Operation Juno

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Has anyone participated in Operation Juno?

- whats a good spot to setup an ambush? it centers around Harstad and it looks like a uboat could catch a troop convoy, and at least a carrier west of northern norway

I referenced the link below, this may dictate where I want to go:

http://www.scharnhorst-class.dk/scharnhorst/history/scharnjuno.html

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

I see a few hits on the post so there's some people out there at least curious about Operation Juno. I'll pass on what I have learned about how SHIII GWX 1.~ treats the British evacuation of Norway so far.

On 6/5/1940, I was camped out at the entrance to Harstad and picked up a contact 190 degrees. It was a convoy of 5-6 Large Tankers, 2 Auxiliary Cruisers, 5-6 Troopships and about 4-5 destroyers. The destroyers were Hunt 1 and 2 class, and tribal classes. The screenshot below should clear up where I made my intercept.

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/2618/screenshot001ba7.jpg

Based on the internet link I posted before, I would say this is Group 1. I am also assuming they form up with Ark Royal and Glorious further out on 6/8/1940. The GWX team has been pretty accurate so far in regards to Weserabung (you do intercept Warspite if you know where to go), so I would assume they stick to the story of Juno pretty close.

The convoy travels at 10 knots, so I went to All Ahead Flank at 16-17 knots, got 90 aob to the Auxiliary Cruiser in front, went to periscope depth, rigged for silent running. I waited until the lead escort passed almost 45 degrees to port, put up the scope. The Aux cruiser was 30 degrees to starboard, 1000 meters away. At 20 degrees I loosed 2 torpedoes at him, one in fuel bunker, one under smoke stack. I also had a large tanker come into view at 350 meters. Loosed one in fuel bunker forward the engine room. The aux cruiser went down, the large tanker was smoking.

No pinging yet, but I'm also not leaving scope up either. No DDs coming at me. At this time, a Ju-88 makes a pass on a Large Merchant. Bomb hits amidships, makes fire and smoke, but does not sink him. The Junkers must be a lucky diversions for me becuase the escorts are filling the sky with lead. I see a Troop ship at 600 meters come into view. I launch my las forward torpedo. I aim just forward the 2nd mast where the fuel is. I over shoot and hit the tip of the bow. After I dive to 50 meters, the soundman reports I sank him! Wow, I new weak spot discovered for a troopship.

The convoy is 13,000 meters west of me, leaving the smoking ruin of the large tanker behind. I surface, run at full speed, man the desk guns. 4,000 meters out, lookouts report a Tribal 20 degrees to port at 8000 meters. He's either the rear guard for the convoy or hanging out as protection for the wounded tanker. At 3000 meters I pump deck gun rounds into tanker. 5 shots later the watch oficer reports that she's going down. At this point, the Tribal is 6000 meters away, closing straight at us at 36 knots. I crah dive to 165 meters. At 135, I cut engine from all ahead full to slow at 2 knots. Rig for silent running. The DD cuts his engine to medium speed at medium range, makes a few passes, drops charges, loops back, dos it again. But he's not following my track. He just makes passes over the same spot over and over again. I track all this on the hydrophones. 30 minutes later he quits to join the convoy. They are 20 kms out, but I'm not done yet. We'll see where this goes.

[bigboywooly]

Nice one :up:
Will keep an eye on this

[joea]

Cool indeed, good work! :up:

[Brag]

Yes! Excellent work :D

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Thanks, folks! Good to see everyone out here representing the Kreigsmarine. I'll be in the middle of moving, so I will sqeeze in Operation Juno where I can. I am 130 degrees to starboard of the convoy 14,000 kms away at 730 am. I will keep you all appraised how this goes. :arrgh!:

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Update on Operation Juno:

These are the results so far:

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/3528/screenshot002tt5.jpg
June 5, about 9am, our boat is trailing the convoy on it's starboard side. We are within 12,000 meters on outside merchant but only 8,000 meters from a Hunt II DD. He turns towards us. I turn the boat 45 degrees to starboard, away from the convoy at all ahead flank, 17 knots. No matter, the Hunt is coming on at 27 knots. We see a flash of orange fire and hear the whine of shells overhead. I order a crash dive to 160 meters. At 100 meters I order rig for silent running at 2 knots. I hear one ping. The ping doesnt bounce off us. We go to 130 meters when the first depth charges start exploding. They are close but set to explode too shallow. He keeps making passes over the pot we vacated, he has lost us. 30 minutes later, his engine revs up and he rejoins the convoy.

I go to periscope depth, he is well away. We surface, this time keeping more distance from the convoy, and going to ahead flank at 17 knots. Once, the lead Hunt II is 260 to our portside, i kick the engine back to ahead full, at 14 knots. We gradually make 15 degree turns to port and closer to convoy, now that we are ahead of the lead escort. I make sure to be at least 10,000 meters away from him.
I take range, angle, and aob of the nearest portside target, and set ,my approach to be 90 degrees aob and within 500 meters of him. I drop to periscope depth, silent running.

Once the lead Hunt II passes 35 degrees to starboard the first merchant, a troopship, is 353 degrees, 7 degrees off my portside. I let him pass. What comes next is a tanker at 1,900 meters and a troopship at 700 meters. I fire a T1 torpedo at the tanker , set to impact and High speed. I lower the scope, switch to a tube with a T2 torpedo. I take aim at the Troopship, when I hear the whine of shells and bullets. I see water kicked up near the periscope. I aim at the fuel bunker and fire. I lower the scope, and order a crash dive. I do not know if its a DD or if the troopships have deck guns. It looks like they do in the manual. I hear the boat rock and 'we're taking damage, sir!"

I look on the crew screen, no damage. must have been superficial. I cut the engine back to silent running at 60 meters and coast down to 150 meters. All the while my boat is headed directly under the convoy. At 100 meters I hear a single ping. At 130 meters I hear depth charges behind me. I am tracking at least two DDs making passes over top but dropping the charges behind me. During different points of this, the soundman announces one sinking then the other. These happened almost 20 - 30 minutes after the torpedoes hit. I find that shots in the bow section of troopships sink them with one shot. My torpedo on the tanker was a little forward of the fuel bunker. It must have been enough to taker her down. Its an unexpected bonus.After 30-40 minutes I hear them stop, cut their engines on full and take off.

Currently I am surfaced. I have passed a Tribal DD bringing up the rear guard. I am poised for a late afternoon attack.

Oh, and by the way: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[gimpy117]

operation juno:

what does it involve a movie...sounds like this little ego is preggo...(kidding)

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

operation juno:

what does it involve a movie...sounds like this little ego is preggo...(kidding)

its in the manual, the British evac of Norway and the Kreigsmarine's attempt to intercept. this as how the Scharnorst sank the carrier Glorious. did you need to add anything?

[gimpy117]

nope just a joke on a certian movies thats in theatres in the us.

[bigboywooly]

Nice story :up:
Some nice tonnage there too

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Nice story :up:
Some nice tonnage there too
thanks, I like to share what I'm finding about Juno and also the story for me is a way to reflect on my tactics and what worked and what didn't. someone else can come along and say "well, I also tried this ...."

where these torpedoes hit, i did not intend, i may have lead the target to much. however, i found new weak spots so i can still do 1 shot 1 kills like Kretschmer. i have to do this 90 aob thing until BDU approves the use of magnetics. then i think options for how i attack the convoy open up, because i wouldn't need the 90 aob.

[Jimbuna]

Well done Kaleun....I'm certainly enjoying this http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!! http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

It is getting towards 20:00 hours and my boat is at periscope depth for a 3rd attack on the convoy for June 5, 1940. I raced ahead off the convoy's portside at 12 kms and about 8 kms from escorts. I submerged, went to 2 knots 2kms from where the portside ships are projected to pass. I am setup for atleast what i think to be a shot on a troopship, large tanker and the last auxiliary cruiser. Judging convoy speed at 10 knots, mine at 2 knots and their distance at 11 kms, we will meet each other where I will have a shot within 1000 meters. I watch the hydrophones, so this time I dont bring up the periscope until the middle of the convoy is 15 degrees to starboard. That means the lead escort and the first merchant have to pass.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6826/screenshot003yu2.jpg

At that point, an escort is at medium range at 165 degrees going to port and another escort is at 90 degrees the same direction and the lead escort has passed. My targets are coming into view but I have 3 escorts in a position to pounce. I raise the periscope but barely enough out of the water to put the crosshairs on target. It is a troopship at 1200 meters. I had torpedoes set at 4.7meters depth, open outer door for tube 1 and fire. Lower scope. Check hydrophones, another target at 20 degrees. Raise scope and set to 20 degrees. A large merchant at 900 meters, now at 15 degrees. Set torpedo depth to 4.6, open doors fire one shot from tube 2. Lower scope. Check the phones. I have noticed that the auxiliary cruiser is recognized as a warship on the phones and the sound it gives off is like sharpening a knife on a stone. It is very distinctive from the other screw noises. I track this at 35 degrees. I set torpedoe tubes 3 and 4 at 4. 7 meters. When he is at 10 degrees, 1000 meters
I fire one torpedo in fuel bunker and one in boiler under smokestack.
I lower the scope, take the boat to 50 meters. I do not hear any pinging yet. I hear the first torpedo impact.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2497/screenshot005gy3.jpg


I hear pinging now, and its reflected off the hull. I order ahead flank to 155 meters, and 15 degree turn to port. From there I hear a succession of two more torpedo impacts and success.

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8972/screenshot007km5.jpg

The 4th torpedo hit the aux cruiser between the fuel bunker and the boilers. A chain of secondary explosions ripped through the depths. Then reports of the Large Merchant going under added to the reports.

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2936/screenshot008ye6.jpg

At 120 meters I cut engine back to 2 knots, silent running. At 150 meters the DDs make passes over our position behind us at short range. For 45 minutes they make pass after pass, we take no damage. I am on the same course as the convoy at this point at 155 meters depth. I hear reports of another ' she's going down!' Thats the troopship. The DDs eventually race off to catch the convoy. Results so far:
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/5402/screenshot009zb2.jpg

It seems the DDs didn't react until explosions happened. That means they didnt spot the torpedoes on their way to target and did not spot the periscope. I have 1 torpedo loaded in forward tube, 4 stored externally needing to be moved inside. None of the stern tubes have been used yet. I have 11 shots left. My 3 torpedo petty officers are fully rested, I can try to move 1 or 2 from topside into the bow and go for maybe a 4th try for June 5 or the first try of June 6.

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Here's an update on my experiences with Operation Juno:

It's June 6, made a torpedo attack on the convoy's portside, one shot in the fuel bunker of a troopship at 1200 meters and and a shot in fuel bunker of a large tanker at 600 meters. After the last impact, went to slow, down to 50 meters, then 100. No pinging, no depth charges. I track on the hydrophones that there's two DDs milling around up there, very slow, but that's it. 30 minutes later, they and the convoy move on. I go to periscope depth. Look around, don't see smoke and don't see ships in recognizable view.
Surface, follow the convoy, but angle along the portside so that I can set up a surface approach 11,000 meters away, get ahead and submerge for another attack. Along the way my lookout reports a ship. 7000 meters away is the large tanker I hit. He's chugging at 1 knot and his stern is in flames. I cut it to all ahead flank, and man the desk gun. Within 4,000 meters I open up. I'm 50/50, scoring hits. Within 3000 meters I score a few that give off secondaries. At this time, my loookouts report a destroyer. Then I hear the high-pitch whine of shells overhead. I order crash dive. At 15 meters, my soundman says 'she's goin down!', so chalk up the tanker. I throttle it all the way to 130 meters and go to silent running. The DD does a good job of pounding the spot where I submerged but does not track me, he just makes passes over the same spot. And again and again, the depth charges seem to be set too shallow.
45 min later he leaves. I do my setup again for attack on the convoy. This goes off with no problem. I am setup for a 90 degree aob shot at 1200 meters of a troopship. Most screw noises are 80 degrees, but one merchant contact is at 90. I pop periscope for 2 seconds, bring it down again. The main body is not going to run me down. 10 minutes later I hear pinging from a warship contact at medium range, bearing 49 degrees. He must have see my scope. After almost 2 days of relentless attacks, the convoy escort is edgy and alert. I crank out a crash dive and a 30 degree turn to port. later I order a 20 degree turn to starboard. The pinging is relentless. At 50 meters I hear depthcharges splashing as they hit the water. I think I will take damage. I hear the explosions but none damage the boat. I do have the damage setting for in-game turned on all the way. I cut it to silent running at 100 meters. My course is 280. An hour later, the DD attacking me runs away.

I am surfaced again, ready for another run. 8 torpedoes left still.