Played out my 4th mission as a U-boat commander on full realism today, went like this...
U-48 departed Wilhelmshaven bound for a patrol in search of convoys near the Rockall Banks. In order to conserve fuel for the voyage the trip to the patrol grid took about a week.
U-48 was blessed with good weather until passing the Shetlands where i encountered a heavily escorted carrier task force. They were moving much to fast for me to make an attack.
shortly thereafter the sea went to raging like an angry beast. Rain started pouring down in buckets, visibility dropped to nearly nothing. U-48 was an unwelcome guest roaming the waters of the royal navy and it was as if mother nature herself knew it. Patrolling on the surface would be foolish given these conditions. Diving time for a Type VII U-boat is about 27 seconds in ideal conditions... when a destroyer parts the fog only a hundred yards in front of your boat you have substantially less than 27 seconds to do anything to save your crew.
I would stay submerged for about a day, then surface under cover of darkness to recharge the batteries and replenish the oxygen reserve. It was a dangerous way to gamble, trolling along on the surface in the driving rain and dense fog. Your only hope is that one of the watchmen will spot a mast as you crest the next swell.
Upon reaching the patrol area, there was a lone sonar contact, propeller sounds, closing on our position. I plotted an intercept course and proceeded to the expected point of contact. the ship was close, the thumping of her screws were practically vibrating the U-boat. I raised the scope to take a look. The seas were still very high. As the boat rocked back and forth under the waves the lense of the periscope would blur over with water and then dry over clean. the only image that would ever be revealed that afternoon was rain on top of more rain. I cant shoot at a ship that i cannot see. You have to get the bearings on the target in full realism. you have to use the scope's range finder to determine the range, then calculate the speed, the angle on bow, and then shoot. Its a process that can take several minutes just to sink one ship! No attack is going to happen in weather like that however.
after spending a few days patrolling the assigned grid without results I decided to plot a course towards the south, and patrol the shallower waters off the cost of southern Ireland.
En route one of the lookouts spotted a ship moving slowly across the horizon through the light of the full moon. Though the sea's were still rough, the weather was clear, and visibility good. I maneuvered the U-boat so that the target would cross our bow at a 90 degree angle. given the hight of the sea state i opted for a surface attack. The ship was identified as an Ammunition ship sailing under royal colors. a well placed hit would surely result in a very impressive explosion if the boat was loaded with the desired cargo. I ordered creeping speed and approached the slow moving ship to within 900 yards and opened tubes 2 and 3. I fired a 3 degree spread. the torpedoes found the hull of the ammunition ship but appeared to do little more than ignite a few small fires on her deck. "Damn... must be sailing empty." i thought... just then a thunderous explosion lifted the entire midsection of the stricken ship from the water and cracked her keel in two. her main masts collapsed and several life boats, crates and even men were seen flying overboard in the bright light of a fireball nearly as large as the ship itself as it erupted from the boat. the crew erupted into cheers. U-48 sailed on towards richer hunting grounds off the southwestern coast of Ireland.
a few days later another sound contact was made... and the weather favored an attack. i moved in for a closer look at the target it was a tanker riding very low in the water. i was on the surface not an hour or so before sunset, but the ship must have spotted me anyway. It beamed its bright searchlight onto the sub, and immediately turned on its harbor lights and pointed its remaining lights at its mainmast... the light revealed the American Flag... the U.S. wasnt in the war yet... not formally anyway. a neutral ship worth a lot of tonnage and loaded with the lifeblood of the U.K. but valuable or not it would have to be passed up.
The patrol continued for several days. the only other ships sighted were fishing boats, tugs, trawlers and a few sailing yachts. none of those worth the ammunition or a torpedo. The fuel reserves were now down to 40 percent. I could make the return voyage back to the north by passing the Shetlands again then hug the Norwegian coastline and down through the north sea back to Germany... or i could move with stealth through the English channel. submerged by day, surfaced by night conserving the fuel for the long trek home. Shallow water to a submarine is a death trap. If the allies havnt mined the channel already there would be any number of Destroyers, Destroyer escorts, armed trawlers and PT boats sailing in criss cross patterns with little more on their minds than finding an off guard U-boat. Everything in my gut told me to avoid the channel, but my navigation officer advised that the journey back to even the nearest home port would leave us dangerously low on fuel reserves. and that largely depended on a smooth sea state for the estimates on fuel consumption. The north Atlantic is notoriously rough so - against my intuition i chose the Channel route.
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