Stories and Patrol Logs

[ElAurens]

From the Log of USS Shark.

December 25, 1941. USS Shark, Lt. Cmdr. ElAurens commanding.

This morning we sank an Agano class light cruiser with our last two torpedos. This boosted the men's spirits some. Our joy at the sinking was short lived however, as we now know that Manilla has fallen, as has Singapore. The Japs seem to be everywhere, all at once. We are making for Freemantle, Australia, the closest port we have that is safe.

The sea is a lonely place at Christmas time. The men are carrying on with their duties, and are determined to beat the Japs all the way back to Tokyo, but they know, as do I, that this is not the last Christmas we will spend at sea...

[DeePsix501]

Patrol Report: 25 January 1942 – 17 Feburary 1942
USS Triton (SS-201)


Objective: USS Triton is to depart Pearl Harbor on 25 January for 165E 7N, just west of the Marshall Islands, and patrol. Report any enemy contacts.



25 January 1942 – Departed docks in Pearl Harbor at around 0800. Set course SSW to the Marshall Islands. Planned to pass south of the islands and come back north to my patrol sector. Weather looks promising, clear crisp January day. Crew is in high spirits after making it back from first patrol in time for New Years. They seem eager to give it back to the Japs after what happened on the 7th of last month. The island is still pretty shaken up about it.



29 January 1942 – Clear weather held until tonight. We are approximately 2/3 of the way to the Marshall Islands. At around 1800 wind and waves began to pick up and we have been bucking some pretty high seas. Despite rough swells, we plan to arrive on time to patrol sector. We run crash dive drills to keep the men on their toes.

1 February 1942 – We arrive at our patrol location west of the Marshal Islands on time. The sea is still pretty rough. No contacts as of yet. Will continue running patrol pattern.

2 February 1942 – At 0100 we picked up a contact bearing 090, closing south towards us. Set new course northwards and rushed to intercept. At 0252, visual contact is made. Watch identifies it as a friendly freighter. I confirm. Disappointedly return south to our patrol sector and send a status report to COMSUBPAC. I am unhappy with patrols productivity.



3 February 1942 – Patrol orders are completed. After discussion with my officers we decide the best place to hunt for merchant traffic is off the coast of Guam and Siapan, which lies to our west. We radio COMSUBPAC and the give us the green light to commence patrolling off coast of Guam. We set course so slide south of the islands and ring around north once we pass them to patrol the western coasts of Guam.



5-6 February 1942 - At around 2334 we get a contact report not far west of Guam, 145E, 14N. We plot intercept course. At 14:01 on the 16th we make visual contact with a ship bearing 347. We dive to periscope depth and begin to observe. We identify it as a medium modern composite freighter. We close distance and continue to observe. At 14:13 we line up a three torpedo salvo. Fire each with 5 degree spread. Two out of the three hit, one explodes prematurely. Target rolls to starboard and sinks.



We surface and continue north. At 17:13 we get another contact and plot intercept course. We make visual contact at 18:23 and we dive to periscope to avoid being silhouetted by the setting sun. After a few minutes of observation we identify her as a Medium Euro Composite Freighter and line up a firing solution. At 18:39 we fire another 3 torpedo salvo. Two hit, one miss. Ship explodes violently into flames and sinks.



We then surface and continue patrol. Just as darkness covers the sea we make visual contact with two more coastal freighters going from Siapan to Guam. We identify lead ship as a coastal freighter and rear one as a large old split freighter – which is exceptionally rusty and old looking. From our current position we really don’t have a shot on the lead ship, so we line up a four torpedo spread on the large split freighter. We fire salvo at 2315, three explosions. She sinks and we stay submerged till clear of other ship.



7 February 1942 – At 12:42 we are forced to crash dive by a large Jap search plane, probably from Guam. We continue submerged till nightfall.

8 February 1942 – At 0900 near Siapan, we make visual contact with a small freighter. Initial visual inspection is suspicious. We see large structures on the fore and aft decks which possibly could be deck guns of some sort. We think it might be a Q ship of some sort, so we dive as a precaution and continue to observe. As we draw closer we observe that it is in fact not a Q ship. We line up our last two forward torpedoes and fire at about 800m. One hits and the ship tries to limp away. We surface and finish her off with the deck gun. At around 1200 fuel is running low for return along with torpedoes and provision. We plot course back to pearl. At 1500 search plane forces us under till nightfall.



9 February 1942 – Nearing friendly waters. Friendly task forces pass by us on our way back. Haze and fog limits visibility. As a precaution we run underwater most of the day. Once we past 170E Longitude we should be home free.

