July 1940, somewhere 100 km south of Iceland.
And there he was, my finest bootsmann; Adelbert Leder, with a smile so big, I forgot we were at war...
When I sent a man to Papey island in the dinghy, carrying three of my grandfathers gold pieces, I sent my best.
Bootsmann Leder is one of the finest young men that Germany has entrusted to me.
Tonight, as he had returned from his mission to buy eggs, cream, meat and cakes for the crew, a loud knocking came at the hatch to my quarters.
I yelled for him to come in, and Leder and two other sailors, entered with smiles so big, I forgot we were at war.
Bootsmann Leder began to explain that, to his best assessment, Papey Island was unsuitable for most farming. He had made contact with a farmer on the
island, who had explained to him he could sell him two things; potatoes and potato vodka. After Leder told the farmer he came carrying german gold, the man had looked
at the dinghy, counted a couple times using all ten fingers, and said "Lets start loading her up, it will be dawn soon".
And so it came to be that this young, german rascal who had been entrusted with so much, returned with only one thing; enough potato vodka for the crew to get besauft, and then some...
Of course I stared at Bootsmann Leder in complete bewilderment; the man had just told me he spent enough gold to buy a Berlin family food for 2 months, and came back with
nothing but flasks of potato vodka...
His smile instantly faded, I think I saw fear in his eyes, as he asked me if there would be a court-martial, like Otto's?
Then the idea came to me. The crew was exhausted, my officers needed rest. It had been a long journey, and we weren't even halfway.
I ordered Leder to take some bed sheets off the sailors' racks and hang them in the forward quarters. We placed some lighting behind the sheets, cleared charts and paperwork from
the tables and turned the gramophone to its highest setting. That night aboard U-74, as Lale Andersen sang her angelic songs, there were no ranks, no bootsmann and officers..
we were friends. Tough, proud, scared...
I never saw men laugh so much, and as Leder looked back at me and gave me a big smile, I realized I had just become a captain. My commission from Doenitz meant nothing.
Tonight I became a commanding officer...when I gave these young men an evening of reprieve from war, while singing to Lili Marleen and drinking Iceland's finest potato vodka.
I made a small painting of the scene, for my dearest Ingrid. She knows I secretly like to paint.
Midjourney AI: Top image: "Young german sailors getting drunk on potato vodka, big smiles, realistic faces, unreal engine, octane render"
Bottom image: "Kriegsmarine sailors sitting around a table getting drunk on potato vodka inside a submarine"
The images aren't actually pulled from the web, the AI creates them based on sentences. It works best with full sentences versus keywords.
I then edit/age the images using Gimp. Role-play is adjusted to fit images.
