Final Mission, May 1945

[GoldenRivet]

My commander's final mission, after having the entire world crumble around him and his crew, on May 2nd 1945 My boat and crew left Trondheim Norway with top secret orders. Infiltrate Scapa Flow and inflict whatever final blows possible against the royal navy at anchor.

Immediately upon exiting the dock at Trondheim a fleet of B-24 bombers dropped thousands of tons of bombs onto the installation there. several ships caught fire, one exploded and sank rapidly only a few hundred meters off my port side. as it was just sunrise, searchlights by the dozens beamed skyward as air raid sirens wailed into the dawn. guns of every size and type opened up. Tracers arced skywards and the steady thump of AA guns echoed throughout the scene. Tiny puffs of light filled the sky as AA rounds exploded around the aircraft. One of the B-24s took a hit to the number one engine, streaking flames behind it all the way back to the tail. it started its slow descending left turn before spiraling into the Fjord nearby enough that i could spot a body of one of her crew floating in the wreckage.

We had escaped Trondheim unscathed.

By late evening on 6 May i was entering the western inlet of the base with no resistance. Just before dawn on the 7th i spotted a troop transport and a Fiji light cruiser at anchor, nothing else afloat worth a torpedo other than a few fishing trawlers.

i sank the two ships and made my way toward the eastern inlet as two Destroyers quickly approached from the west. They searched a few KM west of my position but never discovered me. They never came close.

The final mission was a success.

I found the eastern inlets heavily blocked by blockade wrecks and sub nets so i risked heading into the more heavily patrolled southeastern inlet where i made my way out to sea. one destroyer patrolling the area slowly passed me by at approximately 200 meters range while i sat silently with the engines off. He never knew i was there. I followed in his baffles to open water before breaking away from him and making way for home port.

With oxygen dwindling i surfaced the boat on sunrise on the 8th of May and proceded northward. on several occasions i was forced to dive by approaching destroyer task force groups. this made transiting the North Sea very time consuming.

on the 10th of May around 9am i surfaced again and decided to sprint for home into the deep waters of the north sea as that would offer refuge against enemy vessels or aircraft. It wasn't long however before, the radio officer reported receiving a new message.

it was news of the surrender, the war was over.

I changed course for Lerwick, owing to the fact that it is a British submarine base, they would surely have facilities suitable for handling my boat.

about 10 km out of Lerwick i came upon a destroyer who was headed in the direction of the port as well at a steady slow pace. i joined my u-boat in behind him at about 300 meters distance and followed him almost all the way there. upon arrival, i pulled in next to a British sub tender and surrendered the boat.

and that was the end of it.

what got me in the end of SHIII/GWX the most, what really made an impression was the silence of it. the calm of it. there were no more radio position reports, no more fast moving sound contacts. The whole atmosphere just seemed lighter and different

The stress from 1943 onward of just surviving was a weight; getting out of port without falling victim to the incessant air raids, transiting the bay of Biscay countless times diving to avoid the anti-submarine aircraft narrowly avoiding their bombs and rockets. Driving out into the North Atlantic and happening upon a convoy and firing shots from the extreme end of the range of the torpedoes and managing to sink a paltry 1700 tons of merchant shipping before being pummeled by depth charges - testing myself - my boat and my crew beyond the limits of endurance having evaded countless depth charge attacks. constantly being pushed down too deep to think about looking at the gauge.

The thing that gets you about playing this game is the futility of it all. I mean, once summer of 1943 has passed... you aren't going hunting anymore, you're just trying not to be sunk while inflicting insignificant blows against an unstoppable giant machine of an enemy. I can only imagine the frustration, the sadness and the feeling of absolute utter futility these men must have had to endure.

and in the end, while their whole country lie more or less in ruins, half of their nation occupied by the west, the other half occupied by the east. Most of their comrades in arms lie dead on the depths of the sea, possibly weeks if not months if they had heard from family at home. Some of them having no idea which side of the east/west divide their wives and children ended up in. some of them possibly not sure whether or not their wives and children were still alive and if so, wondering the same of them.

and for what really? to what end? to what end was the world set aflame?

Silent Hunter III may be just a game, but i'll tell you this; it sure can make you consider the futility of war

[banryu79]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

...The thing that gets you about playing this game is the futility of it all.
...I can only imagine the frustration, the sadness and the feeling of absolute utter futility these men must have had to endure.
...and for what really? to what end? to what end was the world set aflame?
Silent Hunter III may be just a game, but i'll tell you this; it sure can make you consider the futility of war

With only one year since I started playing this game, I recently experienced the premature departure of my first Kaleun, when, returning home from my 3rd war patrol, running on the surface my boat suddenly struck a mine (or at least that is what I think had happened) roughtly some miles east of Helgoland.
I can't tell you the total shock and grief I felt for a fist of moments (before realizing I was just playing a game and I could just start a new career) for such an undeserved fate in a totally unexpected and violent instant, without hope about salvation at all.
Especially if you consider I always play DiD and take care to avoid unneccessary risks for the sake of my crew.
I am still amazed a game made me felt in this way, it never happened to me before (and I play video games from about 20 years...)

Btw:

I found the eastern inlets heavily blocked by blockade wrecks and sub nets so i risked heading into the more heavily patrolled southeastern inlet where i made my way out to sea. one destroyer patrolling the area slowly passed me by at approximately 200 meters range while i sat silently with the engines off. He never knew i was there. I followed in his baffles to open water before breaking away from him and making way for home port.

Didn't he pinged you!?

[RConch]

Great final report!

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by banryu79

Btw:
Didn't he pinged you!?

It was the wildest thing, especially for such a late point in the war.

I was a periscope depth, all stopped, silent running... I could barely started my trip out of the southeastern inlet of Scapa flow and the water depth was maybe 25 m

Half a boat length closer and he would've run right over my conning tower. I was dead to rights and I haven't the slightest idea how he failed to detect me

[banryu79]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

It was the wildest thing, especially for such a late point in the war.

I was a periscope depth, all stopped, silent running... I could barely started my trip out of the southeastern inlet of Scapa flow and the water depth was maybe 25 m

Half a boat length closer and he would've run right over my conning tower. I was dead to rights and I haven't the slightest idea how he failed to detect me

Wow that had to be totally exciting (or stessing, it depends )!!
Very nice AAR, thanks for sharing

[banryu79]

The last operation of GoldenRivet had remembered me how much I like to read such stories, and maybe some reader of this thread could find very pleasurable to read the KTB (war diary) of Prien operation in Scapa Flow, here it goes:
http://www.uboatarchive.net/KTB47-2.htm

[sublynx]

Great report GoldenRivet! Thanks!

[maillemaker]

Silent Hunter III may be just a game, but i'll tell you this; it sure can make you consider the futility of war

Steve

[Scarredclown]

Great report, well written. I'm on my third career already, my last ship was waiting periscope depth to ambush a warship. He ping me first and depth charged me to the black deep. Never had a chance to fire a single torpedo. just cant imagine what it will be in the end game. Your my hero to have survived to the end !