U.XXX Out On Action…continued

We surface and, while charging our battery, we slowly keep going. Through the night we cross the Gulf of Taranto and by morning light we have the Cape of Santa Maria di Leuca behind us. Now it goes to the east toward Korfu. This is a busy place. Destroyers and torpedo-boats are constantly cruising around. We also encounter a few motorboats. We almost continuously run in battle trim. When they come too close we dive completely.

By evening we see Korfu before us. We surface and hold to south. Early in the morning around 4 o'clock the alarm bell sounds. In a few seconds we are down to 10 meters and above us a motorboat rushes over us. "This one almost surprised us." says the Commander. He carefully runs up the periscope and, "Quickly! Stern torpedo clear!." comes down from the tower. "Fully larboard…against…right away!" The torpedo is on its way and 26 seconds later, the explosion. "Got him anyway." says the Commander. "I was afraid we missed him." It was an English submarine, Class A. "Go down deep." We could hear the bombs already. The motorboat most likely turned around right after the explosion and all it could do now was drop bombs even though he had no idea where we were. The bombs were all far off.

We steer again toward the sea while 40 meters down. After an hour we come up again and load our last torpedo. We'll all be glad to return to the station soon. Now we set course to the north with the Otranto Strait before us. The Frigate-Lieutenant enters our latest success into his logbook. We made it through the strait but it gets more difficult all the time. They invent all kinds of things and make use of the fishing boats more and more. Their numbers have increased drastically. Where they had before four to eight in a chain they now have 20-30 and more. They also seem to equip and use motorboats more. With their fast speed and lack of smoke they are best able to surprise a submarine. You could not threaten them much with cannon fire because they posed such a small target. A year ago it was child's play to get through the strait. But now you had to be lucky to sneak through unnoticed and it keeps getting worse. This time we were lucky once more.

With one torpedo remaining the Commander wanted to check around Brindisi if anything could be done. But we could not find anything and changed course to north-east. I was on look-out duty in the tower.The Commander and the Second talked for a while yet. About 3 o'clock in the morning the Frigate-Lieutenant turned in. The night was bright and we had a smooth ride. For some reason the Commander went down, apparently to come back up right away because he didn't say anything to me. Usually he would warn the look-out to watch carefully before leaving the tower to turn in. Far and wide there was nothing to see and suddenly…a shock and I lost all awareness.

When I woke up I was in the hospital in Sebenice. I did not know what had happened. My head was rumbling as if it was full of gear works. Where is the boat? What happened to the men? Slowly I remembered that we were on the way from Brindisi to the Bocce. But what happened after that? I wanted to ask but when I tried to open my mouth my head hurt so much that I had to give it up. Only after a few days I was able to ask what was wrong with me and what happened to the boat. But nobody could give me a clear answer. Why was I alive?

A torpedo-boat had fished me out of the sea and brought me here. Gradually I began to remember. The U.XXX must have hit a mine, there was no other possibility. If it had been a torpedo I would have seen the track. I asked if anyone else had been fished out. No, they did not know of any. So, the whole boat gone, with "man and mouse."

Coming up, Part IV Summer 1917 to November 1918