Stories and Patrol Logs + Screenshots and Videos (merged)

[tedhealy]

Messed around with color levels in some of them.

[Bort]

Manual TDC:

[zylark]

Long time lurker, first time poster. SH3 veteran and currently run SH4 v1.2 with Flavoured to Taste mod. 73% realism (with mod). All checked except realistic targeting, and no external cam options.
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Patrol Report, Commander Zylark of USS Triton. Operating from Fremantle Australia.

Patrol took place between June 12th and July 23rd 1942.

DEPLOYMENT AND TESTS

Received orders to assist our cloak and daggers outfit in transporting a team of well trained landlubbers to the east coast of the Phillipines main Island. For security reasons, exact coordinates cannot be unveiled. Also this was an experimental trip. The USS Triton have just been outfitted with new Radars. Apparantly some gremlins plagued the old models, but rumour have it that some hobbyists did what the defence contractors could not. Bring pesticide to all bugs in the wiring of the old system that is. Ofcourse, this required ripping out all the old gear and reinstalling the new from scratch. Just patching up the old installation was not entirely fault free.

Two days out, radar picked up a merchant. Not even out of Australian waters, we pretty much assumed it was a friendly. Due to the nature of our mission, we did not close for a visual, but the episode was a perfect occasion to test our new systems. Went to slow, and did a 360 to check if contact was lost. We held our collective breath as our bearing inched towards 90' due East. Contact held. Due south likewize. All the way no matter the bearing, the contact held. Great news.

Back on course. There was still one thing to test, would it pick up airplanes? Previously we've been a bit weary of aircraft popping out from nowhere and with no warning sans visual contact. A bit too late at many times, thus a habit of pretty much staying submerged at 30 meters during daytime developed. Better cautious than wet.

Topside it was until first AC contact. By radar preferably. Woe and behold, by the Timor Sea, we picked up a very fast contact. Too fast for any boat after evaluating the contact for some 20 seconds. Another success for our great tinkerers back home. Crash dive to 30 meters and ride it out for the remainder of the day. Went topside by dusk. Rinse and repeat for every AC contact.

Out in the Banda sea a little test more remained. How deep would this new baby go. Not one to take uneccesary risks, I decided 120 meters would be a good test depth. Emergency crew on standby, and CiC geared for emergency surface, we went deep. Yet another success. Comforting to say the least.

FIRST MULTIPLE CONTACT

June 21st. At the end of our daytime 30 meter crawl, my sonaroperator picked up massive amounts of traffic ahead of our course. Still far away. Was not really all that eager to engage enemy before my cargo was safely delivered, but a contact of this magnitude was tempting. Very tempting.

Surfaced around 19.00 and went full ahead to get into a good position. As I closed more or less head on, I went to periscope depth and petered along at silent running. There was quite a few DDs surrounding the task force, so better be careful. As I got into visual range, a quick recon unveiled a massive target. 5 DDs, 2 light cruisers and one Mogami Class cruiser. And that was just the warships. Two rows of 5 medium passenger liners was the centerpiece of the formation.

Oh yes. What a tasty target. But, there is always a but, something went awry. Don't ask me what, but all of a sudden a DD went full speed and straight for my position. Two more DDs soon followed suit, and the Cruisers dispersed. Crap. Time for plan B. Go deep and reposition. Sneaked off to get some distance from the area the DDs was circling. All friggin' five of them. Luckily the rest of the formation virtually stopped in their tracks, so no risk of loosing the target rich enviroment. Stopped engines and floated up to peri-depth. Good weather, no waves and clear skies. And more importantly, a DD dead astern about 700m away. Peri up, launch fish, go deep. It was a hit, but not a kill. Repositioned to bring my front fishes in line with the projected course of the now circling Mogami Cruiser. Up again and fired a salvo of 3. Two hit, and one miss. No matter. Two was enough. Not that it sank in any hurry, but it was clearly taking in water. Another reposition and revisit our wounded DD friend. As luck would have it, mere meters from the wounded boat, another DD was sitting still. Possibly for rescue operations, but not my concern. A target is a target. Sent two fishes out my stern. The supporting DD took a direct hit and went down in a fireball. The wounded DD also received a hit, but it just went "CLUNK!". My XO reported that it was a dud. Well thank you for the helpful information Mr. Obvious. Man that DD had goldhairs growing out its, umm, stern. Not wanting to hang around or waste another torp on that DD, I called it quits. Didn't have all that much fishes left in the tubes anyway. Just one in the stern and three in bow. Back to the mission at hand.

Tally:
Mogami Cruiser sunk @ June 22nd
Akizuki DD sunk @ June 22nd
Akizuki DD disabled @ June 22nd

COMMANDO INSERTION

Cargo delivered in pouring rain and zero visibility around 0300 June 24th. Pretty uneventful. On egress though, we picked up a single merchant moving at medium speed. By this time we pretty much ignored single contacts, assuming they were small targets hardly worthy of a fish. But they usually move at low speed, so this contact got interesting. Besides, it was practically heading straight for me. Intercept course, and woe and behold, a Large Merchant was just about visible through my periscope. Sent a fish to it. It hit somewhat off centre, and it was not enough to sink it. As the weather had cleared up, and being somewhat economical with my resources, i put USS Triton to rest some 3km from the target, surfaced and finished it off with the deck gun.

Tally:
Lg. Modern Composite Merchant sunk @ June 26th

SECOND MULTIPLE CONTACT

ComSubPac must have been pleased with me, as they ordered me to patrol the Luzon straight after my successful commando insertion. However, I wish they didn't use days in deciding such orders. By the time my radioman got the new orders, we was already navigating the Islands of the Phillipines / Sully Sea.

Decided to bring the boat up to the Luzon Straight via the west coast of the Phillipenes, and not backtrack. As we got close to Manilla, we picked up a Convoy on Radar. It was on a tangent course, so we adjusted ours a smidge, went full ahead and got into postion. Down to 75 meters and waiting for them to get close.

As convoys go it was somewhat dissappointing. No really large targets, biggest tubs were two old Split Merchants. Decided on a stern shot and target the nearest before doing a 180 and take out the second from my front tubes. The plan worked kinda'. Nearest ship went down, but there was no time for a second attack. Four DDs circling above, is as good a reason as any to slinker off to more safe waters.

Tally:
Lg. Old Split Merchant sunk @ July 6th

THIRD MULTIPLE CONTACT

Having cleared the busy lanes out of Manilla, I had to dive to avoid incoming AC. Something was making a real ruckos, my sonarman nearly freaked. Warships by the dozen on a paralell course to mine, doing good speed. Went to intercept and have a looksie. My sonarman had good reason to freak. Three flat-tops and a plethora of supportships. Including no less than seven DDs. Went deep and silent, awaiting the forward screen of DDs to pass.

Up to periscope depth just in time to acquire the first Flat-top in my scope. Fired three forward fishes at it. Two hits, one miss. It did not sink, but listed heavily with the front partially submerged. Went forward a bit to let off three rear fishes at another Carrier behind me. All three went "CLUNK!". Not enough distance apparantly between me and the target. Ah well, it was worth it. A one shot chance, as by this time they was picking up speed. Ahead of me was the juiciest target of all. A Shokaku Fleet carrier at a whopping 28.000 tonnes. A small course correction, and fired off my three remaining fishes. All found their target and in a perfect spread. It went down in flames.

By this time things got rather heated. I kid you not, seven DDs was buzzing angrily above. Was deep and put some 2km between me and the wounded carrier. Sent off my last stern fish towards it, and it finally sunk.

As I now had only one torpedo left and no reserves, I decided to call it quits. Head back to base and not follow orders to patrol the Luzon Straight.

