Log in

View Full Version : How did I make it home? I should be dead.


HMCS
08-22-07, 03:51 AM
GWX, 80% Realism.

U-135, VIIc, 10th patrol.

January 1943. I am attacking a convoy in AK25. I manage to penetrate the screen and fire my eels. Three ships down; a Liberty (floating bombs, they is..), a big fat Tanker (T3) and a Cargo ship (C3). I dive to 140, firing decoys on the way, the usual dance. I manage to elude them; I think that the merchants masked my noise pretty well.

I foolishly try to attack again. I reload one tube, turn and rise to periscope. I sink another ship; a small cargo ship. A Black Swan FF picks up a scent, and charges in.

This S.O.B could shoot.

He lays in a perfect pattern; despite my best effort, he smashes the **** out of my conning tower; cooking both flak pieces, my deck gun, both periscopes, and kills my radio operator. It took us 4-6 minutes of flooding, which took me to 175m, and I was forced to go to ahead standard just to maintain depth. This is the part that puzzles me...

Why didn't he just come in and finish me off? I was making quite a racket down there; with all that hammering and hollering, not to mention cavitating all over creation. He should have just come in and blown me to kingdom come.

But he didn't. He just circled aft me of me and then went away.

Then I had to go home, and holy **** birds! It was a freakin' air show up there; Sunderlands, Wellingtons and Catalinas. They wanted my ass bad; the Metox sang all the way home. It took about 10 days to get home, under water all day and recharging batteries at night, full ahead and a couple of scares along the way.

I squeaked home with 52000 grt.

A tip on surviving the Bay of Biscay: Hug the Spanish coast until you pass the coast of Portugal, and you are nearly in the Atlantic. I remember reading somewhere that that route was popular among the commanders and that it saved alot of boats.

Brag
08-22-07, 05:57 AM
Congratz on a lucky escape :D

Shelton
08-22-07, 06:09 AM
LOL had a good laugh - excellent post - yes and your one lucky bas!ard

gimpy117
08-22-07, 09:20 AM
maybe he was out of fireworks???

how many charges does a black swan have??

NipplesTheCat
08-22-07, 09:49 AM
Maybe they forgot what they were doing. I do that all the time. :lol:

papa_smurf
08-22-07, 10:40 AM
You were VERY lucky that you were not sunk - obviously that Black Swan captain got bored of you at went home....

(Nice tip dealing with the hell zone that is Bay of Biscay:up: - will remeber that one.)

GoldenRivet
08-22-07, 11:11 AM
the tip about hugging the coast line is a real life tactic... the radar would have a hard time detecting surfaced u-boats due to the blending in with the shore line ground clutter.

nice job in using that to your advantage though im not sure if it is modeled in the game or not... i guess in a small way it is modded if air patrols dont spawn close to the coast.

Corsair
08-22-07, 11:20 AM
Not sure exactly how many charges carry the Black Swans, but had to deal with two of them last night west of Gibraltar after a convoy attack and they sure dropped quite a few... I really don't like them FFs...:-?

Brag
08-22-07, 11:40 AM
maybe he was out of fireworks???

how many charges does a black swan have??Once, I followed a convoy for nearly a forthnight. The Black Swan in the escort group dumped over 200 and still had cans left.

bigboywooly
08-22-07, 04:36 PM
Well a clue would be to look at the back of the Black Swan

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/bigboywooly/ScreenHunter_699.jpg

:hmm:

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/bigboywooly/ScreenHunter_704.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h22/bigboywooly/ScreenHunter_706.jpg

KeptinCranky
08-22-07, 05:15 PM
Oh yes, that can definitely ruin your weekend...:doh:
There's a few others that have that many, but they don't seem to be as abundant as the Black Swan.

But then again, a group of regular Destroyers can also severely rain on your parade.

These guys caught me in 100 meters of water in late 1939 just east of Scapa Flow, I eventually managed to escape them minus 1 diesel, my flak, and half my hull integrity, I did have to emergency surface right in the middle of them, causing some friendly fire damage, then crashdive again in order to get them to stop dropping cans right on top of me. I spent 4 hours at 1x TC evading them while I should have been sleeping and getting ready for work the day after, but it was worth it :|\\

http://home.planet.nl/%7Efourn003/images/ddparty.jpg

Ubåtskapten
08-22-07, 07:13 PM
the tip about hugging the coast line is a real life tactic... the radar would have a hard time detecting surfaced u-boats due to the blending in with the shore line ground clutter.

nice job in using that to your advantage though im not sure if it is modeled in the game or not... i guess in a small way it is modded if air patrols dont spawn close to the coast. Well, it looks like it's implemented, sort of...
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9606/spanishcoastbh1.jpg
(Spanish north coastline)

http://img456.imageshack.us/img456/1403/spanishcoast1ys3.jpg

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5508/spanishcoast2en0.jpg

They probably see you through those mountains, or more likely, they doesn't see the mountains at all.:rotfl:;)

Kpt. Lehmann
08-22-07, 08:20 PM
They probably see you through those mountains, or more likely, they doesn't see the mountains at all.:rotfl:;)

You are exactly correct. Aircraft in SH3 have no concept of flying over mountains... so they try to fly through them.:-?

Pants
08-22-07, 08:23 PM
Yup, Bernard is a secret agent, He's working in the RAF as a training instructor :rotfl:

Kaleu. Jochen Mohr
08-22-07, 09:04 PM
Maybe they forgot what they were doing. I do that all the time. :lol:

nah. it was tea time and the DC crew refused to go to they're positions. so the captain just ordered to continue and forget there's a enemy ;)
:rotfl::rotfl: