Kapitänleutnant Michael Hoffmann
Patrol # 12

Duration:	03.04.1941 - 01.05.1941, 29 days on sea
Patrol Area:	AE71
Ship:	U-364, U-Flachs
Type:	IX B
Flotilla:	9. Flotille, Brest

03.04.1941/11.55
We are leaving Brest. Assigned patrol area is AE71, right below the coast of Island and luckywise outside of the range of the british air-arm. There is no great good-bye party at the pier. The u-boat arm still mourns for three of our aces. Prien, Schepke and Kretschmer. Two died, one is captured. It seems that the cards are turning. The 9th. has a special reason for mourning: U-770 under the command of Kptnltn. v.u.z. Kronau-Wahrsteiner has been beaten for a second Gibraltar break through. As they left Brest no one waved good-bye. All were in silent and looking at the boat disappearing in the night. Since then we never heard anything of them.
Kvtkptn. Thomsen shows a face as all of this is his fault. It seems that the spring of 1941 is not under a good star for the german u-boat arm.

20.04./16.26
We have reached our patrol area. The airwaves are empty. No convoy sighting. No fill traffic. We are a lone boat and we feel that we are alone on that planet.

23.04./13.42 AE7177
ALARM! What the hell is going on? An airplane sighting outside the range of the land-bases! With the airplane round about 16 km away we are crash diving and no wabos are falling. It seems that we have seen him before he saw us. Stayed 2 hours submerged for hydrophonic search and safety reasons.

25.04./15.34 AE7184
We are spotting a lonely corvette in 16 km distance. Is there a convoy in reach? Let's see what comes out.

/16.29
A destroyer is coming up! With not so good visibility we are going down on persicope depth for an attack. ASDIC begins to pulse. In the periscope I see him advaning right to our position. I'm preparing for a double shot out 600m with a crash dive to follow.
The destroyer has reduced it's speed to 8 knots. Strange! Did he lost contact? It is one of the new 2.000 tons class.With 1.200 m distance to the target I'm ordering for silent run. Out of a distance of 600m I release a double shot of the aft torpedoes with a T I and a T III. The first one is a hit after 10 seconds and the next brings him down.
The boat went down and I bring it back on persicope depth with 1/2 speed turning the bow towards the corvette.

/16.46
I see a large trail of smoke and fire but nothing from the wreck of the destroyer. Ot of 600m I release again a double shot with T I and T III seeing them passing the bow of the corvette to the left and the right. The next two T I are shot out of 380m distance and we go down with crash dive. The first wabos are falling. Time is over for all four torpedoes.... But we can hear sinking noises from the destroyer.
The next salvo damages the bow tubes.

/18.13
One and a half hour later the sound man reports no more contacts. Steady ASDIC pings and wabos near and far are over . We are going back to periscope depth.
Great! In 20.000m away another korvette heads towards us. One other is turning away.Blowing all tanks and running with all ahead flank. In the moment as the corvette returns we shadow her in long distance to find what they are protecting. The two bow tubes are damaged. LI estimates 8 hour work. With a safe distance to the korvette I'm ordering to reload the deck torpedoes.

/19.15
Second korvette is in sight. Both korvettes steering 220 degrees with full flank. They must be heading back to a convoy.

/20.15
Visibility below 10.000m. I am in close contact to a korvette. Nothing else in sight.

/20.50
An airplane is attacking us. It must be a single piston airplane from a carrier. We will stay surfaced and will welcome him with our 3,7!

/20.55
It was a Sunderland!! We shot her down with 12 rounds before it could reach us. In the night and outside the range of their bases! What is going on here? The escort is following us. As it turned back, we turned or course also and follow her.

/21.40
We are in a trap! Two escorts to the north, one to the southeast and one in the south giving us the only chance to run towards the west. Did we find the whole british navy here?

/21.52 AE7142
No, it is large convoy! For the first time we can see smoke on the horizon. It is very slow with only 5 knots and heading 140 degrees.

/22.18
BdU orders to shadow the convoy. Fine, we play the "Scheisshausfliege". Buzzing around them and sending radios for the other ships. Hopefully we got the only destroyer of that convoy.

/22.35
Kontakmeldung wired.

/22.55
Six U-boats are at the convoy. We see one in 9.000m before us getting in attack position.

/23.23
Two VIIC U-boats are attacking the convoy from the front. I join them, even with two bow tubes damaged. It is a big convoy. We count 8 lines and three visible columns. We are in a perfect position. The moon is right in opposite to us. Giving a white background for the black ships. We can count now 6 columns. Escort are hunting to the back to engage other attacking boats, leaving us a free hunting ground. The two VIIC's are not engaging at once, so I take the chance to engage the largest ships. There is a 6.000 BRT freighter and a tanker of the same size which we will engage. But a destroyer is turning towards our direction. I release a T III out of 2.5000 towards the freighter and one T I for the tanker out of 1.800 m. The tanker goes up with a big explosion, but we missed the freighter. In turning away from the tanker I shot a T I out of 2.000m with the aft tubes. The torpedo hits but the ship is only reducing speed.

/23.50
The destroyer opens fire on us. In crash diving we receive two hits with minor leacking in the control room and aft batteries. Why are the VIICs not assisting?

26.04. /00.10
We are in the middle of the convoy and the escorts have lost us. ASIDC is pinging around, but no hs-contacts. LI tries it's best to get the incoming water under control. But I will do the hell and attack with such a damaged boat. It is time that the VIICs do their work.

