The Prize Rules Ch. 07

*****

Operation Neuland is underway and thus far, it's been a large success in terms of the damage done to the war effort in the Caribbean. Antisubmarine forces all over were scrambling to tighten the very loose net that had been in place before this.

But the downside to U-161 of course is that the net will be tightened. Squadrons of maritime patrol bombers are being sent off to any Caribbean airfields which have even a hope of hosting them and those aircraft have deep fuel tanks which allow them to fly and hunt for hours.

U-161 is trying to open up a little space for herself by slipping northward out of the area for a while and are at the present moment (in the story) very close to the southern Cuban coast.

And Wilhelm Bucher is still being a royal pain in the ass.

0_o

*****

U-161

They'd been under for almost fifteen minutes, sitting still.

Hans-Joachim had called for the shallow dive and once under the surface, he'd called for the motors to be stopped and he let them coast out until they were almost stopped at thirty meters. Just as they were almost motionless, he'd called for a turn hard to port.

The whole boat was deathly still as all eyes were on the radioman while he sat listening to the hydrophones and adjusting the settings on his apparatus minutely.

Finally, he looked up at Ullmann and nodded, beginning to speak quietly.

"Ja, Herr Kaleun.

"A single contact, still there far astern and over the horizon - the same one. They have been following us."

Hans-Joachim nodded, "Keep listening, Kurt. We'll sit here a little longer. Tell me if anything changes."

Twenty-eight minutes later, the radioman waved his hand and Ullmann stepped over quietly, "Yes?"

"They've gone quiet, Herr Kaleun," the man said.

"They won't move again if we don't," Hans-Joachim said with a nod, "They're listening for us."

"What does that mean?" Bucher demanded in his annoyingly slow-witted fashion.

"It means," Hans-Joachim said with a little smile, "that some of our British friends are hunting us. Kurt has been hearing them in the distance for the last three days, since I have been making no attempt at all to disappear from them.

"It's just the one as far as we are aware at this point. Kurt can tell because they've got a slight shaft squeak - unless they build that into all of their subs - which can't be, obviously.

"There is the possibility that they are not alone out there and that their traveling companions are not so noisy; no way for us to tell from here. But there was that American patrol bomber which overflew us the other day. I am thinking that perhaps they are being given a little guidance, so they know roughly where to look.

"Out here, there are few other ships and sound travels a long way underwater. They can't hear us if we're on the electric motors obviously, but they can hear us when we're on the diesels from our props at the higher speed, just as we can hear them. You couldn't do this sort of thing as easily near Kiel or someplace with a lot of ships around. But the water's quieter here, no?

"They've been following us by our bearing. They stop every so often and go under just as we have and then they listen. Once they hear us, they surface and go to flank speed, trying to close the gap.

"They're far back of us and we could just surface and go to flank speed for a few hours. It's probably one of their Undine-class boats. They couldn't catch us if they tried."

"So ... we can outrun them?" Bucher asked.

Hans-Joachim nodded as he stepped to the plotting table, "A good submarine, though undersized for work this far out. There must be a supply ship around somewhere. An Undine doesn't have very deep tanks. They can make 11 and a half knots on the surface while we can do eighteen. We could wait for nightfall in half an hour and then dash away on the surface, but we won't."

"What then?" Bucher wanted to know.

Ullmann was already unrolling another map. "We'll let them come a little closer, that's all."

Bucher looked at the map as Ullmann unrolled it a little more, "What's there?"

Ullmann shrugged, "I'm looking for a bay that opens enough so that we can hear them come from a little way off. If I were them, I'd wonder after a few hours why I couldn't hear anything from us. One look at the map which they must have just like this one and they'll think that we've got to be hiding in one of these bays."

"What happens then?" Bucher asked, looking up from the map into Hans-Joachim's face.

The commander shrugged, "Then the game gets very dangerous, Wilhelm. For everyone."

--

"Alright Helmut," Ullmann said, pointing as they stood on the conning tower bridge, "Over there. Get us in there stern-first. That gives us a better position if we have to get out in a hurry and it also lets us bring more tubes to bear if we do.

