By Cecil Merriam
Chapter 1
Oberleutnant zur See Ziegler slowly came awake from the rough prodding on his shoulder, completely unaware of where he was. In a flash the last things he remembered came back to him: the flames from the engine on fire behind him, the pain of his injuries, the elation of seeing his rounds hitting the Englisher troop transport just before he hit the water and lost consciousness. His surroundings slowly came into focus, including the glaring face of Korvetleukapitan Heinke. “I said report” repeated Heinke. “I need to know what happened to your flotilla when we sent you after that transport. It was only guarded by three of the Englisher MTB’s and you had four boats so it should have been an easy mission; yet you return with only two survivors out of 70 sailors and no boats”.
Zeigler slowly collected his thoughts and tried to piece together what had happened. The plan had been simple and should have succeeded easily. He had sent his first three boats in from two different compass points, keeping his own boat back in order to take advantage of any early success, plus or course, so that he could get credit for the eventual kill. His orders had been to lay a spread of torpedoes in front of the transport that it would not be able to avoid, then to close with the critically damaged ship to complete the kill with guns.
Ziegler had watched as his flotilla had proceeded exactly as ordered. Suddenly the Britisher MTBs had accelerated towards his own boats in a brave but useless attempt to save the transport. As expected, his boats had caused heavy damage on the MTB’s then proceeded to fire their torpedoes into the transport’s path. It was at this point that his carefully planned trap had fallen apart. Instead of steaming directly ahead the Englisher transport captain had suddenly turned abruptly to port, directly towards his boats! The carefully plotted torpedoes had all passed behind the dodging ship, with the exception of one fish that still tracked towards impact on the transport’s hull. Ziegler cursed to himself as the torpedo bounced harmlessly off the ship’s hull, yet another all too common dud.
With only one undamaged MTB left to worry about, he was still confident he could sink the transport and return to port a hero. The wildly dodging transport had forced his boats to spread to either side as they brought their guns to bear. As Ziegler finally entered the conflict, his sailors taking joyful shots at the damaged MTB’s left behind by the other boats, he suddenly heard a storm of gunfire from the other side of the transport. As his own boat came around the transport he was shocked to see three more MTBs firing into his flotilla. He had been told the transport would have only 3 boats as escorts and now there were six boats against his four. While the Britisher boats were smaller than his own the odds were no longer quite so heavily in his favour.
The next few minutes were a blur that he could not remember with any detail. He vaguely remembered watching first one, then a second of his boats sinking below the waves. It was with pride that he also remembered several of the Britisher boats joining them. The remembered an MTB running directly into his hull, damaging his rudder. The only thing he remembered clearly was the transport turning to starboard again onto its original course. And with a burst of laughter he watched as the MTB that had damaged him lost control of its own course and slam into the hull of the transport.
Ziegler stopped his own boat to make emergency repairs to the rudder. It was at this point he realised that his was the only boat still afloat in his little flotilla. Just as he heard his Oberbootsman report that the rudder was repaired enough for use, a burst of gunfire tore into his aft, setting his engine on fire. Knowing now that there was little chance he would live to see any more of this glorious war for the Fatherland, he accelerated as much as he could to get within gun range of the transport before it sailed out of range. He cursed again when the twin 2 cm gun completely missed the transport but yelled in joy as the single 2 cm mount tore a gaping hole into the heavily wounded transport. He watched as the ship rolled over and started to sink, just before the engine in his own boat exploded, throwing him into the water.
Korvetleukapitan Heinke did not look especially happy to have lost four of his valuable S Boats, but he was pleased with the damage that had been caused to the Englishers. With losses in other, nearby actions, he could at least hold his head up high that the actions of his men had not been such a failure. It was possible that there was a Schnellbootkriegsabzeichen in Ziegler‘s future after all.
Chapter 2
Oberleutnant zur See Ziegler stared out at the flaming wreckage and bodies floating in the water and tried to remember exactly what his orders had been. After losing his entire flotilla, and almost his own life, during his last mission, he had been sure his career was over.
The only thing that had saved him was the debacle kilometers away where the Kriegsmarine had suffered an ignoble defeat. His commanders had needed a victory, so they created one. The loss of his boats and men had been ignored and all the reporting had emphasized the sinking of the enemy transport. Ziegler didn’t mind too much; it had allowed him to live another day.
After recovering from his injuries, he had been given another pair of boats to command. A report had come in that an enemy MTB had been damaged and left stranded off the French coast. There were rumours that a German officer had been trying to defect when his boat was caught by a fighter returning from bomber escort duties. He had been instructed to get his boats in motion and retrieve the defector and the damaged boat if possible. If it was not possible to capture the boat before the Britisher rescue party arrived, he was to ensure there was nothing left for them to rescue.
He had cruised towards the damaged boat from the south-west but as he approached, he could see four Britisher boats speeding down from the north. He also noticed that another E-boat was speeding towards the action from the south-east. Perhaps command had sent him reinforcements. With a lucky long-range shot he hulled the damaged boat, sending it to the bottom and the survivors into life preservers. Two Britisher boats peeled off towards his own two boats while a third boat seemed to be waiting to engage the boat coming from the south-east. The last boat was hanging back and appeared to be moving towards the damaged boat, probably to offer assistance.
The two Britisher boats concentrated fire on his partner, blowing huge chunks out of her hull and causing severe damage. His partner focused on one of the boats and gave as good as she got, causing the boat to continue past him out of control. Fearing the last boat was trying to reach the damaged vessel, Ziegler poured all his weapons into it and cut it almost to the waterline. This battle had become a blood bath in a very short period of time. For a moment the sound of gunfire waned and he suddenly heard the roar of engines as the third E-boat blasted into the battle. What was the idiot doing racing into the action at full speed, with a British MTB right in front of his boat.
Both boats started shooting everything they had at each other, blasting huge pieces of superstructure off each other. The British boat seemed to be getting the worst of the exchange with its rudder being shot out, sending it out of control. The E-boat was suddenly engulfed in a huge fireball and slowed almost immediately to a crawl. A lucky shot must have hit one of the torpedoes and the explosion all but destroyed the boat. As the E-boat started to sink below the surface, the out of control MTB ran over the debris, adding insult to injury.
As the shock of seeing the destruction of the strange boat started to wear off, Ziegler noticed that while he had been distracted the boat he had damaged had begun picking up the survivors from the water. In a rage, he again ordered his crew to open up with everything they had. These last shots totally destroyed the boat and everyone on board: British crews and defecting German officer alike.
Without being able to remember exactly what his orders had stated, he turned for home with his partner following. The British boats seemed to be either too shocked or too damaged to chase after them. Ziegler wondered how this mission would add to his already tarnished reputation.
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