U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Jan. 3rd 1944 - North Atlantic - Patrol 23
Left Lorient yesterday morning on our way north to the AK grid again. Patrol 22 became another misere. We had a fat convoy nicely lined up but I fell for the temptation to take out the lead escort as it was passing us on a straight course on a distance of 1.000 meters. The TIII was a dud and the Buckley turned at us. In the following swirling match we fired a Falke on it, too, but it didn't catch on. In the meantime a River class escort arrived and eventually a Flower corvette snuck up on us from behind and dropped a couple of D/C's right on us. Took out both periscopes so that was that. Crash dived to 150 meters. The boat didn't like that so we had to go up a little. Due to the crash dive it was very difficult to keep at a constant depth on lowest speed. Had to boost the speed intermittingly to keep it steady. Don't know how many D/C's they dropped but they kept on for quite a while. Finally got outside the circle by going full speed and using the Bold 2 decoys.
This is getting difficult. Got 1 Falke and some of the new FAT torpedoes.
Fred
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