Stories and Patrol Logs + Screenshots and Videos (merged)

[joeljansson]

time for a s-18
bernard!!! dont shoot the sun and this and this Nice?

[joeljansson]

time for a joke this was i fired deck gun and paused went to camera and...
my sub up you butt!
splitt in two by AA gun (stock of course).
over and out.

[U-46 Commander]

Here's one you might enjoy. USS Gudgeon at dusk.
Currently my desktop screen!

[Kloef]

Some shots leaving Midway,TMO 1.7.

[Kloef]

Played vanilla 1.5 for a long time,since last week i use TMO 1.7...difficulty on hard and 75% realism.

We left for our first patrol from Midway in our Purpoise boat the SS.Permit..all is well clear skies and a nice tune on the gramophone everybody's happy and i conduct a couple of dive-drills to get a feel for what has changed..one dive to 400 feet and a couple of battle staion drills,man what an improvement to actually hear the crew communicating..so we surface and commence on our long trip to the Tokyo area,hoping to sink whatever we can.

Then halfway one of my watchmen spots an aircraft at 6 miles,no time to waste now so we crashdive and level the boat at 200 feet.25 degrees port rudder and at standard speed we wait for the inevitable bombs or depth charges,tension rises amongst the crew,is it a recon plane or a maritime fighter-bomber?

Zero rudder now and we are about 1000 yards from our point of dive,way to the starboard side..then BOOM!! the boat is rocking like crazy and panic breaks out,report damage from all compartments to the captain!!
We have bad luck....the worst except for sinking....the starboard screw shaft bearing is damaged beyond repair!

Disillusioned we have only one option left,repairs at Midway..at 4knots the single port screw takes us back to our port,end of the patrol for now!

After repairs at Midway(lucky they had a spare bearing on the tender)we return once more to the original mission area,we are to patrol an area roughly between Tokyo and Kobe,a very dangerous area with lots of air patrols..

After 3 days of mindless boring patrolling our sonarman picks up a faint signal..."single contact,merchant bearing 283 speed 10 knots".. a lone traveller trying its luck at night to get to the next safe port,not this time!

After some plotting i decide to take the boat to periscope depth,the interception point is about 1300 yards at current speed and i take my time to line us up for a nice shot or two..crew at battle stations and its time to rise the periscope,we are exactly where we want to be.

Unwary of the carnage ahead most of the Jap crew is sleeping,no guns on this one and i estimate her to be a 8100 ton cargo vessel probably carrying supplies to one of the islands now in Japanese captivity,we sink her and our boys will have a less difficult time when the moment arrives to take back what was free land..that's why we are here and it keeps us motivated,morale is high but the job has yet to be done!

The moment arrives, i order tubes 1 and 2 ready and keep 3 in mind in case of a dud.Final calculations are made and the TDC gets its latest updates,only 30 seconds to fire!"Fire tubes 1 and 2!" i scream and the first fish leaves it berth on the way to devastation,she makes a high pitch noise and is running hot straight and normal,2 gets out and starts chasing down its path,down scope and we change course so the ship cant report our position judged from the steam trails of our deadly fish..we leave nothing to choice,we all have families and i take no unnessesary risks as far as my crew is concerned.

"Time on 1?" i ask our firing officer.."12 seconds sir" he replies and i take the periscope up for a look.At 5 seconds my heart starts pounding,is it a dud or a hit?Then we hear a loud explosion and we feel a shock wave travelling through the boat and our bodies..we hit her!Some of the crew start cheering but others are listening,what about number2?

5 seconds past the point of intercept we hear a small bang,the torpedo has hit the ship but failed to explode,it happens to all boats and some swear and turn away in disgust,all this risk and a failing 12000 dollar torpedo..

The ship is hit just behind the bridge section and is making water..i see sailors in total panic running across the deck trying to salvage anything before they leave the doomed ship..i see movement on the bridge as the desparate captain is turning his ship towards us,he wants to ram us!Failing torpedos have alot of concequences i think to myself,lets get this over with!

