[Herr Zeitbombe]

LS- Let me add even more accolades to your impressive list of complements. This has been one of the most enjoyable pieces of fan fiction that I have ever read, if not a great serial novel. Clearly you have a gift for drama and an impeccable sense of suspense. Each post leads me to look for the next one. I have been checking every day for the last week for updates on the U-46. You, sir, have hooked me along with what I imagine is a good portion of the people who visit these forums.

I would greatly enjoy the further adventures of U-46. Good luck getting back to Heidi.

\Lurker no longer. First Post!

[Laughing Swordfish]

BdU BdU .... Test .. Test Test

[Laughing Swordfish]

Wow it worked!

Neal from HQ has been helping repair my links to this thread.

We've lost at least one chapter, but here goes...

LS

[Laughing Swordfish]

Some very good helming from that rascal, Bruno, on the bridge.

He nosed us around, and then me, Oscar, Dieter and Kals were hauling him onto the deck

"Gently, lads!" Oscar whispered.

Even he gasped, when he got the man on board.

The left foot was missing below the knee, the right leg shot away completely.

"How could he..."

"...Shut up Kals! Fetch me my bandages, and straps, any straps at all!"

Oscar leaned over closer. I could tell the poor fellow was saying something, and Oscar was murmuring something back.

By the time Kals had reappeared with bandages and straps, Oscar had already lifted his head

"Nein, Kaleun... forget it Kals"

We took his tags and any other personal effects, and I had Christian put then in my locker.

Oscar being a man of learning, said most of the words, in what was a hasty sea burial.

"Prepare to dive. Let's get out of here till nightfall, Reuben"

"Doc?"

"Yes Kap?" he stooped his trudge back to midships.

"About that lad....

"His name was Muller.."

"How? I mean what...."

"Kap , the cold water played a part, and the human body's own amazing systems and will power. I think it was dragging him out that actually killed him. He bled like hell then. All washed off now; that's one good thing about u-boat maintenance."

"What did he say?"

"Just this Kap"

'..Danke...'

"He didn't want to die alone. And at least we could do that for him"

Yes Oscar, let's look to the living, we're going home.......

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[Laughing Swordfish]

The steward was clearing away the plates a day later in the ward room .

Still dangerous waters, but we were heading back to St Nazaire.

"Why so glum, Doc?"

"That Bismark boy... Muller...."

"What is it, Oscar? He died and it's war and...

He told me some more on that fore deck,

"He was supposed to be manning one of the secondary 5.9" turrets. They were firing to the end. As the youngest he was sent to fetch more shells, or life vests or even a drink of water, I don't know...

He told me that even as he struggled back across the deck a new salvoe of shells hit her.

The Bismark was starting to go over. He got to his turret to find that the doors had been so damaged by the explosion that they had buckled and his chief, and all his young shipmates were still inside, pounding against the steel and screaming. They couldn't get out.

There must have been another salvo which blew the lad clear.
I'm sure that he never knew his legs were gone, right to the last

But those poor lads, sinking in an iron coffin, how....

"Shut Up Oscar! You're just making it up!"

One look in his eyes told me different

"And you're frightening the children. Let's just get them all home again eh?"

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[Laughing Swordfish]

We have another boat coming in at the same time.

We are to RV with him in the Bay. It's the U-125, a different flotilla, but Josef Hink's boat if I'm, not mistaken. I reckon he has been plundering further south, and he and his men are ready for french beer just as we are.

"The Eagle's Head.... That's the U-125 all right. Look at that!they've already got their victory pennants up, and...."

"Let them, Christian. Where are ours?

Soon we and U-125 are blinking lamps at one of our minesweepers in the estuary. It appears that Josef's boat has taken a little damage, so he and his crew are going to be guests of 7 Flotilla for a while.

It turns out that another boat, returning from operations further west in the Atlantic, came across the same scene but literally had no torpedoes left. They picked up a handful of survivors. All with their own legs.

We're now nosing our way up the river to the St Nazaire Pens,
Amid all the jolly waving, there's one or two of us searching hopefully for a certain face on the dockside.....

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[Herr Zeitbombe]

"Amid all the jolly waving, there's one or two of us searching hopefully for a certain face on the dockside..... "

I wonder who he is looking for??
While I enjoy the action of the sub hunts, it is the well written shore story that keeps me hooked. Good job, Swordfish.

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Ahhh... home and Heidi

Please tell us that she made it to the bomb shelter on time.

[Laughing Swordfish]

"There she is Boss..."

Bruno is grinning and I follow his pointed finger.

There is a pretty blonde in naval staff uniform, waving and jumping up and down, trying to get forward past the guards.

I'd know her anywhere.

"Let me guess, Herr Kaleun. You'd like me to dock the boat, and put the crew on harbour stations, sort out the watch, prepare the paperwork with the harbour master, and get the tube caps repaired and the boat replenished and refuelled, and...."

"Yes, Bruno. If you can do all that in the next five minutes, I 'll be eternally grateful. But just give me those five minutes..."


Now I am striding down the ramp..

Now I am pushing past some astonished navy big wigs..

Now I am holding Heidi in my arms.

