The Prize Rules Ch. 07

"Ahead full!

"Surface the boat and switch over to the diesels. Let's get out of here before this gets worse.

"Deck watch, prepare to man the conning tower bridge."

--

CG-4995

Gerry MacLaughlan had finished the repairs by that time and was just emerging from the engine room as both motors were started. He groaned a little, thinking of how the one that he'd just finished overhauling was now going to have to go full-throttle with no break-in at all. And of course, he had no idea what was going on up here.

One of the men on deck yelled that there was a German sub in the bay and tossed him a rifle, an M1-carbine. Gerry caught it and the bag of magazines which were thrown next. He looked at the rifle as though it was a broomstick, since in an action like what he was now looking at, it would be of just about the same use to him.

He bumped into Eden and she filled him in as best she could. "Harris wants to use the deck gun! He's ordered men forward to man it!"

Gerry stood and blinked for a moment. "That's pretty dumb, isn't it? Does anyone even know how to shoot that thing? I sure don't. I never got a chance to even look at it.

"Smits was supposed to check it to see if it worked on the way, but I don't know if he ever got the time. Harris had him cleaning out and repairing the deck lockers."

For the first time that day, Eden almost wanted to laugh for the forthright way that Gerry had said it.

--

U161

"They are coming after us!" Bucher shouted across the conning tower bridge, "There are men near the gun on the foredeck!"

Hans-Joachim nodded without looking back as he tried to judge whether they'd have enough water under their keel to clear whatever underwater obstacles that might be lying hidden at the entrance by the time that they got to it. The thought came to him that the cutter drew more draught than his boat when it was on the surface and it was a slightly comforting thought. If they could get in, then he could get out on the surface, the state of the tide notwithstanding.

"I know," he said, "I don't know why, but to me, it looks like this is not the regular crew. There should be more of them. Maybe they are a transport crew.

"If we can have that luck, it might take them a little time to remember how to use the deck gun. I hope I am right. Anyway, that is not what worries me right now."

There were little clicks and pings all around them and Bucher yelled that there were men near the gun on the cutter and they were being shot at with small-caliber weapons.

Hans-Joachim leaned forward and roared into the voicepipe, "Flood tube 6 and open outer doors!"

"I know!" he shouted back over his shoulder to Bucher, "THAT's what worries me. One of them might get lucky. I just need to get us out of the throat here and -"

"Herr Kaleun," one of the deck watch shouted, "Kaleun Bucher, he's been hit!"

Hans-Joachim looked back and then down. Wilhelm Bucher had been hit in the chest as well as the face. He wasn't moving and it was clear that he was dead.

"Get below! They are behind us and have clear shots. I do not want more casualties from trying to shove a corpse down the hatch," Ullmann shouted, "I just need twenty more meters and I can begin to turn away. You'll have more to hide behind then."

He worked out the simple math. The cutter couldn't possibly make much more than 12 knots at best, certainly not more than 15, while his boat could make 18 and was already pretty much there. He just needed a little more time -

His thoughts were interrupted by the near-passage of a three inch shell from the cutter's deck gun. The round passed him by and crashed into the forest beyond.

He looked back and his eyebrows rose.

"Scheisse!"

He bellowed into the voicepipe, "Aft torpedo room, snap-shot, tube 6. FIRE!"

The helmsman aboard the cutter saw the white streak from the rear of the submarine almost instantly and as Harris yelled questions about his sanity, he flicked the cutter to the right and then straightened them out as they continued to chase the submarine, causing the next shot from the cutter's deck gun to go wide into a different stand of trees. It was a bit of severe luck and a few of the cutter's crew watched as the torpedo flashed past the side with inches to spare.

But the gun crew aboard CG-4995 then had to re-sight the gun because of the maneuver, so it bought U-161 some moments of relative safety. Before the next round came from that gun, they were away, out of the bay and turning left.

"Clear the bridge!" Han-Joachim shouted again, "Prepare to dive!"

"What about Kaleun Bucher?" the other man asked.

Ullmann looked down, thinking it odd that Wilhelm looked vaguely more intelligent with the hole in his face.

He shook his head, "No time to get him downstairs. I'll button things up here."