/00.25
What a relief! LI reports that he had stopped the incoming water. We have steady one hs-contact during that time, but we are still surrounded by other slow screw-noises, so we are still in the convoy. Back on pericsope depth the hull of a 12.000 BRT tanker fills the view. I shot one T III and in the same time the Torpedo maat announces a further one ready. Both hit after a few seconds and I crash dive for the next rain to fall, accompaigned by sinking noises. Hopefully that Lulu falls not on our head.

/01.15
Still submerged and playing cat and mouse with one or two hs-contacts we hear three torpedo hits! The calvary is coming! Sinking noises of three ships and no hs-contact. We go up to periscope depth seeing a 8.000 BRT tanker passing us in 280m to the left and one of 4.000 BRT to the right within the same distance. I let them pass behind me and give my last aft torpedo to the 8.000 BRT tanker, but I miss. Some seconds later we hear the hit somewhere else. Two hs contacts are approaching, so we go back in the cellar.

/02.10
One hour of wabo rain. Not near, but they are still around us, no chance to escape. And now a second hs-contact is approaching. Rrrrumms! In trying to escape we run into the mud in 210m depth, damaging again the bow tubes.
But that was the climax of the torture. Freeing out of the mud we hear the hs-contact dissappear, ending abruptly with an explosion. The calvary did it again!
It is silent now. The convoy is heading 289 degree. We are going back to periscope depth to see more. We are at the end of the convoy. Two escorts to the north. One ship is behind the convoy with slow speed. To the southwest another ship is sheltered by an escort. We retraet on periscope depth, until we get our problems fixed and the deck torpedoes reloaded. Radioed Kontaktmeldung and battle success: two merchants 18.000 BRT and one 2.000 tons destroyer.

/02.50
With the crippled ship at the outer end of our sight we resurface and attack. Far out we hear canons growling. The other boats are still at work. I let the aft deck torpedoes reload. There is no chance to get something in the bow tubes now. We have to wait until they are repaired.

/03.39
The hell is out. Wabo after wabo detonation can be heard over miles, then two or three torpedo detonations. The airwaves are filled with Kontaktmeldungen and battle results. This is one of the largest convoy battles of the war. 5 U-boats are directly at the convoy and eight more are on the way to intercept. We are shadowing the crippled freigther which we shot at the very beginning, but an escort is in sight, so we wait until it dissappears. With only round with our "Dicke Berta" we bring him down finally. Retreating and looking for the convoy.
U-109 and U-366 giving the exact position.

/04.06
We are back at the convoy. Meanwhile U-308 reports position.

/04.55
We are attacking together with U-109 side by side. They just sunk the tanker we were aiming for and leaving the place with two escort coming towards us. Frustated over that bad luck I shot one T I out of aft tubes on a 4.000 BRT freighter out of 2.000m distance. I never thought it would hit and so it did not. Wabos falling like water drops, but they are not meant for us this time.

/06.05
Coming back to surface we see an interesting new development. To the northeast far out, 4 escorts at one place trying to bring one of us down. Three escorts to the southwest doing the same job. Two crippled ships behind the convoy. And out of the covoy round about 40% are missing. I'm going down in the cellar, because this place is too hot for me.

/08.45
Back on persicope depth for a short lock. They are still surrounding us. They are not looking for us, but we can not surface. Wabos and wabos are falling far away. Will they never give up?

/11.20
With finally one escort left at 17.700m distance we resurface and run with all ahead flank. Perfect, they did not see us. Running in the estimated convoy direction, reloading the bow deck torpedoes.

/12.55
A destroyer is passing us to the left with 34 knots, just as we had contact to a lonely ship. We turn away and wait for our chance.

/15.50
We had to wait until this time, that we can engage. It is 9.000 BRT mass good freighter with a little smoke trail and only 4 knots speed. A T I shot out of 900m distance with the last remaining bow tube brings him down. We turn our ship to the next wounded ship. A destroyer comes up, but we are far away, so he did not see us.

/17.30
LI reports all bow tubes clear! To the right time! We are attacking a 11.000 BRT tanker wich is steaming with only 3 knots with a large smoke trail. A T I sends him to the bottom. Sending patrol result and search again for the convoy.

/18.20
A destroyer surpised us out of a fog bank. With crash dive we go down to 155m. Some wabos are falling, but it seems that they have no realy interest for us. We are breaking up. BdU sends us to AE78 for another convoy battle. We are running with full flank ahead in the direction.

27.04./18.00
We are facing two german VIICs hunted by a lorvette which is shelling them. In 30km we go on persicope depth to try to help them. They are just running in our direction. Now, a third VIIC can be seen. The periscope is up only for some times to surpirse the hunters. With the korvette only 7.000m away and a clear hs-contact I order for silent run. Out of 1.200m distance I release a double shot and see the corvette turning towards us. The two torpedoes miss and the next two fired with no much more hope miss also. Then we got the bill. Batteries and sound system damaged. Two hours more wabos and than we can go back on periscope depth.
LI reports the boat as weak as a "Gummimatratze". So I'm ordering the boat home.

01.05./19.41
We have returned to Brest. My crew and me are upset about those cowards in the VIICs which did not help us as we tried to rescue them, but Kvkptn. Thomsen does not allow further investigations.

PATROL RESULTS

DECORATIONS

U-boat badge	1939 Iron Cross 2nd Class	1939 Iron Cross 1st Class	Knights Cross	Knights Cross with Oak Leaves	Knights Cross with Oak Leves and Swords	Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds

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