13-14 February 1942 - Storms North of Marshall islands slowing progress. Continue running under water to avoid bucking heavy seas.



17 February 1942 – 0800 Dock at Pearl Harbor. The crew is again in high spirits. We ran into no escorts and suffered no casualties. We sunk four merchant ships on this patrol bringing our total to 7 enemy merchants sunk.

[munfis]

First time out, from manilla, 1941. Steaming along at PD, when my computer has a fit. I know this means ive just run across a bunch of ships, so i run up the scope and have a look around. A large japanise convoy is coming along nicely, but it appears to have a lot of escorts...

Woah, its a task force, and there is something HUGE in there...

Yamamato...
Wow...

Line up shot, FIRE! all forward tubes, flank speed, hard left, line up stern tubes and; FIRE! again.

8 hits, 7 detonations, one hell of an explosion...

One less super-battleship

I love this game!

[ElAurens]

A Yamato off the Phillipines in 1941?

Ummm......

[badaboom]

Trouble aboard the USS PERMIT,I ordered the boat ahead 1/3!.....nothing......I yell ahead 2/3!!......still no movement........finally AHEAD STANDARD!!!!!!.......BY GOD I'LL GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS!!! I went bellow deck to see what the hold up was.

There I find my entire crew sleeping off a 5 day drunk'in binge after ST.PADDY'S DAY!!!!! We'll never win the war at this stage.

[Aimbot]

That's worth a laugh.
Spend a bit too much time at battle stations?

[DeePsix501]

Yea, lol they're still at battlestations. :rotfl:

[munfis]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

A Yamato off the Phillipines in 1941?

Ummm......

Hey, don't ask me, I just sink whats put in front of me...

[JayW.]

Wanna hear from a guy that survived a gun duel with a Destroyer?


I was taking the convoy course of the Submarine School first off and without the European uniformed convoy system, it was very hard to predict how the ships will behave and manruver.

As the course began, I ordered a a course of 50 degrees starboard and went on the bridge when I saw an escort destroyer coming towards me full speed at 345 degrees to port. I crash dive and level at 221 ft. Then, I adjust my speed to 0.5 knots while silent running. By this time, I sounded general quartars. I just waited for the trash cans to drop but fortunately, the destroyer passed by without dropping any depth charges.
The convoy finally arrived on the scene and I kinda expect them to move left or right of me. They did the unexpected - they went over me. Without any good position to fire my tubes, I did a combat surface and used my deck gun on a tanker before the destroyers can come. Two of them were off my port side some 10,000 to 9,000 yards busy with depth charing the area and one is on the opposite side of the convoy about 10,000 yards off. Within seven rounds, the destroyer on the opposite was barreling down towards me. With the tanker burning a little, I redirected my crew's fire on the destroyer and scored excellent hits before I crash dived and dived to 207 ft. One trash can managed to damage slightly my decoy launcher and my triple A guns.
Then, with my rotten luck, all of my forward torpedoes miss the destoryer. But, my luck altered for the good. With tube No. #1 reloaded minutes later, I scored a hit on the tanker after manevered perfectly between the tanker and the destroyer (which was coming in range broadside with my stern tubes). Guess what! Scratch one destroyer. The tanker remained afloat and still moving.
While forgeting the other two destroyers, I surface and started to ravage the convoy with my dech gun.. I came nder fire but can't located the source of the incoming fire. I thought it was one of the merchants sporadically firing it's deck gun. I guess I played SH3 too much. Anyway, all of the sudden, my submarine pitched sharpy and violently to port and turned my head to starboard. To my surprise, there it is - a destroyer. I immediately ordered my crew to fire at point-blank range. The destroyer's gunner control was lousy. It did score one hit as I pulled away to port. The result was the destroyer went down burning and I continued to sink ships with my deck gun and with light casualities.

Well, it is my story.


JayW.

[jarhead0341]

August 17 1943.

USS Balao,
South China Sea.


0230: Made sonar contact with a Japanese convoy at bearing 47 degrees Hdg 210 degrees at approx 30 nm. Plotted intercept course but had to run on the surface in order to get into position in time.

At about 0400 I reached my submerge point and did so. If my calculations were correct, the enemy convoy should appear at a bearing of about 45 degrees in a half hour.

At 0405 made sonar contact with convoy but instead of it being off to 45 degrees and two thousand yards it was at 90 degrees and four thousand yards. Im not sure how the deck watch didn't spot the convoy or how the Japanese didn't spot me. But it was too late to move out of the way so I ordered all stop and rigged for silent running as there were four or five escorting destroyers.

