I've joined the 100K Patrol Club!

[predavolk]

I didn't think that I would be able to do it without some really big ships, but I managed to sink over 100K of shipping thanks to a nice range of ships and some fat tankers. I think my total was 11 merchants, 3 tankers, and 1 warship. I cruised in my IXB from Lorient down the African coast, hitting 4 convoys, then lots of ships off the African coast before some parting shots near Gibraltar on the trip back. Some memorable moments:

1- Using my final torpedo to hit the stern of a large tanker and watch it sink. That put me up to 98K tons! I was simply hoping to break 90K.
2- Waiting around Gibraltar for days in the hopes of catching a lone merchant. Nothing came, until a flood of ships started pouring through! My first stalk was ruined by a convoy right on its tail! But with a bit of patience, I was able to position myself bow on bow with a large merchant, then a Granville. I find that if you surface at flank, blowing balast, at 1500M, you do enough damage to hit periscope depth before they can turn their ship enough to bring their rear guns to bear. The Granville had the nasty surprise of a forward cannon, but it was quickly taken out of action.
3- My 2nd favourite kill was attacking a small convoy of 4 ships escorted by a destroyer. With the destroyer out front, I let a coastal merchant go by, then hit a small merchant, a medium cargo, and finally an ore freighter. The best part was that the ore freighter was tricky to line up, and the destroyer was coming up my tail for a depth charge run! So I made a point-blank frontal shot, dove under the freighter, then watched as the destroyer had to desperately try to stop before ramming the freighter! The freighter then served as a very convienient blocker while I made my getaway! :lol:
4- My favourite kill was a gratuitous kill I couldn't resist. In real life, Captains didn't "trophy" hunt. So when I saw a coastal merchant escorted by a corvette, I decided to take it. But then, the two were sailing so close together, and in such perfect synchrony (no zig-zagging for either), I ended up "wasting" a torpedo on the corvette too! At 400M, 2M depth impact, the poor corvette broke into two immediately. The coastal merchant behind was too stunned to do anything in the 10 seconds it too him to also blunder in front of me, and he was also sent to the bottom with a quick torp.

Good times!:up:

[richardphat]

:eek: :eek: :eek: OMG here is another pro:eek: :eek: ! Gratz are you using GWX? I wonder how can you face 4 convoy near africa! I never have the occasion to face with them:nope: :nope: And also i feel weird......the destroyer ramm into the freighter........:doh: while you are hiding under it.........
I thought it would pull you down!:dead:

[predavolk]

:eek: :eek: :eek: OMG here is another pro:eek: :eek: ! Gratz are you using GWX? I wonder how can you face 4 convoy near africa! I never have the occasion to face with them:nope: :nope: And also i feel weird......the destroyer ramm into the freighter........:doh: while you are hiding under it.........
I thought it would pull you down!:dead:

I use GWX 2.1, 100% realism with the 16K mod and some minor mods (e.g., red contact line). I wasn't hiding under the freighter, I went under it with the intention of diving deep and getting the hell out of dodge. It just so worked with the timing that as I went under, the ship above slowed down (due to my torpedo's damage) enough to interfere with the destroyer's chase!

And as I mentioned in another thread, the convoy line between Freetown and Gib, in the DT area (right side) has been VERY productive for me. I've met at least 2 convoys on each of my three trips (once 2, another 3, this time 3+ the small convoy in this example, which was actually south of Freetown).

1,000,000 tons, here I come! I still have yet to nail a really big capital ship though. I'd really like a battleship or carrier to my name! :D

[totodog]

Wow! Sometimes when I go patrolling I see a lone boat and sink it. I get like 5k tons most on a patrol. Most patrols are just not sinking anything. Patrol grid and back. When my radioman detects radar signals it is Ahead slow! Periscope depth! Report on nearest contact (always a warship). I wait in like 32x tc for it to pass then I go back to the course. I always dive and never fight back against a destroyer. I have stock sh3. If you'd like to share some tips with me, feel free to post back or drop me a PM.

Thank you.

[Bismarck]

GWX adds tons more boats, models, ports, and ships to SH3 i suggest getting that if you want to be one of the 1337 boys :arrgh!:

[gord96]

i dont think i will ever hit the 100k club in my boat....

[Venatore]

Congratulations from the officers and crew of U-657

[Jimbuna]

Next target....the six zeros club http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif

[Brag]

Welcome to the Club! :D

------------------------------------------

J.S. Balz writes:

If you would have done it with a VII, you would be approaching my greatness. :smug:

Kptlt. Johan Sebastian Balz

-------------------------------------------

[msalama]

Congratulations!

Yours Truly however, being a dedicated duck driver, thinks it's a good patrol if he manages to join the _10K_ club in his teeny weeny canoe... :88) :lol:

[rifleman13]

Well done!

100k of pure tonnage! Using a GWX 2.1

I only dream of such things. The highest I got to was only +60k, and that was on stock 1.4b!

[sunvalleyslim]

Great job Pre, you just might one day surpass the Great Kapt. Balz of Fire.........:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

[Nicolas]

A couple of days ago i sunk the hood and nelson battleships, and other merchant large ships, 130,000 tons. more than 4000 renown. With a VIIB boat and manual targeting :p they just gave to me an second class cross :nope:

[Sailor Steve]

What can I say to that, but...

BE MORE AGRESSIVE!

[predavolk]

Next target....the six zeros club http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif


Well, thanks to GLORIOUS Florida (see other thread), I sank 21 ships (9 tankers, 11 freighters, and 1 destroyer) for a total of 124K tons! I'm now, at patrol #15, standing in the six zeros club too. Total tonnage = 1,061,141 tonnes. Boy, was switching to a Type IX ever worth it! :up:

[antikristuseke]

Welcome to the club :)

[Jimbuna]

Next target....the six zeros club http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif


Well, thanks to GLORIOUS Florida (see other thread), I sank 21 ships (9 tankers, 11 freighters, and 1 destroyer) for a total of 124K tons! I'm now, at patrol #15, standing in the six zeros club too. Total tonnage = 1,061,141 tonnes. Boy, was switching to a Type IX ever worth it! :up:

I meant in a single patrol http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/wacko.gif

[Brag]

Next target....the six zeros club http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif


Well, thanks to GLORIOUS Florida (see other thread), I sank 21 ships (9 tankers, 11 freighters, and 1 destroyer) for a total of 124K tons! I'm now, at patrol #15, standing in the six zeros club too. Total tonnage = 1,061,141 tonnes. Boy, was switching to a Type IX ever worth it! :up:

I meant in a single patrol http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/wacko.gif

Jimbunaaaa! Even with your wolfies and your smileys you can't do that!

[Jimbuna]

Next target....the six zeros club http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif


Well, thanks to GLORIOUS Florida (see other thread), I sank 21 ships (9 tankers, 11 freighters, and 1 destroyer) for a total of 124K tons! I'm now, at patrol #15, standing in the six zeros club too. Total tonnage = 1,061,141 tonnes. Boy, was switching to a Type IX ever worth it! :up:

I meant in a single patrol http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/wacko.gif

Jimbunaaaa! Even with your wolfies and your smileys you can't do that!

Everyone can dream http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/6324/uowyaydh5wc2zm2.gif

[predavolk]

:D Yet another 100K patrol. Wow- 1942 is my kind of year! Talk about the 2nd Happy Times indeed!!! :o Although the air cover is starting to get a little too heated for my tastes. :stare:

[sunvalleyslim]

Congrats Predavolk, Greatness comes early but one must learn to survive ones ultimate fate...................greatness comes with survival in the end.......end the war alive and I will salute Kaleun............Great Hunting and Remember Honor the Fatherland

[predavolk]

Oh, absolutely. I'm really pleased to be racking up these big scores now, but I don't expect them to last forever. I'm rather dreading the later years of the war, and may end up switching boats to a VII-41, then a XXI when it's available. At least, that's my plan. For the moment though, I plan on smashing and grabbing as much tonnage and renown as I can while the gettings good. Because as I commented in my Florida thread, it's already getting nasty in the air. I made it back from this patrol with only 35% hull integrity! :nope:

And for anyone else who is in, or who joins the club, I'd love to hear about your 100K patrols. I always enjoy learning from the best!

