasingly complex as the convoy was running a zig zag course with about 20 km long legs.
As night fell, visibility dropped to near 0. It was very much the same "Where'd my hands go" weather from the previous patrol. Trying to judge the convoy's location became almost impossible visually. At about 11 pm after an hour on the surface catching up to the convoy (after U-27 slightly misjudged and zigged when we should have zagged) we needed badly to check the location via hydrophone. Worryingly we could hear a ship in the distance, but couldn't tell from where.
"Periscope depth...silent running"
... 30 seconds later we passed into the effective range of the hydrophones..."all stop"
"CONTACT, WARSHIP, CLOSE RANGE, MEDIUM SPEED, BEARING 160"
"How close?!, you didn't draw a line on the chart?!"
'SCREEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHHHHH'
"It's that dot on top of us Captain"
"Well, on the bright side we have located the trailing destoyer," the Weapon Officer quipped but for a tense moment everyone held their breath...fortunately the destroyer didn't seem to be aware it had hit a submarine.
"It was only a glancing hit, sounded like he brushed against the flak gun and its mounting"
Bernard, the planesman then piped up "Don't we need to surface and exchange insurance information?"
Everyone just glared at him.
It was a good bit of luck that the destroyer didn't have ASDIC though. Maneuvering away, the Captain considered his options..."We literally sailed up the wake and right past a destroyer and neither of us saw the other. I seriously take back everything I ever said about C&D classes and how little they have below the waterline to get a solid hit on. If that had been a Tribal....<shudder>...to hell with this"
At that point U-27 did surface but only to move around the sides of the convoy...closing to what could best be described as 'knife fight range'. The lookouts struggled to pick out the barest silhouettes of ships being lit up by the occasional flash of lightning...the Hydrophone operator did his best to help with the occasional update everytime the bow of the boat wound up 10 meters under. Several times the Captain had to abort attacks when it became clear there wouldn't be sufficient time for the torpedoes to arm but as the midnight hours ticked by U-27 began to pick off ships. Though we did record a miss or two due to the motion of the u-boat. Virtually every sinking though had to be confirmed by the hydrophone operator.
The final note of the saga came as the U-27 had worked its way around to the opposite side of the convoy. An ore carrier was hit by one torpedo that seemed to do little damage. Still it was a raging storm and while dawn was not that far off U-27 had time. Sinking a medium cargo next, U-27 returned and decided that it would require her last torpedo to finish the ore carrier. The shot was dead on and soon the ore carrier was at a 25 degree list. Amazingly though she held her place in the convoy.
As U-27 evaded on the surface at dawn after the 2nd torpedo hit the Captain was sure that in this rough weather the ore carrier would sink any minute. Any minute now...Yep any minute....
Things grew more complicated as the rain lessened and the sun came up. U-27 had to back off to 5 km now. But still shadowed the convoy...and still the ore carrier sailed on making the necessary 8 knots to hold position. Finally, out of patience, the Captain declared that it would only take a minor nudge to finish off the target...U-27 closed to 3.5km on the surface before the convoy raised the alarm. Believing in his trusty deck gun, though the sea was still quite rough, the crew proved just how veteran they had become at the gunnery drill. U-27 rattled off 12 shots before shells from the leading destroyer began to splash around the boat. 3 shells hit the ore carrier at the water line, 4 tore into her deck. Not bad considering the range and the heaving sea. The ore carrier was now on fire in 3 places and belching smoke.
As U-27 evaded the Captain eagerly awaited news of the 8000 ton vessel succumbing. An hour later he was disappointed to see the ship still making 8 knots at a 30 degree list.
"Why?" he asked....
Then he noticed...it was a Canadian ore carrier. To the virtual Canucks on that ship, that kept it afloat after being torpedoed twice and shelled...in a gale...the Captain tips his hat.
It would be the first time that an underway ship torpedoed by the U-27 would escape. Though out of torpedoes the U-27 would not quite be finished. A collection of mostly smaller vessels with the remaining gun ammunition. The epilogue of the patrol being a trawler that was sunk very near where the first victim of the patrol had been. It took most of flak gun ammo to do it. The crew was in a good mood with the boat going back with the tubes and the ammo locker dry. They even decided that given the chance we were going to make the streaks of Royal Navy destroyer gray that decorated the flak gun mounting and rear guardrails a part of our 'official' paint scheme.
We would qualify another petty officer in maintaining the engines.
19 ships sunk, all merchant, 82,700 GRT, No actual damage to the hull (flak gun was the only thing damaged in the impact with the destroyer).
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