Tell us what you are upto in your current campaign

[Flopper]

@Snestorm: Nice logging. Good luck in your VIIa.

You mentioned no externals. I never noticed.... is there a way to control what gets loaded on the boat while in port?

First patrol. U27 VII(A). 2. Flotilla.

11 torpedoes in all.
10 up front & 1 external stern tube.
No externals carried.

[gazpode_l]

yes you can control the load-out. Am sure it right hand side desk. (sld say u-boat) Click that and click on picture of torpedo. Remove torpedo from external position..

Then again why wld you wan't to carry LESS torpedoes than a full compliment anyway? :88)

[Snestorm]

@Snestorm: Nice logging. Good luck in your VIIa.

You mentioned no externals. I never noticed.... is there a way to control what gets loaded on the boat while in port?

Although it can be done through the files, the easiest way to eliminate externals is simply to ignore them. SIR (Self Imposed Restrictions).

Oh! Conversion from a IXB or VIIB, to a IX(A) or VII(A), is realy easy. After leaving port, just fire off the stern tubes. When the guys get done reloading you've got yourself a IX(A) or VII(A). It also gives the later VIICs and IXCs a-little more of a chance to compete, with their earlier cousines, in tonnage.

[Snestorm]

Then again why wld you wan't to carry LESS torpedoes than a full compliment anyway? :88)

I prefer not to carry externals, because most boats didn't, and later in the war couldn't.
(In 1944 the VIICs didn't even carry the 2 torpedoes in excess in the bow - 8 total in the bow.)

"And expended all torpedoes. There were 12 in all"
Otto Kretchmer - U99 VIIB
(12 = 10 bow + 2 stern, no externals.)

Without the external reloads my tonnage (at 100% settings) is matching the historical numbers fairly well. Each of my boats has a carreer, as opposed to each commander.
Personaly, I just didn't like the inflated tonnage figures but, to each is own.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Had a horrible scare earlier when I submerged without checking the depth. Lost my gunnery-qualified officer, my soundman and my radioman. :o Luckily the Type II is a tough little boat.

[Snestorm]

Had a horrible scare earlier when I submerged without checking the depth. Lost my gunnery-qualified officer, my soundman and my radioman. :o Luckily the Type II is a tough little boat.

Ouch!

[Davy_Jones]

well i have nearly reached the end of the war
date February 7 1945 and i have just been transfered to Flensburg and when i just begun the patrol their a bombing raid on the base done by a few american bombers managed to down a b24 then i embarked on a 50 hour sail to grid AF44 and on the trip their i got allot of messages of other U boats getting destroyed by the allies... and when i finally arrived no sign of life not even a bloody fishing boat so for now i am still alive for now

[Snestorm]

well i have nearly reached the end of the war
date February 7 1945 and i have just been transfered to Flensburg and when i just begun the patrol their a bombing raid on the base done by a few american bombers managed to down a b24 then i embarked on a 50 hour sail to grid AF44 and on the trip their i got allot of messages of other U boats getting destroyed by the allies... and when i finally arrived no sign of life not even a bloody fishing boat so for now i am still alive for now

Now that's progress!
Super cool!

[Bothersome]

I'm currently in an IX-B sitting submerged in sector AM54. Heavy rain and fog. I got here by starting a track on a slow moving merchant going east. When I got the intercept course correct. I notice some time later that the course needed constant adjustment. Finally headed straight to it. When I finally got to it it was almost swamped from the heavy waves.

My intent was to use the guns to finish her but they boys didn't want to fight the waves. So I lined up a torpedo shot at 590 meters. First two were duds. Third hit on stern and blew prop off. Forth finished the job just forward of the bridge.

Twas only a Tramp Steamer for 1964 tons.

Whoops... Got a new contact coming. Bearing 111.

[rudderless]

Patrol 14
Kapitanleutnant Willi Laue
U-65, Type IXB, 2nd Flotilla
Left at: July 23, 1940, 02:43
From: Wilhelmshaven
Mission Orders: Patrol grid BE87

28.7.40. 1019-Grid BF 18-Ship sunk! S.S. Concho (Small Merchant), 1829 tons (deck gun).

