Patrol 1: War, Children, it's just a shot away
The morning after. von Noncon and the Chief had been briefed by the flotilla chief, von Genschler, they entered their U-boat holding pen, where the entire crew had been lined up for roll-call, by Pugwaschen, at this point quite red-eyed, and looking the worst for the night before.
"All present, Number One?"
"Aye Sir"
"All ready to go to war?"
"JAWOHL HERR KALEUN" came the reply from each man, as one.
"Essential crew to their stations, everyone else, ACHTUNG"
As five mechanics scurried off, and leapd down the hatches, all the men, in their ranks saluted, and the officers made their way to the conning towers, straightened their caps, and saluted as well.
The submarine began to vibrate, then tremble, then shake, as the engine revolutions build up, and the Boat began to slowly, majestically unsheath itself from its pen.
As the U-48 escaped its dock, it passed a group of fellow submariners, who had turned out to bid a fond farewell and a bon voyage to their fellow sailors, albeit with a bit of jealousy, the U-48 being one of the few presitigous subs to be reelased on the first day of the war.
Amongst them was Kapitanleutnant Jurgen Darmstadt, who had also been aboard the same sub as the chief and kaleun in the Spanish war.
"Give them one for me!" he cried as the boat waltzed off into the morning sun.
"Herr Kapitanzwei, plot a course to grid point BF17. We're going to war."
For three days nothing happened. Boredom crept in. The officers were kept alert only by Eisernmann, the cook's, constant barrage of coffee, and Tykoonst's masterly use of the gramopohne, matching the song to the mood expertly.
However, on the third day of the patrol, no song marked the dawn.
Instead, Eisernmann was sent to the officer's table, where Pugwaschen had just finished attempting to open his soft-boiled egg, covering his face in yolk, and reported "Herr Kaleun, we have a signal from Headquarters. Triple Encoded."
The officers looked at the kaleun, since a message of this importance hadnever been seen before.
"Out. All of you. OUT. You too Chief", and he set to work decoding it.
As he finished it, a hint of a grin appeared on his face, and he picked up the tannoy mike.
"Men" he said "news for you. We are now at war with Britain and France. Full hostilities. That is all".
A wave of excitement and rumours spread across the ship.
However, the excitement was short lived. Despite the declaration, the most excitement was noncon, Sharuminar and Kapitanzwei discussing possible routes to the grid square.
"Herr Kaleun, I reccommend going through the English Channel. Shortest route. Not likely to be guarded".
"He's right you know" said Sharuminar. "About the distance, I mean. God knows if it's actually going to be easy to get past. Probably a gauntlet."
Noncon pulled his cap off, and stroked his hair. "We'll take the risk chief. Full ahead."
On the fifth a storm broke out, and lashed the Watch Crew something rotten. Pugwaschen was on his seventh cup of coffee in half an hour. Not that he had drunk much more than half a cup, mind you, but the waves and wind had already carried away the first six cups. He resigned himself to a sip of Schnapps, but as soon as he had this idea, he spotted something looming in the storm, a dark shadow, large and foreboding.
He wiped his binoculars, slammed them to his face, and spotted an English Ensign. Attached to the Ensign, there happened to be a ship, and not attached to this ship, in any way, shape, or for, was weapons.
"Merchant ship spotted, Sir, ahead, about one Klick!", Pugwaschen called down the conningtower hatch, as a wave hit the man relaying the orders in the control room.
The Kalen made his way up, and dragged Scamphausen from his bed and mumblings of someone called "Winston" and stared out at the ship.
"Any chance of getting a deck gun crew on that?"
"No sir, not unless you want to trade four men, me included, for a small merchant."
"Prepare for surface attack. UZO to the deck. All non-essential personnel below.
Pugwaschen give me the details. "
"Range, seven hundred. Angle on Bow, 62. About seven knots. Fire, sir. "
"TORPEDO, LOS!"
The torpedo leapt from the boat, and sped towards the target.
"There's no chance they'll avoid it, number one!"
BOOM!
Pugwaschen's face erupted into a smile, as a fountain of sea exploded into the air.
However, this was premature, as apparently was the torpedo's detonation. It had exploded between the ship and the sub.
"Scheisse. How could this happen? Fire tube two, same settings, on fastest speed possible. That's alerted them, we have about thirty seconds before they change course.
The next torpedo was fired within seconds, and this one, thank goodness, was a direct hit.
The ship's rear leapt out of the water, and resettled, as a huge plume of water filled the sky, and the U-boat rocked.
"She's going down, Herr Kaleun!"
From the tower hatch, a huge cheer could be heard as the whole crew feted their first victory.
