Submerged
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His boat was going to die.
And all his men? Yes, they were going to die as well.
He sat in his quarters trying to argue with his terrible conclusions. The death of his crew as well as his boat. The two interconnected facts had been threading through Captain Bruckner’s thoughts for weeks. He railed against such fatalism because it challenged his natural tendency to be an optimist.
His colleagues had always branded him an arrogant, prideful bastard, but they respected him because of his record of successes. Victory came more easily to those who believe they cannot be beaten, and Erich Heinz Bruckner had always been a huge believer in himself and his abilities.
But this war and its maniac-leaders had proved to be larger than anything Captain Bruckner had ever encountered in his twenty-five years — so young to be a U-boat captain, but Admiral Doenitz was quite simply running out of men, especially qualified officers. Sworn to defend the Fatherland, Erich had not wavered when the European campaign called him. He’d been raised in a military family — father and older brother had both been German Navy men. His father had distinguished himself at Jutland; and his brother, Gunther, had gone down with his crew in the U-201 east of Newfoundland almost two years ago to the day.