"Just be careful that our screws don't get fouled up in dead tree roots and branches or we're finished. Also, find out if there's room for us to sit down in there. I don't want us to be seen from the entrance, after all."

Weisenkopf nodded and began to issue his commands down the voice pipe.

"If he comes in here after us, he'll be coming from that direction," Ullmann said to Bucher, "It isn't much, but the angle gives us more of a commanding view."

He gave Bucher a smiling shrug, "We just have to hold our fish back until they have entered the bay fully. If they sink as they are still on the way in, we trap ourselves here."

It was done inside of ten minutes and U-161 slowly sank under the surface after the conning tower bridge crew had gone inside.

"Can you hear them, Kurt?" Hans-Joachim asked the radioman who sat straining a little harder at the headphones.

"Ja, Herr Kaleun," he said, "I can only just hear them because of the angle."

Hans-Jaochim nodded, "Well keep listening, my friend. I'm sure that they'll get louder after a while."

After that, they waited.

"How do you know that they'll come in here to look for us?" Bucher asked.

Ullmann shrugged, "I don't know that they will for certain, but think for a minute. They've been following us for days, Wilhelm. Do you think that they've tried so hard just to chase us down so that they can get your autograph?

"Somehow the Britishers found out about Operation Neuland. So they sent at least one boat out here to hunt. The radio these days is full of reports. Ships sunk here and there, ports attacked, things such as this.

"If they only sent one boat and you were it's captain, would you want to slink home to tell your masters that you couldn't find even one submarine?"

Ullmann pointed at the map lying on the map table, "The trouble is that if it comes down to a fight, it will be in here, in this little place. Much better to fight out in the open, but this way, we have at least a little control over things.

"To come in here, into any of these little bays, the commander has to know that we are very likely not hiding from him - at least not as the main thing."

He shook his head, "No. Not unless he is a complete idiot. If it were me, I would have to assume that we were NOT hiding, only preparing the arena and lying in wait, that is all. Either that," he smiled a little, "or we are unaware that we are being hunted. If that were so, then he would likely find us all sunbathing on the deck - if a patrol bomber hadn't already finished us.

"So if he comes around into one of these bays, he must be prepared to act and fight instantly. If he sees nothing - as he will in any of these bays here, he has to assume that we are probably in every one and he must investigate, but very, very carefully. It doesn't really matter, other than being hard on the nerves. Sailing in these watery coffins is a dangerous sport from start to finish, isn't it?

"I would expect no less from him if things were the other way around, and if I were in something like even our Type VIIs, I'd be taking a long look and a very deep breath before I stuck my nose inside any of these bays.

"To follow another submarine for what, almost half a week now?

"Straining to close the gap between us, using up the shallower fuel tanks that he has, it all tells me that he is hunting very hard.

"Even so, if it were me, I wouldn't just blithely follow, sticking my snout into every one of the bays along here. To do what we are obviously doing - once it comes to him would mean one of only a few possibilities; that we are hurting from damage or maybe do not have many fish left."

He looked off for a moment at a different chart on the wall, "No U-boat commander would pull into one of these bays so that his crew could get a little time in the sunshine. If he was following us this faithfully and when he gets to this coastline he finds that we have disappeared ...

"The worst thought would be that we are hiding from him, since he can no longer hear us. We will know if he comes alone in only a few hours. If he is alone and he has a brain, he'd have to know that the chance exists that this is a trap. Either that or the trail he is on has gone cold by half a day and more. To come this far ... it could be enough to feel a need to check. I would bet that he will feel pressure to take the chance."

"But how have you prepared the arena?" Bucher asked, "You have placed us with our backs to the wall."

Ullmann nodded, "But like this, no one can sneak up behind us. The most danger we are in is from patrol aircraft, and if one comes, I have only to run straight for 500 meters at flank speed and then we are gone. The bottom drops off sharply outside of this bay and unless they get a lucky shot in, they cannot catch us. The hull is rated for 230 meters and I've been to deeper than 250 in this boat. A few hours of quiet and deep running and no one will find us."

He shrugged, "Everything in life has it's risks."

