The Adventures of the U-202 Part 7

Then came a series of reverses which made this the most eventful day so far experienced by any U-boat crew in the war.

It was ten forty-two by the clock.

Beyond the second mine field an English destroyer was patrolling. We had to dive quickly and go through the mines under the water, a detested and very dangerous proceeding!

The destroyer had not seen us. The sea became more violent; the barometer fell rapidly; the heaven was filled with black rain clouds.

The clearness of the atmosphere disappeared, and the ocean was restless and covered with white foam. The sea washed over the periscope again and again with white-combed, rushing mountains of water, so that for several long seconds I could see nothing. Suddenly we were in the midst of the mines. I could make out those that were close by, because the water had risen so that only the tops of the black b.a.l.l.s, which here and there bobbed up for a second, could be seen.

To turn away from the mines at the right moment was almost impossible.

We were running straight for a mine-the next second it was on top of us and pa.s.sed only a few meters from the periscope. At the same time, on the other side, three mines cl.u.s.tered together in a group were floating past us. It was a h.e.l.lish journey, and the destroyer was all the time waiting for us on the other side of the mine field, and compelled us to continue below the surface. He had no consideration for our difficulties.

Oh, how he would enjoy it if we suddenly went up in the air, surrounded by a cloud of smoke and fire! Good G.o.d! Now we are about to give him this joy. I had already shut my eyes and thought we were doomed-because one of the mines had just struck hard with a metallic clang against the periscope, a sound which I will never forget until I am in a better world! But the mine, which I saw just before the wave washed over the periscope, had been carried away behind us and had better sense than to blow us up; it only twisted on its axis and didn't do us any harm. Maybe it was old and damaged.

I could not stand it any longer. I felt like a man trying to commit suicide when he misses his aim.

"Quickly dive to twenty-five meters!" I called down to the "Centrale."

Rather dash blindly through this h.e.l.l than always see your last minute right before your eyes, and still be unable to do anything. But if, while submerged, a cable should fasten itself around the U-boat? The chance of getting through was better down there, I figured.

"Start the phonograph," I commanded, "and put on something cheerful, if you please!"

In spite of the new, beautiful "Field Gray Uniforms," the song which soon resounded through the boat, I heard twice a h.e.l.lish grinding and sc.r.a.ping above the conning tower-mine cables which we had fouled. At last, after many long minutes, we were through the mine field. We arose and I put up the periscope and looked around. G.o.d be praised! The atmosphere, or rather the water, was clearer. The destroyer was several hundred meters behind us, and we had come through the horrible place without a scratch.

Aha! There was the first buoy-the first placed on the narrow sand bar.

Now it was careful steering for the ship. We took soundings and proceeded cautiously. If only the current had not been so strong! It constantly swung us out of our course. I had to steer against the current continually.

"Mate, how far are we now from land?"

The sailor quickly brought up the chart and measured the distance with a scale.

"Two and a half sea miles."

"Oh, the devil! And, as yet, we cannot see anything of it. The air has been thickening. That's all we need to make things worse for us!"

The cruiser on guard now came rushing past us on the port side. It was not far from us when I pulled down the periscope for a time.

Who can describe my fright when I put up the periscope again in a few minutes and could not see anything because of the fog that had settled down on the sea! A dark rainwall also moved along the surface. And this was just where it was absolutely necessary for me to see. I must see where the channel began to be very narrow! Only one narrow pa.s.sage about two hundred meters wide, there was, within which we absolutely must proceed. Every turn away from this-either to the right or left-would immediately run us into the sandbank. And now there was no sign of the buoy which marked the channel. In addition to this we faced a current we had not counted on.

I searched and searched for the buoy. The sweat stood out on my forehead, and the excitement made me so warm that the sights on the periscope time and time again clouded up on account of the heat from my body. The mate must continually wipe the wet gla.s.s with a piece of chamois.

"Now we should be off the buoy, Mate, but I don't see it! Good G.o.d, what are we going to do! It will be fatal-it is impossible to navigate without picking it up. And besides, the destroyer which is lurking behind that confounded rainwall and which at any minute can come up alongside us!"

The buoy did not appear.

Then the weather began to clear up. The rain thinned and the fog lifted a little.

First we saw land. Thereafter we saw the destroyer at quite a distance on the port side, laying a course towards us, and then-then--

All good spirits have mercy on us!

The buoy-our buoy-was to the wrong side.

