An Island Secret

Chapter 1

The crew were already at their battle stations, the guns had been checked and were ready, they had watched the old steamer get closer and closer silhouetted by the moon, it was perfect. They had done this many times now and had perfected the attack. Get in quick destroying the bridge, this was easy for them with the multi-barrelled machine gun; on these merchantmen, most radio masts were attached to the bridge and the radio was usually sited in there as well. They would then board, take any supplies they needed and any documents they could find. Once they had what they wanted, it was sent to the bottom by opening the sea valves. Unfortunately they could not take any prisoners, so, they were forced into the hold or a cabin; they found out what was in store, when the sea rushed in as she was on her way down.

The crew were proud of their craft, she was around 140ft in length and quite slim. She was powered by three big diesel engines giving her a top speed of around 40 knots, which was achievable from standing in around four minutes. She was known to the allies as an E-Boat. Her armament was formidable, there were torpedo tubes, ready loaded, one each side, and she carried two spare torpedoes on the deck, and the crew could have them in the tubes ready to launch in minutes. There was a twin barrelled 20mm heavy machine gun mounted on a swivel which was set in the front deck, this was for streamlining and making her harder to spot, but the main weapon was sited towards the rear and was a 30mm multiple barrelled flak cannon. This they had taken from one of the allied ships they had attacked, along with the 20mm canon. This could put down a devastating rate of fire, and would totally wreck the bridge structure and anything in it, against the merchantmen that were her prey and had no armour; at most they had one, maybe two machine guns, the crew with their craft always won.

They had been operating around the Greek Islands now for just over twelve months and had not suffered any losses. They tried not to use the torpedoes as they weren’t sure when the next supply submarine would arrive. Due to their success, the Allies had really clamped down and it was increasingly harder for the supply subs to sneak past the straits of Gibraltar, so the Admiralty assumed they had to come from a base in Italy and these were watched constantly.

They were using a base that had been built in secret, using slave labour, and on finishing, the workers were all put on a ship that had been captured from the Allies, and set out to sea; when it was a few miles from the island it was scuttled and sent to the bottom, with all the workers. The Captain in charge belonged to the SS, as did his crew; he had handpicked them for their fanaticism and ruthlessness. They thought nothing about sinking a ship with all its crew, in this case all the workers, the reason being that they could identify the island if one of them escaped and made it to the allied lines, and that was something that could not be allowed under any circumstances.

The Captain had been brought up as one of the Hitler youth and immediately joined the party and the SS as soon as he was old enough. His parents were both party members and were proud of their son. He rapidly progressed up through the ranks and was totally committed to the course. He was aware of the Allied supply ships and suggested to the higher ranks that if they gave him an E-boat, he would find a base and stop the supplies. The island they found was by accident; they had hidden behind it one day to intercept an allied ship when they saw the cleft in the cliffs, so investigated and he realized the potential for a base. They had found the cave and it was big enough to hide the boat, this would work, a secret base right in the Islands where they were working. No more long trips from the current base in Italy. He could not stand the Italian’s anyway; he thought they were inferior and were not to be trusted, he thought they would be better off without them anyway. Therefore, when they returned, he started to get things organised.

The base was a small island, about three square miles, it had cliffs all the way round apart from a small cutting with a turn in it, so making the small sandy bay inside invisible from the sea. From around two hundred metres out, with the turn, it just looked like the normal cliffs. The little bay had a small beach to one side, opposite this beach was a cave entrance, but once inside, they had modified it. It now housed a docking area, storage and repair facilities, with a tunnel up to the surface; this had rooms off it with running water and electricity. On the beach, a small pier had been built, the water was quite deep nearly all the way to the shore, and a cottage just up from the beach made it appear as if a small family lived there, and there was always someone about or out fishing so when the Allies flew over looking for them, all they saw was a small family settlement.

And now here they were, partially hidden by a rocky outcrop, the boat and crew waited, anticipating the moment they would suddenly be hurled forward by the massive engines, these were just idling also waiting for the order to push forward with all their might and power. The attack was well rehearsed; they would pick a place where the target would be silhouetted against the moon, if possible. They had done it many times before, dash forward firing the twin barrelled 20mm heavy machine gun at the bridge, then turning broad side on in order to bring the 30mm multi barrelled cannon to bear and this finished off anything the machine gun missed. The bridge structure would be totally wrecked, anyone in it would most likely be killed, usually before they had even started to transmit a signal.

They would then board the ship, round up any survivors and lock them in a cabin or the hold. The crew were armed with the MP40, a 9mm machine pistol a well-proven weapon in battle, the German army loved it, for it was very effective, so could easily deal with any resistance. They would search for codebooks and documents, and take from the stores anything they needed. As most of these ships were dropping supplies to the Greek resistance, this included arms, ammunition, medical supplies, food, and the fuel oil that powered it. This last one was a necessity and the engineers at the base had constructed a special tank that fitted in the E-Boat to carry it. Once back at the island base, it was pumped into a large tank to feed the generator and the boat. This had made the crew less dependent on the supply subs, which with the Allies clamping down, were rare; they only relied on these for torpedoes but lately even getting these was proving a problem, which is why they had developed this style of attack; this had allowed them to keep the torpedoes they had and to stockpile them when they were able to get a delivery of them. With these torpedoes, they had the capability to attack more heavily armed ships. This problem of supplies was also the reason they had taken the 20mm and 30mm from one of the allied ships. They could always get more ammunition from the next ship they intercepted, but were struggling to get ammunition from their own forces for their own weapons, and now they had built up quite a stock of weapons, ammunition, medical supplies and fuel.

The Captain gave the order, the engines responded immediately, thrusting the boat forward at an incredible rate. The Captain had chosen the spot well and they would be within firing range in seconds, they all felt the exhilaration of charging towards the merchantman and the excitement of another kill. Then to their astonishment, a high-powered searchlight suddenly stabbed out as they started the attack, dazzling the man operating the machine gun and he could not see to aim properly. It was his job to try to kill the crew in the bridge of the ship, they did not want a signal getting out, and he knew the 30mm would finish anything off that he missed. The Captain thought why would an old merchantman have a light as powerful as this, then he found out.

Before he had a chance to react there, were arcing lines of light approaching them and hammering into the boat, creating chaos. It was cutting through the armour like paper. The crew were screaming as the shells and the shrapnel that was peppering the deck all around them, was cutting them down. The Captain wondered how this could be happening. He just had time to think, So this is what it is like to be on the receiving end, when he saw an immense bright flash as one of the torpedoes took a hit and then just darkness, it was over, and the sea was back to normal except for a little wreckage and an oil slick. The crew and the boat they were so proud of had been totally obliterated by the explosion. The merchant ship stopped for a short time to look for anyone or anything worthwhile, but finding nothing, just carried steadily on with her mission to the next island and supply drop.

Back at the base, the engineers who remained there and pretended to be fishermen were worried when the craft did not return. It should have been back in the early hours of the morning, they supposed it had got held up and had to lay over somewhere. It had camouflage nets for just this purpose and it had happened before. But after two days they realised something had gone wrong, they tried to raise it on the radio to no avail. The sergeant in charge decided to give them one more day, but when there was still no sign, he ordered the fishing boat to take supplies on board and they all set off to look for them. He had got the directions from the Commandant’s office and when they got to the area, they found some papers