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renthehen · 08-16-18, 08:26 PM

Work has made these reports a lot later than my first - but patrols 2 & 3 of U-101 are complete!
=============================================

Josef Reinald
Flotilla: U-Flotilla Wegener
Boot: U-101
Patrol Region: AN11

Patrol 2

26th Oct '39: Left Kiel with crew. All in good spirits after a successful first patrol and our patrol grid AN11 being on the route we took on said patrol. We all expected success.

27-28th Oct '39: Rough seas over the North Sea. On route towards Newcastle. No ships spotted.

29th Oct '39: Late afternoon and single British cargo vessel spotted off North English coast. Identified as a King Edgar Class Merchant vessel (SS Langleebrook). No weapons spotted on vessel and with seas calmer we prepared for a surface attack and the vessel went down quickly. 4020 tons of shipping sunk carrying general cargo. 41 of the 63 crew were lost.
We continued heading north.

30th Oct ' 39: First light and a small tugboat was spotted. Although normally against firing upon this type of ship, certain crew members were adamant it may be carrying important cargo as they believed it to be moving suspiciously. Wanting the crew to be well drilled in surface attacks, orders were given to attack. It turns out it was carrying nothing - though a 1121 ton Tugboat - MV Adherant - was sunk. Unfortunately, 27 of the 33 crew were lost. Unless intelligence suggests otherwise Tugboats will in the future no longer be fired upon due to heavy civilian losses.
Quiet rest of the day - continued north travelling up the coast of Scotland.

31st Oct '39: Reached Moray Firth and spotted a vessel in the early morning light. The seas remained kind and so another surface attack was launched - sinking the vessel after about an hour. SS Kelso (King Edgar Class Merchant) was sunk (4022 tons) carrying general cargo. Of the 30 crew - 12 were lost.
U-101 headed towards the Orkney Islands and AN14.

1st Nov '39: Still dark and early - a ship was spotted traversing the gap between Scotland's Northern Isles. Torpedoes were readied and one fired - sinking the vessel. SS Maroussio Logothetis (Dalblair Class Merchant) was sunk for 4290 tons. It was carrying coffee with half othe 35 crew lost.
Remaining beneath the waves we continued quietly for the rest of the day. When surfacing we invariably ended up diving not long after due to heavy air presence.

2nd-5th Nov '39: Little to report. Few ships spotted and all were either neutral or too small to be bothered with. Heavy air presence of Scotland's North Coast was frustrating but we had no close calls. We reached the patrol grid AN11 and patrolled for 24 hours. No contacts were reported. After consultation with crew we decided to head off the Northern Coast of Ireland/N. Ireland to try and pick up convoys. Late on 5th Nov - convoy report was radioed in. We decided to try and intercept.

6th Nov '39: A long day of travelling and hunting ensued and by early evening and our decision had proven to be the correct one. A large enemy convoy was spotted heading towards the British Isles. Having overtaken the convoy we sat in wait 1-2kms away from the edge of the convoy. Four targets were identified combining both ease of shot and tonnage. As the Black Swan class vessel passed by we held out breath - we remained unnoticed. Having worked out the order of shots we unloaded our torpedoes in order to give the lowest chance of evasion after the first had hit. Torpedoes were launched with 3 out of 4 hitting their targets. A huge success! We managed to evade the naval vessels hunting us with what seemed like ease. Two of the ships hit seemed to sink quickly - though we hung around for the naval escort to leave us, before surfacing and firing a few shells into the more robust target. After a few shells, it headed towards the depths joining its two former companions. The crew celebrated with great enthusiasm - it had been our most successful day of the war by a large margin. A couple of bottles of rum were shared between the crew.
Ships sunk were: A Medium Merchant - crew and name unknown; MV Leopold L-D (Clan MacFarlane Class Merchant) - 6937 tons - carrying aircraft with 64 of the 75 crew lost; and a naval vessel HMS Arethusa - 5240 tons.
After celebrating we headed east - hoping to catch up with the now wounded convoy.

7th Nov '39: Crew worked hard to locate the convoy. Early evening we regained sight of it and worked to get into a good position to attack.

8th Nov '39: Still dark and early morning an attack was unleashed upon the convoy. Due to success of previous attack, the same procedure was followed - 4 targets, 4 torpedoes. Two missed their targets but two hit hard and the vessels went down quick. MV Noesaniwi (Clan MacAlister Class Merchant), a 6937 ton vessel was sunk with 42 crew members lost. Although the name sounded like a neutral vessel - it was confirmed to be an enemy merchant ship. The SS Chaucer (Cape Breton Class Merchant) was also sunk, with 34 of the 59 crew lost. Both ships were carrying textiles.
We managed to avoid the naval escorts again and decided not to try our luck on this convoy for the third time. A decision was made to travel down between Ireland and the British mainland, picking off lone vessels. Only neutrals were spotted for the rest of the day - though the morning had already meant it was been another day of success.

