The now famed U-97 may meet its end!

[mstgnymike]

As some of you may have seen Kaleun Navarre and U-97(VIIC) is now famous for destroying a Gibraltar hunter killer group. It was a succesful attack but I was unable to breakout into the med sea. U-97 was attempting her second try at breaking through. At 0247 she surfaced and began to surge ahead at ahead standard. Around 0630 another H/K group appeard. A black swan and two hunt ones. I went to decks awash and charged to full speed staying close to the African coast and attempting to sneak past the right of the group. Im flying ahead when bam a shot is fired in the distance and i take a direct hit to my conning tower killing crewman Erwin Metz. I order the dive and turn toward the deep ridge seperating Gibraltar and North Africa. The swan lunges toward me. 50 meters...60 meters...70...depth charges in the water. U-97 rocks in the depths but takes minor damages. 100 meters. Pinging at a slow rate. Sonar man reports two warships just above. Charges! The boats lights shatter, water begins to spray! ping...:ping:...:ping:...:ping: 140 meters. Repairs are slow. Damage report, fore quartes quarter flooded. Port engine damaged, torpedo tube 2 destroyed, attack periscope destroyed, flak gun destroyed, deck gun not functioning. Pinging continues but charges seem to be missing just off away from us. At 190 meters CRASH...the sea floor. Shut off all engines. Damaged suffered from the collision flooding continuing. I gotta go to work :damn: saved game. WHAT NOW? Hydrophone reports all three DD's above us and one more possibly incoming!

[baggygreen]

Unlucky mate.

What year are we talking here? Sounds like you made a lil mistake tho - at least, its not what id do - when you went to flank while running decks awash. That makes you a helluva lot more noticeable than if you were going at say, ahead 1/3.

But like i said, unlucky - especially to be hit first shot.

Let us know how it turns out!

[mstgnymike]

ya im about to load it up right now well see..its early 42

[Fenris_Wolf]

If you have the reinforced titanium aft torpedo tube that can operate at extreme depths as was fitted on U-571, also seen in the movie (endorsed by a learned rear admiral of the navy) it is now time to sacrifice Bernard and shove him in there along with some other trash (rotten foodstuff, dead bilge rats, etc.) and fire the tube!

The filth after it reaches the surface will fool the enemy hunters into thinking that you've bought the farm and they'll leave in a moment after giving you laps of honour. That is assuming that they're not already familiar with the trick.

Problem solved! :up:

Or on a serious note, if you manage to lose the destroyers, which is going to be difficult because the strait is narrow and very heavily patrolled as it is, move near the african coast and travel submerged (periscope depth) preferably at a silent running speed not going above 3 knots normally except for maneuvering your boat into a position that is safe from any incomming patroller that might detect you. The elco torpedo boats are too fast for a surfaced transit through the strait and they will mostly detect you before you can submerge.

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Wellllll,

Saving your game while submerged is more of a no-no than attempting to run Gibralter.

Saving while submerged causes all sorts of glitches.

[Mikey_Wolf]

My U-97 is alive and kicking, just about. Its not famed though, very modest career. Good luck mtgnymike.

[mstgnymike]

gents im proud to announce that U-97 lives on...the destroyers left after mabye 7 hours and as soon as i could i repaired, surfaced, and jolted to spain. I state here and now i will never attempt another breakout as 4 brave seamen and 2 loyal cheifs died on patrol.:cry:

[Fenris_Wolf]

The last time I was passing through "the eye of the needle" (that was one week ago with my older command U-572 Type VIIC boat) I had all sorts of encounters with assorted ASW units. It all began with a slight carelessness shown to one torpedo boat that spotted my periscope and raised a ruckus. But anything that floats is actually sent on patrol in the strait.

Soon I had a Hunt I class destroyer searching about around my position, with ASDIC and well, I had to take him out with a swift short range impact detonated torpedo. As I surfaced to gloat at the misfortune of the sinking destroyer, a larger V&W class came out of nowhere. All this in very poor visibility. So I took some beating as I submerged and with a bit of exploiting his turning radius while dodging his bombs and wasting a couple of torpedoes I managed to cripple him and he limped away ****less with his tail tucked between his legs. While I hurriedly left for deeper waters at flank speed.

That was only the exciting segment of the journey btw, minus a few large tankers and a passenger liner that I just could not resist giving up. All that and some more unsuccessful depth charging and twitching about by the tommies (it's fun to lure them into it as long as I'm in a seaworthy VIIC boat that can actually manage to shake them off before they're out of depth charges) and we finally crossed the strait of gibralter!

Did I mention I miss VIIC boats? I can't imagine myself even attempting that in a IXD2. That boat attracts destroyers like flies on ****.

P.S.: I've never had a glitch with saving underwater eversince I removed the custom weather addon.