To the Last Salute: Memories of an Austrian U-Boat Commander

Twenty-Eight. Gjenovic

Spartivento. Single steamships are rare—and armed. None carry a flag anymore. They don’t travel in a direct course, but once to the south, then again to the north of the steamer’s path in long zigzags in which they make more zigzags. The convoys are getting bigger and the escort is stronger. It is almost impossible to accomplish anything on the surface anymore. But someone hand me a cigarette; we ran out of tobacco!” Five, six, cigarette boxes are offered me; then the officers of the departing U-boat take their leave. A shaking of hands, “have a good trip,” and the commander of that boat goes on board last, where the crew awaits him at attention. He accepts the report: “Boat and engines ready.” They cast off the lines, the U-boat maneuvers from the mooring , and at the command, “Position starboard,” the free watch on deck mans the rail in salute, while the boat picks up speed and steers toward the passageway. “See, there is always something going on around here!” says a sailor from the U-boat station who had been helping on the dock to another one: “One comes; the other goes!” —The other goes! He never returned. Twenty-Eight.Gjenović It has been more than a year since I was in the Bocche and everything has changed. With the increase in U-boats Rose could not provide enough room, and in Gjenović stone barracks were built, efficient workshops were set up, also supply depots and our own hospital. Motorboats are available and the former makeshift circumstances have ended. The U-boats, formerly stepchildren, have prevailed and equipment and money have been found for them. We new arrivals now want to be alone. Alone with our mail. In thirty days a good pile should have accumulated! 116 GJENOVIC’ So every man withdraws into his quarters and reads and reads and forgets everything else around him. Only then do we wash, that long foregone pleasure that we prolong and savor. A young girl getting ready for her first ball does not feel any more dressed up than a U-boat man who, after a long trip, puts on clean clothes once more. But we are still on duty. The second officer has discussed thoroughly all the necessary repairs with the detail chiefs, and soon the work program is established; as soon as possible the boat must go out again. The torpedo masters—the officers of the destroyers and torpedo boats—have built a pavilion on land, the “Gunners’ Club,” a sort of offshoot of the officers’ casino in Pola. Here we can all sit together making plans and exchanging war stories. We have often exchanged fire with the enemy and are far from novices at our military profession. Here you can learn more than from the official reports, and with the red Dalmatian wine the faces get flushed in the recollection of survived battles. GJENOVIC’ 117 Fig. 22. A cruiser flotilla pushes forward, toward Otranto In the evening we officers of U-14 are summoned and escorted to the Gunners’ Club. We are greeted joyously; we must recount our stories, have a toast, and tell them again. Then one speaks up: “Have you heard what happened to U-4 the other day?” 118 GJENOVIC’ Fig. 23. A mine explosion “He had sunk a steamer in the Gulf of Tarento, and a sailing ship, when stormy weather blew in and he wanted to travel underwater for a night. “They kept at twenty meters and the man at the diving rudder was pleased that he had steered the boat so well because the needle of the depth pressure gauge didn’t move. He did not notice that its pipeline must have been blocked from the outside. “Suddenly the bow dropped 25 degrees. Singule, the commander , was awakened in his bunk hearing the commands of his officers on watch. He dashed to the second depth gauge and read ‘60 meters.’ “U-4 was proven to 50 meters and the sinking did not stop. “They wanted to blow out the tanks, but that didn’t work. The air cylinders apparently could not stand up to the outside pressure. Singule wanted to steer the boat upward and ran with maximum power, but he couldn’t prevent the sinking. It must have been a damnable state of affairs.” “And the Fallkiel...