MITTELMEER PATROL 1
On 28-DEZ-41, U-133 entered Gruppe C at CO5311 and made our way east toward CO65 and CO68. Almost immediately, we were harassed on a daily basis by enemy aircraft. On 31-DEZ-41, we came across and sank an escorted British Empire Freighter. We had to expend 3 torpedoes as one ran deep directly under the target. The escort attacked with wasserbombs, but lost track of us passing 80 meters and we sustained no damage.
We sailed toward Alexandria and on 03-JAN-42 we were attacked by a British Hudson bomber in CP4761, whose wasserbombs caused minor hull damage. At this point, the airborne threat was becoming so prevalent, we decided to head back to the choke point between Tobruk to the south and Crete to the north.
On 09-JAN-42, we made contact with a merchant heading west in CO56. We chased down an Australian Liberty Cargo in the eastern portion of Gruppe B {CO55} and sank her expending 4 torpedoes, one of which again ran deep under the target and one which struck her broadside but did not detonate.
We continued to patrol this area and on 10-JAN-42 made contact with a heavily escorted British Large Merchant in CO5598 heading east. U-133 slipped inside the escort screen and sank the merchant with two torpedoes. Knowing the escorts would be on us quickly, we dove stern first to mask our cavitations. By the time the first escort was above us, we were passing 80 meters slow and silent. We continued our decent to 125 meters and could hear 3 escorts above us. They circled for 45 minutes, but did not detect us nor drop any wasserbombs.
On 11-JAN-42, we sank a Australian Small Freighter heading east in CO5563 with one torpedo and easily evaded the accompanying escort. We then proceeded north to the southwest tip of Crete to load our two external torpedoes before heading south again.
On 12-JAN-42, U-133 sank an Australian Small Freighter and a British Large Merchant in two separate engagements in CO5536 and CO5289 respectively. In the second engagement, we had to let an accompanying armed Coastal Freighter go because we were out of torpedoes.
We were headed back to Salamis when on 13-JAN-42 we encountered an enemy Task Force of 3 Fiji Cruisers and 3 Destroyer escorts in CO5621 heading 120 at 14-15 knots. We surfaced just long enough to send off a contact signal and then did a crash dive to 145 meters to evade two escorts, which quickly converged on our location. The escorts did not pinpoint our location but dropped many wasserbombs astern of us for about 45 minutes before sailing off to rejoin the Task Force. Once we could no longer detect the Task Force, we surfaced and proceeded to Salamis with no further incident.
Departed Salamis 27 DEZ 1941
Docked Salamis 14 JAN 1942 after 19 days at sea
Sank 6 enemy merchants for 31.731 GRT
Expended 14 torpedoes: 11 good detonations; 2 ran deep; 1 dudSome images overexposed for clarity ...
Put two torpedoes into an Empire Freighter
British Liberty Cargo going down
Heavily escorted Large Merchant going down
The escorts were not happy but unable to find us
An Aussie Small Freighter about to go down; escort no threat
An unescorted Aussie Small Freighter explodes
Last two torpedoes sink an armed British Large Merchant
After sending contact report on 3 Fiji Cruisers, escorts come looking
Return to Base
