Factum est

[Platapus]

Received 9 May 1945 10:59

From BDU
To U52

My Uboat men! Six years of submarine warfare lie behind us. You have fought like Lions! The continuation of our fight on the remaining basis is no longer possible. U-Boatmen! Undefeated and unblemished you lay down your arms after a heroic battle without equal. We remember in deep respect our fallen comrades, who have sealed with death their loyalty to the Fuehrer and Fatherland.

Comrades! Preserve your U-boat spirit through the years for the good of the Fatherland. Long Live Germany.

Signed

Adm. Doenitz

Lieutenant Sr. Skip Binford 41 patrols 291,667 Tons sunk
Ended the war in U-52 Type VIIc
Awards
U-Boat War Badge
U-Boat Front Clasp
German Cross in Gold
Iron Cross Second Class
Iron Cross First Class
Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds

I honour the two Officers, ten Petty-Officers, and thirteen Seamen who gave their lives for our boat and crew. They are the true heros. Their loss will forever be with us.

I am flying a white flag with honour, making way to the nearest British port as per orders. It has been a long and terrible war, but my crew and I conducted ourselves with honour and duty. I have nothing to regret.

As for my fate at the hands of the British? It is unknown. I can only take comfort in the last words of an American Patriot named Nathan Hale.

"It is the duty of every officer to obey the orders of his Commander in Chief"

Of course he was hanged by the British <wry smile>

Salute

[Sailor Steve]

Wow! You survived!

My hat's off to you, sir...or it would be if I wasn't dead.:dead:

[Graf Paper]

Big congrats! :rock:

I just finished my tenth patrol and it is currently Nov. 16, 1940. Things are already showing signs of getting much more difficult. I hit a convoy as AM51 and it took hours to shake the Dido that must have dropped a hundred depth charges on me, destroying my deckgun, flakgun, periscopes, and damaging many systems. All of that with two near misses! :o

My brave crew managed to get the flooding stopped just as we hit 223 meters.

Vengeful nutcase that I am, after I eluded the Dido I surfaced, reloaded my torps, and pursued the convoy while recharging my batteries. I went back in at 2350 hours with decks awash and used my UZO to bring down a couple of large merchies. Having expended my last eel, I slipped away at flank speed and found myself awarded with the addition of diamonds to my Knight's Cross with Swords and Oak Leaves when we made it home.

I'm beginning to think the Tommies might just be serious about this whole "war" thing.

Hopefully, luck will be with me and you and I will be able to share a tale or two with the remaining kaeluns over some steins at the local biergarten when the dust settles.

Obltn. z. S. Josef Schutz and the crew of U-47 salute you, herr Kaleun. You've done a man's job, sir! :arrgh!:

[Brag]

To U-52
We salute you! You have fought with honor. --Congratulations :D

[Konovalov]

Congrats Platapus on your career surviving hostilities. :rock:

[the.terrabyte.pirate]

I'd love to see a stickied thread of the final statistics of those brave few that have lasted the war. Kinda like a wall of honour.

[SmokinTep]

Awesome.............making it to the end of the war.:up:

[Platapus]

I have to admit that when I do another career, I will be hard pressed to go past September 1943. The game really started to suck after that. I just wanted to complete a war career at least once.

20 months of aircraft sighted, crash dive, repair, quick charge rinse and repeat gets old realllllly fast. :down: But SH3 is a historical simulator and that's how life (and death) was for U-boats after late 1943.

My only regret was spending the renown on the upgraded superstructure and the extra flak guns (one heavy two light). It was a waste of renown. By the time I was able to get these, fighting air attacks was a losing game.

Having spent this renown I ran out when some of the newer homing torpedoes came available. I never was able to get a schnorkle (them things be expensive!):nope:

It was interesting surviving a particularly brutal depth charge attack from this overly dedicated destroyer in the early morning of 9 May 1945.

I wanted to send up a message "hey dude, you already won the frickin war! No need to kill me!"

I was disappointed that there was no emotional ending to the game. It just kind of ended. It would have been nice if I could have hosted the white flag and sailed into a British harbour and surrendered with honour.

Awesome game. Been playing it for years but never went through the full war. As part of Operation Paperclip I have been transfered to the Pacific. Someone has to show these Naval Academy woosies that there is more to commanding a submarine then getting dressed up for fancy dances. :nope:

But I will be back. I anticipate World War II to start again in a few months LoL

[Keelbuster]

I never was able to get a schnorkle (them things be expensive!):nope:


Woah - you made it!! That's only happened for me one other time. And I finished in an XXI with a schorkel etc. Amazing that you made it all that away without a schnorkel. I can't even imagine the number of crash dives you must have made.

Good show! :rock:

[Platapus]

I can't even imagine the number of crash dives you must have made.

U52 All diving all the time

It is amazing how long the batteries can last when you are at dead stop 40 meters :up:

BTW I hate the realism of it being hard to maintain deep depth without more and more speed. Kinda killed my tactic of "lets sit here at 220 meters with engines stopped"

At one time, when I was a little "too" deep, I needed standard motors to keep from sinking. Not good when trying to hide. Does anyone know the max depth you can maintain with no motors running?

It is great that I had an air compressor, but what I needed was incompressible air!