Patrol 1 (01AUG39 - 10AUG39)

August, 1st 1939 00:24

Received command of U-22, a type IIA submarine.
Crew is new, no one has ever done a patrol inside.
Been able to find myself a Stabsoberbootsman to take
care of the engines, and he'll have five untrained
men under his command for the patrol duration and they
don't know anything about mecanics. Ship is small,
but sturdy and easy to handle.
Patrol departure time is 00:24 and the fanfare is playing
on the dock for us. Going ahead slow ahead and taking
the patch west to Rendsburg and Brunsbuttel through the
Kaiser-Wilhelm Kanal.
Clouds partial, no precipitation, moderate visiblity.
Ordered patrol grid is AN26, which is about 1400 Km
from Kiel, our departing port.
Received orders are to do a five day shakedown patrol
for my crew to feel at home in their new type II. We
should get more orders by 4th.

--

August, 1st 1939 07:23
We are cruising at 4 knots slow ahead. Checks on boat
have finished and there's no leak anywhere. Everything
seems good. Each piece works fine and I'm now increasing
speed to standard ahead until we reach the end of the
Kanal. We are almost to Rendsburg, about 14 Km to go
according to the navigator. We're passing by a german
cargo ship stopped in Kanal directly south of Eckernforde.
About 113 Km to go and we should get out of the Kanal in
8 hours.

--

August, 1st 1939 12:20
We reached the end of Kanal. Depth is 12 meters, not
enough to try diving the sub for testing depth. Now
taking route to AN26 for patrol.
About 1200 Km to go, we should reach patrol area in
64 hours at standard ahead, 10 knots if weather stays
about the same. Will try testing depth near grid AN42
where it should be deep enough.

--

August, 3rd 1939 03:10
Spotted ship at bearing 306, long range.
Clouds partial, no precipitation, good visilibity.
Depth under keel 54 meters. Getting close for
periscope depth simulated attack. Ship is going E,
and about 7 Km away. Plotting intercept course
for 90 degree N-S attack.

03:15 - ship is a cargo. It's fully lighted but we cant
get flag for country identification. Going periscope
depth to check how my sonar man can handle tracking the
ship. Need to train Johann Kuhn to mechanics when we get
to port so my watchman can be of some use under water.
Will probably dismiss Josef Sollig. Obviously he is quite
claustrophobic and he kept wanting to get upper deck
when surfaced even when he should be resting. Two watchman
officers is a bad idea, what were they thinking in doing
so when attributing me officers.

03:18 - Jurgen Schultze, our sonar operator, has no
problem traking the cargo ship. Its speed is increasing,
I hope we can get close enough for identification and
simulated attack.

03:25 - we have two sound contacts bearing 130 and 140.
Stopping machines and getting to peri.
Seems to be large cargo, 8k ton class.
Mast 28m, Angle 0.4 degs for 3430 Km range.
Angle on bow 0/1 Speed 7 knots.
Prepping tubes 1 and 2 for impact hit at depth 9 meters.
for a 9.9 draft.
Going back slow. Ship is gonna pass too close to
front.

03:36 - english ship. Can't find ID of ship.
Passing by 0 quite fast before I could even find an
ID... Speed is 22 knots. She's going very fast.
ID seems coastel freighter. Took so long ship is now
quite past in front of us. Attack would have failed.
Surfacing.

--

August, 3rd 1939 20:47
Depth under keel 118 m. Diving to 100 meters, slow
ahead.

20:50 - passing 50 meters. No sounds nor leaks.
Increasing speed to full ahead, 5 knots.

20:52 - first cracking sounds. Ships seems to handle
diving very well. We're at 97 meters and close to the
ordered 100 meters. She dives fast without any steep
angle.

20:54 - depth 100 meters. Going slow ahead. Time has
come to christen my crew : ordered the chief engineer
to get water from outside the sub. Each crewmember has
now been ordered to drink a coffee cup of 100 meter deep
salt-water and salute me, and to each one I answer
"I chtistian you!". We get those beer bottles to be
open, one liter for each crew member. No leak, no
problem. Going slow and steady at 100 m deep. Depth goes
up, looks like the ship goes 3 meters up when going
under 4 knots. Means we'll have to compensate when
going slow at periscope depth. That information was not
in the design notes for the type II model when they gave
them to me!