9th Nov '39: Just past midnight and a lone vessel was spotted. It went down with ease. SS Iron Master (Petrophalt Class Ship) - 3236 tons - was sunk carrying Bauxite. 28 crew were lost. A few hours later and another ship was spotted and again sunk. SS Frans Hals (Clan MacAlister Class Merchant) - 6939 tons - lost 24 of its 65 crew whilst transporting general cargo under the British flag.
We remained submerged until the sun went down and we surfaced to recharge batteries. At around 22:00 a ship was spotted by the crew and we fired upon it from the surface. MV Chastine Mærsk (Cairnesk Class Merchant) was carrying steel and was a 5176 ton vessel. Again, confirmation was recieved that this was indeed an enemy merchant - even though the name sounded Danish to us. The relief was evident on board.

10th Nov '39: We had one torpedo left and wanted to use it wisely. Still dark and the watch crew spotted yet another ship. This was the 4th in little over 24 hours. We all wanted to get home with another success under our belts - we had pushed our luck at times on this patrol - we should have dove as soon as we had fired torpedoes at the convoy targets but our ego had led us to watch the explosions through the periscope. We could not afford to be that foolish in the future. We fired our last aft torpedo and SS Empire Falcon (Aelybryn Class Merchant) and all 5090 tons of vessel sunk into the depths. 15 crew lost and the general cargo too.
We decided to head back to home port.

11th - 15th Nov '39: We headed home with little resistance. We were spotted again by a number of planes off the Northern Scottish coasts but all were too slow to cause us any trouble. As we reached safer waters it began to hit home what a successful patrol it had been. 13 enemy vessels sunk - 12 merchant & 1 naval - for a total of 61484 tons. We couldn't have dreamed a more successful patrol. As we re-entered Kiel, we were welcomed as heroes. Medals awaited myself and the crew.

End of Patrol

Overall, an unbelievably successful patrol! Remaining on the surface to watch the ships sink is a bad habit I need to get out of but overall I am delighted with how this patrol went. Sinking HMS Aresthusa was the icing on the cake!

I was going to upload Patrol 3 but I will do it tomorrow now - as this has taken me longer than anticipated...