It was another half-minute before Hans-Joachim slipped into the hatchway and dogged the hatch closed behind him. He couldn't understand why the Americans were pursuing him. He'd have thought that he'd left them with enough to do, if they were as undermanned as they looked to be to him.

--

CG-4995

Eden was disgusted.

No she admitted to herself, she was furious and disgusted. What was Harris trying to do here? There had to be some survivors from that other submarine and they had to be looked after. The German submarine wasn't even in sight anymore.

The only thing that she could think of came to a grand total of worse than extremely stupid.

When she went to ask him about it, he pointed at another man.

"You. Get her off the bridge and lock the door."

He turned to her, "Get out of here. Now!"

She stood outside the door on the steps leading down from the bridge for a moment, wanting to ...

All that she could see as an end to this was the sub destroying the cutter. She might not have wanted it over a destroyer, but it was what they were being given. She wanted to see it get at least to Port of Spain, but in the pit of her stomach, she now had her doubts that it was possible.

No matter what Harris tried to tell her or himself, their ship was no match for a U-boat - especially one that they'd just shot at. From the looks that she'd gotten, this one was a good deal larger than the ones that she'd read about. In fact, it was only 14 percent longer, but at the moment, Eden wasn't aware of this and to her, it looked massive.

And right now, with that thought in her mind, this was about the last place that she wanted to be, but as far as she knew or understood things, this was still an American ship, even if the man in charge was a lunatic.

She still couldn't see things Harris' way. No matter what, this cutter was not equipped or fitted out for fighting at the moment, the immediate threat was trying to leave and there were men who needed help. What was the point in chasing that thing?

She felt a little like the bull's-eye on an archery target.

She shook her head and went to see what kind of medical supplies that she could find, wondering if most U-boat commanders were the type to hold a grudge.

--

U-161

Out safely back in the Caribbean once more, Hans-Joachim found that he was shaking a little. It had been too close for his liking.

"Crash dive!" he shouted, "Take us down to twenty meters, but be careful, Helmut. The bottom here is only 35 meters, so no long descent and be quick on the bowplanes."

Four minutes later, Ullmann was advised that they were at the depth ordered.

"Very good," he said, "All stop."

He stepped over to the radioman's nook. "Kurt, I need you to find that Coast Guard ship. I am sure that they will follow us out of the bay."

Kurt nodded, "I have them, Herr Kaleun. They are less than a kilometer behind us, bearing 182, on two engines now."

Ullmann shrugged, "Very good. Tell me when they have passed us."

His eyes drifted over a few small photographs which Kurt kept within sight of his station. After a second, he guessed that some must belong to the radioman on the other watch. He smiled a little to have a glimpse at someone else's "home things" for a moment.

"I suppose that it has already happened - or it should have - that the commander of that patrol craft has informed someone of the known location of a U-boat in this part of the Caribbean via radio. That's fair and it cannot be helped if it has already happened. So we must leave and be on our way well before the patrol planes get here to begin looking.

"I do wish to say goodbye properly however."

--

CG-4995

Harris stared as they left the bay and pulled out into the ocean.

They were alone. There was no sign of the other submarine at all, not even any patch of disturbed water where it might have submerged moments before. There was too much chop to the ocean's swells for that to be seen here for very long.

They motored on for about ten minutes, finding nothing, no signs that their gunfire had wounded the machinery, no slicks of oil, nothing at all. Harris wondered and finally guessed that the U-boat had heard their Morse code broadcast over the radio to any Allied shipping in the area, warning of the presence of an enemy submarine. It was as though the whole thing had never happened.

He knew that it had, of course. He knew that once they went back into the bay, there would still be the dead and wounded to tend to. He wished now that they had a current working ASDIC set.

He shrugged and gave the command to slow to half-speed, turn about and go back. He ordered the hastily-assembled gun crew to stand down and after closing the ammunition lockers, they began to walk back, casting looks over their shoulders at the strangely empty ocean.

Two of them felt a sudden, very strong sense of dread. The third one was wondering why Harris had wanted to do this. He didn't think that they were much of any threat to the U-boat the way they were out here. They should have stayed in the bay.

As they began to heel over slightly with the turn, Harris looked ahead and thought that he saw something.

A vague and indistinct shadow out there ahead of them in the water.

He'd gotten a very good look at the submarine as it was leaving the bay. He'd seen the size of it. He'd never really gotten a look at a German submarine before. What he did know was that from what he'd heard, they were not supposed to be this ... well, big.

When they were in the bay, he'd watched it rise almost silently, already moving quickly and then heard the thunder of her diesels as they'd awoken to make the large hulk seem to almost leap ahead.

Then it was gone when they'd pulled out into the ocean.

He kept staring at the dark shape in the water, hoping that it was just a deeper spot on the bottom.

He could handle knowing that it was a deep spot on the bottom.

Now that he knew what he was really up against, he hoped that he was correct because this cutter and the fifteen people on it couldn't handle the other possibility.

In the bay, the U-boat was seriously limited in what it could do, how fast it could maneuver. How it could fight.

He suddenly realized that out here, all bets were off and the submarine had an ocean to play in once again, fully back in a game at which it excelled.

Harris suddenly realized the nature of the error that he'd committed.

--

U-161

When he'd been notified that the cutter had passed their position, Hans-Joachim had waited for a few minutes and then ordered them up to periscope depth where they now were as he waited a little longer.

Kurt looked up, "I have them, Herr Kaleun. They are ahead of us, less than three kilometers, bearing 020."

Looking through the scope, Ullmann noticed that the cutter was equipped with racks for depth charges, but that they were empty at the moment.

He shook his head at this new mystery. What was such a craft doing here?

Ullmann shouted, "Ahead slow. Turn to port, bearing 027.

"Surface the boat!

"I want the gun crew out on the forward deck in record time. Antiaircraft gunners, prepare to man your weapons! Depress your weapons fully and make certain that the deck gun crew is covered."

Looking over at Weisenkopf again, he straightened his hat and shrugged, "I am sorry now that I chose to stop and wait in the bay. We should have just sat quietly and waited for the Tommys to come to us."

Weisenkopf nodded, "Hard to predict something like that old cutter coming along, Hans-Joachim."

"Ja," Hans-Joachim nodded ruefully, "and sitting there up on our roof all night. At the least, I should have thought of having the rear antiaircraft gunners at their stations to answer that deck gun as we left the bay, but we were there to kill the submarine. We did that and I thought that if we were quick with it, we could be gone and the old cutter would help any survivors."

He sighed heavily. "Too late for idealism now. I was an idiot to think that they would stay with the wounded once they saw that we intended to leave."

He shook his head as he went to head upstairs to the conning tower bridge, "What does the fool on the cutter think that he is doing?"

--

CG-4995

Harris watched the rise of U-161 straight up out of the sea in front of him at just over a mile distant. He ordered the men who had been crewing the gun forward again and looked from them to the sub out there.

He grabbed his binoculars and groaned to see the gun crew work to get the weapon on the sub into action. He had a recollection of Eden asking him if he thought that U-boat gunners were any slower than his own. He could see in a glance that they were more familiar with that gun than his men were with their own. It wasn't their fault, but that wouldn't change a thing out here.

U-161's deck gun went into action at that point and their first shot was a direct hit on the cutter's forward gun, killing all of the gun crew instantly and turning the gun to scrap metal. When he looked down from the bridge, Harris saw that the armor plating on the deck gun hadn't done a thing to protect the crew. It had been there to protect them from smaller stuff.

He looked at the submarine out there again and knew that this was hopeless.

-

U-161

Ullmann stared into his binoculars, though at this range, he almost didn't need them.

"He is advancing. His deck gun is finished but he has men outside the bridge shooting at us with small-arms again.

"With no deck gun, it will take a long while - whatever dream that he has in his mind and I have no time for this if our position was sent in a broadcast.

"Weisenkopf, tell the antiaircraft gunners to fire at will. Short bursts only."

--

CG-4995

Harris was just considering trying to turn back around to try to run when the bridge of the cutter began to disintegrate from the 30 millimeter antiaircraft shells arriving from U-161's two, twin-barreled forward antiaircraft cannons, each firing at a rate of 80 rounds per minute.

Within seconds Harris was dead along with anyone there then as the bridge simply ceased to exist. Ullmann ordered the 30mm guns to cease firing after less than a quarter of a minute.