We line up with the ship and estimate her distance at around a 1000 feet,we have time for a quick shot and an evading dive,and that's exactly what we are going to do,a bow shot on a slow travelling ship is a risk but at this time we want her to go down as fast as possible,the attack has lasted for 10 minutes now and they must have radiod for help.

"Fire number 3!" and the torpedo rushes out at maximum speed,no use in running it for distance now,we want a quick hit."Prepare for collision,crashdive!!" i yell and like an oiled machine every crew member does his job,"right full rudder all ahead flank!!,20 degrees on the dive planes!",at this speed we dive like a rock and soon the indicator reads 100 feet....120 feet..we are safe and pulling away from our target..then BOOM!! and our boat is severely rolling from one side to another like a drunk fat man..some of the crew lose their grip and are trown about,some scream in pain we came a little too close for comfort,but our suffering is soon turned into joy as we hear the bulkheads of the ship break up,its an eery sound and we listen for a while,then it turns silent again...we smile at eachother..

We go to periscope depth and after 30 minutes i order the boat to surface,the moon is high now and i feel good,time to report to base.

The rest of the night all is peacefull and quiet,we think about our succes and some think about the sailors on board the enemy ship,we are sailors too..at least we saw some of them board the rescue dingy...as for her captain i feel no sympathy..

2 days pass and no contacts,we have another 10 days of fuel but we are dissapointed by the lack of targets,still 15 fish left."smoke on the horizon sir!" one of the watchmen screams and we look at eachother,can it be?

One smoke plume soon turns into 2,then 3 and as we close in we see 7 smoke plumes,jackpot!I decide to follow the convoy for a while,so we can judge its course,there is still not much to see as we close in,weather has deteriorated and visability is low,but that goes for everyone so we close in some more......2 escorts,4 merchants of about 4000 tons each and a small tanker,now the chess play begins,can we reach an intercept point right now or do we need to manouver into a ideal position with an end around move?If we position right now we can only fire at one or two targets,moving away and attacking tommorow at night will take alot of effort and some luck,but we have more time if we do to empty our tubes.

I give the order to proceed on and end around course,we have plenty of fuel for a run and we can avoid the escorts more effectively,we stay in visible range and are able to track the convoy,she's zig-zagging and the escorts move from one side of the convoy to the other every hour,something we can abuse.Darkness falls once more and we have trouble tracking the convoy,we lose visual sight and only track on sonar now..no problem our sonarman is excellent and keeps a keen ear on our prey..we are now running about one hour in front of the convoy and i order the last leg of our interception course to be followed,all hands battlestations!

We lay there like a wolf waiting on its prey,periscope depth,nobody can see or hear us...the convoy moves in slowly and all men are prepared.The tension and excitement moves in once again,but this time sooner...this time they will fire back..time has almost frozen now and we wait and wait,nobody makes a sound,sound is deathly now...must keep quiet..

The convoy is now beyond rescue,we are in firing range and i feel the adrenaline pumping inside,my throat dries up and i feel my eyes burning....i'm in my element now....nobody can stop us now..

"Ready tubes 1 to 4"....and i aim for one of the merchants..the idea is to fire at one of the merchants,shoot at the tanker and then quickly turn around and fire at another merchant with our aft tubes...range is 4500 yards and that gives us enough time to fire all tubes before the first torpedo hits..we want to keep the element of suprise for as long as we can..that will give us time to escape facing away from the convoy,no use hanging around with all tubes empty..."fire tubes 1 and 2"...and there they go..i quickly turn to set up a shot for the tanker and calculations are fed into the TDC at rapid fire rate,"fire tubes 3 and 4"...the fish leave and we turn around as quickly as the boat will let us,turning this fast some of the interiour equipment is trown about,some china smashes into the floor and i lose my favourite record as i see it smash into a thousand little pieces..no more inkspots for this crew..the sonarman looks at me like he saw a ghost...."4 more contacts sir bearing 134,8000 yards and closing fast"...the unexpected element,it was inevitable..attacks never go as planned.

The boat is now in position for the aft shot and i pick out the target,"contacts still moving in 314,6500 yards and closing",we still have time....we still have time...