He smiled over at Weisenkopf then, "But every hour that we are here like this puts more silt onto us. I saw the runoff from the mangrove trees near the shore. The British boat is hours behind us still and with luck, by the time that they get here, we'll have so much shit on us that even we wouldn't know that there was a submarine in here.

"I guess that you'd need to be able to be overhead and look straight down for a good minute or so and of course, those planes have huge search areas. We stand a good chance that even if we are overflown by luck that nobody will be looking straight down.

"That's what I like about the water in here. I wouldn't want to go for a swim, but it's so dark and dingy that I'd bet a patrol bomber would have a time to see us."

He waited until he could see that Bucher had worked it all out in his mind before he dropped the real worry.

"I have asked Kurt to listen very hard every time. I am really only worried about one thing.

"Close your eyes for a moment and remember the lay of the land in this place. There is not much room in this bay for two submarines who are enemies.

"Sometimes when two submarines fight ... that can be like a knife fight in the alley, and that's if you have the whole ocean to fight in."

He looked at the walls around them as though he possessed the ability to see through them. "But in here?"

He shook his head, "If it goes wrong, it will be the worst - a knife fight in a salad bowl.

"Kurt has not heard any other ships. I am hoping that there is only the one. Every yard that they come closer tells me more and more that I am right. Even if they threw five boats at the game of finding us, I'd doubt that they'd waste the chance to go looking in other places at the same time, so the odds are with us in that at least.

"Can you imagine what it would be like if we had to fight two or more - in here?"

Bucher looked over, "Gott in Himmel," he said. "Why fight at all? Why not just leave quietly. It seems to me that they'd never know."

Hans-Joachim shrugged, "First of all, they are showing that they are determined if they follow us from this far behind, hoping that we are too comfortable to listen behind us every now and then.

"Other than that, we have our orders.

"You were there at the second meeting. We were told that Command was aware that at least one British boat had been sent. We were told to hunt that boat, don't you remember?

"Well here they come, no?"

Ullmann nodded as a crewman who was working for the cook that day offered a hot cup of coffee. He thanked the man and looked at Bucher over the rim for a moment as he sipped very carefully. Then he smiled, "You should try to cheer up a little. They are saving us a lot of trouble looking."

Bucher nodded and walked off at that point, leaving only Ullmann and Weisenkopf looking at the chart table. Both of them seemed lost in their own thoughts for a minute before Weisenkopf looked over and spoke low enough so that it was little more than a whisper.

"You did not tell him of the real worry."

Ullman nodded, "If it were me, and I somehow knew that the boat I was hunting for was in here as a certainty, I'd park myself squarely in the middle of the entrance in perfect safety and begin to yell for American help. There would be no way that I could be moved even if my enemy sunk my boat because he'd only be trapping himself in the bay and he would know that - if he isn't as stupid as Bucher. I am only doing what would confuse a hunter who is probably not thinking that he is my quarry as well.

"Our commanders think that it is only one British boat that was sent and that one has probably been given the job of hunting any of our boats that he can find and that none of us know that he is coming. He probably believes that we are not aware of him or his mission."

Hans-Joachim sighed, "The fortunes of war often carry a bitter taste.

"His bad luck to be hunting this particular boat - the one boat which was given specific orders to kill him."

-

CG-4995

They were limping, there was no other word for it, Eden thought. The knock in the engine had become a rumble and the longer that it went on, the worse things would get as far as the repairs went.

So far, Harris hadn't seen the sort of bay that he wanted to see. She was going to try to convince him - just tell him to heave to if things went on for too much longer. They'd slowed down to ease things on the bad engine and she couldn't understand that. To Eden, it made more sense to shut the bad one off and limp on the other one. Gerry had said the same thing to her. He couldn't understand Harris' logic either.

Oh, and it would be dark soon.

She went to find Harris.

"I know," he sighed, "I'm gonna pull into the next bay that I see along here."

-

U-161

Ullmann was told that the radioman wanted to see him. He went as quickly as he could, hoping in his heart that Kurt wasn't about to say, "Oh, by the way Chief, I was wrong. There are four other British boats coming."

The news wasn't as bad as that, but it left them all scratching their heads.

"There is something coming," Kurt said, "from the other direction."

