Wartime Letter Assignment

I decided to do my letter about being a German U Boat sailor because it'll let me know more about how submarines were in that time. Submarines are powerful and stealthy war machines and they seem interesting to me. I had to do further investigation to have a clearer view of how a German U Boat was exactly. I could have done this by hand, but having a dirty paper in my backpack for the whole vacation week wasn't a plan I liked...

Dear Family,

It's been 3 years since I enlisted for the Navy of our country. I have to say it has been an amazing experience. Well, I send you whis letter to inform that I was promoted to work un one of those Undersea Boats. I'm now a 2nd Weapon Assistant in my assigned U-20 boat. I basically control the 3.5 in. anti-armor and anti-personnel naval gun and help to track and locate enemy ships. I really like my new position in the boat, handling heavy weaponary has always been my "passion".

This boat has a lenght of about 210 ft and we have a tripulation of 35 men, can you imagine how much space we have? We can barely breath! We can't stay much time underwater or we would run out of oxygen. I knew almost half my crew as I remember them from the bootcamp. Also, 4 member went to the same high school as me, and 2 of them are officers of the boat (remember Walther?)

As of today, we have gone through 3 operations (I just came back from the last one), 2 of the which were succesful. These new German inventions have been tremendously succesful, we have high hopes of winning this war, as we seem have the naval advantage now. On the 1st mission, our torpedo (underwater missile) missed the British merchant ship and we were spotted. Luckily, we were able to escape the warzone before it was too late (these boats are slow!).

Our 2nd mission was a controversial success. You should have read something in the newspaper about this, as it brought some neutral nations against us! Including the United States! Let me explain this: basically, our operations are commercial blockades along with other U-boats (as we call them) to prevent war supplies from arriving getting to the British. While patrolling, we spotted a ship that looked exactly as a carrier, it was the Lusitania. We were ordered to destroy any ship that wanted to cross the blockade. Walther ordered to fire a single torpedo to the ship, making a direct critical hit. We when then ordered to turn back to the blockade and let the ship sink, as Walther told us he couldn't fire another torpedo at a ship full of suffering people trying to save their lives.

The Americans went crazy about this, and demanded us for that "cruelty". We warned them not to cross the blockade or otherwise get attacked! Well the ship resulted to carry no supplies and had VIP civilians in it (most of them, American).

Still, our commander thinks we did a good job and I'll keep my position in the boat. We just hope this situation doesn't make those nations raise arms against us. I promise I will keep you up with letters at least once a month.

Wish me the best of lucks!
Tschüs!