Who let Bernard command my boat last night?

[Nangleator]

October '39 and I run into a convoy. I position myself with utmost care and caution. (I now know what it's like in '43, so I'm a bit convoy-shy now.) Soon, it's clear there's only one escort, and it's a Flower.

OMG squee!!!

So I keep myself 4 kilometers away and wreck his day. He never even fires back. (Can they?)

Now I've got about 16 ships all to myself and it's still night. I've only spent about fifty rounds from the gun and two eels. (I lost the forward deck eel during a crash dive from aircraft. I didn't know that could happen.)

I've never been in this position, so I tell myself "take your time and do things right." There are American ships, so I have to be careful not to waste shots on them.

I expend most of my remaining deck gun rounds on a coastal merchie, then let some eels swim. Another small merchie goes down with one hit, and I get two solid hits on one of the C2s.

I thought I learned something about C2s on my last patrol. I guess I didn't learn enough.

Even though I aim carefully, I get some misses and bad hits. I also decide to work on the second C2 as well. To make a long, embarrassing story short, I leave two C2s dead in the water, watch a damaged small merchie sail away with the convoy, and head home with only the Flower and that first merchie as kills. I expended every torpedo and round from both guns, including star shells.

Dammit, I'm stupid.

[Task Force]

AAAAhhh, bernard. Hes on your boat too. (thank god hese not on my boat)lol:rotfl:

[Myxale]

It's tuff business!:arrgh!:

I always try to make every Torp that Uncle Karl gave me count! Sometimes I have to decide if a ship needs more than 1.
A spread of 2 - decent spreading angle- for the biggest- before they know I'm there- and single ones for the small ones.

I used to be too careful with the torps and always tried to use one each ship! But I always ended up using more or missing!:doh:

You live and learn!:smug:

Toss Bernard overboard and claim the rough sea washed him out of the tower as he was attending the watch! :)

[Philipp_Thomsen]

1) get to the convoy
2) analyze the ships, get the 4 biggest ones
3) get good position for the 4
4) fire in each one, 1 eel aiming for the bow, to hit the targets at almost the same time, so they don't start ziging
5) wait dead silent on the water until the convoy is gone
6) surface the boat and finish them off with the deckgun, if necessary. (bow hit almost always result in sinking)
7) hunt the convoy again while reloading the eels and repeat the procedure.

:up:

[Task Force]

Ither that way, or do like I do in early war (and some mid war) Go in with everyone at there station on the surface, Get infront of main escort. Once in range Fire torpedo at high speed, once it hits (or distroyer gets wise and evades) Start blasting your guns like crazy and when things get alittle to dangeriouc, ALARM!!!!!. and fire torpedos at distroyers as they come for you. Finaly after you get rid of the distroyers, pick the helpless convoy off one by one on the surface.:arrgh!:

[Nangleator]

Oh, I had no trouble with the escort. I had no trouble with getting in position. I rode with an unprotected convoy for hours, on the surface, even as the sun came up. My shots were carefully lined up and executed. I just didn't sink many ships.

[Blacklight]

Bernard struck on my boat durring my last patrol too.
I was heading accross the Atlanitc to my assigned patrol zone just east of New York. I was about a quarter of the way there when I ran into a fast moving tanker just as the weather went to all hell. So I gave chase at high speed and managed to sink the sucker. I then ordered Bernard to return to course and went about my other captaining businesses.
Time compression increased....
I leave the room to grab a drink. The wife gives me some orders too. I get back to find myself three quarters of the way to my destination. I do a quick dive to check for ships around me as I was in a convoy rout. When I checked the engineer's report on the ammount of battery I had left, I noticed that I had NEXT TO NO FUEL LEFT !!!
Apparently, Bernard hadn't changed the speed back down to 8 knots and we had gone full throttle accross the ocean !!! :damn:

We never even got CLOSE to our patrol zone and needed a tow back to France.

[scratch81]

I think i had Bernard as my navigator on my first trip into the english channel in a type II canoe, which i affectionately call the tin can. we went in just fine, sunk a few prizes, and on the way out, just below periscope depth about a meter off the sea floor, we collide with something. all hands lost. no contacts came up, nothing i saw was there, about 5-10 km east of Dover.

<--- yeeehaw, not a bilge rat no more

[Solidfart]

I knew it. I surrounded by Bernards. Keep firing Bernards!

[={FH}=Paddy]

@ scratch81 - I had a similar experience in my IIA canoe (which I affectionately refer to as my bath tub!) up by Lerwick. Bernard navigating narrow and shallow channels decides to test the hull integrity by bouncing off the sea floor a couple of times (mind you, it was only 1m below!!). Needless to say, five hands lost and hull ended up like a salad colander………..what’s more……..Bernard Lived – arrrggghh!

[Blacklight]

………..what’s more……..Bernard Lived – arrrggghh!

This guy ALWAYS lives !!! If he happens to be on my Uboat when it goes down, the Allies just pick him up and ship him right back to us so we can put him on more Uboats !! :damn:

[Brag]

The East Coast of england is a huge mine field! :dead:

[Blacklight]

*CLANK !*
Bernard: Someone's outside knocking ! Should I let them in ?

Me: What !?!

*CLANK !*
*BOOM !!!*
:dead:

[-SWCowboy.]

Bernard was at the helm when my gunners were engaged in a battle with a destroyer. We knocked out their guns and they proceeded to steam towards our conning tower and run us over. I couldn't find out where he went after that incident, me and my crew hope he was washed out to sea in the incident. :yep:

[Brag]

My greatest Bernard incident was when my keyboard reverted to German commands. I barely managed to return to the Wilhelmhaven dock! :nope:

[Blacklight]

Today, we got to our assigned patrol grid just south of Connecticut. After patrolling for a little while, an airplane was spotted and Bernard crash dived us right into the ocean floor smashing the HELL out of my nice shiny Uboat ! :stare:

We got stuck there (and 3 crewmen were killed) with all the damage so it was like a recreation of the scene in Das Boot where they got stuck on the ocean floor at Gibraltar. It took hours of repair to get the water pumped out and one engine functional enough for us to limp back accross the ocean to home. We almost ran out of air too !

[meduza]

Unfortunately, we'll never get rid of Bernard. Because Bernard is - you and me. :-?

[-SWCowboy.]

I disagree, Bernard is his own individual. He takes the blame off the shoulders of the Skipper and accepts responsibility for any mistakes whether he made them or not... much like a scapegoat. It makes it easier to explain situations when questions are asked :lol: