Stories and Patrol Logs + Screenshots and Videos (merged)

[Char]

Having Fun in the S-Boats Armistead?

[Littica Marek]

My first set of Pic, mostly a Test, cant seem to get Del to work so the UI is still there but its a WIP

Cruising in a Morning Patrol



Contact Dead ahead!


Torpedo's away, Fish in the water!

[Hene]

Returning to brest after a boring patrol and I find this

And a picture of the map so you can get an idea of the situation

Somehow I was able to get to the subpen without being hit, just to crash into the other sub stationed there luckily no one was injured.

[Littica Marek]

Ouch, now that is some fighter-bomber squadron Ganking

[boonie]

Just got the CMoH after only 3 patrol lol. And was offered to command the navy's first Gato.

1st Patrol:
found a battleship taskforce north of Luzon. sunk 2 kongo, 1 Takao. Found a coastal bombardment taskforce on the way home, killed 2 light cruiser and some destroyer. Went home and got the Navy Cross.

2nd Patrol:
Completed a few mission then on the 4th mission of the patrol bumped into a carrier task force north east of Formosa, sunk 2 escort carrier (17k ton each). With a bunch of other random kills my tonnage made them gave me another navy cross.

3rd patrol:
Completed 2 recon mission and 1 merchant hunting mission, took another merchant hunting mission but this time intel recon update showed a task force doing 18knot which is heading somewhat near my mission location, immediately abandom mission and chase after this group. Sunk 2 Ise + 1 Takao from this group in 2 separate attack. Came home and they gave me the Congressional Medal of Honor + new Gato.

mod: FOTRS with manual TDC, no duds.

[Hylander_1314]

Boonie, are you breaking radio silence while on patrol?!

Never never use that blasted radio except for listening to Fibber Mcgee and Molly, or Armed Forces Radio! Not recommended listening to Tokyo Rose either. Sending transmissions is a good way to get every Jap plane and destroyer from Tokyo to Truk heading your direction!

Honestly, I quit sending radio messages while in Empire waters. I ended up with planes harassin' me day and night until I got east of the International Dateline. Seriously. It sucked bigtime!

So anymore, I just go to the patrol area like the boats really did. Remain on station until the time is up, and the icon turns gray, and if nothing happens, I go lookin' for trouble where I know I will usually find it. With-in 30nms of a harbor entrance, and just wait. Something either is going to go passed me heading in, or I will tag them goin' out.

[boonie]

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

Boonie, are you breaking radio silence while on patrol?!

Never never use that blasted radio except for listening to Fibber Mcgee and Molly, or Armed Forces Radio! Not recommended listening to Tokyo Rose either. Sending transmissions is a good way to get every Jap plane and destroyer from Tokyo to Truk heading your direction!

Honestly, I quit sending radio messages while in Empire waters. I ended up with planes harassin' me day and night until I got east of the International Dateline. Seriously. It sucked bigtime!

So anymore, I just go to the patrol area like the boats really did. Remain on station until the time is up, and the icon turns gray, and if nothing happens, I go lookin' for trouble where I know I will usually find it. With-in 30nms of a harbor entrance, and just wait. Something either is going to go passed me heading in, or I will tag them goin' out.

I am not very familiar with where the big action is tbh. I do read about them but i usually just focus on what happened there and then, never really tried to remember what time it happened. Not sure if FOTRS have accurate historical battle scheduled in their campaign neither. What i depended on was the intel update on the nav map and in FOTRS they send those very very seldom. So i have to grind the missions they dish out. Most of the time was spent circling round and round around the patrol points with very little results while waiting for a worthwhile intel recon update.

[Hylander_1314]

Do you have a map with shipping lanes on them?

That is the best way to see where the enemy ships are more concentrated.

Was reading a post in another thread, and the comment said that for '42 hang around the Solomons. '43 the shipping lanes between Truk, Palau, and home islands. '44 the shipping lanes around Formosa, and '45 the Korean Straits. Those are the best hunting grounds for the time period.