[predavolk]

OK, this is almost too easy. I appreciate that I'm away from the North Atlantic, which presumably helps a LOT. But once again, I've banged in another 100K+ patrol- November-December 1942 (GWX 2.1, 100%)! 114.5K tons of shipping- 1 destroyer, 6 tankers, 11 merchants. Once again, it was in the Caribbean, with most of my kills coming from around good ol' ED98- the North entrance to Trinidad. Hey, when you've got a good thing, milk it! Some highlights and tips:

1- The cruise was off to a slow start when I tried to lay in wait and ambush the Torch convoy to Casablanca. Man, was it ever huge!!! Fortunately, I wasn't detected and launched two torps (I only load two elecs, and then two steams, up front). One missed a troop transport, the other, much more tragically, HIT a troop transport. Tragic because I was aiming at the Bogue/Casablanca? class carrier behind it. :cry: One the plus side, I managed to evade 3 rounds of depth charging from 2 boats as well as passive searches from 2 more. Tip: decoys work at deeper depths, and jimbuna's tactic of running up to flank, releasing the decoy, the shortly slowing to Slow worked well. Three or four decoy releases, and I was out of their web.

2- Barbados was empty, which is a shame because it's so easy to sneak into. I did nail a destroyer though! And at Coraco (another easy, deep port, just hug the north west shore), I sank a large tanker. Tip: if your torpedoes are exploding prematurely in harbors. I'd presume your hitting a net or underwater wall. Torpedoes set at 1M will go over them. The harbor escorts didn't seem to react to premature explosions- thankfully!

3- After wasting a whole spread of torpedos, I finally sank the large tanker, but I had made some other misses and was below half my torps and "only" sitting at 18K tons. Then, two really cool things happened. First, I ran into what looked like a giant ocean liner! Turns out it was only a smaller one, but it was a raging storm, and a visual sighting, which meant that I had only seconds to react. Two torps nailed it! Then, a couple of days later, I bagged a 24K large passenger ship!!:rock:

4- Tip: WOW, is radar detection ever worth it! It does not differentiate between surface and air contacts (at least not in '42). You'll find out shortly which one if you don't dive soon! I'd recommend at least flooding the decks if not diving outright. Fortunately, I was chased by single-engine float planes that were too slow to get to me in time.

5- Tip: Neutral ships can call in enemy planes on you! Those bastard Venezualens did it repeatedly to me. Bastards!

6- I got 5 kills using my deck gun. Including my last two, which were a wounded ore carrier and a small merchant travelling together. Tip: Later in the war, be sure you inspect merchants before engaging them to know what guns they have. Attacking from the front is usually safer than attacking from the rear. Aim 200-300M closer than the range of the target to hit below the waterline (I use my watch officer's ranges generally- I figure he's manning the UZO). If you are taking heavy fire, you can try and eliminate merchant gun positions by firing about 1000M further than the boat and right on the gun. Better to attack defenseless boats though! My preferred tactic later in the war is to get ahead of the boats, go to PD, put your bow right on theirs. When they are 1500M away, go ahead normal-full, blow balast, man your guns, and blast away at their unprotected front! Once surfaced, go to back emergency to maintain your position, and try to match and move of the enemy to turn their stern toward you. You don't want to give them a shot, so keep the rest of their boat between you and their stern gun! It can take as few as 2-5 waterline shots to sink any ship, but I usually give 20-30 because I want to end the engagement quickly. They will be calling reinforcements!!

7- The area still had some nice Yankee tankers, but most tankers were Venezuelan (maybe I sank all the Yanks last time I was here?). I did run into several varieties of troop and passenger ships beyond the ones I mentioned above. Very odd. They, along with that huge 24K beast, may be the reason why this is the highest renown-scoring cruise I've done- 4160 IIRC.

So that's my patrol. Number 17 or 18 I believe. The air cover was hot, but the radar detector made ALL the difference. I was only surprised once, and I think that was because of the neutral ships calling it in. And to leave you with some historical food for thought, apparently, the highest scoring U-Boat mission of all time comes from WW1. Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere, in U-35, between July 26 and August 20 sank 54 ships totaling 91,950 tons, expending 900 shells and only 4 torpedoes in the process! The gentlemanly ace generally let crews leave their ships before scuttling them with exlosive charges. By the time he left U-35, he had a staggering 195 ships to his credit- two warships, one armed merchant cruiser, five troopships, 125 steamers, and 62 sailing ships. By the end of the war he had more than 200 ships to his credit and nearly 500,000 tons!

[Jimbuna]

http://www.uboat.net/history/wwi/part4.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothar_von_Arnauld_de_la_Peri%C3%A8re

[Sailor Steve]

:damn:

There it is again! I've e-mailed U-boat.net's owner and had the discussion, but it's still there! According to Edwin Grey's U-Boat War: 1914-1918, Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere fired a lot more than four torpedoes during his career. It was on that record patrol that he only fired four (still quite an accomplishment). He explains how he did it in the article. On his last patrol he fired at least eight torpedoes at one convoy, and one of the ships he sank landed on top of his u-boat, very nearly ending his career in a bad way.

[SmokinTep]

Congrats...................now can you do it again?:cool:

[Jimbuna]

LOL :rotfl:

[predavolk]

Well, I went and said it's almost too easy...

I did my first Milch Cow patrol to Cape Hope at the tip of Africa. On the way down, I ran into enough convoys that I decided to top off my torpedoes with U-470 (460?). Total haul for that trip 1/2 way to my destination was 85K tons, with one convoy near Gibraltar/Atlantic opening, and two near Cape Verde. The east side of those islands are a goldmine for convoys, so I highly recommend following the map with GWX to find the convoy route. I've never failed to hit a convoy in the 4 trips I've made with that route! I then restarted my patrol, and got to see the tanker as I left (you don't see it when you arive at the location).

Seeing them off, I decided to stop at St. Helena. Now, I know what you're thinking. Why the hell does this idiot keep raiding harbors in a Type IXB? Well, in my defense, I only raid those with really deep harbors. Sure enough, I manage to sneak past the lone patrol craft by cutting through the far end of his oval search pattern. I creep in at 100M to within 3KM, then spend 2KM coming to periscope depth at 2 knots (that's a good tip- it takes 2KM to rise 90M at 2 KTS). It's a rainy day, but I make it deep into the harbor. In fact, when I stop and raise the periscope, I notice underwater a huge sub net or wall! :o That was some serious luck on my part to not blunder into it by a few meters! But my luck continues with a big tanker (neutral), another big tanker (not neutral), a troop ship, a cargo ship (that I can't see well- heavy rain), and a Southampton Cruiser!!!:rock:

Well, this totally rocks. So I set my torps to 1M depth, and fire two slow electrics at the Southampton. First one, tick, tick, BOOM! It explodes right in front of my boat! It must have hit the net/wall. Luckily, the second torp appears to somehow make it over the wall. I put the boat in full reverse (heck, the escort will know I'm here soon enough!), and pump a fast steam at the allied tanker. It explodes nicely, as I hoped it would with one shot (right in the middle of the boat), so I send a second torpedo at the cruiser. With the extra distance, it easily clears the net/wall. It's also fast steam, and just after it goes the 2nd electric hits the cruiser! Seconds later, the steam hits it too! I gun the boat to full ahead and crank her around. I can no longer see either the troopship or the cargo ship, so I put my electric and steam rear torps down one of the sound bearings, slightly to each side. I pour on the coals to clear my datum. After a few close calls initially, I make it out of the habor. A stationary patrol ship had joined the hunt, as had another and a destroyer from outside the harbor. Fortunately, the weather is bad and the water is DEEP. Like 200M+ 3KM from the harbor.

Feeling fine, I wander over the the Guinea Coast on my way to Cape Town. Granted, my orders are now to return to base, but what the hell. That Milch Cow was meant to keep me going, not get me back to base! This is where it gets ugly. I ran into an A/B or C/D destroyer escorting a small cargo ship. Moments before, two other destroyers had passed through the area. Worst of all, the sea was glass. It was close to dinner time (real world), and I was arrogant and/or foolish enough to attack the little ship. In hindsight, I should have ignored it or at the very least, taken out the destroyer first. Any how, waiting in front of their path for an ambush, the destroyer takes a funny turn and starts heading in my direction. Sure enough, he gets close enough and starts pinging me! Damn!

Well, no problem, just one destroyer, right? Deploy decoys, dive, and I'll be out of here in these deep Atlantic waters. WRONG. He's on me like white on rice. I can't shake him. Worse, I can see that the two other destroyers are coming back. I make a snap decision to try and kill this guy before the other two destroyers join him. So I flank up to the surface, shoot one electric at him (thanks to the loading of the Milch Cow, all my current torps are electrics. He easily dodges my stern tube shot from 300M! :o That's no good. He makes an attack run and damages me slightly as I try to dodge him at PD. He then obligingly goes in front of me, I estimate his speed at 12 kts, set a spread of FOUR forward torpedos, set their depth to 5M, and shoot! Faced with this spread, he's nutted- he can't dodge them! Two run underneath him and...nothing. In my haste I forgot to switch them to magnetic from impact!!! :doh: By now, the other destroyers are 5KM away and closing fast. I dive deep, down to 220M, releasing decoys. I dodge, release, dodge, release, but I can't shake them! My technique is to go low, then when they cross over me on the map, and I hear DC in the water, I go to flank for 20 seconds or so while turning 45 degrees off course (as much turning as I can do on flank- I don't like to turn on slow because I want that extra 1KT!). I avoided taking any hits from the trio of destroyers, but they are relentlessly hammering me for 30 minutes now. At this point, I have to quit the game because of family issues! So it's technically not a kill, because I certainly can't save, and I might get away from them in time, but at the very least, I'm in the middle of an extremely unpleasant stand-off. Thanks to my arrogance and rushed carelessness.:nope:

Well, I end up loading the game again the next day, and decide to submit myself to the same situation, or close enough, to try and get out of it again. It's not a good feeling to "cheat", or at least "Deus Ex Machina" out of the situation. Unfortunately for my attempt at realism, the destroyers are all gone and instead there's a convoy of two coastal freighters escorted by a large merchant. :roll: Well, I sink 'em, but I don't feel really proud of doing it. I then head down to the southern tip of Africa and hunt down a few lone merchants. Then I get radar signals! Crash diving (my standard response to radar born of a fear of airplanes) soon reveals that there is indeed an enemy warship out there. And another. And another. And a merchant. And etc. A convoy! Well, I move a little away underwater, then surface and try to get ahead of the convoy. I use the edge of detecting their radar as my guide and end up in front of the convoy. The water is fairly choppy, 10 knots, so I'm ready to go. At PD, I make sure I'm on the opposite side of the convoy from the lead escort (there's 5 in total I think). I get in the middle of the convoy and notice that a warship is almost on top of me! I haven't used my periscope yet, as I don't want to risk detection. So I raise the scope and holy cow, the place is full of big merchants, small tankers, ore carriers, and a HEAVY CRUISER!!! I can't tell which type it is, but they're all the same size so I don't care. Best of all, it is perfectly approaching for a bow attack. For the third time, luck has been very kind to me this patrol! I use an ore carrier to calculate the speed of the convoy, and set a spread of all four torpedos, slow, 2M, impact. This will be a near-perfect 80 AoB, 350M shot. I shoot, and notice to my horror that in my excitement, I noted the AoB as port instead of starboard!!! :damn: WHY OH WHY CAN'T I LEARN!?! Fortunately, I did do some double-checking on the TDC screen (F6), and made my spread large enough to be effective. At this range, the error is forgiving, and I land two solid hits near its stern. I then let a large cargo ship behind me taste my two stern tubes before hitting flank, turning 90 degrees into the convoy, and diving deep. The cruiser goes down (within 200M of me), and the large cargo goes too. My fast speed gets me well clear of the datum point, which is good because the water here is only 130M deep. I get down to 120M depth, and am 1100M away from my datum point by the time a rear escort belatedly arrives. Another clean get away! Almost out of torps, I head back home, bagging a couple of merchants with my last torps along the way.

The total for the port-to-port cruise is 155K tons, and 5,600 renown! A fantastic cruise, that is unfortunately marred by that ugly incident with the destroyers. I'm proud, but wise enough to know that luck saved my ass BIG TIME on this one. I wish I had the chance to spend 2-3 hours to try and evade that pack of destroyers. I think that the original one might have returned to his escort, making a two-on-one plausible. With that in mind, I'll offer some hints, as usual:

1- CALM WATER IS DOOM AGAINST ESCORTS!!! I was lulled into a sense of false security by my experience with weak, presumably green, surface ASW in the Caribbean. These Atlantic Brits knew their job, and did it well. From now on, I'm not attacking anything with escorts in calm water. I don't care if it's a battleship. Well, maybe then, but not much else!

2- Decoys worked beautifully earlier this year. By now (April 1943), they appear to be less effective. Perhaps the 2nd generation decoys will be better, but they aren't the magic bullets they were on my last cruise. Perhaps I've simply come up against better opponents. They did work against the very first convoy of this cruise, but I'm convinced there is a better defense against destroyers.

3- That is- SPEED. I will strongly advise that after you shoot your torps, you immediately cut to flank speed until you are well over 500M from your datum point, or the nearest escort is within 1000M. The best defense, not shockingly, is not getting detected in the first place. And that means you have to get out of there quickly. I hope more experienced members can confirm this, but it appears that the destroyers first head to your datum point, not to you unless they detect your scope or you get to close and they ping you. So run fast, run far, while you can. Deep too.

4- A spread of 4 torpedoes vs. a destroyer is quite effective, even with slow electrics. Just make sure you fuse them properly! Destroyers can also, unrealistically, see and dodge electrics shot at them (one was coming at me, then veered off to dodge the torp, then veered back at me).

5- St. Helena is a fairly easy raid, and Cape Hope is quite productive in mid-1943.

6- Milche Cows set up your torpedoes arbitrarily, so be prepared if you usually mix your torps for easier loading/better flexibility.

[UnderseaLcpl]

I have very little luck with flanking away after an attack. They seem to pick me up immediately. When I crawl away I can usually get a decent gap as they navigate amongst the remaining merchants.

Also, a spread of four torpedoes seems a waste on an escort. I see you correctly estimated their speed at 12kts. They always circle at close to that speed. But if you know their speed and they are circling 'round for another run it should be fairly easy to hit them at nearly 90.

A bit of advice for those escorts, which you may have seen me repeat, endlessly, in other posts; Once they run over you and begin to turn around just go full rudder in their direction at 1/3 or slow speed. For small escorts like Flowers you may have to go to standard for a bit. Don't even bother to input data into the TDC, just set fire bearing to zero for a target with a speed of zero knots.
Open the tube you wish to use. If using a fast steam torpedo fire when he is 10-12 degrees from the zero mark as his prow crosses your reticle. Electrics are roughly 33% slower so use a 15 or 16 degree lead for those. Always use impact unless the seas are rough and always use a 1.5 or 1m depth for impact.
One hit, if it doesn't blow them to pieces, will at least immobilize or severely cripple them.
Now you have 3 torpedoes left for the other escorts or some nice, fat tankers.

[predavolk]

I have very little luck with flanking away after an attack. They seem to pick me up immediately. When I crawl away I can usually get a decent gap as they navigate amongst the remaining merchants.

Also, a spread of four torpedoes seems a waste on an escort. I see you correctly estimated their speed at 12kts. They always circle at close to that speed. But if you know their speed and they are circling 'round for another run it should be fairly easy to hit them at nearly 90.

A bit of advice for those escorts, which you may have seen me repeat, endlessly, in other posts;

Thanks for the advice! I think that, before the next patrol, I might spend some time practicing against German destroyers to get the hang of this. In 1943-, a more active defense may, at times, be required!

[Stealth Hunter]

Herr Kaleun,

Congrats to you and to your crew on joining the 100K club. You're now among our ranks. Will order some cognac when we return to port for you. Best of luck until then!

-Kptlt. Lothar Albrecht von Siegfried, U-90

[BasilY]

Just achieve my career high of 137,000 tonages, GWX2.1 72% realism, IXB. But I pay for it with my life along with my 56 crew members. Got too greedy, spend my second to last torp on a ore carier (hit but not sunk). With only 1 torp left, 4 DD on my tail, and only 25 feets of water from surface, my type IX has zero chance of chance of escape.

Patrol Summary:
1. Bermuda Raid - 2 torp for a southlampton. deckgun large troop ship in harbor.
2. Patrol off Miami for 10 days, total to 88k
3. Sunk the Atlantic City Day trip Cruise liner (ceremic) total to 100k
Last radio message: "L Convoy SE Of NY, Don't attack in shallow wa..."

I heard of a website where 100k patrols are being submitted, Where is it?



Date and Time
Grid
Occurrences
22 Apr 1943 1935 Patrol 17
U-65, 1st Flotilla
Left at: April 22, 1943, 19:35
From: Brest
Mission Orders: Patrol grid ED91 25 Apr 1943 1434 BF 14 Ship sunk! Whale Factory Ship, 12017 tons 26 Apr 1943 2150 BE 62 Ship sunk! Granville-type Freighter, 4707 tons 16 May 1943 1004 DD 18 Ship sunk! Tacoma class, 1430 tons 1028 DD 18 Ship sunk! HMS Southampton (Southampton class), 10725 tons 1214 DD 18 Ship sunk! S.S. Scalona (Large Troop Ship), 12760 tons 22 May 1943 1708 DM 23 Ship sunk! Whale Factory Ship, 12018 tons 24 May 1943 1015 DM 26 Ship sunk! Schooner, 17 tons 1944 DM 26 Ship sunk! Whale Factory Ship, 12019 tons 26 May 1943 0439 DB 98 Ship sunk! M/V Ranier (Modern Tanker), 8833 tons 28 May 1943 0230 DB 91 Ship sunk! Coastal Freighter, 1869 tons 29 May 1943 0620 DB 67 Ship sunk! Intermediate Tanker, 3490 tons 30 May 1943 0451 DB 67 Ship sunk! M/V Quemado Lake (Modern Tanker), 8787 tons 07 Jun 1943 1657 CA 27 Ship sunk! S.S. Albert E. Watts (Ceramic-type Ocean Liner), 15611 tons 08 Jun 1943 0522 CA 28 Ship sunk! USS Mason (Evarts class), 1192 tons 0541 CA 28 Ship sunk! HMS Mignonette (Flower class), 950 tons 0553 CA 28 Ship sunk! River class, 1250 tons 0608 CA 28 Ship sunk! M/V Fort Clatsop (Modern Tanker), 8788 tons 0619 CA 28 Ship sunk! M/V French Creek (Modern Tanker), 8790 tons 0634 CA 28 Ship sunk! M/V Tolovana (Large Tanker), 10598 tons 0701 CA 28 Ship sunk! River class, 1250 tons 0723 Patrol results
Crew losses: 56 dead
Ships sunk: 20
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonnage: 137101 tons

[predavolk]

Well, I'm finally out of the club. :nope: My last trip was to patrol just North of Puerto Rico, and it was dead quiet. I ended up missing a convoy and a task force going through one side, then the other, of the straight between P.R. and the Dominican. So for most of my cruise, I was forced to hunt small ships- coastal merchants, small merchants, small cargoes, etc. I also blasted five destroyers (2 of them where sailing together in trail- I was particularly proud of nailing both, but it was a reckless attack born of frustration and boredom).

Just as I'm leaving, of course, I run into a HUGE convoy of American tankers. I managed to blast a whale factory ship, then had a point-blank shot on a large tanker. First shot hit, but failed to detonate because the angle was too sharp. Second magnetic hit, but failed to detonate because I had the depth set for the whaling ship - 11 M, which was too shallow for the immense 11.6M draft of the large tanker! :oops: Again, rapid torpedo changes were a problem. Fortunately, a quick dash at high speed got me out of the convoy with no problems from the 6 escorts. So my total for the cruise was 55.5K tons, 2150 renown (thanks to the many destroyers).

Some observations:

1- American destroyers appear to be less capable than British destroyers. Anyone else find this?
2- North of Trinidad was again the best place to hunt, by far. I also did a nice raid on Barbadoes again (with just a destroyer in dock).
3- Frequently, ships appeared to be escorted by twin-engined airplanes. Sometimes multiple airplanes! I went to gun a lone tanker, just surfaced, and got aircraft spotted call immediately! 3 planes where circling away, letting me frantically dive and get the hell out of their attack runs. I then torpedoed the tanker. :D But this is a worrying development if aircraft are going to start escorting merchants.:huh:
4- One class of troop ship, the one that looks really boxy, is wickedly armed. I almost did a gun attack when I looked again at the ID booklet and noticed what appeared to be turrets. So I sailed closer (night time), and sure enough, this thing was armed like a cruiser! :o Torps sent in to the bottom though. :up:
5- Thankfully, I have yet to even spot an aircraft in the Bay of Biscay.
6- I did much of my patrolling underwater, finding that my detecting range was much better than surfaced (using 16K mod). However, I would surface and patrol up top in good weather that allowed for a wider patrol range and OK detection.
7- Lastly, for like the billionth time, I ferverently wished that we could blast Venezuala's fleet of tankers out of the water!

[Pioneer]

To: Bdu
From: Oberleutnant Pioneer
Re: U108 Patrol.

Inform the Admiral the decision to upgrade me to a type IXB has been rewarded with 187,213t on first patrol from Wilhemshaven to Lorient ending 8 Aug 1940.

[predavolk]

Wow Pioneer! :o Did you rearm/refuel at sea, or did you bag all that with just the standard load of a IX's torpedoes? Either way, that's a really impressive score if you're using GWX (or NYGM) at 100% realism!:up: Even if you're not, that's still really impressive- where did you hunt, what did you get, what tactics did you use?

[Pioneer]

Wow Pioneer! :o Did you rearm/refuel at sea, or did you bag all that with just the standard load of a IX's torpedoes? Either way, that's a really impressive score if you're using GWX (or NYGM) at 100% realism!:up: Even if you're not, that's still really impressive- where did you hunt, what did you get, what tactics did you use?
GWX with SH3 Commander, 100% realism.

I set off from Wilhemshave 15 May 1940 on my ninth patrol but first in the IXB. After clearing the headland I hugged the coastline proceeding west on the 65m mark while I adjusted my crew positions after getting a new Watchman and losing a torpedoman. Bdu had detailed me to patrol CG75 (near Gibralter) so I had plans of slipping through the English channel. With the Allied retreat I opted to head north and was on day 7 offshore from Cambridge before my first contact became a confirmed sinking. South east of Scapa Flow around 26 May a storm moved in that would stay with me the entire voyage. With deck guns unable to operate, the hurricane weather meant one shot would cripple a ship, but I would have to stick around for it to sink. After getting one shot into a tanker on the west side of Scapa Flow, it took 3 days to sink, by which time I was already in the channel near Loch Ewe.

I started in on Loch Ewe in the afternoon and by 2200 was in the harbour. There were a few USA vessels there who shot at my scope (so much for being neutral). Inside the harbour I bagged two docks with one shot each and a CV for about 87k.

Coming out of Loch Ewe I reloaded the external torpedoes in time for a heavy convoy moving north through the channel - two more tankers and one Granville, each with one shot.

Turned west into the Atlantic and the storm was still with me, 22 hours submerged, 2 hours after sunset to recharge the batteries, it was a crawl down the Western Approaches. I missed at least one task force in the fog and one other convoy before settling on the single merchant route. Same drill, one torpedo, but with the weather, had to hang around and "chase" the target till it sunk. BY the time I cleared Ireland, I only had three left, two rear and one forward.

The new bases hadn't come on in France yet so I set my sights on Cadiz to refuel/rearm. While crossing the Bay of Biscay, Lorient came on line, and turned and ran for France 960km. The weather cleared the morning I arrived at Lorient, with only one torpedo left in the rear, and not a single shot of ammunition fired.

Did not make it to the patrol zone in the 88 days at sea, 75 spent in a severe storm that just followed me.

But I love the extra power, and now that I'm starting from Lorient...bring on the "long haul" mileage. If I can take a Type VII from Wilhemshaven to Freetown and back on one tank, what can I do with the IXB.;)

[predavolk]

After getting one shot into a tanker on the west side of Scapa Flow, it took 3 days to sink, by which time I was already in the channel near Loch Ewe.

That's 10K. And you are VERY lucky to get credit for sinking it after 3 days! Normally, the weather gets credit for those. :x

I started in on Loch Ewe in the afternoon and by 2200 was in the harbour. There were a few USA vessels there who shot at my scope (so much for being neutral). Inside the harbour I bagged two docks with one shot each and a CV for about 87k

So that's 97K. Those floating docks must be worth a ton of tonnage!:o

Coming out of Loch Ewe I reloaded the external torpedoes in time for a heavy convoy moving north through the channel - two more tankers and one Granville, each with one shot.

So that's about 25K, so we'll say a total of 135K.

Same drill, one torpedo, but with the weather, had to hang around and "chase" the target till it sunk. BY the time I cleared Ireland, I only had three left, two rear and one forward.

You don't say what, but I'll assume a big one for 10K. 145K total.

But I love the extra power, and now that I'm starting from Lorient...bring on the "long haul" mileage. If I can take a Type VII from Wilhemshaven to Freetown and back on one tank, what can I do with the IXB.;)

It sounds like a great patrol, but I'm scratching my head here as to where the other 40K came from. And yes, if you want big tonnage, the IXB is (just like in history) the way to go!

[Pioneer]

I had about 5 single merchants that I crossed. All but one of my torpedos was a hit, had one detonate early but that was a two shot salvo at an iron ore carrier (on it's own) out of Liverpool heading to Iceland. The tonnage was racked up in Lock Ewe, the rest was about average. In the type VII I had a 96K t haul but never cracked the 100t.

[predavolk]

Long story short. Patrolling African Coast as ordered, I hit a convoy and manage to sink 39K of ships (including one on the way down and a port raid of the islands north east of the Canaries). However, I sustain periscope damage from the counter-attack, and retire to a nearby u-tanker for repairs to periscopes. Then, having lost my Type IV torps in the reloading process, I run into this:

"Well, I just got smoked by a destroyer in late 1943. Attacking convoys is absolute hell now thanks to improved sonar. There's just no escaping it. Using a IXB probably doesn't help, but it's just bloody nuts.

I don't play die = end of career (I don't have the time to start new careers), so I will write the whole thing up in my ongoing 100K thread when I reload the game. Briefly:

1- Attacking convoys off the West coast of Africa, along that money line 'cause thats where I was sent (I'd choose the Caribbean again in a heartbeat vs. this convoy doom).

2- First convoy I attack, I nail a couple of ships and speed away nicely. I get over 500M from my last datum point without being detected, go to silent from flank, and coast another 300M. I'm thinking- sweet! Then I get pinged from 1000M away by a destroyer who hounds the crap out of me. Decoys work for about 5-10 seconds.:huh: I'm just about to screw it and load my type IVs to clear him, when he finally gives up after 45 minutes. Fortunately, the other escorts are gone back to the convoy too (at one point, 3 were hunting me). My conning tower is badly damaged, no periscopes left, so I'm happy to be alive. I limp to a milche-cow for new optics.

3- Back in the game, but now without type IVs. Which will prove fatal. I find and attack a convoy in the midst of a terrible storm. Perfect! I nail four ships, then head down deep and fast (as always, settling at around 220M). I then get pinged. Deploying decoys isn't working well, I end up with 3 of 6 escorts again hunting me. A fan-shaped deployment at 30 degree intervals, 4 decoys, then turning back into the middle of them, actually works once they are all on the other side of them. After a brief burst of speed (~15 seconds), I coast free and clear. Two return to the convoy, but no, the other one detects me again. I'm creeping at 2 knots, 220M beneath the sea, behind a screen of decoys, in 15knot, stormy weather. :roll:

Ping, ping, ping. I'm trying everything. Eventually, I get nailed and start taking on water. I see some of the escorts starting to return to my position. Low on decoys, I can't take any more of this, especially not from a pack of 3. I rise to the surface, getting hit on the way up, damaging my forward battery. I managed to fire a quick shot at the lone escort that runs safely under his ship. :damn: Either I forgot to set it to magnetic, or it was a dud (type III, so unlikely). Then I get blown out of the water by his attack run. :down: :damn: On the plus side, I finished with 90K for the total cruise, but dead men can't brag.

Penetrating the convoy was as easy as ever. Even easier actually, as either their radar doesn't detect you before you detect it, or they don't respond to it at long ranges. So you get a really nice, early, on-the-surface account of how the escorts are laid out, which makes your ambush choice much easier. But once alerted, this improved sonar is absolutely lethal. My only possible suggestion now is to blow up the escorts, then dive. Maybe an all-out decoy deception could work, I'll try that too, but even if it works, that means only one convoy per patrol.

I understand that this lethality is (mostly) realistic, but it really sucks the wind out of your sails and radically alters the gameplay. Convoys are henceforth verboten without good anti-escort torps at the ready (meaning fewer anti-merchant torps can be fired, as the IVs and Vs need to be loaded and ready to use). And after I reload and finish this cruise, I think I'll ask for a transfer to a Type VII-41/42 in Norway while waiting for the XXI. Either that, or I'm taking my boat the hell away from convoys, no matter what! Maybe the American convoys will be easier to beat, but as is realistic, the war just became a LOT more suicidal. :nope: "

So, I ended up reloading and this time, I stayed the hell away from the convoys and instead attacked single and dual merchants in and around Freetown. I bagged 69K tons, for a combined cruise total of 100K+. So I'm still in the club with this cruise, but it's an even more hollow victory than before because I died during it. My new tactics are to NEVER even approach a convoy without homing torps. I might even consider switching to a VIIC-42 until I get my electric boat.

I know that some might chirp at me for not playing DiD, but I'd chirp back that DiD isn't realistic either. Unless you follow Doenitz's suicidal commands to attack convoys in late 1943, in which case it becomes virtually impossible to survive without a steady supply of homing torps. So in both ways, I've gone rogue and can live with both choices- no DiD, no stupid Doenitz tactics (including staying on the surface against all air attacks- although that's another thread). It's enough for me to know that by 1943, as the real data shows, u-boats were screwed.

[predavolk]

Well, I didn't hit 100K in Feb '44, but I did discover a new, and deep love for T-IVs and T-Vs! Beside the new torps, I equipped the boat with dual 37s to replace the quad 20s, added improved radar detection and decoys, and I added a schnorkel.

So once again, I'm sent off to the Caribbean (it seems likes it's always there or Africa for me). I'm sent right around Guatanamo Bay, but I didn't stay there long because a) there was no traffic and b) that plays now gives me the creeps. Bad place to get captured! ;)

So it's back to ED 94 and 98, my old hunting grounds. On the way there, I get a small convoy report (along with two big ones). Leaving the big ones alone out of respect for my last debacle, I decide to attack the small convoy. With hopefully just a couple of escorts, I should be able to take them out and then wipe out the defenseless convoy. Well, things don't go as I planned. I'm able to sneak in quite close, but there are FOUR destroyers guarding THREE merchants (two ore carriers, one small merchant). This clearly isn't worth it. Unfortuantely, one of the destroyers is going to pass very close to me on the right flank of the convoy. So I decide to take it out- thus salvaging some renown, as well as giving myself plenty of time to escape.

I estimate the speed, wait for it to get close and 80 AoB then shoot! BOOM! Impact, but it's at the very tip of the bow. The destroyer stays afloat! Darn, didn't count on that happening. Panicked, I gun the boat to get her the heck out of there. Diving deep, I switch the boat to silent running. Unfortunately, I am picked up by an incoming destroyer with their now magical sonar. Even heavy waves 200M above me aren't enough to hide me. Fortunately, I have options this time around. I order flank speed, hard to starboard, and periscope depth. I use a decoy to stall the destroyer when he's making an attack run. Long story short, I just miss a stationary shot at this destroyer, with three others coming in to help. OK, homing time. Long story short, two Vs and a IV finish them off relatively effortlessly. A little bit of dogfighting, with decoys to slow them down, does the trick nicely.

I then dash after the convoy and sink 'em all, including a brief deck gun action on the surface against one stubborn ore carrier. However, the original target, the destroyer, limps away to port! Oh well, it wasn't really worth a second torpedo, and I've shot a lot of them this engagement. I continue patrolling, hunting solo and dual ships. I even get the chance to gun a few of them in the glassy-calm waters! My highly experienced gunnery crew are masters of reloading the gun, and our rate of fire, combined with our bow-bow tactics, makes these engagements short and successful. On the way home, I stop at the little islands north of the canaries to make a port raid. I hit a modern tanker with my remaining T3, but it doesn't sink. On the way out, my final T5 is sent as a parting gift to a large destroyer who was blindly patrolling the port.

Total for the trip = 14 ships, 4 destroyers, 68K, and 2400 renown. Not a bad little patrol! Some important lessons:

1- I'm pretty sure you can't detect ships underwater when you are running your schnorkel. That's realistic, because of the diesel noise, but it also limits your ability to hunt when using it.