After that, the deck gun proceeded to pound the cutter from the front with several shots hitting near the waterline.

Eden sat huddled on the afterdeck with Gerry, her back to a bulkhead and her hands over her head as the steady incoming fire began to disassemble the forward section of the cutter.

-

U-161

There was no one alive at the helm and the old cutter ran on closer and slowly closer to U-161 as though in dogged defiance. Hans-Joachim ordered them to turn away to open up a little space between them. He ordered his men to cease firing while he looked things over just before they began passing each other. Due to the angle, he saw no movement from anyone aboard and ordered the motors stopped. As they coasted, he began to come about.

"Finish it," he said to Weisenkopf who was in charge of the deck gun and the final round went in at the waterline at the side. As the smoke cleared, the cutter could be seen to begin listing heavily toward the side. Ullmann noted the number CG-4995 in his notepad for his report.

Just as he saw that it was beginning to really settle, he noticed some movement near the stern and looked there with his binoculars. Someone was trying to put out one of the lifeboats into the water - a daunting task for one person.

"Deck gun crew, stand down," he ordered.

It looked like it might be a race to get the lifeboat in the water before the flames which were moving aft from the wind made things impossible. Also, there would be a time limit for this anyway, since she was settling and would sink fairly soon. Helmut had the antiaircraft gunners stand by watching the sky for patrol planes.

Ullmann saw that there wasn't anything to be done at this point - not without putting his own boat and crew in danger by standing to close by a burning ship which could theoretically explode.

Still ...

"Where is the man who put out the boat?" Helmut asked.

"He is hanging on at the far side," Hans-Joachim said quietly as he watched, "I don't know why he doesn't climb inside. Maybe he is injured and can only hold on."

For some reason, an electrical short due to the rising water level in the flooding engine compartment perhaps, the cutter's engines both stopped then. U-161 was still on her electric motors and in the sudden new stillness, they heard a man cough several times.

"He is getting a face full of smoke and fumes from the fire because of the wind," Helmut said, "A damn shame that it's come to this - to be the last one living without even the strength to pull himself out after getting this far."

The seconds passed agonizingly slowly until he saw that the lifeboat was slowly being left behind by the still-moving cutter as a single man began to pull himself out of the water and then roll himself over the gunwale into the lifeboat.

Hans-Joachim looked around at the faces of the deck watch. Two of them turned away to look for aircraft, but he could see that it wasn't what they wanted to be doing. The rest stood looking back at him.

"Herr Kaleun, excuse me please," one of them said uncertainly, "With Kaluen Bucher gone, we have an open bunk. I know the rules say ..."

He fidgeted slightly, "Can we give him some food and water?"

The man lost his nerve then and fell silent, aware that he'd overstepped himself already.

Ullmann looked at the faces around him once more. He gave no outward sign of it, but what he was seeing in their faces made their side of it clear and at the same time, he recalled reading the War Order No. 154 concerning this.

"... and do not take care of any boats of the ship... We must be hard in this war ..."

"Ahead slow Helmut," Ullmann said at last, "Let's see if we can get ourselves in between and maybe at least give him a nudge out of the way.

"And," he said with a sigh as he smiled in a mischievous way, "if he happens to mysteriously fall onto our deck somehow while I'm not looking, then I can't see how I knowingly broke any of the idiotic holy rules."

He looked at his deck watch again, watching as the smiles began to grow on their faces.

"Besides, he probably doesn't know a word of German anyway - so he can't possibly be a bigger pain in the arse than Bucher was, can he?"

-

CG-4995

Gerry knelt in the bottom of the lifeboat, his chest still heaving from the fight to get the lifeboat untied and free in the face of the approaching flames. At the moment, he was wet to the skin and he'd lost one of his shoes somehow.

Also, he wasn't certain anymore if he still had any eyebrows from the heat of the fire

Eden was still out cold. She'd tripped on her way to where the boat hung and had hit her head on the stanchion. Adrenaline had undoubtedly played it's part, but Gerry had been able to go from picking Eden up to somehow getting her into the lifeboat (the gunwale of which was at the time nearly at shoulder height). That rush was over now, dampened by his struggles to get himself into the thing after getting the lines off while he and the boat had been in the water.