"What?" Hans-Joachim asked, "What kind of contact?"

Kurt shrugged, "Surface contact. A twin diesel with one bad engine, slow turns. It might be a sponge boat or a trawler."

"How soon?" Hans-Joachim asked.

"Two hours, maybe. Might be sooner. I am hoping that they will go on past the mouth of the bay. The only thinking that I have against it is that bad motor that I hear. If they have someone with them who can repair things of this nature and he has the parts, then the ship's master might see pulling in here as a good place for the fix. Less wave action in here than outside.

"If they have no repairman on board - which I think is more likely - then they will probably try to forge on trying to get home on what they have."

"What about the British boat?" Han-Joachim demanded and Kurt shrugged.

"If nothing changes for them and they decide to look for us in here, they'll be here before noon tomorrow at the latest."

Hans-Joachim exhaled heavily as he thought about it. Looking up, he told Wesienkopf to surface gently and only enough to get the diesel intakes and exhausts above water so they could start the diesels.

"Let's try to get a little charge into the batteries if they need it and for God's sake, open the ventilators to get some fresh air in here. Stop everything in an hour and settle us back down slowly We want to keep the silt on our back. We'll just have to make the best of it."

As it happened, the batteries were in good shape for a charge and after ventilating U-161's interior for thirty-five minutes, he ordered them back down very gently and they waited.

-

Ullmann couldn't believe what he was looking at through the periscope as the ship entered the bay.

"United States Coast Guard? How lost can they be? It's a thousand kilometers to where they ought to be - as the gull flies."

It was dusk and the evening was coming on as he watched the cutter turn further into the bay. He saw the searchlight sputter on with a flicker and he retracted the periscope before the beam swung in their direction.

"If someone had told me that this would happen, I'd have told them that they were crazy," he sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"What do we do now?" Bucher asked.

Ullmann looked over, "What is there to do? We sit and wait. I just hope that they don't hit us when they drop their anchor.

"I had no idea that this one bay could be such a popular place to vacation."

-

Two hours later, Ullmann looked at his watch and then at Kurt, "Anything?"

The radioman shrugged, "The other submarine is still coming steadily. They listen less often now, but they are getting closer. It will still be tomorrow before they get here.

"Upstairs, our new neighbors are busy. I think they are repairing something. Also, I have heard ... "

"What?" Bucher demanded. "What have you heard? It might be important."

Kurt looked uncomfortable for a moment, "I think that one of them pissed over the side a little while ago.

"Hard to tell, Kaleun Bucher. I heard the gurgle of the cooling water while the engine was running, but it's shut off now. I heard the pissing after that."

Bucher sighed, "Thank you Obermatrose, that will be all."

--

It was another hour and a half before Hans-Joachim couldn't stand it anymore.

"Raise the sky periscope," he said quietly, "Just ... do it slowly and a little gently if you please. We might be close enough to bump them with it."

The smaller shaft rose a little from the floorplates and Hans-Joachim caught it before it got very far. He crouched and guided it up very slowly, placing his face against the objective as soon as he could. He didn't want to extend it all the way ... at first, anyway.

But it hit no obstruction and so he slowly raised it all the way up.

"Nothing to be seen," he said, "Not a surprise, since it's near the middle of the night. Down periscope.

"Up main scope."

He repeated the exercise with the tactical periscope and they all held their breath. When he had the scope up and began to walk it around in his circumnavigation to look all around them, everyone held their breath again.

"Down scope," he said quietly.

As the column whined downward softly, he remained standing, only looking down at the floor plating for a long moment.

"Well?" Bucher demanded, "What did you see?"

Ignoring Bucher's lack of protocol for the moment, Hans-Joachim turned around slowly. His face wore a curious little half-smile of amazement.

He stood so that he faced the bow of the submarine and held up his forearm, palm extended. "This is us," he said.

"And?" Bucher fidgeted, "Where are they?"

The commander shook his head slowly, almost in disbelief.

He looked over at Bucher for a moment, "Are you sure that you are ready to hear this, Wilhelm? Should I perhaps give you a moment to have a nervous pee or something? For God's sake, calm down."