"fire 5 and 6!"both fish are on their track and i order "down scope,all engines flank make our depth 400 feet,diveplanes to 20 degrees Mister Jenkins",my diving officer looks at me,his eyes say "400?are you crazy?",his voice speaks "yes sir,400 feet"...some men start praying..

Then we hear explosions,secondary ones too but we remain quiet,the first torpedo's found their targets,then more explosions....i smile..i try to visualise whats going on in that convoy right now...must be hell up there,then more explosions and the signature sound of ships breaking up,we are now at least 5000 yards from the convoy and i order the boat rigged for silent running,1/3 ahead...now we wait.."4 contacts moving in on our position at 4000 yards,2 escorts and 2 destroyers" the sonarman informs me.

"We are being pinged,sir",they found us...."take us to 500 feet"...we go as deep as we dare,only depth can keep us alive or kill us in an instant,if we die it will be quick and painless.."2000 yards and closing sir"..."1000 yards"..."then the sound banging of screw blades and splashes...directly above us "brace for depth charges!!"...then a clicking sound and the enormous loud bang of a depthcharge,another....another...they seem to be set too shallow for us...no surprise there at 500 feet and 100 feet under test depth..this goes on for an hour and we get used to this bizarre situation,we stopped counting the depth charges and the cook is making coffee...surreal almost.Then..."contacts moving away sir"...the escorts are taking off to protect the remains of the convoy,the destroyers seem to be heading somewhere else,we dont know where..guess they ran out of depth charges or suspect another sub somewhere as we often hunt in packs,i guess we were lucky and the enemy inexperienced..

We stay submerged for some time,the sonar loses all contact and we surface and get back on patrol course,the fun is over..

An hour or 2 later we sink another merchant with our remaining torpedos...2 duds out of 4,there is something seriously wrong with these fish.I remind myself to report this when we return.We have fuel left to remain on patrol for another 5 days but something feels wrong...we see more and more aircraft too close and we dive constantly during the day...they know we are here and want to keep us submerged so the ships can slip trough..its no use to stay here....during the night we transmit our position and status,we will patrol another area for the remaining 5 days.

The new area is devoid of enemy shipping,we spot some fishermen on the third day but we decide not to reveal ourselves to them,everybody has a radio these days..another 2 days pass before we return..but not just yet as we spot a large fisherboat,signalling her crew to abandon ship i decide to try something different,i will line myself up with tube number one,stick my thumb out and try a visual shot on dead reckoning!

At 800 yards and facing the now crewless fisherboat i give my thumb a good lickin' and line it up with my eye,i start counting out loud " 5...4....3...2...1 Fire!"The torpedo is running and i keep my fingers crossed,this could prove handy in case of an emergency and no working instruments left.The torpedo is a hit but fails to explode,another dud.However the gap in the hull of the fisherboat is big enough to sink her in a couple of minutes,all 200 Tons of her.."take us on a course for Midway" a big cheer goes trough the crew!

The mood onboard is now light hearted,some of the crew perform a show acting like hoola-girls,we all get a good laugh out of it and i start to see a team,not only a crew...all good men.

We are welcomed at Midway with alot of cheering and praises....we sunk 28000tons of enemy shipping!

As i write this sitting safely at my desk i recall the important moments,but so much has happened during this patrol and i'm so tired that i have to stop now...we sail again in 2 weeks.

[magic452]

Excellent post, really enjoyed reading it. Thanks

Magic

[Armistead]

Great shots. Really like the second one.

[Armistead]

I liked this one. Had to edit it a tad with color enhancer because it was dark.

[TarJak]

[alexoscar]

I have this one at 1920*1200 if anyone is interested for wallpaper.

Regards

[alexoscar]

And several more from my actual patrol off Mindanao:

[Kloef]

wow!

Just awesome!

[Morpheus]

@ alexoscar

I'm speechless

kr morph

[alexoscar]

Later the storm ever arrives the calm:











I don't get sink nor a fishboat, but how am I enjoying sailing through the Pacific!

Regards.

[Royale-Adio]

Ok then I'll put my sig in its original format!
...and maybe some others too!