A few minutes later I spotted two large tankers, one off the starboard bow and one off the starboard stern. I was in decent position to attack both but I had to be quick. I managed to get three torpedoes off at each ship but now I was being pinged by the lead destroyer. I ordered the sub to dive but going at two knts wasn'g going to get us out of danger quickly. Luckily the destroyer didn't have a very good fix on us.

Moments later torpedo impacts on the rear, and then the front tanker
were reported by the WO and sonar reported the rear tanker breaking apart as she sank. Must have broke her back.

By now, the escort destroyers were converging on me and we took some minor damage from depth charges. The deeper we went the more difficulty the Japanese destroyers had in getting a good fix on us but that didn't stop them from trying. At one moment they would lose all contact with the Balao only to regain it later. For two hours we dodged the enemy destroyers until they finally gave up to rejoin the convoy.

When I felt it was safe, we ascended to periscope depth and off in the distance, the first tanker was sitting dead in the water. And curiously there was a lone Japanese destroyer about 2000 yard directly aft of us. As I caught site of her she was sitting still obviously listening for any indication of us. Moments later the destroyer starting sailing in a tight oval perhaps 500 yards long at about 25 knts and kept looping around over and over again. Hmm what to do. A fish launched at the tanker might get the attention of the destroyer even if I missed such an easy shot. The alternatives were obvious, either break off or sink the destroyer first. Well I went with the destroyer.

It was an impossible shot. I could not track the destroyer long enough to get a decent solution. She was going so fast and changing course too quickly. But I sat and watched for about 1/2 an hour. I concluded that, if I put on enough gyro angle and aim for where the destroyer first turns, the torpedo should hit at the point where the destroyer makes the second turn. Id only get one chance because I had only one after torpedo left.

"Set tube 7 for a depth of seven feet, set the gyro for 12 degrees to the right,..Open tube 7 and launch at my command".
"Aye aye sir". "Aft torpedo room reports tube seven set for 7 feet and gyro of 12 degrees right, tube seven is open...waiting your command sir".
"Very well,....fire tube seven".
"Firing tube seven, . . . torpedo in the water".
"Very well, down scope, all ahead 1/3d, dive the boat, make your depth 350, if it misses she'll be coming after us".
"Aye Aye sir, all ahead 1/3. Dive Dive, set dive planes at 20 degrees and make your depth 350"
AAAOOOOGA AAAAOOOGA.
"Sir sonar reports torpedo running hot straight and normal".
"Very well, what is the destroyer doing?"
"Sir Sonar reports enemy destroyer is still sailing on its previous course". "Very well. Time to impact".
"Sir time to impact is 1 minute ten seconds sir"
tic tic tic tic tic
"Torpedo impact sir!...Sonar report shes sinking like a rock"

That was during my sixth partol and while not the most exciting or hair raising patrol it was certainly interesting in that I have never seen an ecorting destroyer simply sail in circles like that, and it was the hardest shot I've ever made in any sub sim. Near the moment of impact I cheated and went to the camera just to see what the shot looked like. I didn't see it real clear but it appeared that the torpedo swam directly up the stern of the enemy ship as it was beginning its second turn and was descending on the back side of a wave. Near amid ships the torpedo must have impacted the hull or was magnetically detonated and the japanese destroyer went up like a roman candle. Probably just blind luck that I did hit it, but it was fun to try. And to top that, the crew was exhausted by having been at general quarters for about 3 and a half hours. I had to cancel GQ just to get the normal watch crew to wake up.


What fun! And I hope you enjoyed my story.

[NKato]

Winter of 1944.

Marshall Islands.

U.S.S. Skate, Balao-Class.

Mission: Patrol Marshall Islands, Sink Merchant Convoys, Provide Support for Marine Landing.

Departure: January 3, 1944, Pearl Harbor

The dates from this point on are unavailable.

The U.S.S. Skate set out for Marshall Island with a vetted crew of excellent skill and hand-chosen by Jack Russell, acting Commander of the ship.

[One Month Later]
We began our patrol of Marshall Islands to intercept any non-allied ships on approach to the islands. We spent two weeks without any contacts, meanwhile, the Marshall Landing went without a hitch. A decision was made to move further west, outside of Marshall Island's waters.

[One Week Later]
Radar contact, we tracked it eastbound towards Marshall, barring any assumptions, we believed it may have been bound for the islands to resupply their forces when we intercepted. Large Convoy of Tankers escorted by three Destroyers under the cover of dark were spotted. The Skate closed into attack position at periscope depth and launched six torpedoes against two large tanker targets. Four torpedoes struck, two each. One sank immediately, the other's stern was in the water but still upright.

