The pilot looked over at the young ensign and almost yelling, “I am going to sink the son of a bitch!”
“Sir, your depth charges are set at fifty feet, and by now the German is down to over a hundred feet and probably turned to either the right or left as he dove which makes an attack a losing proposition. I would recommend we linger over the target at height and see if he comes up again. I think it will take him at least forty-five minutes to an hour to come back to periscope depth to see what’s on the surface. He probably can scan the skies as well so if we want a chance to get him, we should get back to at least three thousand feet and circle the area in a five to ten-mile loop. That way if he comes up again, you have a good shot.”
Hamlin grimaced knowing Brand was correct. He had been briefed on the Germans’ ability to dive quickly when retreating from danger so if he took Brand’s advice and waited, he could maybe have a good shot, not a long shot. The commander pulled out of his shallow dive and told the radio operator to get the captain on the inter-airplane radio channel.
A moment later, the radio operator said, “He’s on, sir.”
“Captain, Brand says we should go up high and loiter to see if this guy will come up again. Your orders, sir.” The commander waited a few seconds. “Roger that. How high should we go and what should we do for a formation?” Lieutenant Commander Hamlin looked over at Brand and told him to take his headset to talk directly to the captain.
Brand grabbed the headset and the microphone from Hamlin but stayed right next to him so he could hear both parts of the conversation. “Sir, Brand here. I recommend we go to three thousand feet and fly a long oval with a track of maybe eight to ten miles. Both of us together but spaced by one thousand yards. The German will probably go down to two hundred feet and loiter. They cannot go much faster than six knots submerged, so I calculate if he went either right or left he will not stray more than four miles from where you engaged him. I doubt he would go in a reverse course because he is probably just getting to his station. If we can hang on for at least one hour and stay high, he may come up again. If he does, both planes will need to attack, and he will dive. But this time, if we can drop at sixty-foot intervals and set at twenty-five to fifty feet explosion depth, we may have a chance to at least damage him. Over.”
There was a pause of at least a minute from the other plane before Captain Gannon came back on the radio, “Okay, Mr. Brand, let’s hang around for an hour, maybe a bit more. I concur in your attack plan. Hamlin, set all weapons for the attack and let’s see if he comes back up. I will signal base to alert all shipping of our location and move any vessels out of the area. Over.”
Brand gave the headphones and hand-held microphone back to Hamlin and then took out his notepad and started to write again. He did not have time to see the drop by Gannon and the spacing of the depth charges. He would have to rely on Jameson’s notes and memory to help in his calculations. He had seen some of the reports from the British admiralty on how they had dropped aerial depth charges and how their effectiveness had improved when using shorter spacing. Also, he had done his calculations before this trip on the need to not waste munitions on badly planned attacks which had a very poor success rate.
The German U-boats could submerge within fifty seconds of seeing an attacking plane, and could dive at two feet per second. The speed of a U-boat under power was still great, and when it switched to batteries it was being propelled by the inertia of the big diesel engines which meant a German Type IX could travel up to one thousand feet during a crash dive to get below periscope depth. The questions to be answered are, where do you drop your weapons, what is the spacing of the drop, and what is the best depth setting for the charges to maximize damage? The British had concluded it was a waste of time and effort to try to conduct an aerial attack when the submarine has submerged and is no longer visible, or has been submerged for more than fifteen seconds.
The other key to successfully prosecuting an attack is to maintain discipline for a great amount of time to get the U-boat to resurface. Holding a U-boat down is the first part in winning this battle because the enemy cannot attack a merchant convoy if it cannot catch them. All submarines were slow under water and had limited battery capacity to sustain any speed over six knots for more than two hours. They could crawl, but they could not find a convoy two to three knots faster than they were.
After a little more than an hour, Captain Gannon came back on the radio. “Hamlin, we are getting near our return time. How are you on fuel?”
Hamlin looked over at the co-pilot and the flight engineer who gave him a hand signal which meant 3.2 hours left of fuel. He reported this information to the captain.
“Let’s wait another fifteen minutes, then we must return. The base has no other planes available to take over the search, so if this guy is going to show up for us, he has only a few more minutes left. Over.”
Hamlin acknowledged and continued his gaze out of the cockpit window.
*****
The German U-boat commander gave the order to come up to periscope depth to see if the amateurish Americans had left. He had been briefed in La Rochelle fourteen days ago as to the mediocre quality of the American’s efforts and total failure to prosecute attacks like the British did. He was glad he didn’t have to deal with the British air patrols nor did he relish dealing with the Canadian escorts he had encountered in November as he patrolled near Iceland. His boat was nearly rammed by a Corvette, and he was lucky to come out alive. This was his third war patrol, and he wanted to make up for his poor showing of only one kill on his last cruise. He had read all the messages from people like Hardegen and his successful voyage in U-123 where he had sunk nine ships and had encountered no opposition at all.
