UnderseaLcpl
06-21-08, 12:49 PM
In short, what was the hardest, most grueling fight you have ever had in SH3 or GWX? Found a couple of related threads but not specifically about this and I thought it would be fun to read everyone's war stories.
My hardest fight; ("The Enemy Above")
I'm sure some of you have seen the old movie "The Enemy Below" with Robert Mitchum and Kurt Jurgens. Any who have probably wondered just how exactly the DD captain (Mitchum) knew everything about U-boats and knew exactly what Jurgens' boat was doing for most of the movie.
I am convinced that the captain of the destroyer escort I tangled with a couple days ago was him.....
February 45'
I just recieved a shiny Type XXI that I should have gotten months ago but I didn't know they were flotilla-specific until I transferred from Trondheim to Bergen and was like "oh crap here it is". Understandably I was very excited and after putting the boat through its paces and dodging a bomber raid I set sail for the seas off of Northern Ireland (although my orders were to go somewhere else entirely).
After 5 days of feeling like a porpoise with the constant diving to get away from aircraft I arrive in the patrol area. I never snorkel as the enemy seems to pick that damn thing up on radar more easily than if I just surface the whole friggin boat.
3 more days skulking about underwater, listening I get a warship contact. Then another, and another, and another, and a merchant! It's a convoy headed almost directly for me.
Upon intercepting it became immediately apparent that there had to be around a dozen escorts of various classes, British and Ami. Fortunately I happened to have 8 Zaunkonig acoustics and even a pair of coveted Zaunkonig II's. In keeping with my usual bold but stupid tactics I raise the snorkel and begin revving the diesels to flank for brief periods to get someone's attention. Sure enough the lead escort start making his way toward me, zigzagging. At about 2000 yards, facing him head on, the first "Z" clears the tubes. A few anxious moments pass before a beautiful tower of fire bursts out of the DD accompanied by the explosive symphony of victory. I put "Panzer rollen im Afrika Korps" on the grammophone and repeat the process with each escort in turn as they approach one by one.
"This is almost too easy! Hell, it is too easy!"
I knock off all the escorts save for the ones astern of the convoy before I start attacking the merchantmen. The speedy reload of the torpedoes in the XXI gives me many more chances to attack and my superb speed underwater means no ship is out of my reach. Unfortunately, being light on G7a's because of all the acoustics I only get 4 ships sunk and one damaged, all tankers.
Now the fun begins.....
I decide to quit while I'm ahead as aircraft are showing up now and the last 3 escorts are making for me. I obligingly reuinite two of them with their comrades at the bottom and turn on the third, a Buckley-class escort destroyer (Enemy Below?)
My last, priceless ZII goes straight down his track..... and misses?!?
I jump to the hydrophones and dial in his bearing. Sure enough, his engines are alternating between stopped and fairly slow and the ZK is happily zipping along a straight bearing on its way to nowhere. Then, inexplicably, the escort starts zigzagging towards me at a good clip again. I only have 2 G7a's left and I'm sure to miss as it is getting light and he will probably see the wakes even if they are on a collision course.
Then....a ping! At almost 1200m he's pinging me!
"Well the cat's out of the bag now.. let's see what he thinks of this!"
Ahead flank full right down to 220m. Unlike my fat old type IX this boat makes the depth in seconds. I pick a course almost perpendicular and throttle down to creep away, dropping a BOLD.
I just pick up my book and settle in for a nice stealthy escape when I get a ping again. I don't even look up. Then another solitary ping. Still reading.... Then they start to come regularly, and then more frequently.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
I go to the attack map and the hydro bearing shows he's almost on top of us when the shout of "Wasserbombe!" comes.
I make a hard turn, flank speed and go down to 240, then slow as his bearing line shows him turning the wrong way. I drop a BOLD just in case. But then two incredible things happened. First, we ran smack into his K-gun pattern. A quick check of the slightly raised O-scope ( I know it's not realistic but I can't stand being deep and not knowing where the charges are) shows multiple ashcans only slightly to port of us silently falling. I don't dare rev the engines up to dodge because its not realistic ( as I wouldn't have suspected we were so close) and I'm sure we can survive the hit and escape without alerting the escort.