The destroyers were aware of the attack, but had no clue as to the direction as the tankers were at differering angles when the torpedoes detonated. We reloaded and fired another four torpedoes at medium tankers, striking both amidships and breaking them in half. The stern of both ships remained on the surface, screws in the air.

With the mediums dispatched, the Destroyers finally bore down upon us, one from the Skate's stern. Two torpedoes were, as one of my crew stuccinctly put it, right down their d*mned throat. It was an immediate confirmed kill at 1,300 meters.

A second destroyer also bore down at us as we turned to deal with the burning large tanker that remained intact to our stern - we had passed it during our attack on the smaller ships, as well as the offensive-defensive manuever against the rearward destroyer. The additional destroyer once again took two torpedoes head on, one detonating directly underneath the command tower. The tower was blown clean off, while it broke in two.

The third destroyer was of trivial concern as it was using searchlights to attempt to locate us, because the destruction of the ships had generated sufficent noise to render their sonar useless - that, and there were multiple wrecks between us and them. We breached the surface and used the deckgun to finish off the persistent tanker - which was listing to port and awash up to its second stack, blasting a foolish gunner from the deck with a single shell. I don't know what that man was thinking, believing that he could defend a mortally wounded and unrecoverable ship with a dual machine gun, as the shell impacted against his emplacement. The annoyance silenced, we punched two holes in the bow and permanently sank her.

The last destroyer escort was already closing distance, and we expended the remaining torpedoes in a last attempt to wipe the remaining tankers - one medium and two small ships in the distance, while sending a farewell gift to the escort that bore down on us. Our watch crew reveled in the detonation that resulted as all torpedoes on the targets detonated.

We celebrated by having some well-brewed coffee on the way back through Marshall Islands - now under Allied control - bound for Midway for refit.

Final killcount: 2 large tankers, 3 medium tankers, 1 small tanker. 3 destroyers sunk.
Tonnage: 45,000+.

[Two days later.]
We were entering the Marshal waters as we were constantly harassed by submarine-hunting planes. Their aim had been so crude that we did not even need to submerge to evade their bombs. It had become so routine that our crew did not shrug when a pair of Betties came by and lobbed their six-pack bombs at us, missing by over ten to fifty meters.

One fateful morning, we were foolish to think that a Zero would miss. It was a near-direct hit to our stern, as our Anti-Aircraft attempted to shoot it down before the payload was dropped. It detonated near our screws, effectively buckling our hull in the engine room up to the command room. We began to take on water, as the damage control got to work - I think their priorities were a bit mixed.

We managed to repair the bulkheads by the end of the day, and even though the Skate had fully submerged due to the amount of water in the rear quarter...we had sunk to a depth of 255 feet, before managing to blow the ballast in time before we reached hull crush depth. We rose to a reading of 60 feet, although our bow was the only thing out of the water. We began to pump the water out of the astern torpedo room and engineering rooms.

By midday our deck was above water, and we mounted a defensive measure against the three bombers that approached the Skate, which was dead in the water.

Two of the bombers were on a direct track for us, and were promptly shot down before they could offload their bombs. The third managed to drop the bombs, but they exploded well off our bow. That plane, too, was shot down.

Finally, by dusk, we had our engines working to some capacity, and made for Midway with all capable speed through the Marshall Islands' defenses of cruisers and destroyers. It was a shame that a submarine tender wasn't in that flotilla, although we optimized our repairs during the journey and made our arrival to Midway late in the season.

Further repairs were done, and we made for Pearl Harbor before heading to San Francisco for an overhaul.

Amazingly enough, we suffered no casualties throughout our first war patrol. Our egos had been bruised sufficently enough that in hindsight, we were extremely lucky to survive -- and that pilot was very lucky to land such a crippling blow.

We received a naval commendation for sinking the convoy that had been bound for Marshall to resupply the japanese forces holding that area.

I look forward to our next war patrol - our lessons learned from the winter-spring patrol certainly will play a major role when we encounter air forces in the future.

-Signed,
Jack Russell, Captain of the Balao-Class Submarine, U.S.S. Skate


[Photo Courtesty of the U.S. Navy Archives - U.S.S. Skate passing a destroyed Tanker]

[elanaiba]

Originally Posted by DeePsix501

We identify it as a medium modern composite freighter.

Rather Medium Modern Split Superstructure Freighter...

[Dustyboats]

I'm driving a Gar boat to Honshu. All tigerdy boo! Dived for daylight hours, contact reported Stb bow by Sonar. "OK boys. Ahead Flank". The response was instantanious! Sounded General Quarters, crew nervous, new skipper, but only half as much as me. Periscope depth, periscope up and down like a fiddlers elbow. Nothing in sight. Still closing the Sonar bearing. I'm dying to see a large merchantman...."Short Range" from Sonar. Up scope......a fishing boat. "Surface the boat. Engage target with gunfire" Now I'm in trouble! Flashed to the bridge manned the TBT, line on target.....NO guns crew.....I'm shot to pieces by a light machine gun, but I hold on grimly. An inspiration from my Exec. alongside me......"Sir we had doughnuts last night. Lets throw them"
The Exec is on a charge! Finally got the fishing boat to stop firing so went alongside. Exchanged two cans of peaches for fresh fish. Withdrew from area 1000yds, turned and gave him a Mark10.....boom!!!! Moral? Never trust a boats skipper!

[DeePsix501]

Originally Posted by elanaiba

Rather Medium Modern Split Superstructure Freighter...

Yea I noticed that after I posted. I mixed up an Screenshot from another patrol and had put that in, but I didnt feel like going back and digging up the propper screenshot. You should see my SHIV Folder...it's loaded with atleast 100 screenshots. I'm a picture taken foo! :rotfl:

But I cant help that, you made the game so pretty...

[Elder-Pirate]

Thought I'd post this story here instead of the "Bug" thread as some have had this sinking prob and theirs was buggy.

I was heading east on the surface cruseing at 'standard' speed returning from "Honshu" completly out of torps and ammo when here comes a betty. I immediately ordered crash dive but was to late and Betty gave the Sub a good blow causeing massive flooding in the forward torpedo room, control room and engine room. Of course the Sub was picking up speed to the bottom. I ordered battlestations and the repair crew was allready working on the bulkheads. Then it dawned on me "Hey" your diving at flank speed, this will never work so I ordered "Emergency" and "Blow balast". By now I'm down to about 250' but slowly riseing to the surface in emergency reverse at 5 kts. Meantime I've dragged the "Bulkhead" icon to the top of the repair list ( Y key ) and the water started pumping out of the bulkheads fairly quick. By now most of the flooding was pumped out and then the stern of the sub appeared on the surface, screws spinning in mid air and Sub just hanging there ( First pic ). After about five minutes the stearn and screws settled in the water with the bow up to the sonar antenna on deck still under water.


By now the repairs had all been done except the forward torpedo room flooding.



I ordered flank speed and sure enough the bow straightened up and the screws were throwing up a large rooster tail on the surface. OH D#%* here comes Bad Betty again and I don't have any ammo whatsoever and the forward torp room is still flooded, "crash dive !" Here we go again but this time luck was on my side and Betty had missed. No more extra flooding accurred but I had to order another blow balast and also order "Emercency", again the Sub slowed and then started back up to the surface in reverse.
Back on the surface and running at flank ( scared if any slower we'd sink although that may not have happened but I wasn't taking any chances ) speed looking with the radar for betty ( almost out of her range by now ) the crew were all still on 'Battle stations' and were still in good shape as only the AA flak operator got hit very bad ( 1/100 health ). By now which was about 8 hours later and out of Bettys reach, with only 2,000 nm to Midway and less than a half tank of fuel I deceided to run at 1/3 speed for the rest of the way to Midway and hope there was enough fuel to do so.
Well no more Bettys nor any more bad guys the rest of the way to Midway. refited at Midway, all fueled up, 20 new torps and just a few shells for both th AA and deck gun not full amount of ammo though.

I was watching the rest of the way back for the AA gunner to kind of heal up but no he was still at 1/100 health when we docked at pearl, I had to call the ambulance for him. :rotfl: For HQ sure did not care.

I must have done something right in that patrol for I got this. ( but why "0" war patrol, heck I'd just returned from one. :hmm: )



And a lot of my crew received medals along with a purple heart for my AA gunner ( he's now at base hospital, hope he makes it. )

My point is that with major flooding you can control your ship if you set your people to work ( all of them ) and put the worst task at the top of the repair list ( Y key ) in "Damage management". And on your way to Davey Jones Locker hit the "emergency" reverese and blow balast for it can save your life.

Oh yes PV, in case your reading this post. You can dive and control your Sub after the bulkheads have repaired but it will take 10/12 hours after the panal shows the bulkheads clear and repaired. I did before the refit at Midway ( and several hours after bulkheads were repaired ) dive to 165' and resurface with no problems. Damn I've a good crew.