Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

144 JEFF EDWARDS
U-307:
Gröeler watched the situation unfold on his tactical plot. The
Americans were reacting as he had expected, which was to say in
accordance with their tactical doctrine. It was good doctrine, as far as it
went, but it did have a few weaknesses. He was about to show the
Americans what those weaknesses were.
The carrier was running toward him now. It was close; too close to
dodge his torpedoes.
According to standing tactical doctrine, it was time to come to
periscope depth and take a final peek at his target through the attack scope
before shooting. It wasn’t just doctrine, either. The idea was so deeply
ingrained into the minds of the submarine force that it had taken on nearly
religious significance; you never launch torpedoes without making a lastsecond
visual confirmation. Not ever.
Gröeler knew without looking that his Control Room crew were
watching him out of the corners of their eyes. They had practiced this shot
in the simulators a hundred times, but it was such a fundamental violation
of basic tactical principles that none of them could really believe that he
would actually try it under combat conditions. Behind his back, they
called it Schießen in dem dunklen: shooting in the dark. The bolder of
them compared their kapitan to the knife thrower in a circus—letting fly
with deadly blades while a blindfold covered his eyes. They assumed he
didn’t know about their little jests, but they were wrong. Where his boat
and crew were concerned, very little escaped his attention.
“Stand by to fire salvo one,” he snapped. “Three torpedoes, shallow
run, fifteen degree spread.” He checked the current sonar bearing to his
target. “Centered on zero-two-zero.”
He took a breath and held it for several seconds. “Fire!”
Three quick tremors ran through the deck as a trio of
Ozeankriegsführungtechnologien DMA37 torpedoes were rammed out of
their launch tubes by columns of high-pressure water.
An instant later, the Sonar Operator called out, “I have start-up on all
three weapons.”
“Estimate fourteen seconds to impact,” the Fire Control Officer said.
“Right full rudder,” Gröeler said. “Ten degrees down-angle on the
forward planes.” This was one part of the tactical doctrine that he could
not ignore. He had to separate himself from his firing bearing and depth as
quickly as possible; without an actual contact to shoot at, the Americans
would fire their own torpedoes down the bearing from which his torpedoes
had come. Doctrine again.