17 days into the patrol now and not a fish fired.
Hydrophones picked up a convoy on the Halifax/Liverpool convoy route. We have been shadowing it now for nearly 150k in the foulest weather. Running 10 or 15k ahead on the surface, turning back towards, dive to 20m, regain contact, check their course and then do it again.
If the weather doesn't break in the next 10 hours then we are screwed.:down:
But that is not our only problem. A contact report from Bdu places a large convoy, same course and speed 42k north of this one.
The last contact with my convoy was 30mins ago, I don't think it could have moved 42k sideways in 30 mins.:o

[Immelman]

Convoys do not always keep the same heading. I have seen convoys change direction many times. One time after successfully infiltrating the convoy and setting up for my attack, while I wait for my targets to get closer for a better gyro-angle, they start turning 40 degrees to port away from me. There goes my perfect 90 degree position and all my firing solutions down the tubes... :damn:

[Immelman]

Third War Patrol
Date: 11 Jul 1942
Time: 12:42
Enroute to PZ

“It keeps getting jammed Herr Kaleun, looks like the bolt mechanism is slightly askew.”
“Scheiss, what about the other one?”
“Same thing Sir, looks like someone has tampered with both of them.”
“Keep a sharp eye to the sky Gerhart same goes for all the lookouts. We will have to be extra vigilant when traveling on the surface. We are sitting ducks up here with both flak guns disabled. I am going to report this to BdU they have to secure the bases that’s two patrols in a row the boat gets sabotaged.” :x

Third War Patrol
Date: 18 Jul 1942
Time: 18:49
Patrolling PZ South of Malta

“Now those are juicy targets boys! Down scope. My compliments Mr Johan good ear you have there. We have two Ocean Liners escorted by four destroyers one at each cardinal point of the convoy. Should be no problem sneaking in and out, this is right up our alley. Chief sound battle stations torpedo and take us in set course 175 and engage silent running.”

Third War Patrol
Date: 18 Jul 1942
Time: 19:11
Patrolling PZ South of Malta

“Torpedoes away!” Down scope! Take us down to 140m Chief”
“45 seconds to impact sir for all four eels!” Fritz informs me.
Plenty of time to get a nice buffer of water over our heads. If all goes well they will be too busy to come looking for us. Four loud booms were heard one right after the other but no secondary explosions.
“Two sets of fast moving screws bearing 60 and 280 cavitating!” The fore and aft Destroyers must be repositioning closer to the action while the side Destroyers are looking for us.
“At ease gentlemen, nothing to worry about just yet. We got 2 solid hits on each won’t be long till they sink. What about our targets Johan?”
“No screw sounds from the first ship Sir she is dead in the water. The second one has only one screw operating we must have destroyed the other shaft Sir.”

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3TroopShips.jpg
Ocean Liners foundering after being hit by 2 eels each


“Very well let me know if one of those Destroyers comes sniffing about”
“Heavy flooding Sir on both ships, sounds like the first one is going down Sir! Now the other one is going Sir no more sound screws, her boilers must out of action due to flooding! I think all destroyers are heading in for rescue operations.”
“All ahead one third Chief lets sneak away while they are busy. Good job men looks like Rommel is further indebted to us! Gerhart tell the cook to prepare a round of Becks for the crew as soon as we are in the clear”

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3DDRescue.jpg
View from a Destroyer engaged in Rescue operation.

[Davy_Jones]

final war patrol April 22- May 8 1945

Well I've done it i survived WW2 i live thought all the mayhem and destruction :woot: and all i got in return is that i haft to retrier :down: but never the less it was a heck of a 6 years of battle glad that the allies did not managed to kill me so for my last war patrol i managed to down 4 RAF Hurricane's and 2 small tankers

[frau kaleun]

A very wise person once said the only real way to win a war is to still be alive when it's over.

Congrats on having won, herr Kaleun. :salute:

[Weiss Pinguin]

We are currently several hundred miles off the coast of Spain, if our navigator is right. Our first Patrol and BdU sends us to the Gulf of Guinea! What the devil are we supposed to sink there?!

[sergei]

Well I've done it i survived WW2 i live thought all the mayhem and destruction

Well done Davy Jones :up:
I haven't managed that yet.

