01:14 (Berlin Time)
Wednesday, October 1, 1941
Open bridge of the U-800
Kiel harbor, German Baltic coast
Otto Kretschmer stood in the open top bridge of the U-800, with the side windows of the giant, transparent canopy covering the bridge opened to let in fresh air, while two coastal patrol boats escorted his submarine up the sea channel that would lead it to the Strait of Skaggerak and the North Sea. He had a last look at the darkened port of Kiel as his newly commissioned submarine sailed out of it for its first war patrol. Soon, he and his crew were going to be able to prove to Admiral Dönitz that all the months and efforts spent on preparing the U-800 for war had been worth it. Leaving Kiel at night to ensure maximum secrecy, he was planning to exit the Baltic Sea and then turn northwest to go to Bergen, on the Norwegian coast, for a quick refueling stop. With his fuel tanks full, he was going to then run at schnorchel depth past the British Isles and skirt Iceland by the North before turning southwest, thus avoiding the giant minefields the British had sown between Iceland and the British Isles. Once northwest of Iceland, he was going to be able to take a direct heading towards his first selected target: the Canadian port of Halifax, which was the departure point of most of the allied convoys heading towards Great Britain. Turning around in the tight space of the top bridge, he glanced at the three men on watch duty inside the thick, transparent dome of the forward armored watch tower, situated behind him in the middle of the forward open bridge. With the base of its transparent dome a bit above the level of the steel bulwark of the top bridge, that watch tower gave to its occupants and to the Zeilsaule C33 optical night director mount inside a clear view around the ship, be it from the surface or from a depth of 350 meters. His watchmen thus no longer had to stand inside an open steel tub during North Atlantic storms, when giant waves could and did often wash over the bridge, with unlucky watchmen sometimes washed overboard. The armored watch domes atop the central fin of the U-800, one forward and one aft, had been one design concept from Premingen that Kretschmer had believed at first to be totally goofy and a waste of time and resources. He however had very quickly changed his mind as soon as he had been able to experiment with its use during the sea trials of the U-800. The simple fact was that, up to now, all submarines became blind once submerged below periscope depth and then only had their hydrophones left to them to detect and locate other ships and submarines, with detection ranges being quite limited. However, Preminger had a stroke of genius after hearing an experienced diver who worked in the port of Kiel talk about how he could clearly see all the ships floating above him while he was walking on the bottom. With the sunlight illuminating the surface of the ocean, anyone below, down to a reasonable depth and with decent water clarity, could easily see the bottom of ships floating on the surface, along with submarines sailing past at shallow depths. One could even distinguish the contours of the bottom in shallow, clear waters, if you were able to observe from a dry structure or dome under the surface, like from the round hat of a diver or the watch domes of the U-800. Otto now knew that he could post his submarine on the bottom, in silent watch near a major port, and visually acquire the ships going in and out of that port while staying nearly undetectable. He had tried just that a few weeks ago, posting himself outside of Kiel harbor and tracking the ship traffic above him while three Kriegsmarine destroyers and two coastal submarines vainly tried to find him. Otto had as well found one other good use for those underwater watch domes: supporting the morale and the mental balance of his crew by giving his men a vantage point they could use when not in combat situations to relax while admiring the sea around them, the way tourists could when scuba-diving for pleasure. Otto himself had spent many occasions admiring the external view around his submerged submarine, watching schools of fish swim around and even spotting dolphins on one occasion. One sailor even had floated an idea about promoting underwater sightseeing tours after the war.
After three hours of navigating his submarine past the various defensives minefields and obstacles protecting Kiel and with the U-800 now well along the sea channel leading towards the Strait of Skagerrat, Otto had his Third Watch Officer, Leutnant zur See Franz Streib, take over from him on the open bridge. Walking around the armored watch dome tower and going through the armored hatch on its side, he carefully closed it back before going down the ladder leading to the ‘Zentral’, the control room from where the submarine was helmed and directed. The station of the helmsman was another innovation that had broken with tradition, it actually looking more like an aircraft pilot’s station than like a submarine’s helm. The chief helmsman of the U-800, Matrosen Obergefreiter Peter Schültz, could himself be said to be an oddity. Previously a Luftwaffe seaplane pilot, Schültz had transferred to the Kriegsmarine after being wounded during a mission, becoming an helmsman on a fast torpedo boat. His previous experience as a pilot had attracted Otto’s interest because the U-800, through its conception and design, handled a lot more like an aircraft than like a normal U-Boote when submerged. In fact, Otto was fervently hoping that the unprecedented capabilities of the U-800 were going to both mystify the British and help him and his crew survive this war patrol and the next ones after. Satisfied that things were well under control, Otto then walked down the control room, going to the navigation plot table situated aft of the two periscopes of the submarine, plotting his latest position. In less than twenty hours, they would have to turn sharply to the West-southwest, once they would have cleared the northern tip of Denmark, in order to go down the Strait of Skagerrak and finally emerge into the North Sea. From there, things were going to be more delicate, due to enemy reconnaissance flights and patrols, and he would then continue his trip submerged, using his schnorchel and proceeding on diesels to Bergen at twelve knots. The submerged speed of the U-800 had been another agreeable surprise during its sea trials. While Otto’s old U-99, a Type VII submarine, could attain a maximum speed underwater of only 7.5 knots, in contrast to its surfaced top speed of 17.5 knots, the U-800 had surpassed the most optimistic expectations of even Doctor Premingen, attaining the incredible top speed on battery power of 31 knots under water. It could also navigate with its schnorchel deployed at up to fourteen knots, thanks to the hydrodynamic shroud of its schnorchel, while keeping the top of its fin five meters below the surface. Apart from having a lot larger battery capacity and much more powerful electric motors than a Type VII, the U-800 had a much more streamlined and hydrodynamic hull, which drastically cut down submerged drag, while its revolutionary centerline ducted propeller system had proved vastly more efficient than the classic two small side screws of past U-boots. The single down side had been the top surface speed of the U-800. While its teardrop shape made it very efficient for underwater travel, it was less ideal for surface navigation, being limited to a speed of 13.5 knots on the surface while using the diesel engines. That was however a minor point to Otto, who had quickly understood that the old tactics of attacking convoys at night on the surface were outdated with a submarine like the U-800. He could now in fact outrun most escort ships except fleet destroyers and cruisers while approaching submerged on battery, with his unusual endurance on battery allowing him to escape after an attack by going deep, under the maximum depth of enemy depth charges, and then drive away on silent cruise.
Seeing little else for him to do at the time, Otto activated the nearest intercom box and called his watch officer on the open bridge.
‘’Leutnant Streib, this the Captain: I am going to rest for a few hours in my cabin. You now have the boat until next watch.’’
‘’Understood, Herr Kapitän!’’
Going to the deck hatch just aft of the chart table, Otto went down its ladder and stepped in a narrow compartment sandwiched between his cabin and the officers’ mess at the level of the upper casing. Taking two steps and opening the door of his cabin, he entered it and crossed his small office to go to his sleeping cabin, where he removed his officer’s cap, putting it in one of the three lockers of the cabin, before removing as well the thick leather coat he had put on to go out on the open bridge. Grabbing a book from the shelf above his work desk, he sat down with a sigh of contentment in the padded easy chair of his sleeping cabin, intent on reading a bit before catching some sleep. He smiled to himself as he thought about how such comfort contrasted with what he had to put up with on his old U-99.
10:27 (Iceland Time)
Tuesday, October 7, 1941
Control room of U-800
480 km northeast of Iceland
North Atlantic
‘’Hydrophones watch to Kapitän!’’
Otto Kretschmer, studying the chart of Iceland and its surrounding waters at the navigation plot table in the control room, keyed the intercom.
‘’This is the Captain! What do you have?’’
‘’Sir, we have distant but powerful screw and machinery noise coming from the West-southwest, from Iceland. It is coming towards us.’’
‘’Cargo ship or warship?’’
‘’Definitely warships, sir: many of them and some of them big. I would need however that we go silent before I could have a better feel for those noises.’’
‘’Very well, we will go silent. Stand by!’’ Replied Otto before switching to general intercom. ‘’Attention all hands! We have warships approaching. Engine room: shut down the diesels, retract the schnorchel and switch to batteries, then reduce speed to five knots. Helm: hold steady on present course and stay at periscope depth. Electronic warfare section: scan for possible enemy emitters nearby. To all: we go to silent routine now!’’