21:54 - We're going to surface. Ship has been going
slow ahead for one hour at 97 meters deep. This used
400 A from the batteries, whose capacity is 5000 A.
At slow ahead this means we can sustain 2 knots underwater
for 12.5 hours. Depth under keel is 29 meters. I'm
pushing the ship to 120 meters before going up to surface.

22:01 - depth 123 m, under keel 5 m. Ship works as
designed up to testing depth. Cracking noise a bit more
pronounced at 123 m. Surfacing and setting heading for
patrol grid.

--

August, 4th 1939 07:45
Reached patrol grid AN26. Sending radio report.
No news from Bdu. Clouds partial, no precipitation,
unlimited visibility. Depth under keel 120 meters.
Going 1/3 ahead for patrol area.

08:01 - received radio message. Konigsberg uboats have
finished their training and are being dispatched between
the 1st and 2nd flotilla. 1st will be composed of typeII
while the type VIIB will go to 2nd flotilla. type VIIB.
That's a ship I would love to have. Continuing patrol.

12:50 - bad weather is coming to us. winds increased
to 7 meters per second with clouds overcast and moderate
visibility.

--

August, 5th 1939 07:50
As per orders, we have patrolled AN26 for 24 hours.
The bad weather really caught us. Clouds are overcast,
we have heavy precipitation and less than 100 m visibility
around the sub. Wind is over 15 meters per seconds and
the boat is really rocking up and down. Going to keep
going at full speed heading back to Kiel and have each
crewman spend 20 minutes on deck to get fresh air and
have a nice view of what's a uboat under storm. It's cold,
but it's refreshing to be on the deck with winds and
fresh water. The only problem with that bad weather is
the gramophone that can't be used. I'm lying on the
captain's bunk and I would love some music. Boat is
rocking so much I am sliding in my bunk and I see my
crewman pass by me after their 20 min ordered deck time
to crew quarters.

07:56 - We used less than 1/3 of fuel reserve. Heading
back to Kiel. We're going to get there from north using
the Skagerrak south of Norway. It's longer but I prefer
that to having to sail again the Kaiser Kanal which
requires constant course corrections.

--

August, 6th 1939 07:56
Radio contact report : ship south-east of us, about
35 Km away going WNW at medium speed. Reported by plane
at 07:50. Setting max speed ahead and plotting intercept
course. Weather still bad going at 10 meters per second,
with heavy precipitation and poor visibility. Unless
we get less than a few hundred meters of her we won't see
her. Going for intercept area and will dive for contact
check.

08:20 - within 2 Km of calculated interception area.
Diving to 60 meters and waiting for hydrophone contact.

08:24 - reached 60/70 meters. Ship dives fast when
using dive planes but at slow speeds of stopped engines,
using the ballasts takes forever to have the ship
dive. It's far more effective to get her to get deep
using engines and dive planes with neutral bouyancy.

08:36 - hydrophone contact. merchant medium speed closing
on us, bearing 279 long range. Moving to periscope depth
full ahead for interception.

11:30 - weather too bad, visibility too low. We used
4000 of the 5000 A of the batteries trying to get close
to surface vessel, but we won't see it until it's too
close, around 100-200 meters away. Battery is below 20 %,
surfacing and setting course back to Norway.

--

August, 7th 1939 23:17
Spotted ship bearing 320. Diving to periscope depth
for simulated torpedo attack. Ship is a cargo, full
lights lit, can't see nationality flat yet.
ID is medium cargo, about 5k tons.
Distance 800 meters, AoB 90, Speed 5 knots.
closing for identification.

23:20 - setting torpedoes 1 and 2 depth to 8.5 meters
for 9.5 deep keel.
Ship is definitely a medium cargo. About 500 m ahead,
should pass in front of us at about 300/400 meters,
going 8 knots.
Norwegian ship.

23:22 - diving to 25 meters, setting course to
continue on going home to Kiel. Will surface at midnight.

--

August, 10th 1939 05:16
We are back at Kiel. We are coming home just before
a storm catches with us. Clouds are overcast, no
precipitation yet and winds are slowly going strong.
Going to set up the type II in protected harbour.
Should take at least two weeks before she can sail
again at sea. One for minor maintenance, and another
week to fill her with food and fuel, we didn't fire any
torpedoes.

10 days patrol from August 1th 1939 to 10th.
the type IIA U-22 works perfectly and was built to
specifications.

War preparations are engaged. On my next patrol I will
join 14 other uboats and probably war will be already
engaged. We will start with Poland and most think
Chamberlain won't intervene.