The second incredible thing was that the escort began turning the other way. And then the charges blew, at exactly my depth. Immediately, the bow tubes became damaged and the compartment started to flood, very bad news because we began to sink and we were already at 240. A few tense moments went by as the water was pumped out but we didn't implode and we got back up to 250. As a reward for my efforts I recieved a congratulatory ping. Many of them in fact.
I had no idea how he knew that he had been turning the wrong way at first but he did or was lucky and now I was back in his path. He passed overhead and I repeated my previous actions but came UP to 200. Once again, I almost run into the K gun pattern but it's far enough away it just shakes us up a bit. The remarkable thing was that two of the half dozen or so, exploded at almost exactly my depth. This was starting to freak me out. My usual experience with any type of escorts is that they are poor shots and habitually set charges way too deep. As if this wasn't bad enough, I was coming off his starboard stern and he was turning to come back around on me hard-a-starboard. Being in his baffles I kept flank and replicated his turn, which would put me outside his "circle" and hopefully allow me to get away. Halfway through the turn I go back to slow ahead as I reason that he may be able to hear me again soon. To my horror, the bearing line steadies on and then begins to move the other way...
"This is IMPOSSIBLE!!!" I yelled aloud. For almost an hour this went on, me barely escaping the blasts of depth charges and surviving hedgehogs by the barest of margins. No matter what I did that cursed bearing line would always close on me.
My boat was ruined, several sections of the pressure hull had been heavily damaged and my starboard electric was destroyed. I despaired. My first patrol in this wonderweapon had been an unmitigated disaster. What kind of U-boat captain can't beat one lousy escort destroyer in an elektroboot?
I had come up to 60m now, fearful of the pressure hull buckling if I went below 100, being so damaged. I went to the O-scope to greet the falling depth charges from his latest run. He was a bit off this time with his aim but as always the depth was spot on. Then I noticed something. The lights for tubes one and four, shining like two wonderful green beacons of salvation...
I blew the tanks, repeatedly. I am of the firm belief that doing so makes you rise faster but really I can't confirm that. At 30m I order periscope depth and increase to 1/3 to help depth-keeping. We came to 15m painstakingly slowly it seemed and as the O-scope finally broke the surface my heart sank. We had missed our shot, the escort had already steamed past our bows.
I know this is long already but this bears some explaining. In months of playing SHIV, the addon and GWX I have never learned to use the target computers. Seriously. This sounds like a problem when you use manual targetting but I found that with a fast torpedo at 1000 yards or less, you need only lead the target one degree for each knot of speed. After getting the hang of it with a lot of misses in shIV I am now a pretty damn good shot if I do say so myself. This is why in 45 I'm using G7a's, because G7e's are too slow and throw off my targetting.
Unfortunately what I needed right now was a good angle-shot, which I remain incapable of. This meant I would have to let the DE run over me again, and circle back to bring him across the bows once more. This in turn meant surviving hedgehogs,depth charges, and worst of all, K-guns. Additionally, the loss of one electric meant I was also, in effect, a big, fat, expensive type VII, but with no stern tube. To top it all off there were horrible little planes buzzing about, dropping bombs.
It seemed that this was to be a terribly disappointing end to a 5-year career, representing such an investiture of time. Sunk by a knackered little escort destroyer, and in an Elektroboot no less!
Nonetheless, I resolved to fight to the end, because this game doesn't let you surrender.
(Almost done I promise)
The escort came at me perpendicular, determined to run over my conning tower as usual, when my first stroke of luck occurred. He came in too close before firing his hogs and they sailed harmlessly over my head. Still, the Buckley has a lot of K-guns and I still felt sure I would meet my end to one of those sideways-depth-charging bastards. But it was not to be. By this point I was convinced there was a little simulated Robert Mitchum on the bridge looming over me and even now he was confidently telling his watch how I was trying to get set up a desperate last chance torpedo attack so set the charges for shallow U-boat rape. And it was here, in an eerie parallel to the movie, that he made his first mistake.