Next, instead of using the intercom again, Otto walked aft to the hydrophones and sonar section, situated only a few paces away on the same level of the armored kiosk. There, he stood just behind the chair of the chief sonar operator, Oberfunkmaat Günter Grote, and waited patiently as the technician listened on with his headset while also looking at the cathode screen showing the noise signals received by their main passive hydrophone array in the bow. A clear spike on the display showed that a powerful noise source was approaching from their eleven O’clock. After maybe two minutes of intense listening, Grote spoke softly, his eyes still on the display tube.
‘’I classify the contact as a group of warships heading northeast towards Norway and coming out of Iceland, Herr Kapitän. They are going quite fast, at least twenty knots, and two of them are really standing out: we probably have two major warships with half a dozen escort ships. From their heading and their rate of approach, I would say that they will cross our path just ahead of us: we thus could easily ambush them, sir.’’
‘’How big are those two big ones, Grote? Can you identify them?’’
‘’Give me one moment, Herr Kapitän.’’
Otto knew better than harass his sonarman by insisting on having an immediate answer and he thus waited patiently. Less than a minute later, Grote looked up at him, a smile on his lips.
‘’We have a big jackpot here, Herr Kapitän: one battleship, possibly KING GEORGE V Class, and one fleet aircraft carrier of the ILLUSTRIOUS Class, escorted by one possible light cruiser and five or six destroyers.’’
That announcement immediately sent Otto’s brain in high gear. The combined full load tonnage of the two bigger warships alone was around 68,000 tons, something to make any U-boot captain salivate. On the other hand, their escort ships could prove very problematic if he didn’t handle the situation properly. There was also the matter of why such a powerful force could have been in Iceland and why it was heading towards Norway. At the minimum, and irrespective of the result of any encounter, he would have to radio to Admiral Dönitz’ headquarters with information about this enemy battle group.
‘’Excellent job, Grote! Give me an intercept course for that enemy group and advise me as soon as you will be able to figure out their deployment.’’
‘’Should I ping them on active sonar, Herr Kapitän? That would give us their range and one single ping shouldn’t put them on alert.’’
‘’Negative! I will not take any chances with such a powerful opponent. Just an intercept course will do.’’
‘’Understood, sir! I would pick Heading 342 as the direction they are coming from, with an approximate distance of forty nautical miles between us as of now.’’
‘’Thank you!’’ Simply said Otto before walking back into the control room and shouting orders.
‘’HELM, STEER TO HEADING 350! KEEP SPEED AT FIVE KNOTS AND HOLD PERISCOPE DEPTH.’’
Next, he contacted the forward and aft torpedo rooms by intercom.
‘’Torpedo rooms, load half of the tubes with G7a compressed air torpedoes and the other half with G7e electric torpedoes. Be ready to reload with the same mix once we will have fired our first volley. All hands, this is the Captain: close all the hatches and go to silent routine!’’
Otto then waited while his men went to work to prepare for battle. While topping up his supplies, fuel and ammunition before leaving Kiel, he had to decide about the quantity and type of torpedo load, something that had not been evident. Germany had started the war with the G7a compressed air-propelled torpedo as its standard submarine torpedo. The G7a was a fast weapon, reaching speeds of up to 44 knots, with a range that could be varied, from 6,000 meters at 44 knots to 14,000 meters at thirty knots. It however left a visible trail of bubbles in its wake. Worse, it had shown to be a dud too many times, its warhead detonator exploding prematurely or simply refusing to explode, while a faulty depth setting mechanism often made it run under the target ship and miss. In order to eliminate the wake problem, the electric-powered G7e had been developed just before the war, but had not proved to be a success. Its top speed was an anemic thirty knots, less than the speed of many existing destroyers and warships, with an equally disappointing range of 5,000 meters. To add insult to injury, the G7e suffered from the same detonator and depth mechanism defects than those of the G7a. Thanks to the pressure from irate submarine commanders and to the heavenly help of Doctor Premingen, the detonator and depth setting faults were now mostly things of the past. However, that had still left the Kriegsmarine with its most recent torpedo model being too slow and short-legged, apart from needing to be pre-heated before launch in order to ensure maximum range out of its batteries. As a result, quite a few U-boot commanders still used the G7a, mostly during night attacks. Otto was one of those commanders and he thus had decided to load aboard the U-800 a mixed load of G7a and G7e torpedoes, with the idea of using the faster G7a at short range against warships while reserving the G7e for the slower merchant ships. As a result, he now had 44 G7e and 24 G7a torpedoes aboard, four times the load of his old U-99.
