How US Factories Built One Liberty Ship Every 42 Days — When U-Boats Sank 3 Per Week

Описание: How US Factories Built One Liberty Ship Every 42 Days — When U-Boats Sank 3 Per Week
March seventeenth, nineteen forty-three. North Atlantic, four hundred twenty miles southwest of Iceland. Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartmann pressed his eye against the periscope of U-Five-One-Seven, watching the American Liberty ship through the cross hairs as it wallowed through heavy seas. The merchant vessel, laden with supplies for Britain, moved at perhaps eight knots, zigzagging ineffectively against the winter swells. A perfect target.
Hartmann had commanded U-boats for three years, sinking twenty-two Allied vessels totaling over ninety thousand tons. He wore the Knight's Cross at his throat, earned during the happy time of nineteen forty-one when U-boats had hunted with near impunity along the American coast. But something had changed in recent months. Something that gnawed at him during the long hours submerged, listening to destroyer propellers overhead, something that manifested in the increasing number of fresh merchant ships replacing every vessel his wolf pack sent to the bottom.
"Range, one thousand meters," his executive officer reported. "Convoy has pulled ahead. She's a straggler, engine trouble probably. No escorts in sight."