And we? Great G.o.d in Heaven-we were going on the wrong course! We were running right for the sandbank. We must already be right on top of them.

Disastrously for us, it has cleared too late.

"Hard a-starboard! Reverse both engines full speed!" There was nothing more to do. Then came the disaster! A jar and a whirring-U-boat 202 had gone aground.

VI

A DAY OF TERROR

What we went through was horrible. The breakers dashed high over the sandbar. They hurled themselves on us to destroy our boat, played ball with us, lifted us high into the air and dropped us again on the bar with such fury that the whole boat shivered and trembled.

We had lost control of the boat completely. The roaring breakers made so much noise we could hear them through the thick metal wall. Every new, onrushing wave tossed us higher and higher on the reef. Exposure was our greatest danger. Already the top of the conning tower and the prow projected above the surface-but a moment more and the entire boat would be plainly visible. Then we would surely be lost. As a helpless wreck, we would become a target for the destroyer.

Pale and calm, every man stuck to his post and clung to the nearest support, so as not to fall at the rolling and jolting of the boat. With awe, I looked alternately at the manometer and the feverish sea which I could see all around me through the conning tower windows. Oh, if it had been only the sea we must fear! But through the sc.u.m and froth, more merciless than the wild, onrushing breakers, the black destroyer, smoking copiously, steamed straight toward us, like a bull with lowered horns.

"We had better keep below the water at any price, even if we are smashed to pieces against the sandbank and the boat breaks up, rather than to be blown to pieces by the sh.e.l.ls of the English," was the thought that flashed through my brain.

"Fill the ballast tanks," I called down to the "Centrale." "Fill all the tanks full, Herr Engineer. Do you hear? We must not under any circ.u.mstances rise any higher!"

"All ballast tanks filling!" it was reported from below.

Oh, how quiet it was below! Not a word was uttered. No anxious conjectures, no surmises, and no questions.

A deep, irresistible grief clutched my heart. My poor little boat! My poor crew! There every man unflinchingly and unhesitatingly did his duty, and devotedly put his faith in me. They were all heroes, so young and still so brave and able. And I, the commander, had brought them into the very mouth of death, and to me, the only one who could see our desperate situation, it seemed as if the scale of death slowly weighed against us, because the destroyer, with horrible certainty, was approaching. His sharp prow pointed directly towards us. Soon he would discover the projecting parts of our tower and prow, which the breakers treacherously washed over, and then we would be lost. Soon a hail of sh.e.l.ls would sweep over us, and the greedy, foaming sea would roaringly hurl itself through the open holes in our sides.

The filling of the ballast tanks had the desired effect. The boat lay down heavily on the reef and spurred the wild waves to greater efforts, and, though we did not rise any farther, the jolting increased in violence because of its added weight. It was a wonder that the boat did not go to pieces like an egg sh.e.l.l, and we all looked at one another in surprise when, after a terrific jolt, nothing more occurred than the bursting of a few electric bulbs. "First-cla.s.s material," I thought to myself.

The mate who, over my shoulder, was keeping watch on the destroyer through the window on the port side, suddenly said, in his hearty, Saxon dialect:

"Well, well! Where does he intend to look for us now, I wonder? At any rate, he doesn't think that we are stuck here among the breakers."

"Mate, you old optimist. Those words I'll never forget. Great G.o.d! If you are right! Then certainly--"

"He is already turning," the little chap cut me short, and jammed his nose against the window-gla.s.s, so as to be able to see better.

I grabbed him by the neck and pulled him away, as my blood rushed to my head.

"What? What is it you are saying? Is he turning-good G.o.d in heaven-yes, it's true-he really _is_ turning, all the time turning-now his broadside swings round towards us, now his stern-he has turned-he is departing. He has not seen us, he has not seen us!"

I remember that once, when I was a little boy, I got a roe-deer as a present.

I loved it a great deal and we were inseparable. It had to sleep on a rug by my bed. One beautiful summer's day we were playing in the sun on a large lawn before the house when suddenly a large, unknown hound came rushing towards my little pet and blood-thirstily chased it around the lawn. The nasty dog was about to run it down when my pet, with a shrill shriek, appealed for help. I was standing paralyzed in terror and could not get a word through my lips, when unexpectedly the owner called the dog back with a whistle. Then I threw myself, with great exultation, down alongside my pet, pressed it to my heart, kissed its black snoot, and cried and laughed with joy.