I had already ordered flank ahead for what it was worth with only one prop and the destroyer veered to port to try and get over me again. Doing this brings his stern away from the U-boat and I have sunk a LOT of escorts by doing this, since he effectively removes his stern racks as a concern. Properly executed, this maneuver will put the stern charges 60-80m behind you when they explode. However, the K-guns can still fudge everything up as they are nearly impossible to dodge. The only way to not suffer damage from them is if he sets them too deep or fires them too early. Which is precisely what he did, on both counts. They still damaged the boat but no flooding.
As the Buckley steamed away I couldn't resist muttering, in my best Kurt Jergens impression, "Now American, turn the right way and I'll give you a pretty present."
He did of course, and I already had the two eels set for him. One magnetic and one contact. I make a rule of not using more than one torpedo on an escort of any class but this was a special case.
Slowly the little escort hauled about to come full circle and attack again, bringing him ever closer to the 10 degree mark on my scope where our fates would be decided. The tubes slid open, and his bow crossed the line.
I actually shouted "Torpedo LOS!" and two beautiful white spears of retribution streaked towards our now-doomed tormentor. I imagined the lookouts spotting the wakes and wished that I could see a captain on that bridge, just to see the look on his face. A second before the torpedoes hit I smiled cruelly, "Surprise A$$hole!"
What followed was the most perfect torpedo explosion I have ever seen. The first torpedo, the impact fuse, hit just under the bridge where the captain I created in my mind was standing. The mag hit under the K-guns and the resulting series of explosions actually made the game stutter a bit. Bits of destroyer, people, and great gouts of water filled my view as the Buckley snapped in half and rapidly sank. Sorry Ami, U-boats are ALWAYS the hunters.
It didn't break, it didn't split, it friggin SNAPPED like a toothpick and the two halves bobbed violently from the force. Despite the planes I remained to watch the enemy slip beneath the sea before going down to 40 and setting course for home.
The war ended before I could get my boat repaired but I didn't care. That fight was a wonderful climax to a long and hard-fought career.
Ok finally, I would just like to say thanks GWX team for making this experience possible. When I was young I never dreamed someone would make such a realistic and historically faithful game, or mod w/e you prefer.
I certainly hope some of you will share stories of your hardest fight. I'm sorry mine was so long but I wanted to convey properly what made it so memorable for me. The more detail I can hear in your the better and I'm very much looking forward to reading about everyone's experiences.
edit- spelled some words inkorekly
My hardest fight; ("The Enemy Above")
I'm sure some of you have seen the old movie "The Enemy Below" with Robert Mitchum and Kurt Jurgens. Any who have probably wondered just how exactly the DD captain (Mitchum) knew everything about U-boats and knew exactly what Jurgens' boat was doing for most of the movie.
I am convinced that the captain of the destroyer escort I tangled with a couple days ago was him.....
February 45'
I just recieved a shiny Type XXI that I should have gotten months ago but I didn't know they were flotilla-specific until I transferred from Trondheim to Bergen and was like "oh crap here it is". Understandably I was very excited and after putting the boat through its paces and dodging a bomber raid I set sail for the seas off of Northern Ireland (although my orders were to go somewhere else entirely).
After 5 days of feeling like a porpoise with the constant diving to get away from aircraft I arrive in the patrol area. I never snorkel as the enemy seems to pick that damn thing up on radar more easily than if I just surface the whole friggin boat.
3 more days skulking about underwater, listening I get a warship contact. Then another, and another, and another, and a merchant! It's a convoy headed almost directly for me.
Upon intercepting it became immediately apparent that there had to be around a dozen escorts of various classes, British and Ami. Fortunately I happened to have 8 Zaunkonig acoustics and even a pair of coveted Zaunkonig II's. In keeping with my usual bold but stupid tactics I raise the snorkel and begin revving the diesels to flank for brief periods to get someone's attention. Sure enough the lead escort start making his way toward me, zigzagging. At about 2000 yards, facing him head on, the first "Z" clears the tubes. A few anxious moments pass before a beautiful tower of fire bursts out of the DD accompanied by the explosive symphony of victory. I put "Panzer rollen im Afrika Korps" on the grammophone and repeat the process with each escort in turn as they approach one by one.
"This is almost too easy! Hell, it is too easy!"
