4 April 1942, La RochelleU-86 enters port sporting three victory pennants.
U-Boat Name and ID Number: U-86, Ra’n
Successful Patrol: Yes, inserted Abwehr Agent
Number of Freighters Sank: 3
Number of Tankers Sank: 0
Number of Capital Ships Sank: 0
Total Tonnage Destroyed: 22,800
Refit Time: 2 months due to hull damage, ready for patrol Jun 1942
Award Requests: Wound Badge for injured crew
Promotion of LI, Lt (Ing) Jordan Volke for being Expert
Narrative:
Though not myself superstitious, I am aware of the common seaman’s adherence to such things. That is why I never start out on patrol on a Monday. Knowing the men’s likely reaction and subsequent state-of-mind, that is also why I was less than enthusiastic about our new assignment, delivering an agent of the Abwehr to North America. Not that I have any objection to helping out a sister service, but when the agent in question turned out to be a fraulein, I had concerns. It didn’t help my mood nay having to give up my cabin for the fraulein’s benefit, especially on an extended cruise. Still, what choice have any of us but to say, “Aye sir!” and carrying out our orders to the best of our abilities?
As things turned out the voyage was not as unpleasant as I had anticipated. Fraulein Gertner’s presence actually had a moderating influence on the men, making the long passage easier. In addition, she and I became quite good friends. Therefore, it was with some sadness, and more than a hint of trepidation, that I sent her ashore off the coast of Canada in the early hours of 16 March. Free of our ‘passenger,’ we proceeded down the eastern coast of North America.
The night of 19 March we encountered a convoy. The Americans were quite obliging, the shoreline lit up as though nothing were out of the ordinary and providing excellent backlighting to silhouette the targets for us. I concentrated on two large freighters of 8,000 tons each and a 6,200 ton tanker, firing both bow and stern torpedoes in a surface attack from medium range. Multiple explosions rocked both freighters and they quickly sank. Though hit, the tanker managed to remain underway. The escort, an American Mahan class DD seemed at a loss as to what to do and, leaving him to tend to the injured tanker, we went in pursuit of the rest of the convoy.
We caught up to the convoy just as the sun was rising and so I ordered “Dive!” and conducted a submerged attack, sending four eels at the largest of the targets, an 11,000 ton freighter. We could all hear the detonations o multiple eels and Funkobergefreiter Radener reported brakin up noise as we prepared for the attack of the escort, a Farragut class DD. The depth-charging was brief but did manage to damage the pressure hull. Once we surfaced, the convoy was gone.
We continued our patrol south toward the Caribbean. While the waters grew warmer we saw no further action, eventually turning for home on the 23rd.
An otherwise perfect patrol was ruined when, on the 24th while performing routine maintenance on the remaining torpedoes, one of the restraining chains snapped. Mechanikermaat Hilmar Keitel and Mechanikerobergefreiter Anton Barr were crushed under the weight of the falling eel and several other of the torpedo crew were injured. Not surprisingly, there was some murmuring among the crew about this being the consequence of our earlier passenger.
Other than the unfortunate accident with the torpedo, the rest of the journey home was uneventful, with U-86 entering La Rochelle on 4 April, three pennants flying from her periscope mast.
Given his time in service, as well as the expertise he has demonstrated, I request that my LI, Lt (Ing) Jordan Volke be promoted to Oblt (Ing).
Respectfully submitted,
FKpt Viktor Radel, Kommandant U-86