The Adventures of the U-202 Part 6

V

THE WITCH-KETTLE

In the morning no rooster crowed to wake me. But, instead, there stood my faithful orderly, the Pole, Tuczynski, before my bed, and loudly announced:

"Herr Captain Lieutenant, it's five-thirty!"

I woke up in bewilderment. My head was still dull after a sound sleep.

"What's up?"

"It's five-thirty," repeated the orderly. "The water for washing and the clothes are ready."

Ah! Like a flash the reality was before me. We were lying on the bottom of the sea-were going to arise within an hour-and then we were going to--

I leaped out of bed. The thought of "then we were going to" fully awoke me. "Yes, we are going to go at it; everything depends upon to-day," I thought, and put my feet into my slippers.

Hardly had I scrambled to my feet when I had to grasp the closet to support myself.

"What's up now?" I asked, turning to my good Pole, who was spitting on my left boot in order to preserve the shine. "We are rolling. What's happened?"

"Must be a little sea above," he replied with a grin.

"I can understand that myself, you smarty, but when did it start? Run along quickly and find out when the rolling was first noticed!"

Tuczynski hurried to the "Centrale" and returned immediately with his answer:

"About two o'clock, says Lieutenant Petersen."

"Well, then we must have a considerable storm above, if the wind has been blowing for four hours. Get out my oil-skin coat quickly! It will be needed to-day," I ordered, and hurriedly dressed myself as water-tight as possible.

The change of weather did not suit my purpose, for, although to judge from the motion of the boat the storm was not as yet so bad, the strength of the wind was probably six, and it was gradually becoming worse. At this time of the year storms could be terrible.

"Devil take the luck-and this very day, too!" I swore through my six-day old beard-stub.

After breakfast I called the entire crew together. "Boys," I said, "you know that we have many things unaccomplished. As yet we are only at the beginning of our task. Yesterday and the day before we were very successful, and now we have had a restful night. Being well rested, we are now cheerfully and confidently ready for another day's work. To-day we are going to go through the so-called 'Witch-Kettle.' You all know what I mean, and you know also that this is not child's play. The enemy there is keeping sharp lookout, but we will keep a better lookout.

Others have gotten through before us. Consequently, we will also get through, if each one of you sticks to his post and does his duty as well as you all have done hitherto. This I expect from every man. And now-to the diving stations!"

I went up to the tower. Shortly after the engineer reported from the "Centrale":

"All hands are at the diving station!"

Consequently we were ready for our task. The day began-the most remarkable day of my life.

"Arise!"

The pump began to buzz. We now had to empty the ballast-tanks of the water which had been taken in to make the boat heavier, in order that, instead of being held down, we should begin to pull ourselves loose, and drift slowly upwards. Usually that manuver was accomplished with the best of success, but not so to-day. The boat wabbled and "stuck," as we used to say. It called to my mind the question which is often asked by laymen: "Are you never in fear of not being able to get up to the surface again?" We, of course, had no fear, but I knocked impatiently on the manometer to see if the register would not at last begin to move.

"Nine hundred liters above the normal," Kruger reported from the "Centrale."

It meant that we had pumped out of the boat nine hundred liters more than the normal quant.i.ty necessary to make the boat rise.

"It seems as if we were fastened in a vise," I joked, "but in accordance with the map there ought to be a sand bottom here."

"Now it loosens!" the engineer called out.

Yes, the boat pulled loose all right-the hand on the manometer was rising-but it shot upwards on one side only. The stern arose but the nose remained fastened in the mud.

"How confoundedly nasty," I heard Groning, who took care of the diving rudder, growl.

Now the entire ballast shifted. We had to make the boat heavier in the stern, had to shift the ballast of the heretofore well-balanced boat and pump ballast water out of the bow to pour water into the stern tanks, in order to make the bow lighter and the stern heavier. After a few liters of water had exchanged places the boat changed her mind and again placed herself in a horizontal position. Then she arose quickly and satisfactorily, but showed a tendency to list toward the stern, until we, by a new shift of the ballast, had re-established the old conditions of equilibrium.

After the boat had pulled loose with apparent reluctance from her bed on the bottom, she could not get up fast enough to stick her nose into the fresh air. Having the ballast diminished by nine hundred liters, she leaped upwards rapidly, but this did not suit my purpose, as I preferred first to put up the periscope and find out whether the atmosphere was free from British germs. As I felt I was entirely responsible for my boat's health, I entertained one fear, based on experience, that germs in the form of destroyers and trawlers, appearing suddenly, might endanger it. I made the boat obey my will, let the nine hundred liters be pumped into her again, and thus checked her quick ascent.

At the same time I had the dynamo motors started, so that we would have steerageway for the diving rudder, and commanded that the U-boat should stop at the depth of twenty meters. Thereafter, I soon came to the periscope depth and took a look around to see if I could discover any ships. There was nothing in sight, but woe-a heavy storm!

"Well, it can't be helped," I said softly to myself.

I made another careful search of the horizon and then arose entirely to the surface. What a delightful sensation to be standing on the tower with my hands to my sides and greedily sucking my lungs full of the fresh sea air! The air at the bottom had not been so bad. On the contrary, the engineers had kept it in first-cla.s.s condition during the night, but more delightful was the wonderful ocean air.

Now the ventilator burst open and refreshed those inside with fresh air throughout the ship.

"Now, Mate," I ordered, "let me take a look at the map once more. That's right. Put it right up here on the tower-no harm done if it gets wet.

Now let's have a compa.s.s and a lead pencil-thanks. Watch carefully and follow my calculations to see I make no mistake. From here to the first mine field it is twenty-two miles; from there to the second mine field about fourteen miles-which makes thirty-six miles altogether. We must reach the first field just before the ebb tide, as the mines are only visible just before or right after the ebb tide. We get the ebb about ten o'clock, and it is now half past six. We can, therefore, go along easily at half speed and will have enough time to recharge the batteries. Is that right?"

"Yes, that's right," replied the mate, and quickly folded up the map, which he had shown anxiety in guarding, time and time again, against the waves washing over the ship, "if we only don't have to dive again."

"I don't believe we will," I said with confidence. "Here near the mine fields I think there are few ships sailing. So far as that goes, we are really safer here. The scouting will be on the other side of the fields."

Exactly one hour before the ebb tide we reached those sections where the enemy, according to the reports from other U-boats, believed that they had effectively blocked the pa.s.sage with a mine field that stretched for several miles. I say "believed," because the mines, as before stated, were showing above the surface during the ebb tide and one could easily steer through the lanes between them. The blocking of this important pa.s.sage was therefore for the enemy an a.s.suring but somewhat expensive illusion. It was not quite so easy as I had expected from the stories and reports of my fellow submarine commanders to slip between the mines.

"Well, sirs, here it goes!" I said to both officers, who, like me, had crawled into their thick oil-skins and had exchanged their caps, embroidered with gold oak leaves, for the practical southwester. "Now, we'll see who spots the first mine."

In a drizzle of foam and spray we were standing side by side and gazed at the sea several hundred meters ahead of us. The ocean had within the last few hours become still heavier and stormier, and the wind came from the southwest and consequently straight toward us so that there was danger of discovering the mines too late, as they would be concealed from our sight with every roll of the sea.

Suddenly we all three looked at one another and then quickly at the sea again. There they were! Heavens, what a bunch! In all directions as far as the eye could see were the devilish dark globes, washed with the breakers' snow-white foam. We were so overwhelmed by the sight of all these mines that we started to swear and kept it up for some time without any interruption.

"It's outrageous! It's unheard of! It's terrible! Such a ma.s.s! And such a people call themselves Christian seafarers-a bunch of murderers, that's what they are, who can put out such dirty traps!"

With reduced speed we went toward the "caviar sandwich," as Petersen called the dark spotted surface before us. Now it was "up to" us skilfully to steer the boat between the irregularly spread mines and see carefully to it that we did not get into a blind alley. If only our boat did not hit one of those devilish things! It would be the end of us! But surely if we kept calm, we should get through all right. Certainly we would. We had a warhelmsman who was a wonder in his line, boatswain's mate Lohmann. He could thank his skill as a helmsman for his long career in the navy. If he was up to some deviltry-which, it is said, rather often happened in former days-it was always mentioned as an extenuating circ.u.mstance-"but he's such an able helmsman."

Lohmann, when he put his mind to it, could certainly steer. He could hit a floating cork with the prow. He was standing with feet apart in the tower and grinning so that his mouth reached from ear to ear. He always grinned when he stood at the wheel. But now that he had become the most important person on board, he was radiating joy and pride to such an extent that his little square figure took on a superior pose of careless daring. With his right hand he spun the wheel playfully, just as if he were experimenting. He had shoved the other deep down into the large pocket of his seaman's trousers clear up to his elbow.

Then we were pounding into the mine field. Lohmann squinted together his small gray eyes to a couple of narrow slits, spat first in his right hand, and then in a long semi-circle towards the first mine which we were just pa.s.sing on the port side. He, thereupon, hitched his slipping trousers, lit his nose-warmer-a pipe broken off close to the bowl-spat once more into his right hand, and began a series of artistic curvings and twistings to weave his way through the narrow lanes. And he was as calm and confident as if he had done nothing all his life except steer U-boats through mine fields. I could leave him in charge of it.

After ten minutes we had pa.s.sed the mine field. We estimated we had sifted through about eight hundred mines.

At high speed we then steered toward the second batch of mines.