He had the boat at periscope depth and asked for the primary periscope to be raised slowly. He was holding on as it went up and barely broke the surface, trailing very little wake. The boat was barely moving forward doing only two knots. The captain quickly spun the periscope around and then ordered it down. “Nothing on the surface. Now let’s look at the sky.” He had been briefed about planes loitering in the area but staying close to the sea level for a fast attack. He figured if he were a pilot, he would stay under three thousand feet so he could attack quickly. The periscope went up, and he spun it around much slower so he could see the sky situation. He completed two rotations before he ordered it down again. His executive officer looked at him and waited for a command to go up or head back down to a safer depth. After a few more seconds of consideration, the captain ordered, “Surface! All lookouts up and scan the sky. Be ready to dive on my order,” as he looked at the exec and then waited for the boat to rise. This was the most dangerous part of the maneuver. He was blind until he could get up top.
*****
Two thousand yards away and three thousand feet high, eagle eye Flannigan thought he saw something. He got on the intercom and informed the pilot, “Commander, I think I just saw something at one o’clock. Maybe a periscope up for just a moment.”
Hamlin got back to him immediately saying, “How far out? I am coming back to that course.”
Before Flannigan could say anything else, he spied the periscope again. “I can see it now at one o’clock. There it is, barely a whisper behind it. Must be looking at us. Over.”
“Got it,” Hamlin exclaimed. “Okay people, if it starts to come up we are going in. Radio, notify the captain.”
Everyone on the plane looked at the dark blue sea trying to locate what the marine lieutenant had pointed out, but only Brand had a confirmation. “Got it. Yes, it looks like a periscope, and it is looking around. Just saw a flash from the mirror. Okay, Commander, just like we discussed. As soon as we see any more movement come right on the attack course. If we can get it anywhere from fifteen to forty-five degrees off center, that would be great. Just a minute, yes, there it is. It’s coming up.”
Everyone on the plane looked toward the sub except the pilot and co-pilot who were busy adjusting the plane t
o the new course and beginning their dive.
“Forward Gunner, get set, if we come close and it’s still up, aim for the conning tower and anybody on it. Same goes for the side gunners. As we pass, shoot it up.”
The radio operator had been given instructions for this possibility and communicated to the other plane to follow in the dive. The plane was building up speed, and the U-boat was starting to rise out of the depths, slowly at first. Next came the larger periscope housing, then the start of the conning tower and the bow of the boat began to emerge from the sea.
The PBY was less than eight hundred yards away when the first member of the U-boat crew sprang out of the hatch and climbed into their watch locations. The airplane approached from the rear quarter. The submarine’s engines were running, masking the noise of the plane’s Pratt and Whitney engines throbbing at full speed toward the black hull rising from the sea.
It was at four hundred yards now and less than a thousand feet when one of the German lookouts saw the plane diving on them. He yelled, and the captain who had just got on the deck of the conning tower saw it too. “Crash dive!” He jumped back down the hatch with the other two lookouts as the boat quickly began its descent.
Hamlin yelled, “Open fire, she is going down!’
The forward single .50-caliber machine gun immediately began firing with the young marine helping the forward gunner take aim. The plane got closer and closer, with the other PBY now coming in behind the first one by twelve hundred yards. The submarine was being hit by the slugs of the .50 caliber but not suffering major damage. Brand’s note taking and attention were continuous like any good scientist observing a lab experiment. But this was life and death, and he was a witness.
The U-boat was nearly under water as the PBY caught up with it. The first of four depth charges were dropped just as the submarine was covered with the sea, the co-pilot jettisoned the weapon by counting as Brand had instructed to gain the correct spacing. The plane waggled a bit with each drop, but in a few seconds four depth charges were hitting the sea and dropping. The plane pulled up as the other PBY came in for its attack.
First, there was only one explosion, then another and another, but a large bubble burst where the last one had occurred. Was this the kill shot Brand had read about from the admiralty reports?
The second PBY was almost to the target when the submarine’s nose came back into view. The boat was being driven up by some magical force. The crew of both planes could not see the damage to the sub’s forward diving planes. One was smashed in and up. The other was broken along with a major part of the bow. The boat suffered severe damage, but could surface. It would need repairs to dive again, but with two planes circling above, that was not a possibility.
The second PBY pulled up, and dropped two more depth charges along the hull. They exploded fifty feet below and about seventy-five feet to the right of the U-boat, and the bubble pushed the boat by the stern. The bow dropped into the water, and the boat rolled a bit. The plane carrying Brand turned to attack with bombs as the U-boat regained stability, but it appeared to be dead in the water. Approaching the damaged submarine at cruising speed, the PBY was in line to drop its regular bombs when the submarine’s crew appeared on the conning tower with life vests and began jumping into the water.
Captain Gannon yelled into his radio, “Cease firing. Do not fire on the submarine unless fired upon.”
Lieutenant Commander Hamlin quickly spoke into his intercom, “Cease firing. Keep an eye on those SOBs, but we are not going to shoot men leaving a ship.”
