February 2, 1940 AN81
0303 On the way here we spotted a couple of neutrals and not much else but right now U48 is diving since we just spotted a warship SW of us.
We will crawl closer to check if it's alone or escorting something.
0342 The warships turns out to be an ASW Trawler and it's not alone, a merchant ship is tailing it. They are sailing NNW so we must change course slightly and increase speed to get in a good position.
Weather is not that good, overcast and windy, so we must be careful not to broach the surface with our turret.
It should be dark enough to hide our periscope.
0434 Merchant is a medium cargo. They are going 4 knots and the Trawler just went back in the lead after making a search pattern...which make it possible to attack both ships... we are about 1200m off to the starboard, so not as close as I'd like, but the angles seems good enough.
Will shot one torpedo each, impact pistols...opening tube 1...aiming at the trawler...fire!...opening tube 2...aiming at the merchant forward mast...fire!...lower the scope...time to wait and cross our fingers.
0435 Impact on the Trawler! Raise periscope! Let's check...Huge explosion! It's sinking..Impact on the medium cargo! Small fire on the bow deck! Nice! Let's change course to shadow this limping ship and see if it goes down...
Ship sunk! HMS Fifeshire (ASW Trawler), 1100 tons. Crew: 50. Crew lost: 16
0501 After slowing down to a crawl this medium cargo is going down! Which is perfect since we have another sound contact further West and we are going to investigate that now.
Ship sunk! SS Trade Wind (Medium Cargo), 4682 tons. Cargo: Timber. Crew: 40. Crew lost: 3
0655 Spotted her at last! Merchant...not so big...north of us...will get ahead of her and close in submerged...wind changed direction to 95° but still 13 m/s so we cannot use our deck gun...maybe we will use our stern tube.
0734 Target is a coastal freighter...not a big target but still a target...we are passing in front of her right now and will use our stern tube.
0740 Opening tube 5...target speed 9 knots...AOB 85° green...impact pistol...fire!...less than 30 seconds...tic tac tic tac...Impact! Right on her nose...either I miscalculated the angle or the waves are slowing her down somewhat...let's see if it is enough...
0846 She is barely crawling and her nose is often submerged by the waves...We reloaded our stern tube...Battery still good, no other sound contact
0913 She is sinking at last...I'm glad I didn't have to use another torpedo on such a small vessel....we are close to the coast and about 50km NNW of Lowestoft yet no warship came to help this poor freighter...weird, but I'm not complaining.... time to resume our patrol.
Ship sunk! SS Birgitte (Coastal Freighter), 1870 tons. Cargo: Steel. Crew: 23. Crew lost: 0
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