Tally:
CV Shokaku sunk @ July 8th
CV Hiryu sunk @ July 8th

THE LONG ROAD HOME

Quite uneventful. Avoided contacts like the plague. Full ahead at night, 30meters submerged at day. Plotted a course from Sully Sea to Celebes Sea. Manouvering between Borneo and Celebes. Coming by the small Islands east of Jawa, my radarman picked up two merchants moving slow. Time to give my deck-gun crew some training and sink a couple of petty fishermen or whatever. As we closed though, the contacts was identified as a couple of Medium Merchants. No escorts, but one of them did have a gun. We still had one torpedo left, and that was given to the front ship packing heat. Not enough to sink it, but it did stop it. Went off to some 2.5km from target, surfaced and let the deck gun boys take care of the rest. Job done on target one, and then chasing down target two. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

The rest was just peaceful. The entire crew was making plans for the imminent land-leave for the rest of the trip. I'm guessing the local Bordello and Whisky industries had a marked upswing in busienss moments after we clapped to the harbour...

Tally:
Md. Modern Split Merchant sunk @ July 17th
Md. Old Split Merchant sunk @ July 17th
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Mission Tonnage: Just over 80.000 tonnes.

Commander Zylark signing off for now. Got a date with several crates of beer and a handfull of loose women

[sqk7744]

Originally Posted by Elder-Pirate

Anybody have the instructions for this? I can't seem to make it work.

Lens Cap? or is the patch on the wrong eye :p
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[just tinkering with some colors] -some of tedhealy's pics look like real photo's

[podmornica]

[AVGWarhawk]

I'm seeing some excellent shots here men

The ghost ship I tracked in the Luzon. This bugger makes prop noises also. Nothing like tracking for hours to find this ghostie sailing by.

[tedhealy]

A few more...

[DirtyHarry3033]

...De-mast the jap b*stards




I've done this several times tonight, cripple a ship, surface and then start targetting the base of the masts. Just for sh*ts & giggles :rotfl:A single well-placed round will do it, got this one on my 2nd shot.

The screenie don't do it credit, it is quite a sight to see in real-time - imagine a telephone pole blown out of the ground 50 feet into the air and tumbling end-over-end, that's how it looks

You can see me there in the distance, just forward of the well deck. Also notice the poor jap AA gunner who was eating sushi at the time, and now he's looking at his doom crashing down on his head!

DH

[sqk7744]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

I'm seeing some excellent shots here men

The ghost ship I tracked in the Luzon. This bugger makes prop noises also. Nothing like tracking for hours to find this ghostie sailing by.

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Ya know, that's both frustrating and cool!

Makes you wonder how many ships logs ommited those kind of Sightings... Kinda like pilots and Project Blue Book.

Would be interesting to see more screenies and locations of her.

[Swat]

Approaching Midway again

USS New Mexico at Midway

Entering the port

Sunrise in Midway

Now just fill the diesel tanks...

Here we go again!

Back to Pearl Harbor with app.52000 BRT

[Elder-Pirate]

@Swat,
Your 3rd pic down in post #426 looks like you have some "Leaning Towers of Pizza". What happened to that pic?


Other than that those are some nice shots.

[Swat]

Well,you're right,didn't notice .But I really don't know what happened.I checked the screenshot and it's just the same as well.Anyway - I'm glad you enjoyed the rest of them.

[Sailor Steve]

AARRGH!!!

Swat, your pictures are lovely; I mean really good! I especially love the battleship shot.

It just drives me crazy when I see the lack of research on the part of the devs. Midway has (and had) no lighthouses, no breakwater, no buildings to speak of, and most definitely no harbor!

There was an airstrip and a couple of docks. Submarines and destroyers could refuel there, but no battleships that I'm aware of. I wish they'd get these things right.

Midway, November 1941.

[kakemann]

Escorting a task force!

[azn_132]

Here some of mine, Givin command of USS Pimpin, Sry, lazy to put a more cool lookin name



USS Pimpin crusin in the South China Sea



First kill



Off of the coast of Taiwan, sunk two DDs





Zero down



But, When Im on my return trip home I got attack by planes again but this time he got lucky killin me

Last look of Earth



Damage control pic



On my First Patrol.