One detail might illustrate our operational situation during the first year of the war; in December 1939 I got the mission to lay a minefield at the entrance of the Royal Navy base of Invergordon at the inner end of the Firth of Moray. I left Kiel with nine ground mines in the three torpedo tubes and with one spare torpedo.

(HARRY’S NOTE - please remember that, at this time, OTTO KRETSCHMER was Skipper of U-23, a TYPE II-B boat with only three torpedo tubes)

I crossed the North Sea undetected and tried to enter the Moray Firth. I prepared the boat to be scuttled with charges in case there occurred a situation which prevented my escape. Also the secret papers and ENIGMA were prepared for secure destruction. Suddenly the gyrocompass made its last breather. The magnetic compass played crazy as always in areas of uncertain variation. The only solution for carrying on was to round Kinnaird Head at night on the surface, hug the coast at a safe sounding distance and navigate by means of the radio direction finder and the music of the radio station on the southern coast.

It took some time to pass the mass of fishermen (and pickets???) about halfway in, but when the emergency navigation became too risky, I dived and waited on the ground for daylight, which would allow me to make the last lap underwater with terrestrial navigation through the periscope. Lying at a depth of some 50 meters, the boat had quite a surprise waiting. The Engineer Officer reported that in due course he would have to ask permission to drain the engine room bilges on account of an unruly influx of water which would make an unwanted noise in the face of the enemy. What I saw in the engineroom was not at all expected.

The sea water came in through the diesel engines by means of water spouts through the cylinder heads. The engineroom looked like the waterworks in the gardens of the medieval Moorish summer palace at Granada! The exhaust valves were not watertight, a matter for the dockyard. So the draining of the bilge had to be risked from time to time.

Next morning, the ground mines were laid according to plan. Outside the Firth of Moray after having surfaced the diesel engines were drained carefully and - not to believe - worked quite normal until my arrival at the home base of Kiel in the Baltic Sea. This was only a minor event during the HAPPY TIME.

Otto Kretchmer Letter (KTB 105)
Otto Kretchmer Letter (KTB 106)
Otto Kretchmer Letter (KTB 107)
Otto Kretchmer Letter (KTB 108)
Otto Kretchmer Letter (KTB 109)
Otto Kretchmer Letter (KTB 110)
Otto Kretchmer Letter (KTB 111)