[UKönig]

Grid CG96, 50km east of Gibraltar, heading south. Midday. That itchy feeling I've come to rely upon suggested to me that maybe we should dive sooner than the hour time limit I originally ordered. Reducing to 1/3 ahead, our soundguy, Heinrich I think, picked up the sound of slow screws, closing from the left. Playing the wheel about the dial, he then tells me "contacts, sir, 3, fast screws, closing, bearing green 020". Ah, the welcoming committee that I was expecting a few minutes ago has show up to escort a lone frieghter into the Gibraltar staging area. Possibly to reload and head out to malta, or Alexandria, or who knows where really, but if I have my way, there is a destination for them already picked out...
Increasing speed it still takes us about twenty minutes to close the range and angle for attack, the three destroyers shadowing about 8km away. They have yet to notice us, but I'm willing to bet that as soon as we hit this merchant (totally unaware of our presence), they will move in at high speed to investigate. That moment will give us our chance with the remaining 3 seeking torpedos. Forward tubes 2 and 4, and aft tube 5 are loaded with these technical wonders, and I am eager to set them loose. Tube 3 on the other hand, has the early compressed air torpedo loaded. The one that leaves a visible wake on the surface. No time to take it out and swap with another, I will just have to make do.
Up scope. Take a look. Coastal merchant, 1990 tons. British. Favorable solution to fire. Speed, roughly 6 kts.
"Weapons officer, open tube 1, set depth 6 meters, standby to fire"
The loading crew cranks open the outer door for tube one, with the PO standing by to squeeze the firing handle.
"Tube one, fire!"
U99 rumbles a bit as the torpedo starts its fateful journey, with the LI telling the guy at the trimming panel, "pump 1000L forward", "maintain trim".
"Bow planes, down 3 degrees."
Taking a chance, I keep the scope raised to watch our progress, telling Heinrich to keep an ear out for those escorts, and if he notices any change in their disposition, to tell me right away.
Checking the chronograph, I watch the seconds tick down until the last moment, when our torpedo glides under the merchant hull.
With a singular explosion, a jet of water blasts up midships and fully engulfs the steamer, still completely unaware that there are sharks in these waters...
Expecting to see a ship sink more or less in half, I am surprised to see it still making headway. Not as quickly as before, but still going forward.
"How about those destroyers?" I ask the soundman.
"No change, sir, constant speed".
Taking a look through the lens, I now see the effects of our strike. Nose down, forecastle awash, the merchant is sinking. No time to abandon ship, but looks like plenty of time to radio an SOS.
"Sir!, 3 contacts, speed increasing, bearing green 015, range, 7km and closing".
Yep, that got their attention.
"Slow to 1/3".
"Open tubes 2 and 4, get our star performers warmed up".
Swinging the scope around to the bearing supplied by our soundman, I up the magnification on the lens to see a Tribal class destroyer (with 2 hunt 1 destroyers as outriders), shear off suddenly and start closing the distance to our position, not the one radioed by the sinking ship. Like he spotted our scope...
"Tube 1 ready to fire, sir". Informs the weapons officer.
It looks like a normal torpedo will work for this one, the math is encouraging, so rather than fire a more valuable seeker, I quickly change to tube one. Still a prototype, but one of the standard wakeless models with better range and yield.
Lining up our shot on the lead escort, I send the fish from tube 1. on its way.
By this time one of the Hunt destroyers had sped into the area where the merchant sank, and now turned around on us from another vector.
Lining him up in the brackets, I order "tube 2, fire!"
Quickly checking the status of the tribal destroyer, I notice with dismay that our angle is off now and there is no way we will hit.
Nice going "captain", you just wasted 25,000 reichsmarks.
The standard monosyllabic curse.
I didn't want to, but I probably should have anyway...
"Tube 4, fire!"
Suddenly, a bang, and a scratchy, static-y sound from the earphones, when Heinrich tells me "tube 2 hit, sir".
Angling the scope around, I see the hunt class destroyer is not closing quite as quickly as he'd been a few seconds ago, fire and smoke now coming from the afterdeck.
"Oh yeah," I mutter to myself, "that's gonna make them mad..."
Swinging the scope around to the right again, I catch it in time to see the tribal class get hit by the seeker from tube 4.
Suddenly, the 3rd escort comes into view, to the right of us. Closer by the second, we don't have a lot of time for finesse with this shot.
"Tube three, fire!"
The compressed air torpedo leaves an agonizingly obvious trail of bubbles as it speeds towards the last Hunt 1 destroyer, now aware of our location, and heading to intercept at 20 kts.
By this time, the first Hunt destroyer has gone under the waves, and the Tribal class is going down by the stern quite rapidly.
"Weapons officer, get ready for tube 5, set depth 3 meters, raise the cover, standby..."
Putting my eye back to the lens I see our lives flash in front. This may have been a mistake. When suddenly, totally unexpectedly in fact, we take out the third escort. Like a boxer landing the knockout punch into the left cheek of his opponent, our T1 slams into the forward quarter, right into the powder magazine.
Squinting a bit, I am bit blinded by the flash as the whole front end of the enemy ship disappears in a massive fireball.
Down scope. Coming down from the tower I take up a position at the charts table. With the navigator, we lay in an exit course.
"Helm", I order, "take us down to 30 meters, ahead full, let's get out of here, we've done enough for today".
Going back to my bunk I compile the results of our actions thus far.
9 units lost, 3 of them warships. Current patrol tonnage, 16,645. 2 aircraft shot down.
Resuming patrol in the quadrant east of Gibraltar.