2- Which is pretty much fine because Allied air cover is increasing, and the schnorkel is an airplane magnet! I was bombed 3 times while using it. Of course, I had no notice other than the impact of the depth charges, and once, some fairly significant damage to my topside (78% hull integrity, entire length of ship too minor damage). So I'm of the opinion that the schnorkel is pretty useless. If you surface at least you have a chance of detecting the airplanes. Enemy ships (including merchants) also seem to be able to detect the schnorkel fairly easily, and fire on it sooner than they would a periscope at the same distance. So again, I think it is of limited usefullness. Primarily, I would use it to quickly close the gap on incoming ships when they are far enough away that you don't want to drain the batteries (I tried to keep my speed under 7 knots with it to remain realistic).

3- By '44, bigger ships are essentially Q-ships. Although I did end up engaging an ore carrier and a medium cargo ship (separately) with guns, both were already damaged by a torpedo hit. I would NOT advise taking on any large merchantile ships with guns in '44 unless they are already damaged. They look like small cruisers with all their guns, and are probably as well armed, if not better, than a destroyer.

4-As before, wounded/engaged ships will sometimes have an aerial escort. Caught me off guard the first time I surfaced to take out the ore carrier I had damaged! Fortunately, the airplane was at the limits of detection and I was able to safely re-dive.

So now I have to decide if it's time for me to move on from my Type IXB to a VII-42, or even the XXI. It's an important decision because two big stealth upgrades just became available to the IXB, and I'd hate to spend the money on them if I don't need to.

[Silver_Silence]

Getting 100k ton patrol in late war is definitely much more challenging. When I start my career in 1939, my regular routine starting with raiding Southend at east coast English. The port has 2 large transport (24k x2), a modern tank (10k) and a medium cargo carrying tanks (5k) At the beginning of the war, all they have are a couple of asw trawler and torpedo boats. The net is nearly useless as defense as long as one can get around them. I nap 60k ton that way. Then I head to dover. There is a southhampton light cruiser sitting close to an openning by a dock - easy kill for another (10k). Now I have 70k with a few torp left and still full ammo for my deck gun. The remaining 30k is not that difficult to get. But then I find that it is much more difficult to do as the war progress.

[predavolk]

Well, my last patrol again fell short of the 100K mark. That's the bad news. The good news is that my new XXI is awesome! I mean, wow. This thing is the real deal.

I won't go into all of the details, but I set out to patrol AM 49, riding the Hebrides Straight (sp?). I took on multiple single or twin solo-ships before reaching my patrol grid, touring it for 24, and returning to AM 53. I get plenty of solo-ship action, but all the convoys I run into are simply too big for me to take on. Even with 6 homing torps on board (cashed in my renown), I can't take on 7+ escorts. I wouldn't even want to take 5 or 6 in case I miss. I also passed on a small carrier because it had 6+ escorts. Not worth it.

So I'm almost out of torps, thinking about Lock Ewe or another raid. But I decide discretion is the better part of valor and sail out into the Atlantic so I can make a clean save (don't you all just LOVE the save game bug?:roll: ). But, as fortune would have it, I run into a small convoy of 10 merchants escorted by three escorts! A fourth turns up, but my now 5 homing torps (used one to finish a damaged, but fleeing medium merchant) make short work of them. I'm glad I had an extra because one homing torp went after a nearby merchant instead of the targeted destroyer! Once they're demolished, I have the convoy at my mercy. Sadly, the biggest ship is a medium tanker, followed by a small passenger cruiser and a medium merchant. I have three torpedoes left. I hit the first two, but my magnetic torp fails on the merchant ship (this is '44, that shouldn't happen!). Sadly, I also don't get credit for the medium tanker, despite watching it blow up and sink in front of me. That also happened with a large cargo ship that I hit, and watched sink, earlier. Rather frustrating. :damn: Another frustration is that convoys are everywhere! This means that as I'm finishing up this convoy, another one is running right towards me, with its gaggle of escorts. Thankfully the beautiful underwater speed of the XXI gets me the hell out of Dodge. So a total of 2.5 weeks, 70K tons. If this keeps up, I might not crack 100K per patrol, but I should be able to keep up the same overall tonnage!

My usual tips:

1- Decoys work kinda well, but you have to lay them well in advance of your opponent, and leave a "screen" of them spread out so that a slight deviance of course by the pursuer won't open up a clear view of your boat. I also use them when "dogfighting" up close with escorts as a way to throw off their aim, or sometimes, to get them to stop dead in the water. BOOM!

2- Homing torps are SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET. My new operating procedures are to take on lone merchants and/or convoys with 5 or fewer escorts.

3- The snorkel is useful primarily as a means of high-speed underwater dashes during pursuit. As a recharging tool, it remains much more dangerous than actually surfacing your boat. Airplanes are drawn to it like a magnet, and you don't get to see them coming. Once, I detected the plane coming in even though I was submerged with scopes down. I don't know why, but I did dive deeper and evade!

4- Have I said how great the XXI is? This boat, in numbers, is a war winner. Two of them could rip a convoy apart, no problem. Especially with a few homing torpedos to take out the escorts. A wolfpack of XXIs in the mid-atlantic would cut the UK off, no problem.

5- Having not been around the UK since early 1940 in my VIIB, I'm happy to take any suggestions for good hunting spots.

So that's it for now. Like I said, I'm happy to take any good UK hunting suggestions. Also, are there mines along the West coast? I'm avoiding the East coast of the UK because I seem to recall it being heavily mined after 1941.

[JMV]

Look at "New Threads" : A real carnage by JMV - 09 02 2008 - 11:54AM
True enough, only 74% realism...

[predavolk]

As I said in the other thread, that's really impressive. Very lucky to find them, but very impressive to take advantage of that rare opportunity! Nicely done. I don't think I'll ever come close to 250K in a single patrol!

[Tireur]

Finally made a 100k patrol. Running 103% realism, been playing this captain since the beginning of the war, 18th patrol it FINALLY happened. Gutted three convoy's of their heavyweights, with a bonus liner putting me over the top.

21 Jan 1942 1430 Patrol 18
U-126, 2nd Flotilla
Left at: January 21, 1942, 14:30
From: Lorient
Mission Orders: Patrol grid ET98

28 Jan 1942
0232 DU 11 Ship sunk! S.S. Margareta (Tramp Steamer), 2489 tons

31 Jan 1942
2309 ET 12 Ship sunk! S.S. Empire Gem (Medium Cargo), 5447 tons
2309 ET 12 Ship sunk! S.S. Rio Blanco (Medium Cargo), 5450 tons
2309 ET 12 Ship sunk! S.S. Suzon (Medium Tanker), 8947 tons
2317 ET 12 Ship sunk! S.S. Hotspur (Tramp Steamer), 2472 tons

01 Feb 1942
0344 ET 15 Ship sunk! S.S. Empire Steel (Large Tanker), 7610 tons
0538 ET 15 Ship sunk! S.S. Lackawapan (Large Cargo), 5420 tons

05 Feb 1942
0207 ET 92 Ship sunk! S.S. Clyde L. Seavey (Liberty Cargo), 7459 tons

06 Feb 1942
1534 ET 52 Ship sunk! S.S. Benjamin Warner (Liberty Cargo), 7417 tons
1538 ET 52 Ship sunk! Old Liner, 17376 tons
1544 ET 52 Ship sunk! S.S. Corona (Troop Transport), 7790 tons
1546 ET 52 Ship sunk! S.S. Empire Guidon (Tramp Steamer), 3045 tons

09 Feb 1942
1710 ET 11 Ship sunk! HMS Valorous (V&W Destroyer), 1188 tons
1729 ET 11 Ship sunk! S.S. City of Oxford (Large Tanker), 7975 tons
1731 ET 11 Ship sunk! S.S. Pequot Hill (Medium Tanker), 9072 tons
1913 ET 11 Ship sunk! S.S. Stony Creek (Medium Tanker), 9073 tons

Patrol tonage: 108230 tons

[predavolk]

Congratulations! And just in time too. You've only got another 6 months or so before the war starts to seriously turn against you. I presume you're using a Type IX if you're operating from Lorient? The Type IX is the 100K Club's Boat of Choice. ;)

Two quick questions-

1- What's 103% realism? Turning the volume knob on the gramaphone to 11?
2- Why did the large tankers have a lower tonnage then the medium tankers?