‘’Hydrophone watch to Kapitän! We are now nearly across the path of the oncoming enemy fleet. I can make one light cruiser leading in file the battleship and the carrier, with six destroyers sailing in two parallel columns on the flanks. In our present position, we should end up sandwiched by the center line of heavy warships and the starboard column of destroyers.’’
‘’Thank you! MACHINES ALL STOP! UP PERISCOPES! TORPEDO OFFICER, START PREHEATING THE G7es IN OUR LAUNCH TUBES. SET ALL TORPEDOES IN OUR TUBES TO THE SHORTEST ARMING DISTANCE SETTING.’’
Otto then moved to the watch periscope and started scanning the horizon to the Southwest. He had to scan for only a short moment before he saw the characteristic smoke trails of ships’ funnels in the distance.
‘’THREE SEPARATE GROUPS OF SMOKE TRAILS ON THE HORIZON, BEARING 350! APPROXIMATE DISTANCE: FIFTEEN NAUTICAL MILES. HERR VON WITTGENSTEIN, START MANNING THE FIRING SOLUTION CALCULATOR!’’
‘’Aye, Herr Kapitän!’’
‘’TORPEDO ROOMS, CONFIRM THE STATUS OF OUR TUBES!’’
‘’Bow torpedo room: four G7a in odd numbered tubes and four G7e torpedoes in even numbered tubes loaded and ready to fire. Arming mechanisms set on distance of 100 meters.’’
‘’Stern torpedo room: two G7a in odd numbered tubes and two G7e torpedoes in even numbered tubes loaded and ready to fire, set for 100 meter arming.’’
‘’Excellent! Now, we just let the enemy approach and get within range. TO ALL, COMPLETE SILENCE ABOARD FROM NOW ON! I WILL KILL THE FIRST IDIOT WHO WILL FLUSH THE TOILET!’’
A concert of laughs greeted his joke before the submarine became about as quiet as a tomb, standing still in the water just below the surface of the sea. Otto flipped a switch on his watch periscope, lowering its head below the surface, and went to the attack periscope, which had a narrower field of view but also more powerful optics. It also happened to have opposite his viewing ocular an optical elbow that gave the same view as he had to a photographic camera fixed to the viewing base. That way, he could take pictures of the ships he targeted, something very commonly done by U-boote commanders. It was just that Premingen’s foresight had made him incorporate a camera on the base from the start, instead of having to hurry up and put it in place at the last moment. Doing first a complete tour of the horizon in order to ensure that no British ship was going to catch him by surprise, Otto then concentrated his sight on the center group of funnel exhausts visible in the distance.
‘’First bearing on central enemy column: 343!’’
Otto then lowered his periscope head under the surface and waited patiently a few minutes before raising it again and announcing a second bearing on the central group of smoke trails. Ulrich Von Wittgenstein, supervising the fire control calculator technician and standing at the tactical plot table, nodded his head after a few seconds.
‘’I confirm that the central enemy column will pass just in front of us, Herr Kapitän. Their general heading puts them on the way to the area of Narvik, in Norway.’’
‘’That makes sense: we have quite a few ships in Narvik, ships that would be worthy targets for such a British force.’’
Four more quick and discreet visual checks followed in the next forty minutes, confirming that the enemy fleet was heading straight to them and that the U-800 was going to effectively be sandwiched between the bigger warships and their starboard side screen of destroyers. Having suddenly an idea, Otto quickly climbed up to the forward underwater watch dome, emerging there to find a stunning view of the underside of the surface of the ocean. It was quickly evident by the waves he could see crashing down and by the poor sunlight level that the weather was quite bad on the surface. That was to his taste, as that could only degrade the performance of the British ASDIC sound detection sets of the escorting destroyers. Using his binoculars and looking out through the glass dome, he was able to see after a few minutes the shape and wake of the underside of an approaching ship. Seeing that it was going to sail past his submarine, Otto then looked to his left, soon detecting what had to be the lead destroyer of the starboard column: it was going to pass at some distance behind the waiting U-800. Content with that, Otto used the gyro horizon pointer inside the watch dome to transmit the respective headings of the lead destroyer and lead heavy ship. That lead ship soon was close enough for Otto to be able to examine in detail its underside.
