All or Nothing

30 June 1942
6:47 local time
Iceland. I've been ordered to head out to grid AE89, southeast of Iceland. At least summer is upon us and it should take a bit of the edge off the freezing cold spray. We sailed out of Brest last night just before sunset to little fanfare and quiet waters. This morning brought heavy rain, which i have learned to welcome in the face of increased Allied air patrols and those damned Sunderlands. We'll see them soon enough though.

I plan to return to our favorite hunting grounds this patrol. We will cut across the Channel entrance and then skirt along the western Irish coast to our zone. If we're lucky we may find another convoy to ambush. The location of our patrol zone, NW of Ireland and SE of Iceland should also offer the opportunity to intercept traffic headed to the northern British ports.

1 July 1942
20:12 local time
It has been a busy day with little to show for the effort. At 9:47 this morning Karl picked up multiple warships contacts. Large warships! We tried for three hours in the rough weather to close with them but could not even gain a visual sighting. Exhausted for being up all night and morning I fell right into a deep sleep only to be awoken to the fact that we had run across our friends again.

At 14:52 we heard the distant rumblings of the battle group again. Definitely some heavy ships out there. Another three hours and we managed to gain some on them. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw two giant battleships and a cruiser in line out there. I managed to maneuver the boat within the trailing picket ship but the battleships were still at an extreme range and we were losing them fast. I shot off a homing torpedo from the aft tube towards the picket and then let loose all four forward torpedoes in a spread towards the center battleship at a range of nearly 5000 meters.

As we made our getaway two explosions were heard but that didn't inflict more than minor damage to the capital ship. By then we were well out of range and resumed our original course to the north. So close, but just out of reach. I can only hope that we will somehow run across the battlegroup again. I will send off a contact report when we surface for our night run so that some aircraft or another u-boat may have a chance at them.