08-16-18, 08:26 PM	#5311
renthehen Swabbie Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 9 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	Work has made these reports a lot later than my first - but patrols 2 & 3 of U-101 are complete! ============================================= Josef Reinald Flotilla: U-Flotilla Wegener Boot: U-101 Patrol Region: AN11 Patrol 2 26th Oct '39: Left Kiel with crew. All in good spirits after a successful first patrol and our patrol grid AN11 being on the route we took on said patrol. We all expected success. 27-28th Oct '39: Rough seas over the North Sea. On route towards Newcastle. No ships spotted. 29th Oct '39: Late afternoon and single British cargo vessel spotted off North English coast. Identified as a King Edgar Class Merchant vessel (SS Langleebrook). No weapons spotted on vessel and with seas calmer we prepared for a surface attack and the vessel went down quickly. 4020 tons of shipping sunk carrying general cargo. 41 of the 63 crew were lost. We continued heading north. 30th Oct ' 39: First light and a small tugboat was spotted. Although normally against firing upon this type of ship, certain crew members were adamant it may be carrying important cargo as they believed it to be moving suspiciously. Wanting the crew to be well drilled in surface attacks, orders were given to attack. It turns out it was carrying nothing - though a 1121 ton Tugboat - MV Adherant - was sunk. Unfortunately, 27 of the 33 crew were lost. Unless intelligence suggests otherwise Tugboats will in the future no longer be fired upon due to heavy civilian losses. Quiet rest of the day - continued north travelling up the coast of Scotland. 31st Oct '39: Reached Moray Firth and spotted a vessel in the early morning light. The seas remained kind and so another surface attack was launched - sinking the vessel after about an hour. SS Kelso (King Edgar Class Merchant) was sunk (4022 tons) carrying general cargo. Of the 30 crew - 12 were lost. U-101 headed towards the Orkney Islands and AN14. 1st Nov '39: Still dark and early - a ship was spotted traversing the gap between Scotland's Northern Isles. Torpedoes were readied and one fired - sinking the vessel. SS Maroussio Logothetis (Dalblair Class Merchant) was sunk for 4290 tons. It was carrying coffee with half othe 35 crew lost. Remaining beneath the waves we continued quietly for the rest of the day. When surfacing we invariably ended up diving not long after due to heavy air presence. 2nd-5th Nov '39: Little to report. Few ships spotted and all were either neutral or too small to be bothered with. Heavy air presence of Scotland's North Coast was frustrating but we had no close calls. We reached the patrol grid AN11 and patrolled for 24 hours. No contacts were reported. After consultation with crew we decided to head off the Northern Coast of Ireland/N. Ireland to try and pick up convoys. Late on 5th Nov - convoy report was radioed in. We decided to try and intercept. 6th Nov '39: A long day of travelling and hunting ensued and by early evening and our decision had proven to be the correct one. A large enemy convoy was spotted heading towards the British Isles. Having overtaken the convoy we sat in wait 1-2kms away from the edge of the convoy. Four targets were identified combining both ease of shot and tonnage. As the Black Swan class vessel passed by we held out breath - we remained unnoticed. Having worked out the order of shots we unloaded our torpedoes in order to give the lowest chance of evasion after the first had hit. Torpedoes were launched with 3 out of 4 hitting their targets. A huge success! We managed to evade the naval vessels hunting us with what seemed like ease. Two of the ships hit seemed to sink quickly - though we hung around for the naval escort to leave us, before surfacing and firing a few shells into the more robust target. After a few shells, it headed towards the depths joining its two former companions. The crew celebrated with great enthusiasm - it had been our most successful day of the war by a large margin. A couple of bottles of rum were shared between the crew. Ships sunk were: A Medium Merchant - crew and name unknown; MV Leopold L-D (Clan MacFarlane Class Merchant) - 6937 tons - carrying aircraft with 64 of the 75 crew lost; and a naval vessel HMS Arethusa - 5240 tons. After celebrating we headed east - hoping to catch up with the now wounded convoy. 7th Nov '39: Crew worked hard to locate the convoy. Early evening we regained sight of it and worked to get into a good position to attack. 8th Nov '39: Still dark and early morning an attack was unleashed upon the convoy. Due to success of previous attack, the same procedure was followed - 4 targets, 4 torpedoes. Two missed their targets but two hit hard and the vessels went down quick. MV Noesaniwi (Clan MacAlister Class Merchant), a 6937 ton vessel was sunk with 42 crew members lost. Although the name sounded like a neutral vessel - it was confirmed to be an enemy merchant ship. The SS Chaucer (Cape Breton Class Merchant) was also sunk, with 34 of the 59 crew lost. Both ships were carrying textiles. We managed to avoid the naval escorts again and decided not to try our luck on this convoy for the third time. A decision was made to travel down between Ireland and the British mainland, picking off lone vessels. Only neutrals were spotted for the rest of the day - though the morning had already meant it was been another day of success. 9th Nov '39: Just past midnight and a lone vessel was spotted. It went down with ease. SS Iron Master (Petrophalt Class Ship) - 3236 tons - was sunk carrying Bauxite. 28 crew were lost. A few hours later and another ship was spotted and again sunk. SS Frans Hals (Clan MacAlister Class Merchant) - 6939 tons - lost 24 of its 65 crew whilst transporting general cargo under the British flag. We remained submerged until the sun went down and we surfaced to recharge batteries. At around 22:00 a ship was spotted by the crew and we fired upon it from the surface. MV Chastine Mærsk (Cairnesk Class Merchant) was carrying steel and was a 5176 ton vessel. Again, confirmation was recieved that this was indeed an enemy merchant - even though the name sounded Danish to us. The relief was evident on board. 10th Nov '39: We had one torpedo left and wanted to use it wisely. Still dark and the watch crew spotted yet another ship. This was the 4th in little over 24 hours. We all wanted to get home with another success under our belts - we had pushed our luck at times on this patrol - we should have dove as soon as we had fired torpedoes at the convoy targets but our ego had led us to watch the explosions through the periscope. We could not afford to be that foolish in the future. We fired our last aft torpedo and SS Empire Falcon (Aelybryn Class Merchant) and all 5090 tons of vessel sunk into the depths. 15 crew lost and the general cargo too. We decided to head back to home port. 11th - 15th Nov '39: We headed home with little resistance. We were spotted again by a number of planes off the Northern Scottish coasts but all were too slow to cause us any trouble. As we reached safer waters it began to hit home what a successful patrol it had been. 13 enemy vessels sunk - 12 merchant & 1 naval - for a total of 61484 tons. We couldn't have dreamed a more successful patrol. As we re-entered Kiel, we were welcomed as heroes. Medals awaited myself and the crew. End of Patrol Overall, an unbelievably successful patrol! Remaining on the surface to watch the ships sink is a bad habit I need to get out of but overall I am delighted with how this patrol went. Sinking HMS Aresthusa was the icing on the cake! I was going to upload Patrol 3 but I will do it tomorrow now - as this has taken me longer than anticipated...