[Tireur]

Congratulations! And just in time too. You've only got another 6 months or so before the war starts to seriously turn against you. I presume you're using a Type IX if you're operating from Lorient? The Type IX is the 100K Club's Boat of Choice. ;)

Two quick questions-

1- What's 103% realism? Turning the volume knob on the gramaphone to 11?
2- Why did the large tankers have a lower tonnage then the medium tankers?

Yup, out of L'Orient (2 Flottilla).
Dunno on the 103%, kept turning stuff off I didn't want to detract from the fun, I think you get 3% losing the weapon cam. I get funky tonnage numbers, some medium cargo's heavier than large cargo's, etc. Heh, maybe they're empty? :D

[predavolk]

Well, perhaps my most disappointing patrol ever. 47K tons, June-July 1944. I am tasked to patrol AM 29, and spend most of my time patrolling AM 52 in the hopes of catching a convoy. I have specifically used a ton of renown to load my boat with 4 Type IVs and 3 Type Vs in order to take on, and take out, the convoy escorts. So, WEEKS go by without any small-medium convoys passing through. I do bag a large/medium merchant pair that wanders by, but every convoy is a large one, with 8 escorts+. FINALLY, a medium convoy comes by. It has 16 merchants and TEN escorts!!! :o Not gonna happen!

So I head up the Heb straight, in disgust, hoping to pick off lone merchants. Along the way, while silently creeping past a corvette, it suddenly changes course and comes straight at me. No noise, out of its range, so I'm thinking it's just bad luck. Worse luck is that it's with a destroyer. Two Type Vs finish them off as I dash away from a 3rd destroyer coming to investigate.

Then, of course, after expending two of my homing torps, I get the word that there's a medium convoy ahead of me in the Heb, sailing away. Dodging the streams of lone destroyers in my way, I catch up to it. It has six, maybe seven escorts, and a pair of what appear to be destroyers that have accidentally chosen the same heading. They have, as they turn off at Scapa Flow.

I now attack the convoy! There's two liberty, one large merchant, one victory, and two of those single-masted 6.5K ships (can't think of the name), plus granvilles and smallers. So it's a good target. Each liberty, the victory, and the large merchant get a torp. Then I deal with 4 escorts. Two homing torps go awry, with one shooting blankly past a destroyer at 550 yards and continuing obliviously beyond (no "tail-wagging" as they usually do). The other passes by a destroyer, locks onto the large merchant, and burries itself harmlessly into its side (I set them for impact 1M). It's gone. Fortunately, my use of decoys halts three destroyers around the decoys, and I blow up two of them with normal torps. So four down, two to go.

I have one Type V left, and a few normal torps (IIIs mostly). I put another torp into the large merchant and victory, as they refuse to sink. That does the trick. I put the last Type V into the remaining destroyer (V&W class), and simply raise my snorkel to outurn the last corvette as I attack a leaning liberty with my last torp. I misjudge its speed and just miss its stern by inches! It, and the other liberty, never sinks. Fortunately, some decoys distract the corvette and I escape with my life. It's a victory, but bitter-sweet. Had I not run into that corvette and destroyer pair earlier, I would've been able to do MUCH more damage to the convoy. Both liberties for sure, and probably one or two of those Empire freighters (I remember the name). So an extra 20K tons or so in all likelihood.

Oh well. Perhaps the highlight of the mission was the very start- another 3 plane B-17 raid on Bergen just as I'm leaving, with me, my escort boat, a Type XXIII and its escort boat, all opening up on the bombers. The tough suckers don't go down, but they do miss their targets.

From now on, I think I'm going to try and limit my anti-convoy missions to every other mission, so that I can stock up with EIGHT homing torps. I'll hunt lone merchants on the odd missions.

[PappyCain]

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/1908/steiner1fs3.jpg


100K in one patrol! Jeezum. I am slugging it out to get the above. I thought 273K was a best in historical career total.
Seems like the most patrols before capture or death was 16. Most were under 10. I am at 9 on the above.

http://www.uboat.net/men/aces/top.htm

[predavolk]

I'm hoping to break the 2,000,000 ton mark by the end of my career, but I don't pretend it's realistic.

1- I have died a few times (3 or 4).
2- I don't use realistic tactics (e.g., I don't stay on the surface to fight it out).
3- There is too much traffic in GWX, or at least, it seems that way. Perhaps it's because in real life, the Allies would respond to, say, me repeatedly visiting the Caribbean and savaging the tanker traffic there. Send a task force my way or at least, ping the hell out of my favourite hunting grounds once I show up.

I posted this thread because I think it's important to go for as much tonnage as you can get. But so long as you're getting a feel for what it was like (in a very limited way) to captain a u-Boat AND you're having fun, then it's all good. I'm sure there's a LOT of better virtual kalheuns out there than me!:o Hopefully we can just share what knowledge we do have to make the game more fun for all.

[PappyCain]

That is great. Enjoy. One buys a sim to play with it as they see fit. Besides, how else can you learn initially. Some day you will test your experience and training on a dead is dead campaign. You can run several boats at different settings. I have Steiner competing against Stryker, Gussman, and Wolfgang. I am a fair to good player myself who prefers white knuckle experiences which I have to survive for my crew and my dear sweet Helga!

S'PC

[predavolk]

Well, the game goes on. First, another attack from a trio of B-17s to start my mission. Same result as before, no hits from them, they leave flaming but flying. Again there's a XXIII sailing out with me- it seems that Allies have a spy at our base!:stare:

So another UK patrol, this one centered around BF 24. I nailed three solo liberties, then came up against a small convoy. Fortunately, I had taken on the extra homing torps for just such an occassion, with four to use against 5 escorts. Long story short, 4 frigates took the torps, and I managed to get a flower-class corvette stop to ping one of my decoys. It was fed a 2M fast impact. Then the convoy was all mine! Unfortunately, I missed some shots which cost me some torpedoes. But I did bag a large merchant, modern tanker, another Liberty, and badly wounded a Victory merchant. It's stern was underwater, but it wouldn't sink!

I followed it for 12 hours, nothing. So I lost patience, surfaced, and engaged it with my twin 20's!!:arrgh!: Two minutes later, some minor damage to me, and I sank the Victory cargo. Victory indeed...for me!!! So I sailed straight back to port, and of course, came across an unescorted pair of small and large merchant. Figures now that I'm all out of torps! Oh well. Another 68K added to my total figure of 1,840,000 tons. Next trip out, I'm going medium convoy hunting! :rock:

[predavolk]

Well, I haven't updated with each mission like before, because I seem to keep sticking to 65K or so each patrol. But in three patrols I've ravaged two convoys and destroyed some nice warships (see here (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=142747)for details). My total tonnage is now 2,140,039. I'm on my last mission, in late Spring of 1945. I'm hoping to take out one more big convoy before the end of the war. The XXI has been outstanding, but unfortunately, I am getting a TON of CTD during the game. It isn't the save game bug, and it's been happening in different missions. I think it's a sign that when I finish this patrol, this career, I finish the game. So wish me luck on my final cruise! I'm just at the Hebs, and am going to run down this channel and the Irish channel in pursuit of a big, juicy convoy. I've got a belly full of homing torps, and am ready for the allies best shot! :arrgh!:

[Hanomag]

CONGO-RATS! Nice shooting predavolk! :arrgh!:

BUT...

You do realize... it's threads like this that are going to lead to the next GWX release including the newly discovered 67 ton merchant.

Think of the endless convoys of merchants weighing in at less than 1k tons total.

Joy.... :roll:

[Jimbuna]

CONGO-RATS! Nice shooting predavolk! :arrgh!:

BUT...

You do realize... it's threads like this that are going to lead to the next GWX release including the newly discovered 67 ton merchant.

Think of the endless convoys of merchants weighing in at less than 1k tons total.

Joy.... :roll:

LMAO :rotfl:

[predavolk]

Unless there's something more than "The War is Over" when you return to base and are ready to start a new mission, I'm done my campaign! (no cutscenes or anything like that?)

