The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

convoys. Having had another successful patrol with a further six ships to
her name, U-47, with just one torpedo left, was now loitering at a weatherreporting
station some way to the west.
At 11.52 a.m. on 20 September, Rolf Hilse, on board U-48, received a
coded message from Günther Prien in U-47. He had spotted a large
eastbound convoy heading to Britain, and since U-48 had the latest most
advanced radio equipment, he asked her to report this news to Dönitz at his
command post in Lorient. ‘We reported to Lorient,’ says Rolf, ‘and the
message we got back was, “Proceed to beacon.”’ This meant U-47’s beacon
– U-48 was to converge with Günther’s boat and operate together. Then, at
5.15 p.m., they received another signal, directing four more U-boats
towards U-47. ‘Received wireless message,’ noted Rolf. ‘U-48, 65, 43, 99,
100 assume attack formation.’
Dönitz was ordering them to form a wolfpack. This tactic was not new,
but problems of communicating out at sea had made them difficult to coordinate
successfully. However, radio technology had greatly improved in
recent months, and by the following morning all six submarines were
converging on U-47 ready to hunt together as instructed.
The mood aboard U-48 was already buoyant. The new skipper had more
than proved he was up to the task, sinking four merchant ships on 15
September, and then, just after midnight on the 18th, sank two more,
including the largest ship in the convoy, an 11,000-ton liner. The crew had
been delighted, yet at the time they had no idea that the liner, the City of
Benares, had been carrying some ninety British child evacuees to Canada,
all members of an initiative set up by the Children’s Overseas Reception
Board (CORB). Two hundred and forty-eight of the 406 passengers
drowned, including seventy-seven of the evacuees. The men on U-48 were
not to know – it had not been marked as a Red Cross vessel, and neither had
there been any indication that there had been children and civilians on
board. As far as they were concerned, they had simply aimed for the largest
ship in the convoy. What had really surprised them was the lack of any
escort – the convoy was completely defenceless. ‘We were pleased,’ says
Rolf. ‘11,800 tons – that’s an enormous ship.’ They had then sunk a further
ship just after 5 p.m. the following day, making a total of seven ships sunk
since leaving Lorient. It was not a bad bag for Kapitänleutnant Bleichrodt’s
first patrol in charge.