U-123 Type IXB, July 5, 1940
Grid square AM-14. It is near dusk and a calm flat sea. We just weathered a 2 day storm that burned more fuel than we really wanted to. As we were on a heading of 270, my 1st WO cries 'warship spotted!'. I race to the conning tower and see a British Black swan in front of us, about 8000m dead ahead. I watch him for a bit, and notice it is heading north, then south, then north again. What are the odds of this being a lone ship? I linger longer than I felt comfortable, worrying we could be spotted in this glass smooth sea. Then, out of the haze, the first line of the convoy appears. I order a dive to 14m, rig for silent running, 100 rpm's on the electric motors. The hydrophone operator reports the 20 ship convoy is headed strait for us, with a heading of 090. I order a turn to port, to bearing 000. Once we reach this heading, I order all stop and men to man the torpedo rooms and damage control. I raise the periscope briefly, and pick out 2 medium tankers for the bow to get, and a whale factory ship for the stern tubes. We wait in silence as the black swan and her convoy pass over head. I raise the scope, we are dead center of the convoy. I quickly launch my forward tubes and stern tubes at their targets, and come out of silent running. 700m to the target...... and all 4 bow tubes miss. They fail to detonate.
But, the whale factory ship has both a magnetic and contact torpedo's hit! I hold my breath, and keep the scope on a constant swivel checking for the escorts (there were 8, 4 swans, 4 hunt I's) and they are coming my way. 2 bow tubes were reloaded and one stern. I set all to contact and fire what I have. one at the whale factory, and both medium tankers. All 3 hit, and both tankers explode! The whale factory keeps plowing ahead though. Looks like she might get away...... I had one more torpedo load in the bow, so I fire it into a granville freighter. And.... impact! The granville starts sinking by the stern. The swans are closing fast..... Rig for silent running, 100 rpm's, dive to 100m, heading 300. after 15 minutes, we hear bulkheads groaning..... it was the whale factory ship! We creep away silently and clean without a single depth charge being dropped. The swans never detected us!
Headed for Brodeaux, as BDU says it is available for resupply. 1 granville, 2 medium tankers, and a whale factory ship. Not a bad haul (and yes, I alerted BDU to the presence of the convoy, but never was asked to shadow). Being low on fuel, I can not afford to follow the convoy for another attack.