And now at last, she is kissing me....

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[bookworm_020]

The Swordfish has a bigger grin now!

Three cheers for the captain!

[Laughing Swordfish]

"Don't let go...."

"I won't, Heidi..."

"Every time, they thought you weren't coming back, I wouldn't believe it."

"I know, Heidi."

"I always believed though..."

....and she clutched me tighter

"...believed you'd come sailing up the estuary...."

"Honestly, Heidi, it's that belief that keeps us alive. Look at Otto there. He'll be off to Frankfurt tonight if I have anything to do with it. His wife is expecting a baby, you know."

"There's Reuben and my coxswain."

They have skirted around the parade and are both struggling with kitbags full of what could possibly be tinned navy food. There's going to be some happy faces in an attic in Hamburg, if they can make the train.

"What about them?"

"Well nothing really. But those people look after me as much as I try to look after them."

"I want to look after you, Herr Kaleun..... Rollie"

The boys on the deckand up on the tower are cheering like mad, and I'm blushing like my first kiss in kindergarten.

"Heidi, you know I always....but never quite......"

"Psssht! I certainly do now."

"....do you have to go out again...? I could find you a shore job with the flotilla, and then we......"

"Heidi, you know I ........"

And then I am whisked away, to Uncle Karl's stern but perhaps not totally dissaproving gaze.....

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!!!

[Laughing Swordfish]

"Don't go. Please don't go"

"You know I have to, Heidi. Senior people are looking.

"It's just a debrief, and we're not banged up too much. Our Uncle Karl is going to want to know about the Bismark, and after that we can.."

"...I have to leave for Normandy. Today."

I stood with an open mouth

"Im sorry darling , I just do."

And then she tore herself away from me with her hands to her eyes. Pushing through the press of the crowd and gone.

"Sir?"

"..what?"

"Car for Kerneval, Herr Kaleun. If you please.."

I allowed myself to be ushered into the staff car, but all the time staring into the distance at what I had just let out of my hands.

Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[Herr Zeitbombe]

In the imortal words of Darth Vader.


"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"


Though something tells me that the story is not over yet...
Please let there be more...

[Laughing Swordfish]

"...She just seemed to just be turning in a wide circle, and firing with any guns that brought to bear. It didn't make sense, Sir."

"We had a report about a jammed rudder, that they couldn't fix, Lad."

Doenitz leaned back in his chair slightly.

"At least you got some torpedoes off. Our friend Goebbels is going to have to stop claiming we've sunk the Ark Royal so publicly now. Unless.."

He rose suddenly and poured two glasses of vodka.

"Unless I send you to Gibraltar after her..?"

It must have been the burning in my throat that made me splutter.

"What's the matter Leutnant? This is Russia's finest. Our generals are doing very well by the way, but here we are in France, and they send me cases of this low-grade panzer fuel. I have to get rid of it somehow!"

(Well, give it to Max in U-213 or Bernie in U-100, or my own Dieter who'd set fire to something with it ) I think to myself.

But Uncle Karl has already poured another two.

He looked at me as I drank the next glass. Seeming to be thinking about his next words.

"Not Gibraltar for you Leutnant, and you know why?"

(Because it's suicide) "No, Sir"

"Because Germany is trying to do everything at once. We have conquered Western Europe, and here we are on the French Coast.
But our planes have failed to defeat the RAF. So while we can pee into the English Channel, we can't cross it. Now we are in Greece and all those places, and Libya, the Army is getting a sun tan and we have too few boats to cover all their operations, assaults and supply routes. All the time making new enemies. Now we are invading Russia. Huge tracts of ground, and captures, but we only have a fraction of it, not even one fifteenth, before we take Moscow. Soon America will be joining the War with all that entails."

"I see, Sir" (not seeing at all) but raising a new glass.

"So how do you think the Amis will get here, when they come? How will they supply the Ivans?"

"Well, the North Atlantic, Sir"

"Precisely! Which is where we must now fight and win this War! Not in side shows, or other adventures. But against the commerce and military transport that will soon be arriving every day!

I need you Leutnant, and your kameraden in the other boats to fight aggressively and decisively against the enemy with every torpedo and in every way. It has to be my way. Our way. The loss of the Bismark , the Graf Spee and the Blucher has told us that.

The Uboatwaffe will protect Germany! Don't you agree, Leutnant!"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Excellent. But I can't help thinking there might be something else on your mind?"

"Well, Sir I was hoping.."

"A member of my staff, blonde hair perhaps? Only a Woman Corporal, but a most promising one. I've noticed it before and you must underatand that I cannot formally condone such a liaison, Leutnant?"

"Yes, Sir" I replied crestfallen.

"If you bunch of pirates only ever did what was condoned back here, we wouldn't get anything done out there"

Doenitz sighed.

"Well she's up at a place near Abbeyville."

"Abbeyville?" I protested. "But that's the Fighter Base"

"So they tell me, it's near there. But you're on dry land now, boy."

He pressed a last tumbler of vodka into my hand .

"You don't always have to duck out of sight every time you see a pilot you know. Now get over there. My duty driver is waiting...."

Lt de Bunsen, U-46