‘’Zentral, from Captain: I can now confirm visually that the lead ship of the central column is an ARETHUSA-Class light cruiser, while the lead destroyer of the column that will pass in our back appears to be a TRIBAL-Class destroyer. The light cruiser is in turn followed by the battleship, with the carrier tailing. Helm, pivot quietly the boat on the spot and be ready to follow closely in parallel line the heavier units. Start increasing slowly our speed and increase our depth to thirty meters.’’
A crazy plan was now developing inside Otto’s head. While it was audacious to the point of near madness, it would provide him with excellent protection from the escorting British destroyers, thanks to the deafening noise levels produced by the battleship and the carrier, noise that would all but render useless the ASDIC sets of the destroyers. As for the battleship and carrier, he knew very well that they had no ASDIC sets of their own, being too noisy to be able to use any. Already, the screw and machinery noise from the British heavy warships reverberated strongly inside the submarine, forcing him to raise his voice a bit when he gave his next order. He could now see the underside of the leading light cruiser as it passed twenty meters above his position.
‘’Helm, steer two degrees to port and raise speed to twelve knots: we are going to take position under the central column of enemy ships.’’
‘’Aye, Herr Kapitän.’’ Replied on the intercom the helmsman, sounding not too reassured. Otto waited until his submarine was right under the cruiser’s stern before giving a heading correction and placing the U-800 between the cruiser and the following battleship. The enemy ships being a bit faster than him for the moment, going at fifteen knots, Otto waited for the battleship to get ahead of him, with the carrier now only 600 meters behind him, then had his helmsman match speed with the British. The underside view he now had of the two major enemy units was truly stunning, prompting an order from him on the intercom.
‘’Herr Leeb, bring quickly a second camera to the forward underwater watch dome. Bring plenty of films with you as well.’’
‘’Uh, understood, Herr Kapitän.’’
‘’Herr Eberbach, I want you to gradually bring us up to periscope depth. However, make it as discreetly as possible and make sure that we don’t break the surface. Take all the time you need to do that.’’
‘’Yes, Herr Kapitän!’’
By the time that Maschinen Obergefreiter Wolfgang Leeb came up to the forward underwater dome with his camera and films, the U-800 was only fifteen meters below the surface of the sea, with the stern of the KING GEORGE V a mere 150 meters dead ahead and with the bow of the carrier visible only 400 meters behind. Leeb couldn’t help stare at those incredible sights while setting up his camera.
‘’Mein Gott, Herr Kapitän, this must be seen to be believed. Do you want shots of those two ships taken now?’’
‘’Yes, but take only one shot of each ship for the time being. I suspect that you will then have more spectacular shots to take soon. I will now go down to the Zentral.’’
Going down the ladder again and returning to his attack periscope, he looked at his second in command as he was about to raise the head of the periscope above water.
‘’Ulrich, we will fire two of our G7a torpedoes loaded in our bow tubes at the propellers of the battleship, then will fire our two G7e loaded in our stern tubes at the bow of the carrier, on my command. Be ready for very quick follow up snap shots after that.’’
‘’Understood, Herr Kapitän! I am ready.’’
‘’Then, stand by to fire tubes one, three, ten and twelve.’’
‘’Tubes one, three, ten and twelve ready to fire.’’
His heart now beating hard with excitement, Otto flipped the switch on his periscope viewing base, raising the optical head above the level of the strong waves at the surface. He already had is eyes on the ocular when the stern of the KING GEORGE V, barely 180 meters ahead, nearly filled the periscope’ field of view.
‘’Target ahead, heading 359 relative, distance 180 meters! Match bearings and fire tubes one and three!’’
‘’Firing tubes one and three!’’
Pivoting around at once, Otto centered his sights on the bow of the British carrier, which was bobbing up and down in the waves.
‘’Target astern, heading 003 relative, distance 500 meters! Match bearings and fire tubes ten and twelve!’’
‘’Firing tubes ten and twelve! Torpedoes on the way!’’
