We waited for him to come to us. Why waste precious fuel? Then the sun started to fall and waves started to rise, finally small mast appeared over horizon. It was small bulker no bigger than 2500 tons. While the water splashes the periscope, captain and weapon officer are calculating firing solution. The word that the whole crew waited has been finally said- torpedo looss. Everyone in the bow of the u boat heard the eels flying out of the torpedo tube. In less then a minute the sound of torpedo exploding appears. Weapon officer looks through the scope and confirms we have a hit right to the stern of the ship. Our prey quickly slows down into a stop, probably we blue of the propeller. But it looked like it wasn't‘t going to sink. A wise idea would be to surface and finish it off with deck gun, but not in the middle of a day while the merchant could radio for help. It was no choice but to wait. But even waiting was risky because any destroyer from scapa flow who heard the distress call could quickly appear in our crime scene. We understood that, but we couldn‘t leave it either. We decided to risk and wait. WE dived about to 50m. So the ragging waves wouldn‘t interfere with Josef‘s listening to the sea. Then it was midnight we surfaced and started to prepare to fire the deck gun. First shots were way off, but it was expected in that kind of weather. After few shots and she is going down. Then we went full ahead and left the area. The weather was on British side, visibility horrible, huge waves and cold wind. Our newbie crew of U-96 can‘t stand the banking left to right from the waves, everyone is getting tired. But we do not stop, we go on wards to the patrol grid and sink some convoys. Then the sea calmed down, in the middle of the night, around 3:20 in the morning something buzzed from the sky and over the boat soon explosions followed just port of our ship. The whole u boat started to shake. The captain almost flew of the deck into the cold water but luckily seaman Alfred Seefeld grabbed the captain and saved him. The captain promised that he would get iron cross and promotion. Without waiting u-boat crashed dived and quickly slipped under the waves. The crew reported zero damage on the boat. The captain was shocked how in the middle of a night aircraft detected them and our watch crew didn‘t. Then surfaced and ordered the radio man to report about this incident to BDU. I heard some crew talking about thing called radar that it detected us. I didn‘t believed them because it‘s clearly British propaganda. While traveling around the British territory we met U-95. The U-95 and our U-93 were almost sister ships, they were ordered at the same date 1938 May 30. We greeted each other and went on our ways. The only good thing about the weather is the heavy clouds, aircraft will be flying in this kind of weather. 14th day of patrol we spotted a couple of ships. It was C2 and modern medium merchant both of them were juicy targets. We dived and prepared for the attack. Shot two torpedoes at C2 with spread of 2 degrees. And one for medium merchant. Only two of three detonated. Both hit just tips of bows. The medium merchant were shredded to bits. But C2 took it like it was nothing and still not stopping but slowing down. Then we followed him for 3 hours waiting for him to give up and sink. Hoping the bad weather will take care of it. But it didn‘t, what a sturdy ship! Then we decided to shoot at it with stern torpedo in order to save what's left of bow torpedoes. But the eel never hit the target. Then again we tried our luck but still nothing. Then we turned around and shot the bow torpedo finally worked. It wen’t down fast. I felt sorry for the crews of the ship, stranded in the middle of the ocean, no supplies, and in bad weather their survival chances were slim. One of the officers even suggested destroying the life boats with flak gun. But captain instead turned around and said: If I ever again hear any ideas about shooting lifeboats I will shoot you from torpedo tube myself
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