> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.slowburn.nz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Hunters: German U-Boats at War, 1939-43 - Patrol 7 (December 1940) - URL: https://www.slowburn.nz/the-hunters-german-u-boats-at-war-1939-43-patrol-7-december-1940/ - Published: 2026-08-11T11:14:16.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-11T11:14:16.000Z - Author: Walter 1/12/1940 Since we were to pass the northern end of the British Isles, command selected us for a clandestine task: the insertion of an agent into Ireland. God only knows what work the fellow intends once ashore. He kept largely to himself. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/49/77497e94-57f0-4097-b157-16e7e3df5c21/content/images/2026/08/1-5.png) Command sending us on errands We left Lorient for the final time after only a short period calling it home. The Bay of Biscay outbound and the second transit were quiet. In the first British Isles sector the agent was put ashore without fuss and we wished him Hals und Beinbruch! The second sector produced nothing. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/49/77497e94-57f0-4097-b157-16e7e3df5c21/content/images/2026/08/0.png) A successful clandestine insertion on the Irish coast In the third sector, in daylight, we found a large freighter, (or what appeared to be a freighter as we would later find out) the City of Benares, 11,100 tons. Daylight and proximity to the coast ruled out shadowing. She was a valuable target. I closed to short range on the surface and opened with the deck gun. One hit and one miss. The hit did serious damage, yet she kept steaming. We fired two forward G7A torpedoes; one ran wide, the other detonated. Still she remained stubbornly afloat. The aft G7A missed. We circled. No distress signal had been heard. A second gun approach produced another hit and another miss. At last she began to settle and go down. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/49/77497e94-57f0-4097-b157-16e7e3df5c21/content/images/2026/08/2-4.png) Encounter of the City of Benares With a successful sinking behind us I attempted a resupply, unwilling to waste a streak of better fortune. Once again we failed to locate the supply ship and turned for home. Both transit legs were uneventful. We arrived back in Kiel. ObLt (I) Wolfgang Klein received his U-boat Badge for completing two patrols with us. He has done well so far. We have mixed feelings about parting with U-34\. She has gotten us into a great deal of trouble, yet she has also kept us alive. We take command of U-77\. The new boats are something quite special. Then came the news that put a damper on everything. It turned out the City of Benares had been carrying ninety children being evacuated from the British Isles to Canada to escape the Luftwaffe's night bombing of London. Seventy-seven of them perished in the sinking. We had no way of knowing. The ship was sailing without lights and no request for safe passage had been made. Cries of outrage flooded the airwaves, the British press called it Hitler's foulest deed." During our time in Kiel, command pulled ObLtzS Benno Pfefferberg aside for further training. He returned with a markedly better grasp of U-boat tactics. Surely he is being prepared for his own command, he has shown resilience under the hard circumstances of the past year and a half and heavens know that we need as many good u-boat commanders as we can get, still it will be sad when he finally gets the call. 1941 brings many changes. BdU is shifting the emphasis deeper into the Atlantic due to the threat from maritime patrol aircraft near the British coast becoming. We are also to begin experimenting with Rudeltaktik, the coordination of multiple boats against single convoys. How exactly this will be orchestrated remains unclear, but the idea is sound in principle. More encouraging still, we are assured that the torpedo troubles of the last eighteen months should now be behind us. Command guarantees an expected success rate of at least 83% for both the G7A and G7E. The improvement comes none too soon as Allied anti-submarine measures are becoming noticeably more accurate, and we can expect convoy attacks and escort engagements to grow more difficult. The Type VIIC itself represents a real step forward from the VIIA. It sports a full internal aft torpedo tube with space for a reload, larger forward torpedo stocks, increased fuel capacity for longer reach, greater stores for extended time on station, and twin rudders that should improve manoeuvrability. The crew is eager to put the new boat through her paces. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/49/77497e94-57f0-4097-b157-16e7e3df5c21/content/images/2026/08/4.png) Our new boat, U-77 --- ### *Context* *The high point of the First Happy Time was already fading. Severe winter weather in the North Atlantic, combined with a temporary shortage of operational oceangoing boats, produced a clear drop in results. U-boats were pushed further west in an effort to catch convoys before their anti-submarine escorts joined, but this made contacts harder to find. Most sinkings in these two months were independent ships or stragglers rather than well-escorted convoys. January 1941 saw one of the lowest monthly totals since the intensified campaign of summer 1940.* *The Blitz against British cities continued. German surface raiders remained active (Admiral Hipper made a brief Atlantic sortie), and the Mediterranean theatre was heating up with Italian operations and the early stages of British counter-moves in North Africa.* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/49/77497e94-57f0-4097-b157-16e7e3df5c21/content/images/2026/08/blitz.png) The London Blitz *Throughout 1940 the Abwehr made repeated attempts to land agents in neutral Ireland, often by U-boat or small boat . The aims were intelligence gathering, weather reporting, and contact with the IRA. Most agents were poorly prepared, spoke limited English and were quickly captured by Irish or British authorities. Results were generally poor.* *On the night of 17/18 September 1940 (a bit earlier than our timeline) the passenger liner City of Benares was torpedoed by U-48 in the North Atlantic while carrying around 90 British child evacuees bound for Canada under the Children's Overseas Reception Board scheme. 77 of the children died. The sinking caused international outrage, was widely condemned as "Hitler's foulest deed," and effectively ended the government-sponsored overseas evacuation of children. The U-boat crew had no knowledge of the passengers until after the fact.* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/49/77497e94-57f0-4097-b157-16e7e3df5c21/content/images/2026/08/SS_City_of_Benares.jpg) City of Benares --- ### *Commentary* *Not much in the way of decision space on this one. I did opt for aggression on City of Benares, not wanting to risk an escort engagement. In the end we had to re-engage anyway but the threat of enemy ASW efforts came to naught.* *The new Type VIIC will give us more options with greater patrol range, we will now have 4 patrol segments for each patrol area, and the high torpedo count means we have the ability to engage in 3 full engagements with all fore tubes firing before having to RTB.* *Pfefferberg reaching 1WO Experten status helps us only a tiny bit in that if our character gets seriously wounded, we're able to continue the patrol without penalties.*