locked the wheel tight. Down the ladder and into the control room, the familiar smells, the enclosed world of their being.
The lower hatch banged shut and he heard Gerrard call, ‘Group up. Full ahead together.’ He turned from peering over the helmsman’s shoulder and met Marshall’s gaze.
‘Done it, sir.’
Marshall clung to the ladder, his chest heaving, his lungs feeling like raw flesh. He managed to nod. Then he replied, ‘Not too much time in hand.’ He could hardly get the words out.
‘Ninety metres, sir.’ The coxswain twisted round, his face set in a fierce grin.
‘Was there
ever
enough time, sir?’
Marshall looked at him and shook his head. He felt completely spent and sick.
In the twinkling of an eye
. Two submarines and some hundred and fifty men. Wiped out. Written off. Just like that.
Somewhere overhead he heard the thrumming beat of the destroyer’s racing screws. She would drop a few charges, but with luck they would be well clear before her captain got an echo on his Asdic. If there were any survivors from the second U-boat, which was unlikely, they would be gutted like herrings in the depth-charge explosions.
He swallowed hard, tasting the bile in his throat. He hoped that Browning would be satisfied. Mission accomplished.
A depth-charge exploded far away, like a muffled drum in a tunnel. The destroyer’s detection gear had probably homed on to the sinking submarine.
He glanced at the faces all around him. Lined and set as they listened and then understood.
They were safe and that was enough. It was all they had.
5 Home is the sailor
FOR SOME UNSTATED reason U-192 was not required to seek out the second German supply submarine. Two days after their successful attack and their avoidance of the American destroyer, they had received a brief signal from the far off Admiralty in London. In their own, special top-secret code, which had probably been dictated by Browning himself.
Return to base forthwith
.
At the time the submarine had been on the surface steering south-east towards the Freetown rendezvous beneath a velvet sky where the stars had appeared to reach from horizon to horizon.
As Marshall had sat in his cabin with Gerrard reading the decoded signal he had been aware of his own confused feelings. The sudden recall might mean that their deception had been revealed to the enemy, so that they were needed for some different scheme without delay. Browning’s staff would have been following their progress by using a duplicate set of codes and rendezvous-boxes, and would have realised they had either been successful with their first attack or had been sent to the bottom.
For the first time since quitting the secluded Scottish loch he made a signal, equally brief, but one to let Browning know they were at least alive. He had pictured the radio operators and coding experts, both Allied and German, who might have picked up their crisp acknowledgement. But whatever anyone might suspect, Browning would know for sure. One of his plans had been carried out, and his brain-child would be given due credit.
Throughout the boat the news had been received with surprise. Nobody in his right mind had been looking forward to a second clash with the U-boat
milch-cows
, but once the new course had been laid, the tubes reloaded and batteries charged, most of the company had made the best of it. With the announcement of a recall the reactions had been as mixed as Marshall’s.
The first part of the return passage had gathered something like a holiday atmosphere as the boat had headed north-east, avoiding shipping lanes and spending most of the time on the surface.
Whenever possible men were allowed to take turns on deck, sunning their bodies, laying naked on the casing as if on a pleasure cruise. Once, when Frenzel had requested him to stop the boat so that divers could inspect the port screw, Marshall had permitted swimming parties, although never more than a few yards from the hull. It was not
The lower hatch banged shut and he heard Gerrard call, ‘Group up. Full ahead together.’ He turned from peering over the helmsman’s shoulder and met Marshall’s gaze.
‘Done it, sir.’
Marshall clung to the ladder, his chest heaving, his lungs feeling like raw flesh. He managed to nod. Then he replied, ‘Not too much time in hand.’ He could hardly get the words out.
‘Ninety metres, sir.’ The coxswain twisted round, his face set in a fierce grin.
‘Was there
ever
enough time, sir?’
Marshall looked at him and shook his head. He felt completely spent and sick.
In the twinkling of an eye
. Two submarines and some hundred and fifty men. Wiped out. Written off. Just like that.
Somewhere overhead he heard the thrumming beat of the destroyer’s racing screws. She would drop a few charges, but with luck they would be well clear before her captain got an echo on his Asdic. If there were any survivors from the second U-boat, which was unlikely, they would be gutted like herrings in the depth-charge explosions.
He swallowed hard, tasting the bile in his throat. He hoped that Browning would be satisfied. Mission accomplished.
A depth-charge exploded far away, like a muffled drum in a tunnel. The destroyer’s detection gear had probably homed on to the sinking submarine.
He glanced at the faces all around him. Lined and set as they listened and then understood.
They were safe and that was enough. It was all they had.
5 Home is the sailor
FOR SOME UNSTATED reason U-192 was not required to seek out the second German supply submarine. Two days after their successful attack and their avoidance of the American destroyer, they had received a brief signal from the far off Admiralty in London. In their own, special top-secret code, which had probably been dictated by Browning himself.
Return to base forthwith
.
At the time the submarine had been on the surface steering south-east towards the Freetown rendezvous beneath a velvet sky where the stars had appeared to reach from horizon to horizon.
As Marshall had sat in his cabin with Gerrard reading the decoded signal he had been aware of his own confused feelings. The sudden recall might mean that their deception had been revealed to the enemy, so that they were needed for some different scheme without delay. Browning’s staff would have been following their progress by using a duplicate set of codes and rendezvous-boxes, and would have realised they had either been successful with their first attack or had been sent to the bottom.
For the first time since quitting the secluded Scottish loch he made a signal, equally brief, but one to let Browning know they were at least alive. He had pictured the radio operators and coding experts, both Allied and German, who might have picked up their crisp acknowledgement. But whatever anyone might suspect, Browning would know for sure. One of his plans had been carried out, and his brain-child would be given due credit.
Throughout the boat the news had been received with surprise. Nobody in his right mind had been looking forward to a second clash with the U-boat
milch-cows
, but once the new course had been laid, the tubes reloaded and batteries charged, most of the company had made the best of it. With the announcement of a recall the reactions had been as mixed as Marshall’s.
The first part of the return passage had gathered something like a holiday atmosphere as the boat had headed north-east, avoiding shipping lanes and spending most of the time on the surface.
Whenever possible men were allowed to take turns on deck, sunning their bodies, laying naked on the casing as if on a pleasure cruise. Once, when Frenzel had requested him to stop the boat so that divers could inspect the port screw, Marshall had permitted swimming parties, although never more than a few yards from the hull. It was not
Similar Books
