Carl Winters and his crew of 43 were salty sea-soned warriors. They completed 3 patrols in the North Sea, 15 patrols in the Atlantic. Their recent performance was exemplary - often patrols with 60, 70, or even 80 thousand tons sunk. And, in all that piracy, they never once had a ship drop a depth charge anywhere near them! To top it off, on patrol 16 (September 1941) in grid BE31, U-47 intercepted a military task force and sunk the carrier Illustrious with 3 torpedoes; a cataclysmic demise that put 23000 tons and the full crew on the bottom of the ocean.

So, with all that excitement and success, Carl and I decided that the crew needed a vacation. It was December 1941, and allied air was starting to become a bit of a problem at the Atlantic bases. So, U-47 transferred to La Spezia for a dose of mediterranean weather and some light, backcountry sailing.

And that's what we got. Our first patrol was dead. Despite being in a central patrol grid at the junction of the east and west arms of the Med, we found nothing. U-47 claimed a mere C2 and a small merchant in 3 weeks, for a total tonnage around 10 thousand. Which is exactly what we asked for – R & R. The second patrol was all rain - 2 weeks of it. We encountered a few small ships and sunk them. In fact, the boys became so anxious for some action and good weather that we made a mistake. It was finally a beautiful day and we had a coastal merchant encounter. We surfaced to engage it with the deck gun and discovered that it was armed with a light gun! However, its aim was terrible, firing shots everywhere but at us, and so we continued to pound its waterline with HE shells. Then, out of the blue, a shell came arcing straight at us. It hit the starboard side of the boat and damaged the bow compartment, command room, and the conning tower. Thank god no one was injured. It was a foreboding lesson.

Patrol 21 sent us to the eastern end of the mediterranean (CO69) near Alexandria. We ran into some ugly allied air cover on our way past Valetta. We had to spend the day underwater. The next day we surfaced and kept plodding East at 8 knots. In the middle of grid CN39 we got forced under by air attack. We got lucky: depth charge missed by about 50m. We continued under at 25m for a bit...then made a sound contact - warship, moving fast, closing. I suspected that a local patrol was moving in on the sighting made by the aircraft. But then, two more warships - moving fast. A task-force! I drew a hasty line of contact, and surfaced at flank speed. We ran at 20kts until we could see smokestacks approaching. We dove and continued at flank.

A visual check showed that there was only one target of interest - King George V !!!

The crew went crazy with excitement - we might get a shot at the beast. But we were still far away. It was a perfectly clear, still day, and hence we had submerged pretty close to our maximum visual range.

We had to close the remaining distance at 8 kts submerged, just burning battery, but it was worth it. At optimal firing angle, we were within 3km of the mighty ship. Perfect.

We fired two electric torpedoes, aimed about midship. We waited for about 5 seconds, and fired two steam torpedoes, aimed mid and bow. All torpedoes ran at shallow depth. It took several minutes for the torpedoes to get close.

By now I had begun to dive to maximum depth. All 4 torpedoes hit their target, with the 4rth one setting off a secondary explosion that doomed the ship.

King George exploded, lurched, and went under quickly.

By now U-47 was at 60m, and was turning away from the scene of the crime in silent run. The escorts were PISSED. They seemed to have a bead on us with sonar, but we gradually got deeper and further, and the sound of their sonar pings became more and more faint. Soon it could not be heard at all above the creaking of our hull under 169m of ocean. The remaining elements of the task force (5 small destroyers) eventually left without dropping a single depth charge. I can't imagine how angry they were. King George V was fatally sniped, and his killer skulked away undetected.

So, the mediterranean vacation is going well. The boys are HAPPY and confident. It's quiet out here, except for the odd battleship. With Illustrious and King George under our keel, U-47 has started to take on legendary status. One more patrol and we're back West.

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During the return trip, somewhere between Valletta and Bengasi, in a spot that was _supposed_ to be free of allied air patrols, U-47 was spotted by a Catalina patrol plane. Crash dive was ordered and U-47 went into a steep dive. Just as the stern was vanishing from view, the bomber dropped about six bombs right on top of the boat. Massive damage was inflicted - the first 4 compartment were flooding rapidly. Water was surging into the bow torpedo room. I assigned a damage team to each compartment and the situation looked salvageable. But we were still traveling at flank speed in a dive – now at 90m and going deeper FAST. We blew ballast 4 times, tried to surface, cut the engine, but the boat kept going down…120…160…220…

At 320m the boat groaned loudly – we were still going down and very fast. We had lost her. At 340m the bow torpedo room caved in and the rest of the boat quickly followed.

U-47: sunk by air attack, somewhere in the west end of Grid CO. All hands lost.

Carl and his crew will be missed terribly by those left high and dry. There's something karmic about Carl's demise, and the sinking of King George V. They happened nearby and about a week apart. Hate to speculate about these things, but it makes you wonder. Anyways, we won't recover easily from this. I have included some extra shots of some of the experiences of Carl and his crew that stand out during 3 years of fighting, for those that want to look back on the glory of U-47. Together over 21 patrols, Carl and his boys sunk an incredible total of 931,039 tons of allied shipping (108,090 in military shipping).

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On Patrol 16, _after_ sinking Illustrious, U-47 encountered an unescorted convoy at AM43 and managed to sink 2 tankers with the deck gun!

Ships scatter in panic as U-47 goes into a tanker-frenzy!

War materiel stored topside is burned up with the flak gun.

U-47, on a winning streak, somewhere in the atlantic.

U-47, on Patrol 1, encountered a task force in the English Channel and managed to sink a Fido and a Southampton cruiser. A watchman spots the smokestacks:

And after a successful strike:

During patrol 4, U-47 hit a mine off of Hull and was badly damaged, sustaining three dead and two wounded, but was able to return to port:

In all it's glory, U-47 is put to sea at Lorient: