U-4714 - Robert F. Clifton (reading list .TXT) 📗

we took several freighters, Canadian mostly. Kapitan Bergman is a fine man and leader. He always allows enemy crews to leave their ships and enter life boats if possible before he sinks them. We did sink one tanker. There was much flames”.

“Well except of being pale you look well. It's said that the U-boat crews have the best food. It doesn't look like you've lost any weight”.

“We also have an excellent cook. He's from the old navy, back when the crew wore leather or oil cloth suits because of the constant humidity”.

“Good, good”.

“How is it here at home?”

“What can I say. Germany has won all its battles so far. The only country left to fight now is England. At this very moment the Hamburg Yard is building two U-boats and thirty E-Boats. The rumor or gossip if you will is that the E-Boats will be used as escorts for the troop ships when we invade the British. Personally, I think they're being used to recover downed Luftwaffe crews from the English Channel”.

“So, we're bombing England”, said Reinhardt.

“We have been since early July, mostly at night”.

“Well, between the U-Boat Service and the Luftwaffe England should surrender in six months”.

“Let us hope so”.

“You two come to the table. It is time for supper. Tonight we will have a special meal to welcome Reinhardt home. I made sauerbraten and red cabbage, spatzel, fresh bread and you two can drink your beer as you eat”, said Herta Dresner.

*********************

 

At the end of ten days Reinhardt reported to the Kriegsmarine Headquarters in Hamburg. He stood in front of a desk where a bespectacled young Ensign sat reading Dresners orders making sure that all of the necessary paper work was in order. “Congratulation Oberleutnant”, said the Ensign”.

“Oberleutnant? You must be mistaken”, Reinhardt replied.

“No sir. You papers indicate that you have been promoted and you are to report to the U-D5 at once”.

Reinhardt smiled. He didn't know that he was happy because of the promotion or the fact that he was re-assigned to the U-D5. Anyway, he hurriedly left the building and made his way to the submarine pens where the U-D5, now refitted was moored at the dock.

When he went aboard he went down an open hatchway that led to the forward torpedo room. He detected the smell of fresh paint as he walked toward the command center. There he saw Captain Bergman standing in front of the chart table. Bergman looked up and smiled. “Ah Reinhardt, how was your leave?”.

“Good, good Captain. How was yours?”

“Excellent, I saw the wife and children, mama and papa but most important I saw Willy Breck”.

“I'm sorry, I don't think I know him”.

“Of course you don't. Willy was my room mate at the Naval Academy. He is now assigned to Commander U-Boats. After talking over old times I told him what I needed and what I needed was to retain command of the U-D5 and its crew which I got with the exception of Arner. Arner now has his own boat. So, to replace him I asked for you. You got a promotion and I got a fine Executive Officer.”

“Me? I'm the Executive Officer?”

“Yes, number one. That's you”.

“Thank you sir”.

“Wait, that's not all. I also, with a little persuading got an assignment that I've been looking for”.

“And, just would that be?”

“The Caribbean”.

“Ah, tankers full of Venezuela oil. I have heard about them”.

“And what you've probably heard is true. With a bit of luck there will be Iron Crosses for everyone. And that goes for the crew also. Actually, according to regulations I'm supposed to open sealed orders at sea. That I will do and that's when they will know our destination. Understand?”

“Yes sir, no problem”.

“Good, now go do your shopping needs and get back here. You and I have to inspect the boat and get her ready for a test cruise”.

After leaving the shipyard Reinhardt walked to a tailor shop and had another thin, gold stripe sewed on his dress blue coat. Oberleutnant, he liked the sound of it. He had come from a Junior Officer fresh out of the Naval Academy to a Lieutenant and Executive Officer of a U-Boat in just under a year.

****************

The U-D5 loaded with torpedoes, ammunition for the deck guns and diesel fuel began its journey to the Caribbean leaving Hamburg at night so as not to be seen by English aircraft as it traveled along the German and French coast. Bergman had set the course, a straight line southeast consisting of 4,312 nautical miles. He hoped to be able to average better than ten knots while on the surface. According to his calculations the boat should be on station in eighteen days.

Although the crew was made up of veterans, Bergman and now Dresner drilled them in emergency dives. Bergman barked the orders while Dresner held the time piece. The U-D5 could submerge to one hundred feet in one minute. Another twenty eight seconds resulted in the boat being forty fathoms or two hundred and eighty feet underwater.

“Are you satisfied Captain?”, asked Reinhardt.

“For the time being. When we are in what is called the “Atlantic Gap”

a place where land based aircraft can't reach us the diving time is excellent. However, keep in mind Reinhardt, we might be assigned to a zone where aircraft from the islands can and will reach us. Then, we will wish our crash dive time is quicker”.

“I remember on our last patrol how you lightened the aft torpedo room in order to make the weight in the bow of the boat take us down quicker”, said Reinhardt.

“Yes, and it was a mistake. I learned while on leave that by doing so the stern of the boat lifts and is exposed. It stands almost straight up like a stalk of asparagus As a matter of fact while diving, the stern tanks must be flooded at the same time as the other tanks. Always remember that. That way the boat slides neatly toward the bottom. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir”.

