[RoaldLarsen]

I have returned to SH3 after a seven year absence. After a few weeks of making realism tweaks with SH3 Commander, I have begun careers in each of the three start-of-war flotillas available in-game.

The first of these careers is Kapitänleutnant Alfred Ahrens, whose first war patrol was significant.

Alfred Ahrens was born in Heilbronn on 1910/02/04. He joined the Reichsmarine as an officer candidate in 1928 and was made a Leutnant zur See in 1932, serving on the light cruiser Leipzig. Ahrens was promoted to Oberleutnant zur See and transferred to the new u-boat force in 1935. He served as IWO under KptLt. Heinrich Liebe on U-2, a type II A boat. In late 1937 Ahrens was promoted to Kapitänleutnant and took over command from KptLt. Hans Cohausz of U-15, a type II B.

On the 22nd day of August, 1939, Ahrens was ordered to take U-15 to sea and patrol grid square AN44 off the east coast of Scotland, about halfway between the Royal Navy bases at Scapa Flow and the Firth of Forth. He was to report any naval movements and merchant traffic. Ahrens was also secretly warned that there was a risk of an outbreak of war with England at or after the beginning of September. In the event of war, he was to sink any Britsh merchant shipping he encountered, but to do so in accordance with the Prize Rules of 1936. He was told to avoid detection, especially once he left the Skagerrak.

U-15 left the Skagerrak on August 25. The next day, Ahrens had to alter course to avoid being seen by a ship that had been sighted by one of the other u-boats that put to sea at about the same time. On the day after that, U-15 altered course to avoid a ship detected by U-15's own lookouts.

At 19:40 on August 28, U-15 arrived at the NW corner of its designated patrol grid square. U-15 patrolled AN44 without seeing any ships from August 28 to September 2. The crew heard the news of the German invasion of Poland on September 1. At 08:53 on September 3, while submerged on a southerly course in AN4417, U-15's hydrophone operator heard faint sounds of distant propellers. Ahrens ordered the boat to be surfaced and set a course to intecept for a visual appraisal of the contact. At 9:07, shortly after U-15 had sighted the contact - a 2,800 ton British coastal merchant - U-15 was surprised by a British aircraft, and even more surprised when the aircraft dropped a bomb near them, causing minor damage, including disabling the wireless equipment. U-15 dived but maintained a course towards the ship. Ahrens assumed that the attack on his boat meant that war had begun, but that he had missed notification while he was submerged. He further surmised that the ship had summoned the aircraft, and was therefore itself a legitimate target.

At 09:30, Ahrens surfaced and took U-15 on a long loop to get ahead of the ship, to the port side of its course. He then submerged with U-15 pointed perpendicular to the ship's course. At 11:15 Ahrens fired one T I torpedo at fast speed, depth 8m with magnetic fusing, from a range of 500m. The torpedo detonated under the target's keel, breaking the ship's back. Thus Ahrens claimed the first sinking of the war. Coincidentally, the attack came just as Neville Chamberlain was giving his speech declaring that Britain was at war with Germany. Shortly after the attack, the Funkmaat was able to repair the wireless, in time to receive Doenitz's message to commence operations against British shipping. The receipt of this message, about 3.5 hours after they sank their target, caused much consternation among U-15's crew.

Fourteen minutes after the sinking, U-15's lookouts spotted two approaching aircraft. U-15 dived and was apparently not detected. U-15 remained on patrol in AN44 for another 15 hours until, running low on fuel, Ahrens decided to return to base. At 05:07 on September 4, while leaving AN4445, U-15 was attacked by three British aircraft and crash-dived. Three explosions were heard, but no damage was done.

U-15 completed its first war patrol by docking in Kiel's sub pen 12 at 10:30 on September 12. When it was confirmed that Ahrens' attack on the British ship had taken place 15 minutes after the British war ultimatum had expired, he was commended for his initiative, rather than being disciplined for creating a potential international incident. Ahrens was Gemany's official leading submarine ace for just two days, until September 5, when Herbert Schultze sank the 4,853 ton Royal Scepter. (Julius Lemp's sinking of the Athenia on September 3 was not officially acknowledged.)

U-15 was in port for 10 days, being checked for damage and reprovisioned. Ahrens' second patrol was in grid square AN16, which includes Scapa Flow, but Ahrens stayed clear of the naval base and its patrolling destroyers. On the way to its patrol area, U-15 stopped and inspected a ship off the Norwegian coast near Bergen that seemed to be headed towards Scotland, but it proved to be a Norwegian coastal merchant trying to put some distance between itself and the lee shore. U-15 patrolled AN16 for three days, On the evening of the second day, a British coastal merchant was detected by hydrophone. As Ahrens was guiding U-15 closer to the target, a British destroyer was sighted on an intersecting course. U-15 dove and successfully evaded the warship, then resurfaced and sank the merchant with a single torpedo. U-15 returned to Kiel on October 8 with dry diesel tanks, after sixteen days at sea.

Before leaving on it's third war patrol, U-15's crew members were awarded the u-boat war badge.

U-15's third war patrol assignment was to AN34, SW of the southern tip of Norway. U-15 detected and sank two British cargo ships of about 4930 tons each, and intercepted a Norwegian fishing vessel. Having expended all its torpedoes, U-15 returned to Kiel after only 9 days at sea.

Upon his return to Kiel, Ahrens was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class, was promoted to Korvettenkapitän, and given command of the 5th Flotilla. When that Flotilla was disbanded in 1940, Ahrens was made commander of the First Division at the Murwik Naval Academy.

KptLt A. Ahrens War Patrol Summary:
Number of war patrols: 3
Days at sea: 46
Torpedos fired: 7
Torpedos detonating on target: 7
Ships sunk: 4
Tonnage sunk: 14,978