I have to agree with what he said too, as I rarely go to the assigned patrol as the renown isn't much, and you are usually sent to a place where the action either isn't, or is very nominal.

Just remember with FOTRS, if you are out of Brisbane, and get the Solomons patrol area, I went to it once, and didn't stay. Sat there for 2 weeks in the area moving here and there even after the icon grayed out, and all I saw was fishing boats and sampans. Went south from there and patrolled the area halfway between the east entrance to Rabaul and the western Solomons, with a couple spins around the New Georgia Sound area, and back to the area Rabaul, and racked up a great destroyer string of kills. Sure.........., not a lot of tonnage, but it sure is fun playing chicken with tincans!

[boonie]

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

Do you have a map with shipping lanes on them?

Have looked up google and found some shipping route, they are sketchy (have nice curvy route lines that ignored all the myriads of islands), basically just give no useful info on where to find them. And i am not sure if said shipping lane is incorporated into FOTRS campaign anyway.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by Littica Marek

My first set of Pic, mostly a Test, cant seem to get Del to work so the UI is still there but its a WIP

Cruising in a Morning Patrol


Contact Dead ahead!


Torpedo's away, Fish in the water!

Try using the "Del" key on the Numbers Pad.

[Captain Sparrow]

Pearl Harbor
June 30, 1944
Office of RADM Lockwood

"So that's it. Your final orders are sealed and shall be delivered after refueling and re-provisioning at Midway...Under no circumstances shall you break radio silence until after the success of the mission. Your crew has had shore leave canceled and is currently readying Balao for immediate departure pending your briefing. General Donovan has flown here directly from Washington and will be in direct operational control of this mission from here on out."

My stomach kind of turned at that. Great. A general commanding a submarine... What have the brass been drinking? Hell, what was the General drinking? The man looked like a sleep deprived pitbull with a severe hangover, and was about to speak. This better be Good, or im going to need a drink before I get to the yard... Gen Donovan? I'd never heard of him.

"Capt Sparrow, time is of the essence so i'll spare the formalities. Im General William Donovan of the Office of Strategic Services, my friends call me Wild Bill, you may not."
Sh*t, I thought.
"We have got ourselves an opportunity here to deal a fatal death blow to the IJN. After the fish barrel shootout in the philippines sea, the japs have pulled all there remaining carrier forces for refit back to the homeland, and we are going to make them pay for that folly."
OK, he was rapidly gaining my attention...
"Your current orders, are to depart Pearl Harbor and proceed to Honshu and engage unrestricted submarine warfare against enemy merchant shipping. That is a cover story. You will stop at Midway for refueling, there, you will receive your final orders, not to be opened until 48 hours after departure. That is all. Good Luck."

48 hours West of Midway...

I sat in my bunk with the letter in hand, still in disbelief... the officers were gathering in the wardroom, and it seemed there was an unusual amount of crew activity nearby... they always knew it seemed. There are no such things as secrets on submarines. But they would be unprepared for this... I was. But they would love it... I already did.

Kobe. The japs had ordered all the remaining capital ships and carriers back to base for refit and reorganization into a super battle group with the intentions of giving Bull Halsey and TF58 a sucidal run for there money.... a futile effort i thought... but the brass had bigger and better plans for Halsey, and couldnt afford to have him chasing glory and a decisive battle. And thats where Balao and our new boss from the OSS came into play. Somehow, OSS had intercepted encrypted IJN fleet communications, and had conveniently provided harbor charts with supposed up to date minefield locations, an estimated number of targets, and a full complement of shiny new mk-18 torpedoes, wakeless, with a shaped charge warhead to boot, and said, sink as many as you can.... almost to good to be true! Also, the Yard at Pearl had outfitted the boat with a new 5" gun... hardly much time for gunnery practice, but the gun crews were already practicing and had things about ranged in... the crew on the 5" was exceptional, having sunk several targets on previous patrols, and I had a high degree of confidence they would get the job done if needed. I headed for the wardroom with the appropriate charts. yes... this was going to be good. On the way, I leaned into the radio room, and ordered total EMCON. No radar, no status reports, nothing from now on. The japs must not suspect anything or they will blanket the area with so many planes and asw groups a sardine wouldnt be able to get into Osaka harbor...

