Tonnage_Ace
12-12-06, 03:26 AM
Well GWX is almost here and it just so happened to be the last patrol of my career(good timing!), I actually just picked this career up from a 2 month furlow away from SHIII so I was pleasantly surprised to find the follow up to GW1.1a just around the corner when I logged back onto Subsim.com:arrgh!: Anyway, I've done this before so hopefully this report will be as good as my last ones, this is a bit of a send-off before the end of Kaluen Hans Gergen's(SH3 Commander given name) successful career of WWII. Picture heavy so have patience 56kers:
I came out of Bergen and my CE was aghast to hear I didn't want to intercept the famed 'Task Force of Renown' I had plundered so many times before:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=101905
However I felt pitty for the helpless chaps so I made a little detour and continued on to my grid, AM53, which nestled in the mouth of the great lion's lair. When, as I was about to arrive at my destination, one of my petty officers furiously typed out a report of convoy activity:
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/4628/2eh0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Nothing ever goes 15 kts if it isn't important so I was quite ecstatic to get the hunt on, my men needed a morale boost as things were looking grim for the Fatherland. Laying out an intercept course was the first order of the moment, I set speed for ahead one-third and depth 25m, the XXI is a wonderous machine, giving me 10 knots cruising speed...underwater no less!
My Sonar man has been with me for almost half the War and has earned my appreciation for those keen ears of his, he quickly reported cavitations bearing between 60 and 70 degrees from us.
Bringing us within a good distance...I ordered ahead slow and periscope depth to assert the 'juiciness' of this convoy, although, hearing from the tell-tale sound of an escort carrier, I wasn't surprised to see what I saw:
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9336/6zy8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Further inspection showed what this convoy was yielding:
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/994/7xj4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Any seasoned Kaleun would know what to go for and thus I decided to hit the first two T3's then while the torps were en route, closing distance to the T3 and carrier in the second row to about 500m so that when my torps hit and all hell breaks loose the convoy will slow down and weave back and forth so that I may try my hand at using the speed formula: [length of ship*3600/time in seconds it takes for the ship to pass over persicope vertical line/1852=ship's speed] because I will have to ditch the 15knot speed report once those eels hit.
This was the result:
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/3378/10ex1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Two simultaneous hits, done by launching the first salvo at the farthest ship then waiting 45 seconds for each lane needed to traverse and firing the second at the closest ship. The farthest one went down immediately but the closest one stopped dead and drifted behind the convoy, I decided to wait until I was finished with this convoy and head back to finish her off at a later time.
The next order of business was the Escort Carrier and the T3 in the second row. I used the speed formula but due to viewing the carrier at the 20 degree notch it isn't a very good speed estimation being that the ship needs to pass you at a perfect 0 degrees in order to get the best result, but by that time the ship is too far past you and the gyro angle is 20+, making a detonation risky. I tried my best and fired one eel each to be economic in case I was way off in speed estimation, this was the result:
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/3223/12aq3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5433/14fk5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/7924/15hq5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I also took out a pesky destoyer who was headed straight for me with a zero gyro angle, 5m, mag shot that crippled him and he sank some time after( I think around two hours).
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6923/19kz3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I also sank all three T2 Tankers which were along for the ride as well. I normally don't but the recognition manual said a T3 was around 8200 tons and a T2 was 8000, so I figured what the hell, I've never sunk every ship in a convoy before and it would be fitting being that this was my last patrol...here's a nice pic:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/6499/21bn0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
As for that T3 that slowed down...
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2194/22pg4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
All in all I sank three T3 Tankers, one Bogue Escort Carrier, three T2 Tankers and one destroyer that got up in my grill 'Das Boot' style...I left the other three destroyers sail off to Canada or America with their heads held WAY down and finished up my patrol in AM53 without incident. Upon sailing into the fjords of Bergen, the weather was truly pitiful but a fitting setting to the sly wolf slinking back into his lair after five and a half years of feasting on the flocks of the Atlantic...Bring on GWX!
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7531/23lb4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I came out of Bergen and my CE was aghast to hear I didn't want to intercept the famed 'Task Force of Renown' I had plundered so many times before:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=101905
However I felt pitty for the helpless chaps so I made a little detour and continued on to my grid, AM53, which nestled in the mouth of the great lion's lair. When, as I was about to arrive at my destination, one of my petty officers furiously typed out a report of convoy activity:
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/4628/2eh0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Nothing ever goes 15 kts if it isn't important so I was quite ecstatic to get the hunt on, my men needed a morale boost as things were looking grim for the Fatherland. Laying out an intercept course was the first order of the moment, I set speed for ahead one-third and depth 25m, the XXI is a wonderous machine, giving me 10 knots cruising speed...underwater no less!
My Sonar man has been with me for almost half the War and has earned my appreciation for those keen ears of his, he quickly reported cavitations bearing between 60 and 70 degrees from us.
Bringing us within a good distance...I ordered ahead slow and periscope depth to assert the 'juiciness' of this convoy, although, hearing from the tell-tale sound of an escort carrier, I wasn't surprised to see what I saw:
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9336/6zy8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Further inspection showed what this convoy was yielding:
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/994/7xj4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Any seasoned Kaleun would know what to go for and thus I decided to hit the first two T3's then while the torps were en route, closing distance to the T3 and carrier in the second row to about 500m so that when my torps hit and all hell breaks loose the convoy will slow down and weave back and forth so that I may try my hand at using the speed formula: [length of ship*3600/time in seconds it takes for the ship to pass over persicope vertical line/1852=ship's speed] because I will have to ditch the 15knot speed report once those eels hit.
This was the result:
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/3378/10ex1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Two simultaneous hits, done by launching the first salvo at the farthest ship then waiting 45 seconds for each lane needed to traverse and firing the second at the closest ship. The farthest one went down immediately but the closest one stopped dead and drifted behind the convoy, I decided to wait until I was finished with this convoy and head back to finish her off at a later time.
The next order of business was the Escort Carrier and the T3 in the second row. I used the speed formula but due to viewing the carrier at the 20 degree notch it isn't a very good speed estimation being that the ship needs to pass you at a perfect 0 degrees in order to get the best result, but by that time the ship is too far past you and the gyro angle is 20+, making a detonation risky. I tried my best and fired one eel each to be economic in case I was way off in speed estimation, this was the result:
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/3223/12aq3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5433/14fk5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/7924/15hq5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I also took out a pesky destoyer who was headed straight for me with a zero gyro angle, 5m, mag shot that crippled him and he sank some time after( I think around two hours).
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6923/19kz3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I also sank all three T2 Tankers which were along for the ride as well. I normally don't but the recognition manual said a T3 was around 8200 tons and a T2 was 8000, so I figured what the hell, I've never sunk every ship in a convoy before and it would be fitting being that this was my last patrol...here's a nice pic:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/6499/21bn0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
As for that T3 that slowed down...
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2194/22pg4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
All in all I sank three T3 Tankers, one Bogue Escort Carrier, three T2 Tankers and one destroyer that got up in my grill 'Das Boot' style...I left the other three destroyers sail off to Canada or America with their heads held WAY down and finished up my patrol in AM53 without incident. Upon sailing into the fjords of Bergen, the weather was truly pitiful but a fitting setting to the sly wolf slinking back into his lair after five and a half years of feasting on the flocks of the Atlantic...Bring on GWX!
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7531/23lb4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)