I knock off all the escorts save for the ones astern of the convoy before I start attacking the merchantmen. The speedy reload of the torpedoes in the XXI gives me many more chances to attack and my superb speed underwater means no ship is out of my reach. Unfortunately, being light on G7a's because of all the acoustics I only get 4 ships sunk and one damaged, all tankers.
Now the fun begins.....
I decide to quit while I'm ahead as aircraft are showing up now and the last 3 escorts are making for me. I obligingly reuinite two of them with their comrades at the bottom and turn on the third, a Buckley-class escort destroyer (Enemy Below?)
My last, priceless ZII goes straight down his track..... and misses?!?
I jump to the hydrophones and dial in his bearing. Sure enough, his engines are alternating between stopped and fairly slow and the ZK is happily zipping along a straight bearing on its way to nowhere. Then, inexplicably, the escort starts zigzagging towards me at a good clip again. I only have 2 G7a's left and I'm sure to miss as it is getting light and he will probably see the wakes even if they are on a collision course.
Then....a ping! At almost 1200m he's pinging me!
"Well the cat's out of the bag now.. let's see what he thinks of this!"
Ahead flank full right down to 220m. Unlike my fat old type IX this boat makes the depth in seconds. I pick a course almost perpendicular and throttle down to creep away, dropping a BOLD.
I just pick up my book and settle in for a nice stealthy escape when I get a ping again. I don't even look up. Then another solitary ping. Still reading.... Then they start to come regularly, and then more frequently.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
I go to the attack map and the hydro bearing shows he's almost on top of us when the shout of "Wasserbombe!" comes.
I make a hard turn, flank speed and go down to 240, then slow as his bearing line shows him turning the wrong way. I drop a BOLD just in case. But then two incredible things happened. First, we ran smack into his K-gun pattern. A quick check of the slightly raised O-scope ( I know it's not realistic but I can't stand being deep and not knowing where the charges are) shows multiple ashcans only slightly to port of us silently falling. I don't dare rev the engines up to dodge because its not realistic ( as I wouldn't have suspected we were so close) and I'm sure we can survive the hit and escape without alerting the escort.
The second incredible thing was that the escort began turning the other way. And then the charges blew, at exactly my depth. Immediately, the bow tubes became damaged and the compartment started to flood, very bad news because we began to sink and we were already at 240. A few tense moments went by as the water was pumped out but we didn't implode and we got back up to 250. As a reward for my efforts I recieved a congratulatory ping. Many of them in fact.
I had no idea how he knew that he had been turning the wrong way at first but he did or was lucky and now I was back in his path. He passed overhead and I repeated my previous actions but came UP to 200. Once again, I almost run into the K gun pattern but it's far enough away it just shakes us up a bit. The remarkable thing was that two of the half dozen or so, exploded at almost exactly my depth. This was starting to freak me out. My usual experience with any type of escorts is that they are poor shots and habitually set charges way too deep. As if this wasn't bad enough, I was coming off his starboard stern and he was turning to come back around on me hard-a-starboard. Being in his baffles I kept flank and replicated his turn, which would put me outside his "circle" and hopefully allow me to get away. Halfway through the turn I go back to slow ahead as I reason that he may be able to hear me again soon. To my horror, the bearing line steadies on and then begins to move the other way...
"This is IMPOSSIBLE!!!" I yelled aloud. For almost an hour this went on, me barely escaping the blasts of depth charges and surviving hedgehogs by the barest of margins. No matter what I did that cursed bearing line would always close on me.
My boat was ruined, several sections of the pressure hull had been heavily damaged and my starboard electric was destroyed. I despaired. My first patrol in this wonderweapon had been an unmitigated disaster. What kind of U-boat captain can't beat one lousy escort destroyer in an elektroboot?
I had come up to 60m now, fearful of the pressure hull buckling if I went below 100, being so damaged. I went to the O-scope to greet the falling depth charges from his latest run. He was a bit off this time with his aim but as always the depth was spot on. Then I noticed something. The lights for tubes one and four, shining like two wonderful green beacons of salvation...
I blew the tanks, repeatedly. I am of the firm belief that doing so makes you rise faster but really I can't confirm that. At 30m I order periscope depth and increase to 1/3 to help depth-keeping. We came to 15m painstakingly slowly it seemed and as the O-scope finally broke the surface my heart sank. We had missed our shot, the escort had already steamed past our bows.
I know this is long already but this bears some explaining. In months of playing SHIV, the addon and GWX I have never learned to use the target computers. Seriously. This sounds like a problem when you use manual targetting but I found that with a fast torpedo at 1000 yards or less, you need only lead the target one degree for each knot of speed. After getting the hang of it with a lot of misses in shIV I am now a pretty damn good shot if I do say so myself. This is why in 45 I'm using G7a's, because G7e's are too slow and throw off my targetting.
Unfortunately what I needed right now was a good angle-shot, which I remain incapable of. This meant I would have to let the DE run over me again, and circle back to bring him across the bows once more. This in turn meant surviving hedgehogs,depth charges, and worst of all, K-guns. Additionally, the loss of one electric meant I was also, in effect, a big, fat, expensive type VII, but with no stern tube. To top it all off there were horrible little planes buzzing about, dropping bombs.
It seemed that this was to be a terribly disappointing end to a 5-year career, representing such an investiture of time. Sunk by a knackered little escort destroyer, and in an Elektroboot no less!
Nonetheless, I resolved to fight to the end, because this game doesn't let you surrender.
(Almost done I promise)
The escort came at me perpendicular, determined to run over my conning tower as usual, when my first stroke of luck occurred. He came in too close before firing his hogs and they sailed harmlessly over my head. Still, the Buckley has a lot of K-guns and I still felt sure I would meet my end to one of those sideways-depth-charging bastards. But it was not to be. By this point I was convinced there was a little simulated Robert Mitchum on the bridge looming over me and even now he was confidently telling his watch how I was trying to get set up a desperate last chance torpedo attack so set the charges for shallow U-boat rape. And it was here, in an eerie parallel to the movie, that he made his first mistake.
I had already ordered flank ahead for what it was worth with only one prop and the destroyer veered to port to try and get over me again. Doing this brings his stern away from the U-boat and I have sunk a LOT of escorts by doing this, since he effectively removes his stern racks as a concern. Properly executed, this maneuver will put the stern charges 60-80m behind you when they explode. However, the K-guns can still fudge everything up as they are nearly impossible to dodge. The only way to not suffer damage from them is if he sets them too deep or fires them too early. Which is precisely what he did, on both counts. They still damaged the boat but no flooding.
As the Buckley steamed away I couldn't resist muttering, in my best Kurt Jergens impression, "Now American, turn the right way and I'll give you a pretty present."
He did of course, and I already had the two eels set for him. One magnetic and one contact. I make a rule of not using more than one torpedo on an escort of any class but this was a special case.
Slowly the little escort hauled about to come full circle and attack again, bringing him ever closer to the 10 degree mark on my scope where our fates would be decided. The tubes slid open, and his bow crossed the line.
I actually shouted "Torpedo LOS!" and two beautiful white spears of retribution streaked towards our now-doomed tormentor. I imagined the lookouts spotting the wakes and wished that I could see a captain on that bridge, just to see the look on his face. A second before the torpedoes hit I smiled cruelly, "Surprise A$$hole!"
What followed was the most perfect torpedo explosion I have ever seen. The first torpedo, the impact fuse, hit just under the bridge where the captain I created in my mind was standing. The mag hit under the K-guns and the resulting series of explosions actually made the game stutter a bit. Bits of destroyer, people, and great gouts of water filled my view as the Buckley snapped in half and rapidly sank. Sorry Ami, U-boats are ALWAYS the hunters.
It didn't break, it didn't split, it friggin SNAPPED like a toothpick and the two halves bobbed violently from the force. Despite the planes I remained to watch the enemy slip beneath the sea before going down to 40 and setting course for home.
The war ended before I could get my boat repaired but I didn't care. That fight was a wonderful climax to a long and hard-fought career.
Ok finally, I would just like to say thanks GWX team for making this experience possible. When I was young I never dreamed someone would make such a realistic and historically faithful game, or mod w/e you prefer.
I certainly hope some of you will share stories of your hardest fight. I'm sorry mine was so long but I wanted to convey properly what made it so memorable for me. The more detail I can hear in your the better and I'm very much looking forward to reading about everyone's experiences.
edit- spelled some words inkorekly