Demise of the S-18, Reins retardeness.

[rein1705]

Hullo Again. I love this site by the way! I have it as my home page.

24, Dec, 1941. 22:00 hrs.
Contact reported bearing 000 range around 20 nm
They were coming our way. Location: Near Manella.
I went ahead and ordered an intercept course at best speed.
We had to surface as we were preforming a trim dive at 90 feet. Surfaced into a storm, same one that had been raging for the last six hours. Our little pig boat was being tossed about in six foot + seas. Sonar had confirmed several merchant vessels and no sounds of escorts. minus the weather it was a golden opportunity. Time to make a name for the S-18 i said to my XO. (unfortunately my cat only meowed and offered no other advice) some time later we made visual contact with what appeared to be a tanker group without an escort. pbly heading for the Celebs sea i figured. "at least one of these tankers is getting a detour to the bottom of the sea" i says to my furry XO. "Press on helmsman, General quarters"
there were 3 large modern tankers off my bow, completely unaware of my presence. I set up for a surface torpedo attack on the lead tanker and sint two fish her way. made course correction for number two... *RL reload time 4 tubes only* i went ahead and fired on target two... maybe i should have dived.... lead went up in a blaze of glory and i felt quite wonderful about myself... and then the spotlights cut threw the rain and lit me up. :o
I'm less that 3000 from the 3rd ship and the second goes up. lead ship is heading for the bottom. and then the shells start flying... Hell there just the merchant marine, We can take em! man the deck gun!!
that was probably my last words however. a shell struck the conning tower and a second hit the deck just aft of it. massive damage. we might have put 25 shells in the last tanker before we came to our wounds and sank.
most times I'mm not that clumsy and i fancy myself better with the S-Boats than the fleet boats. just thought id share this silly story with you guys. I could use some help in figuring out some operating tactics with the s-boats if anyone would be willing to work with me.
I am using FOTRS.

[magic452]

I think you already found out but those merchant gunners aren't to shabby.
Not the best idea to take on an armed merchant with a 3" deck gun, gotta take care of that furry XO.
Now if you were in a Narwhal with 2 6" guns, well different story.

Good story by the way. Sad ending but a good story.
I would rather have that storm than clear skys and calm seas.

S boats are slow going so what I do is set up a zigzag pattern with each leg about 1 hour at 10 knots, do a sonar sweep yourself as you approach the end of each leg, I go around the corner and cover my 6. You can hear much better than your sonar man. I use a little TC down each leg to speed things up a bit but not too much. Too many surprises at high TC without radar.

It's a lot of fun to develop your own sound contacts and track them down.
I'm now in mid 44 and want to get to the end but I miss the early war without radar makes things more interesting.


I agree that this is a great site, spend almost as much time here as I do playing the game.

Good luck and good hunting
Magic

[Admiral8Q]

Ha ha! Take them on at night, and spin around with the rudder.:O:

[Diopos]

Rein,
The admiralty gave you a sub.
If it wanted you to do surface action it would have given you a DD or something ...

:DL


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[rein1705]

Thanks for the advice magic.
And you'd be surprised what a determined S-boat can pull off. lol.

[Admiral8Q]

After playing the Narwhal I restarted the game with the USS Perch (Porpoise class) and didn't even get a deck gun. That really changed my tactics. :yep:

It's very annoying when a lone merchie is dead in the water and you can't finish her off on the surface with a few DG shots. I tried the aa gun, but that didn't do much. I had to waste two more torpedoes because the first one was a dud :nope:

[Jan Kyster]

She won't be forgotten! Silversides salutes! :salute:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/USS_S-18_%28SS-123%29.jpg

A sad and nice little story. Thanks! :up:

[rein1705]

That's an awesome pic of the 18. :yeah:
I'll now have to look up what really happened to her in the war now.
Maybe I'll be lucky enough to do it proud next time around.
By the way i have the light gray paint like in the picture for the S-boats, Did anyone ever make a skin with the numbers on the conning tower like that?

[rein1705]

Just a funny observation... but what are those two on the bow up to?

[Jan Kyster]

They are levitating. Hugging and levitating.

An artform this generation seems to have forgotten... :D

[tomoose]

Assuming the long lines fore and aft are part of the HF antenna I would guess that the two gents up front are repairing or replacing something.

:salute:

[Admiral8Q]

They must be putting up Christmas lights...

[Diopos]

They're hanging the laundry....




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[rein1705]

good eye tomoose.

[Littica Marek]

Thanks for the advice magic.
And you'd be surprised what a determined S-boat can pull off. lol.

Don't I know it, Was given orders to scout out Appari in the north of Luzon Island, arriving in the area I order the crew to take our little S-Boat down to Para-scope depth and to do a mandatory hydra-phone scan.

It is here we detect what we soon find is an incoming Convoy 3 Heavy Cargo Ships and two Destroyer escorts.

Ordering Silent running and all hands to battle stations, Carefully watching the convoys movements i realize i am trapped, shallow water and Sonar pinging i decide discretion just may be the better part of valor.

The the waters close to Appari there is a small area of much deeper water, we travel there at 1/3 speed and hold position.

Safe I watch was the convoy stays in position, deciding that they are either waiting for a greater fleet to invade i decide I have to do something about it, maneuvering into position I start making calculations.

A long story short 3 well aimed Torpedo's later the tree Cargo ships are well on the way to the ocean floor and my little S-Boat is sneaking away from the area leaving the escorting destroyers looking forwards to there latest *report*

[Loudspeaker]

I remember seeing an interview with German U-boat ace, Hardegen, where he is asked to talk about his absolutely most terrifying experience during the war. He told that it most certainly was an encounter with a Q-ship, which were armed merchants. Considering the many hardships he must have experienced, this clearly shows that armed merchants is NOT a good idea to fight out at the surface.

[MKalafatas]

http://issuu.com/hnsa/docs/ss-123_s-18?mode=a_p

Patrol reports from the real S-18.

[Mister_Spok]

Ahoi sailors!

I was just curious, why do people love S-Boats? In-game ofcourse!

I personally like to sail S-Boats. In my current career I rescently got shiny new Salmon-class boat. It's fast, powerful, has huge operational range, stern tubes and biiig torpedo stash (comparing to S-boat). But! It's not that fun anymore, with surfased hydrophone ability, radar, fast torps! Why?

Maybe I should try german type VII U-boats and some ATO mods? Those boats are pretty like Sugar ones. I do not know.

[Littica Marek]

You know im not sure, perhaps its the underdog aspect, using old outdated equipment to wreak havoc on the enemy shipping lanes, the feeling of one wrong move can lead to disaster.

Whatever the reason, i enjoy my time as her Skipper and am sad to see her go, that said.. from what I have heard I would not want to still be using her in the last year of the war... I dont think she would hold up too well

[MKalafatas]

Aye, I like it because it is the greatest challenge. When upgrades are offered, I take them, feeling I've earned it. In TMO you can take the S-boat to Dutch Harbor and fight the war from there. I've not done it yet, but look forward to trying it....

[bill clarke]

Is the Narwhal modelled in the game ?