“Good, now let's have a cup of coffee”.

***************

With excellent weather the U-D5 sailed into its assigned zone after seventeen days and twenty three hours. It floated on an almost calm sea raising and falling with the slight swell action of the Caribbean Sea. In the dark of night Reinhardt stood watch in the cunning tower. Two lookouts and Heinrich Muller were also on duty. Chief Petty Officer Muller, the navigation officer was so good at his job that Dresner no longer checked his work, but he watched him out of habit as the man took a baring from the stars.

While Dresner stood watch, down below the radio operator turned dials as he looked for any verbal messages from either the Kriegsmarine, another boat or a coded message on the cipher machine. Shortly after midnight the cipher machine received a long message. It was long, because it ordered each individual boat to a particular navigational area. The U-D5 was ordered to a place just off the island of Aruba.

Dresner, his watch finished sat in the small wardroom belonging to Captain Bergmann along with Junior Officer, Konrad Elcho. “As you know we have been assigned an area just off of the Island of Aruba. We are a member of a wolf pack and our assignment is to sink British and any other tankers leaving San Nicolas Harbor loaded with aviation gasoline or oil. The picking should be easy, but I am concerned about aircraft. Therefore, I intend to attack at night on the surface. While there is daylight we will hide submerged as much as possible. Of course that will depend on what the enemy does. If he sends patrol ships using ASDIC we will run silent, that goes for all hands. I found an old wreck one mile off of the harbor entrance. Its the remains of a steamer that went down in one of the many hurricanes that frequent this area. Its the wreck of the Jersey Queen an old British steamer. it's on the bottom at one hundred fathoms, or six hundred feet. I intend to hide over it or right next to it after an attack. Hopefully the Dutch will think the ASDIC is picking up signals of the Jersey Queen instead of us”.

“Why not wait and sink a ship at the harbor entrance? That way all tankers are bottled up, unable to reach the open water”, asked Elcho.

“Because all the Dutch would do is set charges and blow off enough of the sunken ship to allow the tankers to run over the wreck. At the same time the object of the Kreigsamarine is two fold. One, keep material from reaching the British and two sink as many ships as possible that carry that material”.

At twenty hours in the dark and at periscope depth, Hans Bergman

peered through the glass and watched a tanker coming out of the harbor entrance. The ship rode low in the water laden with with oil or gasoline, both vitally needed by the British war effort.

“Down scope”, Bergman ordered.

“Do we have a target?”, asked Dresner.

“Yes. We'll wait until the tanker clears the harbor and is on the open water. Loaded as she is we can not only follow on the surface, but also pass her and get into position for the attack. We'll wait thirty minutes then surface”, answered Bergman.

A half hour later the bow of the U-D5 appeared up out of the water as it surfaced. In the pitch black darkness of the night the Captain now topside depended on the sound man who picked up the underwater noise of the tankers screws and propellers enabling him to set a course. From the conning tower Bergman ordered, “Full speed ahead” and the U-D5 responded moving at seventeen miles and hour. Even as the tanker zig-zagged its way on its course the U-D5 first caught up with the ship then got ahead of it. “Action stations”, Bergmann ordered.

“All hands at their stations Captain”, said Dresner standing below that conning tower hatchway.

“Load forward tubes one and two”, said Bergmann.

“Load forward tubes one and two”, repeated Dresner.

“Steady as she goes”, said the Captain from the conning tower.

“Tubes loaded sir”.

“Steady, steady, two degrees to starboard”.

The helmsman turned the rudder and the U-25 responded placing the bow and the forward torpedo tubes exactly where Bergman wanted them. “Fire one!”, he shouted.

“One away”, shouted Dresner.

“Fire two”, came another command.

“Two away”.

From his command post Bergman watched the first torpedo hit and he ducked as a tremendous fireball and explosion occurred. At five hundred yards away he felt the heat of the fire as high octane aviation gasoline went up in flames. He had no idea what the second launched torpedo did. It didn't matter. There was nothing left to hit, just a burning wreck of a steel hull. In the light caused by the flames Bergman looked to see if there were any survivors. Seeing none he ordered the lookouts off of the bridge and as he descended the ladder into the command room he yelled, “Dive, dive, take her down!”.

“We heard the explosion Captain. Is the tanker sinking?”, asked Dresner.

“No. There was nothing left to sink. The poor bastards. No one could have lived through that. Come about, sixty degrees north by west”.

“Yes sir, the boat is coming about. New course, sixty degrees north by west', said the helmsman.

Captain Bergman kept looking at his watch knowing how much time and speed that would take him to the position where the wreck of the Jersey Queen lay on the bottom. As he did the sound man began hearing the propeller sounds of surface ships as they searched for the

U-D5. Hearing no searching ships the U-Boat slid quietly out of the area and the Dutch ships found nothing.

For the rest of the night the U-D5 floated on the surface as the Engineer Officer made sure the boats batteries were re-charged. Bergman made sure of his position then at daylight submerged to a position two hundred and fifty feet above the sunken Jersey Queen. There the