Pivoting around again, Otto anxiously centered back the battleship in his sight, hoping for success. It was highly unlikely that, with this agitated sea and the long, wide wake created by the battleship, any of the destroyers or the carrier could spot his periscope quickly enough to react in time. At such a short range, and with the battleship’s beam being over 31 meters wide, there was practically no chance of his two G7a torpedoes missing…and they didn’t! They took barely three seconds to accelerate and cover the distance, passing under the stern of the big ship and hitting near where the propeller shafts came out of the hull. Their twin explosions either ripped away or distorted all four propeller shafts and jammed the rudders, on top of blowing open huge holes in the bottom side of the stern. The torpedo explosions also nearly raised the stern of the KING GEORGE V out of the water, fracturing the stern section and making it buckle. The 43,000 ton battleship was already doomed before its captain even understood what was happening. Repressing a scream of triumph, Otto pivoted again and watched the carrier as it still came towards him, shouting at the same time an order.
‘’HELM, REDUCE SPEED TO FIVE KNOTS! WE DON’T WANT TO COLLIDE WITH THAT BATTLESHIP NOW.’’
‘’AYE, HERR KAPITÄN!’’ Replied Peter Schültz, tense and fully concentrated on his compass, attitude display and depth gauge. Another two underwater explosions were heard seconds later from astern, making the crewmembers cheer.
On the 25,000 ton British aircraft carrier HMS VICTORIOUS, nobody was cheering now as its crewmembers were brutally shaken and projected forward by the explosion of the two G7e torpedoes from the U-800. With the carrier travelling at the time at a speed of fifteen knots, the two large holes suddenly blown open in its bow immediately started admitting hundreds of tons of seawater, which rushed in with even greater force due to the forward speed of the ship. Instead of coming back up after digging down in the bottom of a wave, the VICTORIOUS continued on nearly level, burrowing into the waves, with powerful water geysers from the bow holes bursting inside the forward aircraft hangar and submerging dozens of panicked aviation mechanics and ordnance technicians. The unlucky carrier never had a chance to recover from that blow, as two more torpedoes slammed in it as its helmsman was trying to turn to port to avoid the now dead in the water KING GEORGE V dead ahead. Those two more torpedo hits sealed the fate of the carrier, opening three more major compartments to the sea. As for the battleship, a second salvo of torpedoes, this time four G7e’s, holed its port aft side, opening its machinery spaces to the sea.
On the light cruiser HMS PENELOPE and on the six escort destroyers, the lookouts and officers of the watch at first believed that the KING GEORGE V and the VICTORIOUS has somehow hit sea mines. The second salvoes of torpedoes then told them the truth. All eyes on the cruiser and the destroyers then searched for the German submarine or submarines that had mounted such a dastardly ambush. However, those eyes all turned toward the flanks of the formation and not towards the stricken ships, except for a few lookouts tasked with assessing the damage to the two capital ships. In the case of the KING GEORGE V, those lookouts soon had only a tragedy to report: its stern section breaking away, its port side ripped open and with all power gone, the battleship quickly developed a severe list to port, to finally capsize and sink in less than ten minutes. At about the same time, the VICTORIOUS’ bow started sliding under the waves as the ‘Abandon Ship’ order was given to its crew. The only British that managed to see briefly the periscope head of the U-800 was a lookout on the destroyer HMS PUNJABI. The captain of that destroyer, transported with rage, then gave the order to turn hard to starboard, towards the gap between the two sinking warships, and to prepare to drop a pattern of depth charges in the water. His second in command, a young navy lieutenant, however shouted at once at his commander.
‘’SIR, WE CAN’T DROP DEPTH CHARGES THERE AND NOW! WE HAVE HUNDREDS OF OUR MEN SWIMMING IN THE OCAN: OUR DEPTH CHARGES’ CONCUSSIONS WOULD KILL THEM ALL!’’
Watched by the shocked members of his bridge watch, the destroyer captain nearly screamed back at his lieutenant before freezing with an haggard look on his face, realizing what kind of monstrous mistake he had been about to commit.
‘’Er, belay that last order of mine. All engines stop! Lower the lifeboats in the water! Signal to PENELOPE: German submarine sighted between our two sinking ships. We are conducting rescue at sea operations.’’
No more torpedoes struck the British force afterwards, while no German submarine was either seen or detected in the area despite five of the six destroyers searching frantically with their ASDIC sets active. The VICTORIOUS sank half an hour after the KING GEORGE V. Unbeknown to the British, the U-800 was still right there, close to its two victims, but holding silent and immobile at a depth of eighty meters. Wolfgang Leeb was thus able to take some dramatic and stunning pictures as the hulks of the battleship and of the aircraft carrier sank past the U-800, heading for the sea bottom.