My last mission was a doozie. I almost broke 100K again, in April 1945! I was tasked with BF12, right below Ireland. I sailed the long way around, nailing a victory and liberty cargo pair (first of second). I then sailed up the Irish channel after spending my 24 hours, and ran into a large convoy. Just what I was looking for! With 9 homing torps, I was feeling pretty confident! :arrgh!:

Then I get in the thick of the bloody thing and find out it has FOURTEEN ESCORTS!!!!:o :o

Well, it's also FULL of ships. And I'm in a XXI. And after 33 missions, I'm a skilled Kalheun. And it's probably my last mission of the war. So what the hell- BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!! I sneak between the lead two escorts, with one miraculously passing within 500m (at 135 AoB) and not detecting me!:up: The plan is to make one fast pass through the convoy so I can hopefully not fight ALL of the escorts.:yep:

In front of me is an impressive-looking small passenger ship. Full of troops for the Western front no doubt. Can't have that, so two torps send it to the bottom! FLANK AHEAD! Lined up behind it is a modern tanker- FIRE ONE! BOOM! Magnetic to the bow. FIRE TWO! Impact to mid-ships. Dive under her, scrape her hull, but no damage. Pinging starts from behind. Pop up to 14m (dogfighting periscope depth in the XXI). Lightning flashes in the sky as the my XXI hits like a thunderbolt against yet another victim- a large merchant. BOOM! Torpedo to the bow. A huge destroyer is right on my tail, but a decoy stops it in its tracks. I continue my mad rush out of the convoy, leaving smoke, lighting, and thunder to cover the carnage I've left behind me. Two kilometers out of the convoy, and it looks like I'm home free!

But what's this!? A destroyer is charging up my tail!!!:dead: A decoy is released, but nothing happens! The booming of thunder in the storm overhead is drowned out by the thumping hearts of the crew as this tenacious foe keeps on our tail. Finally, I drop a decoy then turn right in front of it. It works! The destroyer stops to check it out, so I drive a fast impact into its guts! A frigate is bearing down on us too, but a snap shot of a magnetic Type V breaks its hapless back. The first destroyer is just starting to move, so I send another Type V its way. Davey Jones' locker gets a little more crowded as it goes to the bottom.

I get the heck out of there on 1/3 ahead, then back to slow. Good thing too, as a half-dozen or more escorts converge on the scene of their comrades doom. My escape is complete! I then sail up the Irish Channel, nailing two more liberty/victory pairs, as well as a tramp steamer. It's a real challenge though, as my battery is down to spit and sparks, as the heavy surface and air ASW teams keep me from recharging. Still, my job is to fight on, so fight on I do. I make it out into the open ocean with one homing torpedo left. I get the contact call of a merchant, but I let it go. I have learned the lesson of expecting the unexpected, and at this point in the war, bringing my crew and (more importantly) this magnificent fighting machine home is more important than another British merchant. The trip home is fortunately uneventful, with the few clueless surface ASW ships being easily avoided.

My total tonnage for the voyage? 88.8K!! My career total? 2,205,880 tons!!! WOOHOO!!! 33 missions, 3 deaths. True, I didn't play Iron Man, but I didn't have the time to restart a career. Other than a big of poker and solitair, this game has monopolized my computer time since March! So, some final thoughts before I uninstall the game and move on to another challenge:

1- GREAT game, but the bugs SUCKED!! Several times the Save Game bug almost made me quit, the load times were awful, and the CTD were getting bad at the end.

2- THANK YOU to the GWX team, and other modders, for making this much more realistic and enjoyable. And I guess to the publishers too, for fixing bugs that I never came across. And for having the guts to release a Submarine Sim, which can't be the road to riches that a Half-Life clone would be.

3- I got a better appreciation for the task that German u-Boat commanders faced, even if I think this game wasn't particularly realistic (too easy, too good impact torps, and too many targets). It was much more realistic than SH2, which was the last sub sim that I played. I definitely enjoyed the extra reading I put into the game, which is a big part of the benefit of simulators for me. They encourage me to read about the subject matter, and so I know now more than I did before. Some of the book recommendations came from here, so great stuff guys!

4- My favourite sub was easily the XXI, but it wasn't realistic. Of the II, VII and XI, I much prefered the bigger boat in less-pressured waters. I didn't do a whole lot of convoy chasing in the North Atlantic, and I never raided Canada (my country) like I wanted to. But I did get to see much of the rest of the Atlantic in my IXB, and its huge weapons load racked up an incredible total for me. Plus it had two rear tubes, which were very helpful in convoy or antidestroyer attacks.

5- Overall, I'd have to say the u-Boat war was a dramatic, but entirely futile effort. At no point was the US-Britain link seriously threatened. Had the number of subs been there in 1939-1940, perhaps. But by 1942, despite the highest numbers sunk, the war was over for the essentially WW1-vintage German subs. Even my extreme success would have made little overall impact. Again, I feel myself admiring the willpower, tenacity, and bravery of the Germans at the same time as I feel myself hating their blind obedience, and most importantly, their willingness to embrace war against the world. I don't want this thread to turn into a political thread, so please just take these thoughts for what they're worth without comment (or PM me). I think that the often-repeated notion that (US) citizens with guns are a good way to stop a tyrannical government is a farce. Germany showed that evil armies are made up of evil citizens. They didn't need guns to stop their government. Their government gave them the guns (or subs) that they used them willingly in a mad attempt to dominate much of the world. In their defence, psychology has shown that most people are easily swayed, so their evil is part of most of us. And after the war, the vast majority of Germans had the decency to be completely apologetic and ashamed of their conduct. The War in the Atlantic held both sides of this paradox brilliantly clear. Brave, brilliant men fighting for an evil, hopeless cause. Definitely a lesson worth studying.

So thanks very much, again, to everyone who helped me out here at the subsim forums! You made the game much more enjoyable to me, and I loved reading your tactics, stories, and histortical analyses. This is an excellent forum, and I wish it the best. To those of you still patrolling the cold, harsh waters of the Atlantic in your steel sharks, I wish you Good Luck and Good Hunting! Sincerely,

Retired Kalheun Volk

[kylania]

Germany showed that evil armies are made up of evil citizens. They didn't need guns to stop their government. Their government gave them the guns (or subs) that they used them willingly in a mad attempt to dominate much of the world.
Wow... just wow. While there were certainly true Nazi's in the Kreigsmarine, and some might very well have been called evil, for the most part they were just honorable and decent sailors and soldiers. They fought because that was their job to do, not to try to dominate the world. That was a political end that the front line sailors and submariners were not concerned with.

Towards the end of the war it was indeed obvious that the u-boats weren't going to win the war at sea (enough though they did, in fact, come quite close early on) and the flotilla commanders were given the choice of stopping operations or continuing the obviously futile war at sea. Since the U-boats were tying up a great amount of sea power, merchant power and air power that the Allies could have used against the German citizens or the German Army, the Navy decided to keep fighting against all odds to save lives in their country at the price of their own. That's not the actions of evil and mad men.

I'm glad you've enjoyed Silent Hunter III and I did enjoy the reading of your exploits.

[predavolk]

I'm glad you've enjoyed Silent Hunter III and I did enjoy the reading of your exploits.

You believe that volunteer solidiers are not morally responsible for participating in the biggest, most heinous, unnecessary war in human history. I do. I don't disagree about their courage, self-sacrifice, and other admirable traits, but I don't sugar-coat their collective deeds by blaming politicians. Politicians, alone, can do nothing. It takes the will of an army to serve and ironically, the Kreigsmarine in WW1 shows this nicely. But as I asked above, please let's take this to PM if you'd like to discuss it more.

I'm glad you enjoyed my write-ups, and I'm glad we can enjoy a game that gets us to think about a very important part of history. Even if we differ in our conclusions, the effort of thinking about it is more than worth the while.:up:

[meduza]

My last mission was a doozie. I almost broke 100K again, in April 1945! Congratulations!
In 1944, my tonnage dropped from average 100K I was making in '42-43, to 20-30K. I'm still commanding Type IX, and you can't realy go against the convoys with that boat late in the war...

[predavolk]

My last mission was a doozie. I almost broke 100K again, in April 1945! Congratulations!
In 1944, my tonnage dropped from average 100K I was making in '42-43, to 20-30K. I'm still commanding Type IX, and you can't realy go against the convoys with that boat late in the war...

No, you can't. And you can't hunt the very lucrative waters off the British coasts because you don't have the underwater speed to silently avoid the plethora of destroyers cruising about. As I mentioned above, I'd try hunting unescorted ships in far-off territories. Otherwise, you may well end up coming back with few ships and lots of torpedoes. And that HAS to be frustrating! Or, perhaps you could use the 20K renown you save in not buying the XXI to spend on homing torpedoes. I wouldn't take on a large convoy with them and a IX, but maybe a medium and certainly a small convoy with 5-6 escorts. They do a lot of the work for you! :rock: