christmas morning 1944
218 days after leaving germany
160 miles southeast of sydney australia
corvette and capitaine heinrich tim of
the german u-boat u-862
has two torpedoes into an allied
freighter
and has just fired another to finish it
off
uh-62's fourth torpedo is running on the
surface it's clearly visible
the crew of the ss robert j walker watch
in horror
as the torpedo approaches but this
liberty ship is not defenseless
the deck guns are crewed by members of
the u.s naval reserves
one of the sailors seaman first class
harold stone
springs into action seaman stone is an
anti-aircraft gunner he has a 20
millimeter quick-firing erle-ken
anti-aircraft gun
he points it at the obvious torpedo
coming towards him
squeezes the trigger fires a number of
rounds
as the torpedo closes to within about a
hundred yards of the robber jay walker
one of stone's round strikes
the torpedo explodes
sending water and smoke high into the
air it's a sign both
of the accuracy of his shooting
and also a great deal of luck the two
reinforce each other
stone and his fellow gunners continue
firing into the darkness
to discourage another attack
in the initial phase of the attacks it's
not at all clear that the ship has in
fact been torpedoed
but when the torpedo is destroyed by the
anti-aircraft gun
then it's clear that there has been a
u-boat attack and therefore measures can
be taken to try and prevent a further
one
while the crew launches a smoke screen
to further obscure the robert j
walker aboard u862
tim is exasperated
he hears the explosion and sees the
smoke he assumes the torpedo has struck
home
but still the vessel stays afloat after
tim fired four torpedoes
he had to reconsider a situation because
now
so much time is spent he knew that
the allies are informed about a
submarine attack
he's expecting naval forces approaching
the scene
to relief the merchantmen and to hunt
the submarine
if tim fires again to assure the demise
of robert j walker
he will have used a third of his
torpedoes on just one target
but in the end he returns to carl
dennis's wisdom
units early in the war gave the order
or advice that it's better to have one
ship sunk
than a lot of ships damaged at first
light on christmas morning
tim fires a fifth torpedo
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the gunners aboard the robert j walker
are ready this time
they immediately start firing along the
path
for four minutes stone and the others
pour rounds into the sea
but this time the torpedo is 2d it finds
its mark
and tears a huge hole in the robert j
walker buckling the deck
tim hoping to avoid the coming manhunt
speeds east into the pacific ocean
toward new zealand
when he sank robert j walker
he achieved another kill for himself and
his crew
the amount of ships he sunk is not
special
but what's special about him he is the
first submarine commander
sinking a ship in all of the four
worlds oceans tim patrols the waters off
new zealand
then begins a return trip to jakarta for
resupply
and sinks one last vessel along the way
but despite a successful patrol u862
will never deliver its cargo of war
material
on april 30th 1945 hitler commits
suicide
and germany surrenders a week later
tim and his crew hand their u-boat over
to the japanese
and are detained long after peace in
europe and asia
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