From the personal diary of KptLt Walter Rieflin
August 12th
We left port on the morning of August 1st. Why we always left port on the first of the month was a mystery to me. Dieter said it was probably because it made paperwork simpler for the acting kommodore. The way I looked at it, I thought the RAF would know our routine by now and make sure they had more planes than usual up to patrol the Bay of Biscay on the first of each month and intercept us once our escorts had returned to port. Fortunately, they did not appear to have cottoned onto this and our outward voyage to the patrol area was uneventful.
Our patrol area was again the Atlantic. I admit I had been envious of some of my kamerads who were patrolling in a Wolfpack. Strength in numbers was always a good maxim. As it was, we were patrolling on our own. Following the example set by Kapitan Schneider, I had changed the mix of torpedoes and took as many G7a steam torpedoes as we could, swapping out them out replacing four of the G7e electric torpedoes.
We had just entered our patrol area when we received details of a convoy. Adjusting our course, we were able to be lying in wait for it the next day. Unlike my predecessor, I was not a fan of close range attacks. I felt the risk of detection outweighed the higher chances of sinking enemy shipping and the lives of my crew and the safety of my boat was more important than perhaps sinking one light freighter. We stalked the convoy at a medium range. From our angle of approach, the largest target was a 10,300 ton freighter. I ordered a firing solution for all four forward tubes. I wanted to be certain of a kill.
All four hit, hydrophones picking up the sound of the freighter breaking up. We may have only needed two torpedoes but I wanted to be certain. We caught the convoy by surprise and none of the escorts were able to pick up a contact.
I ordered the forward tubes reloading and for us to continue tailing the convoy. An hour later, I moved us into an attack position. The only prey for this attack was smaller freighters. I did consider following the maxim of my former kommandant of firing off a torpedo at each of them and seeing how it played out. Instead, I chose to target the larger two and fire two torpedoes at each of them.
All four torpedoes hit, both freighters broke up and started to sink. However, we were not to get away that easily.
In all, there were four attack runs from the British destroyer before it lost contact with us. There was minor damage to the hull and there was some flooding in a few of the compartments. However, on the first attack, a rivet had blown off and hit Lt Matthias Jung on the side of his head, knocking him unconscious.
After the destroyer returned to its convoy escort duties, I chose not to pursue this convoy any further. When it was safe, I surfaced our boat, had the flooding pumped out of the different compartments and had Doktor Braun see to Matthias. After doing what he could, he reported back to me that Matthias Jung was in a stable condition but he had a serious concussion and his vision was impaired. As it was, he was not fit to carry out his duties for the remainder of the patrol and would require extensive medical recuperation upon our return to La Rochelle.
August 17th Yesterday, a convoy was spotted on the afternoon by one of our watch crews. Preferring to attack under the cover of darkness, we shadowed the convoy until it was nighttime. Of the targets available, I narrowed them down to a 9,500t tanker and a 9,200t freighter getting firing solutions for both of them, firing two eels at the tanker and two eels at the freighter. Two torpedoes hit the tanker, the first one damaging the hull but the second proving to be a dud. Only one torpedo hit the freighter, but it was enough and the freighter broke up. By striking so suddenly and unexpectedly, the escorts did not know where the attack came from. Instead of following the convoy, I chose to follow the damaged tanker, which had become an unescorted straggler. Saving on torpedoes and when clear of any other shipping, we moved into close range and finished it off with the deck gun.
August 22nd It appears we were on the main route for convoys as another one headed through our patrol area. Following it until night, we found from our attack angle we were in a "tankers' paradise", three of the four closest targets being tankers, the fourth being a small freighter. In the forward compartment, torpedoes were running low. We had two G7a and four G7e torpedoes, the last of the steam torpedoes and two of the electric torpedoes already loaded in the tubes. I intended to fire the fourth tube at the freighter and the other three at the largest tanker, which was 8,200t. Both steam torpedoes hit the tanker, doing enough damage to sink it. This was fortunate as the G7e missed, not as accurate at medium range as a steam torpedo. The second G7e, however, did hit the freighter and damaged it. Again, we surprised them. I opted to tail the damaged freighter rather than the rest of the convoy, but ultimately chose not to engage it again as it had a "little friend" in the form of a destroyer.
August 26th Four days later, another convoy and our U-Boat down to only six torpedoes and four of them were in the aft. The pickings from this convoy did not seem so great. I opted for a firing solution on the largest of the four freighters, firing from the aft tubes. Only one hit and the hit was only enough to lightly damage it. We followed nevertheless but due to its escort actively seeking for U-Boats, I decided discretion was the better part of valour and we disengaged.
September 19th There was very little to report about the rest of our patrol. We remained in the patrol area on the convoy routes for almost another two weeks. We did encounter two more convoys but these were daytime contacts and due to poor weather conditions, I was unable to track either convoy long enough until nightfall. It was annoying as I wanted to use up the last four of our torpedoes on something.
After those two weeks were up, we commenced the journey back to port. Our last encounter was in the Bay of Biscay. We spotted an enemy Sunderland before it was able to attack and accomplished a textbook crash dive thereby avoided an unwanted encounter.
We arrived back in La Rochelle this afternoon with six pennants flying from the mast. We would require only a standard refit that should be completed by mid-late October. It was deeply unfortunate, however, that Lt Matthias Jung would not be joining us. His eyesight had not improved and in the last few weeks, he had been experiencing fits. His days on operations were over. A silver wound badge would hardly compensate him for what could have been a glittering career in the service. I wish him well and hope he can make a full recovery.
WR