大象传媒

This story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Captain Walker and Mike Kemble

The U Boat was abaft my beam when I started to turn towards her, and the noise of a number of ships propellers in her hydrophones must have drowned the noise of my ships increase in speed at the start of the attack. At any rate she made no move to get out of the way, nor did she get off her torpedoes in any hurry as I came charging in, and it looked as if the attack was unexpected up to the last moment. Then I imagine there came a cry from the U Boats hydrophone operator of "Propellers - Fast! - Loud! - Getting Louder!" and "Himmel" from the Captain as he swung his periscope round and caught sight of us coming. He acted fast and in time, for he dodged our pattern of depth charges alright. His mind was however no longer occupied by thoughts of attacking and sinking anyone, which meant we had achieved our objective. His next intention, to get safely away from all this, could be dealt with in the manner we liked best, in slow time.

My chief fear during the run in to attack was that I should get there too late to put the enemy off his stroke. The asdic contact was good and the attack more or less ran itself, but try as I could to stop them, those big ships would come on. Of course, the whole thing was over very quickly, though it seemed to take ages at the time. 6 depth charges produced an immediate response. With relief I saw the carriers turn and present their sterns, which meant that even if the torpedoes had been fired, they would now miss. With fresh heart we were now free to proceed with the second part of the programme. There is not much more to tell. Conditions were very good indeed and the enemy proved strangely docile after his early show of spirit. We regained out contact after the attack and had it confirmed, first by Magpie and then by the "Boss" on Starling. The Magpie had a go but missed and was told to rejoin the screen. The Boss then ordered an Extra Special and charges rained down. Debris and oil in sufficient quantity appeared and that was the end of the hunt.

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