Penetrating the harbor...

9 hours of darkness. That was it. 4 hours to get in, 4 hours to get out, and 60 mins or less to execute the raid... if it took any longer, air cover will cut short any idea of a victory celebration. Weeks of studying harbor defenses and charts had paid off into a working battle plan that was crazy enough to actually work... skirt the deepwater minefields under the nose of shore batteries, then a daring high speed surface run in and out of the harbor, and a stealthy submerged attack and hopefully sink some serious IJN tonnage along the way. And the time had come. After a week of running submerged in daylight and running on the surface at night with no radar, Balao had managed to encroach upon the japanese coast undetected, narrowly avoiding contact with 2 surface ASW groups along the way. The first navigational radar fix in weeks had showed an unexpected element however, air patrols during twilight... ive allowed an extra 30 mins during the penetration and regress, and ill have to burn 40 mins of that time running submerged to avoid the air cover untill true darkness. pity... i needed the time. periscope death, ahead full...

... after successfully passing under the nose of the first batteries of shore guns, we surfaced for the next high speed leg and while performing a single sweep navigational fix, got a positive return on large target bearing 15 degrees. ALARM! Aircraft sighted!!!

Quickly diving to escape the air patrol, analysis of the radar data showed a large target creeping along at 3 knots at a course bearing due west that would bring it within range if it was target worthy.... but my orders were to attack capital ships only. well, it wont hurt to take a look, will it? Sonar: Follow nearest contact... after what seemed an eternity of tracking and closing in the range to 1500yds, the target slowly steamed west along the coast of the small island, then gradually turned 180 deg to a due east heading and began to cross our course track. by this point, sonar had positively identified steam turbine noise with multiple propellers from the target and had classified contact as a carrier. I sure hoped so... time to find out.. up scope!

And so it was, a big fat Shokaku Fleet Carrier... Closing in on 1300yds, i made the decision to engage. A carrier is just to valuable a target to pass by anyways, and unescorted, why, thats just a wet dream! I set up 2 fish in tubes 1 & 2 to explode at keel depth and aimed for the point directly underneath the forward air elevator... open outer doors, fire tubes 1 & 2! and the waiting... the eternity it takes for a fish to reach its target is unimaginable, the wondering, was the math on? was the depth right? will the fish run at the right depth? These problems had plagued Balao in the past, andfaulty torpedoes had denied us a crack at a heavy cruiser a few patrols back.... but it was not to be so this time. Torpedo Impact! Up Scope!

The new mk-18's worked well, I thought. The boys in the office of naval ordinance had promised if one of these new fish hit a critical area, the target was doomed. Well. So far the fireball of exploding aviation fuel and ordinance seemed to confirm that! Now, back to the mission at hand... if that carrier got a message out before it went ka-boom, we were going to be in for a long night indeed. blow ballast, ahead flank.
After a quick sprint on the surface, we submerged to enter the harbor proper. The narrows were covered with gun emplacements, and, as pressed for time as I already was, it was just to risky to run them on the surface. 20 mins behind schedule already we surfaced under a full moon, and i cursed it. Because, 7000yds to the north was an Ashasio destroyer idling quietly, undetected by sonar. Before we could submerge, it fired star shells and we were sighted. Thinking quickly I ordered to general quarters and began ranging in the deck gun on the destroyer, as we were already spotted, i ordered sonar to ping the target to provide accurate range info, and opened fire. The first salvo overshot by 400yds, the second undershot by barely 100 yds.... on the third salvo, we struck the radio mast, and firing again quickly after lowering 100 yards, the expert chief sharpshooter manning the gun, scored a direct hit on the bridge of the destroyer! Now approaching 5000 yards and bearing 0, the destroyer veered off in an attempt to unmask its stern batteries, and i opened fire with a salvo aimed at the waterline, 5 rounds later, the destroyer was dead in the water and burning, all engine noise lost on sonar! The new 5" gun sure packs a nasty punch, if we make it back to port, that entire gun crew is getting a medal.

Back to the mission

We commenced the final highspeed run towards Kobe, west of the Osaka Yards without further incident, dodging one enemy gunboat along the way, and also had 2 merchant contacts pop up on sonar. However, merchants were not my concern tonight. Tonight, we were going for the heavies, and after already sending one carrier to the bottom, moral was high and the crew was bloodthirsty. Approaching the 10k yd mark to the target, and my submerge point for the attack run, we fired up our search radar to acquire target information, and we hit the jackpot!

3 carriers, 2 battlewagons, and 2 heavy cruisers! Quickly marking there positions on the chart, I powered down the radar and began making plans for my attack run. So far, the absence of any searchlights or patrol craft gave me hope that the fleet was so far, unalerted to our presence. And it was important... besides the obvious fact of drawing fire from cruisers and battleships, an un alerted ship sinks faster... watertight doors are open, and most of the crew is off duty... and if I had a chance at sinking those BBs, i needed to make the first shot count. After analyzing the situation, i drew up my attack run and ordered silent running at periscope depth. No need to alert the escort moored alongside the carrier guarding the harbor entrance. As i approached my first firing point, i ordered all stop and coasted silently to a stop at a point where i was abeam of the two BBs. A quick peek with scope confirmed 2 Fuso-class battlewagons, one tied to the pier of the outer harbor, and one moored to the east. Balao was aligned with a bow shot range 1300yds for the BB at the pier, and a stern shot approx 1500yds for the one at mooring. Remembering my days at Annapolis, I recalled that the guns on surface ships got there powder from magazines located deep in the ships hull, directly below the main battery. I surmised if i fired my stern tubes first, let the fish run for ten seconds, then fired the bow tubes, well, Tojo would have one helluva fireworks show! carefully, I set up the shot and set the correct depth on all fish, making sure the new detonators were set for influence. fire tubes 7 and 8..........fire tubes 1 and 2!

All four fish struck there targets within 3 seconds! a few moments later with a quick sweep of the scope, i visually confirmed both targets exploded!

As the crew cheered to sound of secondary explosions rocking the hull, i ordered flank speed ahead. No need to be cautious now, as the enemy was no doubt fully alerted to our presence in the harbor, and i needed those tubes reloaded ASAP! as we raced into the northeast harbor entrance, barely submerged at 55 feet, I raised the scope to range in Balao's fourth victim for the night, a Takao-class heavy cruiser moored to north. Taking a calculated risk, I decided to fire just one fish at the Takao's main battery, in the hopes of enjoying the same success as with the battlewagons. fire tube 3! and... wow, those mk-18's are really working as advertised... we needed these back in '42!

making the turn due west into the harbor interior, i raised the scope and sighted in on the next target, a Shokaku-class carrier tied to the pier to the north... fire tubes 4 and 5! again, carefully aimed at the forward air elevator and set to the proper depth.... torpedo impact!

