This is also being posted at SimHQ, but I thought I'd put it up here as well. OM is a great mod, and I've enjoyed it so much I decided to detail some of my experiences and share some of the highlights -- and lowlights! -- of my career. This career is in the 7th Flotilla using a September 1939 start., in U-47 a Type VIIB. It is being played dead is dead, no reloads, at 88% difficulty with only map contacts enabled. My main goal is to survive the war, if that's indeed possible. With that in mind, the decisions I make are tempered with caution, though when a major warship is encountered, caution is sometimes thrown to the wind. I am playing OM 7.20 with OMEGU, the KiUB mod and Webster's no plankton.
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U-47 set sail from Kiel on Sept 3 1939, bound for grid AM52, on the western approach to the British Isles. Enroute between Scapa Flow and the Shetland Islands, we encountered a huge Dutch freighter of 9,000 tons, and another ship, west of Stornoway, a 5000 ton Panamanian steamer, both of which were sent to the bottom in straightforward periscope attacks.
After sinking the second ship we surfaced to put distance between U-47 and the scene, expecting aircraft to arrive shortly to investigate. Soon, we dove to avoid it's arrival, and as we did so, warship screws were detected closing from the south. Once the aircraft had departed, surfaced and made a flank speed surface dash to close the track and pulled the plug upon sighting a flank escorting destroyer. Continuing to close submerged, a fleet carrier emerged from the light fog 3500 meters distant.
Slipped inside the port screen, and using the pencil, stopwatch, compass and nomograph, determined a speed of 18 knots after a 3 minute plot. A ship making 18 knots covers 1650 meters in 3 minutes, so I quickly spun the dials, set the torpedos for 4 meters, fast, impact, and opened all four bow tubes, which were loaded with steamers. Dialing in an AoB of 72 port, bearing 020, range 700, speed 18 knots, resulting in a gyro angle of triple zeros, I placed the scope on 020 and 2 minutes later the Illustrious crossed the wire. All four tubes were fired at intervals to spread the torpedoes along it's length. Fortune was with us as all four struck the carrier and detonated, and the Illustrious, 23000 tons, plummeted to the bottom of the ocean, 6 minutes after sighting.
We did not see it sink as we were already on the way down to 160 meters. The escorts were not able to find us despite their best efforts, and we slipped away to the south. A good start to the career of U-47, 3 ships for 37k in the first 10 days of the war, but I know it is unlikely to last.