As the ship went down, the survivors scrambled to their lifeboats, and began to row furiously towards the U-boat.
"Halt!" cried noncon, in passable English "advance no further!"
He tossed a package into the lead boat "food, and water. England is to your north, and France to your south. Sorry 'old boys'. Good luck".
The U-boat then began to reverse slowly, and carried on its pre-planned route.
The watch crew waved sheepishly to the survivors, who mustered a return wave, as the boat slipped into the dark.
...
"ALAAAAAAAAAAARM" cried Pugwaschen.
"Armed trawler on the port bow!"
"Dive, dive, they'll have radioed in reinforcements, and we can't waste a torpedo on her".
The boat dived, jsut as the smoke of a warship, probably a destroyer appeared on the horizon.
The boat settled at periscope depth, and noncon clambered into the conning tower compartment, and raised the persicope.
"Scheisse; Emnglish destroyer....heading straight for us! What's the sea floor depth?"
The messaged was relayed to Kapitanzwei
"About theirty metres, herr kaleun"
"Verdammt, they can spot and sink us no problem...any depth charged will blow us out of the water, and force us to surface....Chief, this is your hour. Take her to twenty seven metres"
"Herr kaleun, we're cutting it fine...any sudden sea floor rises, amnd we're done for"
"Do it chief...rig for silent running."
"silent running, three knots. I hope you're right, herr Kaleun, or we'll be eating Schnitzel with Churchill!"
The boat crept forwards, agonisingly, and the whole command room sweated as one, hoping that the Destroyer would simply miss their presence
"Depth charges in the water!" hissed the sound man
BOOM....BOOM
two explosions, shook the boat, but apart from that did very little
"They don't know where we are, Herr Kaleun, they're trying to make us so angry that we may make a mistake"
the Kaleun looked towards the soundman
"you should go to the movies less, Fritz" the kaleun whispered to his soundman.
The progress was agnonising and slow. The fear could be smelled. Some of the younger crewmembers sat in their bunks, sobbing quietly into their pillows. If they thought this was their baptism of fire, they were wrong.
More charges, no closer.
The Destroyer's screws were clearly audible above, and it seemed as if the boat would sink, filled with the sweat of the crewmembers.
After fifteen minutes, Eisernmann came around, and gave bacon sandwiches and coffee to everyone.
"Excellent Coffee, cookie" whispered Pugwaschen, inthe control room
"Yes, indeed, a rather distinct taste" answered the Cheif, as he and the Kaleun exchanged a furtive look.
This was enough to get the crew back into shape.
The boat kept creeping, away, away.
After a full half hour, the boat had traveleed far enough, and the English were grasping at so many straws that the depth charges had faded to a mere pin-dropping.
"Secure from silent running, and bring her to seven knots Chief. It's a risk, but we'll take it".
"Aye sir"
The ship began to rumble, and started moving further away from the sounds.
"We'll not take too many risks. We'll surface only at dusk"
After four hours of submerged speeding, the ship finally broke into the cool night air.
The tower hatch sprung open from the large amount of compressed carbon doxide ocntained whithin the ship, and the whole command room gasped at the hatch to fill their lungs with fresh air, as the first watch clambered up.
...
For three hours the ship sped through, at flank speed, trying to clear the channel before day break, until, at 11pm,
"Herr Kaleun, destroyer spotted, starboard, a kilometre", sung Pugwaschen down the hatch"
"Damnit.....it's a dark night, no moon. Rudder full to port, we'll avoid her. We can't repeeat today's routine again. We must clear the channel before day!"
The destroyer's lights faded into the night, and no more was seen of her again.
At 1am, the officers took supper, and the 2nd WO took over from Pugwaschen. The Cook came and served his speciality, sauerkraut.
As the officers ate, the Chief looked up at the Cook.
Interesting coffee, Eisernmann. Quite intoxicating too".
Eisernmann looked at Kan somewhat sheepishly
"Ja, you might have noticed, I added schnapps".
"And where, pray tell would this have come from?" chimed in noncon.
"My mother sent me three full bottles of it before we left port, as a present. I figured the crew were under a lot of stress, so I put all three bottles into the coffee, and served it to the entire crew"
The officers looked at Eisernmann in bemusement.
"What a sacrifice!" cried the Chief "We have ourselves a German hero here! He will win the Knights Cross before us all!"
The officer's mess exploded into laughter
"And as for his mother" cried Pugwaschen "she will make Admiral!"
The officers and Cookie wept with laughter.
It was good to be alive.
PART 2 COMING UP IN 5 MINUTES
(the boats usually had black and white, or quite simple insignias on the side)