But Balao wasnt done yet... rounding the inner harbor and turning southwest, I aligned the bow abeam with the next target, another Hiryu-class carrier moored to the inner wall of the outer harbor. slowing to 4 knots, I carefully calculated the shot and fired at a point directly under the forward air elevator-

again, ensuring that the mk-18 was set to explode directly under the ships keel, where there was no armor plating and directly below the avation fuel storage tanks.... and torpedo impact! The hull of the boat rocked as secondary explosions rumbled across the harbor yet again:

turning 40 degrees starboard, i aligned the bow with a heavy cruiser moored on the pier by the lighthouse, and raised scope, and sure enough, there was a Takao-class heavy cruiser at full alert, searchlights sweeping the water, perhaps the very same cruiser that had escaped due to dud torpedoes a year before... not this time i thought! slowing to just 1 knot, i sighted the crosshairs in on the forward battery and carefully took bearings for the shot:

fire tube 6! and 90 seconds later, again the crew errupted, moral was at an all time high, for once again, Balao was nearly rocked out of the water by secondary explosions as the Takao blew herself sky high, adding to the already eerie glow of burning ships in the harbor.

I lowered my scope, awed by what i had just witnessed, the sight of so many ships burning, and tried not to think of the souls trapped inside. As we passed the northwestern entrance to the harbor, the sounds of echoing pounding resounded through the hull. I knew what they were... trapped Japanese seamen in watertight compartments, desperately trying to free themselves... I almost pitied them, but then i remembered Pearl Harbor, and steadied my resolve. There was another job to do, and it was the trickiest shot of all.

West southwest of the harbor entrance there was a Shokaku-class carrier at anchor with an Akizuki-class DD moored alongside. not taking any chances with the escort, i approached the target from the shallows to the rear, and at 1500 yards fired 2 fish into the Shokaku, and as before, there was a devastating explosion as the aviation tanks detonated into towers of flame. Heading due south, we passed out of range of the escort and prepared to surface for the high speed run back to open water and freedom.

Halfway to the narrows and freedom, we encountered a merchant on sonar directly approaching our course. Soon enough, lookouts sighted a large tanker approaching from the west, estimating its speed and course, it soon became obvious that we would be unable to avoid detection if we remained on the surface. Cursing, i looked at my watch, Balao was running out of darkness, and time. With the dawn, I was sure that patrol planes would darken the skies, and not long after them, subchasers and ASW groups would be crawling all over the coast, and I wanted to be in deep waters long before that happened. Suddenly, I had an idea.... borrowed from accounts i had read of german u-boat captains in the great war, we submerged and closed range untill the target was 900yds off the bow. Calling general quarters, i blew all ballast and Balao shot out of the water like an angry great white, as soon as decks were awash, the hatch was sprung and both 40mm AA fore and aft raked the bridge and deck guns of the tanker with high explosive rounds, effectiviely causing confusion to the point the enemy failed to return fire. The 5" gun was manned, and on my orders, loaded with anti aircraft shells, and soon began pumping these high explosive high velocity rounds into the tankers sides, it wasnt long at all before the ship was ablaze from stern to bow, i ordered ahead flank, and finished her off with 2 fish fired from tubes 9 and 10. racing across the harbor at 23 knots, we approached the narrows and I ordered the boat to periscope depth just in time to avoid the sun. staying at flank untill we cleared the harbor, i slowed to silent running and began to plot my course back to Pearl, mentally making a note to have a bottle of champagne sent to old Wild Bill.

Balao succesfully navigated the narrows out of the harbor, but was caught in shallow water by a patrol craft, forced to retreat to avoid detection, she was spotted by an IJN search plane. The one plane quickly turned to many, and Balao was forced to flee to deeper waters where she struck a mine @ 125 feet of depth. Able to surface, she had suffered 93% hull damage, and had both periscopes, the TDS, the main deck gun, and the forward AA destroyed by the impact, along with 2 souls lost, and over 75% of the crew seriously injured. Also all batteries were destroyed during the flooding, and, unable to submerge, limping on the surface, the crew was able to repair enough of the damage to get underway for the long voyage back to Pearl. Shooting down an additional 3 IJN aircraft along the way, she was able to make it to Midway for repair then back to Pearl Harbor.

[DC SH4 TJH]

[Armistead]

Nicely done DC.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Littica Marek

cant seem to get Del to work

NumLock needs to be turned on.

[Armistead]