Lost cause

19 May 1942
6:00 local time
The weather has cleared and we are well clear of the convoy. The calm seas have given us the opportunity to load our external torpedoes before heading below the surface for our daytime run. The crew is clearly elated by our victory and had a certain rhythm to their work today.

22:40 local time
We picked up a visual contact in the distance; a large cargo ship roughly 6500 meters ahead. As we closed I noticed that she was armed with deck guns so, the seas being too rough to man ours, I ordered us down to periscope depth. A second ship, a small merchant, appeared behind her not long into our pursuit. I lined up a perfect shot and let loose my last two bow eels. The first connected with the small merchant and she began to sink while the other either missed or did not explode against the C3. I ordered my boat hard over to port to bring the aft tube into a decent firing angle as the ship began to move away and let go another torpedo. Karl said he distinctly heard it hit the side of the ship, but alas no explosion! With only one remaining torpedo, the deck gun unusable, and the merchant able to outgun us I had no choice but to give up the chase. At least we scored another small victory, but it pains me to have to let that meaty cargo ship continue her voyage to England!

20 May 1942
4:30 local time
Calm seas and clear skies this morning. We do not know if Allied air cover extends this far so we are keeping to the safe side and running underneath the waves today. Glancing at the charts we are 1000km west of our patrol zone and 1000km due south of Iceland. Not much out there but cold water. Hopefully we won't have any interference between now and when we reach our patrol zone since we are running a bit behind schedule.