[Leandros]

U-65 - IXB - Kaleu Hansen - Mar. 011329 1944 - DQ39 - Patrol 24

Left Lorient February 17th morning enroute for grid EE71 - south of Barbados.

As so often before we dumped into an enemy convoy outside the north-western corner of Spain. See attached Status Report. Included in that is also a tanker we hit - our radar detected it in mid-Atlantic.

On our way we have called on U-488 in grid DF67. They were almost exactly in our track and were very happy to receive mail and a few commodities and spares. We did not take on anything but expect to call on her for refuelling on our way back.

On return of Patrol 23 I was chastised by the deputy Befehlshaber U-boote for not being aggressive enough. I had used too many torps on self-defense and too few on enemy merchants!

As things have developed, in my opinion, the only hope is to establish combined units with special escort hunters with a full complement of homing torpedoes so that the other boats can do their "work" without too much interference. These units must be trained together and have short-wave communication even when submerged.

Anyway, the boss decided to send me across the Atlantic to the sunny Caribbean where I might make better use of my torpedoes. Suits me fine........

Afraid I made some stupid decisions while in Lorient. A lot of new equipment was available, among them Schnorkel, the new 20 mm Vierling AA automatic cannon and an improved radar warning receiver. I was able to get these but used up all my goodwill in the process. Thinking about it now I should rather have gone for the new Tarnmatte, the Bold 3 decoy and a couple of more Falke or Zaunkønings. But, they were fed up with me by then. They thought I was very ungrateful, and expressed it.

The Schnorkel seems to be a nice device but has its obvious weaknesses. If you use it during day the trailing wave can be seen even better than a periscope's. It cannot be used in the vicinity of escorts as the diesels give off much more sound than the E-motors. If the enemy's radar development continues it won't be long before they can detect both the Schnorkel and the periscope in the dark. If you are discovered by radar-equipped aircraft they can see the wake even in the dark with their new powerful Leigh lights. Come to think of it, using the Schnorkel/diesels could be a fine way to attract escorts for the use of homing torpedoes. Staying below with a 12 knot speed possibility needs the escort to use enough power to attract the torpedo.

Around a convoy without an escort should be fine, though. At least in the dark.

Fred