Patrol 7 (1/25/1940-2/7/1940)
Grid CG76
For the first time U-27 was detailed out to the coast of Spain. U-27 would never make it there...
...
For all the right reasons
Three merchants were sunk as U-27 transited around the Shetlands and north of Scotland giving Scapa Flow an increasingly greater space. Mine strikes were increasingly showing up in the BdU radio traffic. Weather was slightly bad as U-27 passed the Hebrides and then something interesting happened. U-27 received a report of a task force leaving Liverpool and heading NW. Only 8 knots though. Thinking about the possibility of setting an ambush in the Irish channel U-27 ran at flank speed through the dawning morning light until a position was taken up between the Mull of Kintyre and Antrim. The task force would have to pass through.
And U-27 waited...and waited...until eventually out of the morning mists two ASW trawlers emerged. The Captain was slightly annoyed. There were no other contacts on the Hydrophone. After another half hour it was clear that the trawlers were the task force. The Captain lowered the periscope in frustration as the WO joked
"Well if the British are calling two trawlers a task force then the war is going well eh?"
The Captain made a mental note about task forces moving at 8 knots as the U-27 moved back to the NW. Still we were in the northern reaches of the Irish Sea an area that had been very good to U-27 before. U-27 would spend the next few hours listening and moving at slow speed to the NW. Eventually a coastal freighter would be detected and run down as it as it transited north, west of the Isle of Mull.
As the afternoon hours of February 1st ticked by serendipity was about to strike. A large convoy was reported by Bdu sighted west of the Hebrides on a course to enter the Irish Sea, clearly headed for Liverpool. U-27's little detour on the way to Spain was about to become quite profitable.
Moving back south to the waters south of Islay U-27 laid in ambush...it would be just after midnight before U-27 first heard the approaching convoy. As the moments ticked by the Hydrophone operator identified merchant after merchant after merchant. Finally a single warship was called out....
in the middle of the convoy.
"What...what is this?" The Captain wondered. As 3am approached the convoy began to sail into sight. Row after row of merchant ships...and the battleship Rodney sailing at its core.
No Destroyers. Whether the escorts had been detached and sent to Loch Ewe since the convoy was in Irish waters the Captain couldn't say. The important thing was that the convoy at 3:30 am was driving right over U-27 with the Rodney passing 600 meters away at a stately 7 knots. It was almost impossible to miss. 4 torpedoes went out and the 3rd and 4th hits were entirely superfluous as the first two hit just fore and aft of the forward magazine. The Rodney went down in 6 minutes after her forward magazines exploded.
None of the convoy ships were armed...what followed turned the Irish channel into a stream of fire. In the next 4 and a half hours 13 additional ships would be sunk by U-27 firing her torpedoes and deck gun as fast as the crew could reload. By the time the tubes and ammo locker were empty only 6 ships remained in the convoy...one of those a battered small merchant that had taken 10 waterline hits before the Captain had realized that the ship was actually
Norwegian. Why there was a lone Norwegian ship in the middle of a British convoy the Captain couldn't have said. A sad mix of small and coastal merchants all that was left of the convoy.
The 2nd of February had been very good to the U-27. Only the fact that U-27 had overspent on torpedoes on the Rodney and needed extra torpedoes to sink a pair of whale factory ships. That combined with the slightly difficult gunnery conditions (5 m/s waves) was the only thing that prevented the near total wipeout of the convoy.
U-27 sailed back to Wilhelmshaven...never having come close to CG76.
134,600 GRT (17 merchants, 1 warship - HMS Rodney). No damage to the boat.