[Leandros]

U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - May2nd 1943 - Lorient - Patrol 19

Finally back in Lorient with one unspent torpedo. My birthday, too! We caught up with the convoy again and were able to position us just in the middle of its track. The advance escorts passed us one on each side as we let ourselves be run over by the convoy. Quite problematic to find the targets as visibility was generally 400-500 meters. Fired torps fore and aft. When the convoy had passed two small passenger liners and one whale factory was down. For good measure we knocked out the tail escort, too - a V & W destroyer.

Then the miss. As we eased away eastwards some new powerful sonar signals were registered. Going topside there were powerful radar emissions, too. This could be the task force which had been reported the day before. Again we were able to position our boat along its advance line. The front escorts passed, impossible to see what the strong sonar signal was due to the bad visibility.

Actually, the positioning had been a little too good because we were almost run over - by a carrier! Full speed ahead and we launched a TI magnetic from the aft. It hit but did not go off! In the meantime a turn had been started to line up the single remaining forward torpedo. As soon as it was aligned we fired, the carrier was the out of sight. The torp went went astray. Another crash dive to avoid the escorts. They gave up after a couple of passes due to the extremely high seas. I called it a day and went home.

Ooh, I long for the new homing torpedoes!

Fred