Both planes now circled as more and more crewmen jumped overboard. One, then two small life rafts appeared. Men began to climb on as more crew members could be seen leaving the sub. The U-boat was going down slowly, and was now totally dead in the water. Within four minutes, the boat was no longer visible. Men were clinging to the two small lifeboats, and it appeared several of the Germans were injured.
Captain Gannon looked down at the Germans. He couldn’t land and take on the survivors but he could drop one of the plane’s lifeboats. He radioed for Hamlin’s plane to do the same, then both planes passed close enough to make their drops. Gannon radioed the location to the base asking for a navy or coast guard warship to help in the rescue of the enemy, not just for humane reasons but for intelligence. After a few more slow passes to confirm all the Germans were in the lifeboats, the planes wagged their wings to the German sailors and headed for Banana River. They were now not only veterans of combat but successful warriors who had sunk a German submarine.
All of this was impressive to young Brand, but he was now in research mode reliving the experience for his notes, inspecting his calculations, and thinking of how he could improve upon this result in the future. He had Hamlin get Jameson on the radio and urged him to rescue the Germans for interrogation and validation of his theories. He knew he may get little out of these men, but he might get enough to move his theories into fresh territory.
When the planes landed three hours later, there was quite a reception committee. Captain Young looked on like an expectant parent waiting for his child to come home from his first day of school and the other patrol wing pilots wanted to hear all about the battle. Everyone on the base had heard the news and the captain had already secured the area and made sure no word of the successful attack left the base. He notified Admiral Willson’s office immediately, informing him of the request for a warship to pick up the U-boat survivors. He had also sent the same information to Admiral Andrews in New York to alert the entire Eastern Sea Frontier Command about the attack on the U-boat and of the high probability that others were nearby.
Captain Young pulled Commander Jameson and Ensign Brand away from the celebration and gave them a copy of the signal traffic coming from Washington, requesting a great amount of detailed information. One of them confirmed the USS Jacob Jones was being dispatched to locate survivors. The ship had been on a search mission south of Cape Hatteras and was approximately thirteen hours from the U-boat’s location. Once found and brought on board, the old four stack destroyer was to deliver the prisoners to Charleston Naval Base for interrogation. The communique stressed the utmost secrecy concerning the sinking of the U-boat, and no public disclosure was to be made.
Admiral Willson left instructions for Commander Jameson and Ensign Brand to call him as soon as he landed to discuss the attack and results. Young had seen the request and ushered both Jameson and Brand into his office, and asked his chief yeoman to make the call.
The call went as expected with Willson wanting a complete written report sent by courier as soon as possible. He asked about events surrounding the attack and how it occurred. He was especially interested in the time waiting for the submarine to reappear. Admiral Willson asked, “Brand, what gave you the idea to just wait it out?”
“Admiral, the Brits in their report from late December outlined these steps, and I just expanded on their research. Their experiences and research data are invaluable. We need to dig deeper into their analytics to see what else there is so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, sir.”
Jameson grimaced when he heard the comments knowing Admiral King did not like to follow the British lead on anything. Willson also knowing this all too well commented, “Mr. Brand, let me see what other information I can get from our Allies that may make your research easier. Just keep it close to you where this information comes from, is that clear?”
“Yes sir, I understand, and if I may say, I think we have some ideas which will make the Brits better at this game as well.”
“Good to know, Brand. Do you still want to talk to our submariners?”
Brand looked over at Jameson who didn’t respond. “Yes sir. Based upon the attack we made, I would like to better understand their way of thinking and how they take evasive maneuvers.”
“Very well, plan to get up to New London in the next two days. Get me your reports before you go up there. Admiral King is delighted by this sinking. Any information you can share fo
r future operations would be wonderful. And by the way, well done. Now, let me speak to Commander Jameson again.” With that last comment, Brand handed the phone to the commander and waited until the call was over.
“Sir,” Brand asked, “I would like to be informed if the survivors of the sinking are brought some place so that I may do some questioning. I know they may not be too willing to talk, but my German is good, and perhaps I can get some information from them that a regular interrogator might miss.”
“We’ll see what we can arrange, James. Are you okay with getting a report for Admiral Willson before we head to New London to meet some American submariners?”
“Yes sir, no problem. I have my notes all organized, and it will only take me a few hours on the typewriter to get it finalized. I would like to see your notes first and see if we agree on what we saw. I am especially interested in bomb spacing, flight speeds, and understanding the original sighting made from your plane. After that, I’ll need more time for some of the calculations. I want to help flyers drop their weapons in a more accurate fashion and at depths that will be most effective. I can work up some of that information on the trip north.”
“All right then, I’ll get the team set to fly out of here tomorrow at noon, if that is sufficient time for you to type your report. I’ll arrange for a courier to take it to Admiral Willson. Oh, one other thing, James, the admiral is very happy with what you’ve accomplished so far and especially for winning over both him and Admiral King. That alone may be worthy of a medal.”
Jameson started to laugh as James broke into a smile and realized getting the attention of the navy’s top admiral truly was something of an achievement.
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21 February 1942
U-Boat Scourge Page 16