‘And your wife, Heiny? How long since you last saw her?’

‘Oh…about three months ago…I think. We had a few days off on my last leave. Klara’s parents have a place in Bühl on the outskirts of the Black Forest. It’s very beautiful. Very peaceful; you can almost forget the war…’

‘This bloody war…I’ll not be sorry when it ends,’ he said giving his friend a sideways glance that conveyed what both men knew, the hunting trips for The Wolf Packs would soon be over.

With a final look at the receding coastline they flicked their cigarettes into the sea and went below.

It was a nervous time for everyone onboard. They travelled on the surface keeping an eye out for enemy ships and aircraft; it was the fastest and safest way by far as they were harder to spot by destroyers whose ASDIC was useless for searching surface vessels. Their type VIIC, one of the newest U-Boats in the fleet, was 220.1 feet long with a surfaced displacement of 761 tons and 865 tons submerged. On the surface it could travel 6,500 nautical miles at a speed of 17.2 knots but submerged that dropped to 80 nautical miles and its speed by half. In addition it was equipped with the Schnorchel. Put simply, the Schnorchel was a pipe with a valve on one end, which extended above sea level while the boat was submerged. The tube consisted of an intake and exhaust pipe, where outside air was drawn into the U-Boat, and exhaust gases expelled from the exhaust pipe. The shutoff valve prevented seawater from entering the intake if the mouth of the tube dipped below the surface. Wilhelm had had more than one occasion to be grateful for this piece of kit. Being able to run its diesels’ underwater gave him a tactical advantage, not only were they more powerful, faster, and had longer range, but more importantly, they eluded allied radar.