[KL-alfman]

We are currently several hundred miles off the coast of Spain, if our navigator is right. Our first Patrol and BdU sends us to the Gulf of Guinea! What the devil are we supposed to sink there?!


around Freetown (lot of air-traffic!) many convoys gather to sail up to the north.
and west of Dakar you can find many lone merchants (also travelling north)

[Fozzy22]

Well during patrol 5 in U-123 (VIIB) my crew and I managed to come across a large convoy in grid DT31 with only an Auxiliery Cruiser for escort at the rear. That was first to go, then we just had a field day on the other merchants. Mix of surface (it was night and stormy weather) and submerged attacks (on the larger targets) got us the following:

7 Merchants sunk
1 Warship sunk
59,413 tons. My best tally yet! :yeah:

:salute: :arrgh!:

[gazpode_l]

Career no: 2
Current Skipper: Gazpode I
U-Boat: U-45 (TBC - can't remember!! she IS a IXB)
Based: Lorient, 2nd Flot
Current Pos: NE Irish Sea
No of Torp: 22
Shipping Sunk:1

I've started my second campaign. Been to grid AL33 and patrolled as req'd.

In my previous career I'd found the irish sea a gold-mine so headed in that direction. Just after making rockall I had a radio report contact of a convoy near to my position. Given that winds were 15 metres per sec (30knots) and gusting more and the seas were really huge, I decided against persuing.

Reaching into the irish sea the wind had eased and the seas died to a mear calm (compared to what we had been in) and I had another radio report of a ship just ahead of me. I closed at flank and made sight

First eel was launched and after a lengthy 5min run blew away his propulsion. He was still sat there relatively undamaged and I then decided to go for the kill.

Another torpedo, magnetic pistol was launched from 1,200m and this detonated right under him and blew him apart :yeah: (note to self - depth used nearly 10m)

Ship sunk in two bits almost instantaniously! - Prob with loss of all hands who had around 5minutes between first detonation to incineration!

Decided to pause and save there as it was 1:20am and was getting nagged to power off and goto bed!!! Awww the rigors of living at home eh? :damn:

[Immelman]

Good job mate :up: Although an IXB in the Irish sea? :o Much braver then I am to be bring that fat cow in such tight and airplane infested waters.

[Weiss Pinguin]

December 15, 1941

Ran across a large merchant yesterday. It was so dark we practically had to crawl up next to it to identify the flag, and as soon we saw the Union Jack we scrambled to get a solution on her. Out of a spread of three, two eels struck, both on the bow. As soon as we saw she was going down we packed up and Onkel Leibrock ordered ahead flank for some time to put distance between us and the attack area. The fellows upfront are overjoyed at having three torpedoes' worth of room opened up. Maybe this won't be such a dull month after all.

[Bothersome]

I'm currently in AM81 heading 185. Trying to get out of this storm that's been blowing now for 2 days.
If I go any other direction, my boat is diving to 14 meters sometimes. My bridge crew is having to hold their breath.
Battery is about 20% right now.
Oh yeah, at ahead full and making 6 knots at this moment with zero damage.

I have 3 left in the forward tubes and trying to make for better weather to get the externals.

If I make for the coast, would the weather ease up?

[Fozzy22]

Well during patrol 5 in U-123 (VIIB) my crew and I managed to come across a large convoy in grid DT31 with only an Auxiliery Cruiser for escort at the rear. That was first to go, then we just had a field day on the other merchants. Mix of surface (it was night and stormy weather) and submerged attacks (on the larger targets) got us the following:

7 Merchants sunk
1 Warship sunk
59,413 tons. My best tally yet! :yeah:

:salute: :arrgh!:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/Fozz20/Silent%20Hunter%203/DrunkNDisorderlylol.jpg


:hmmm: Mr Sommer maybe celebrated our last patrol too much :DL

[frau kaleun]

Finished what might be my best patrol ever so far... started a new career last week and began our second patrol with the 2nd out of Willy on Aug 26 1939, assigned to BF19. Got news that we were at war with GB just as we were approaching the NW Irish coast.

Made way to our patrol grid taking out several lone merchants on the way, getting one good torpedo shot off on each and then finishing them off with the deck gun. Did fire two eels at the first large merchant we encountered, but only one did any damage so it was the deck gun crew to the rescue again.

Took some damage when we snuck up on a small freighter in the dark and put one torpedo into her - had the crew prepared to begin firing with the deck gun but only got 3-4 shots off before the "merchant" was firing back at us. We dove immediately and then began coming around into position for another torpedo attack from p-depth, but it turned out not to be necessary as she was already going down by the time we got her back in our sights.

Arrived in grid BF19 and completed our patrol there and then began patrolling outward into adjacent grids with continued success. Had excellent weather throughout which allowed for use of both magnetic fuses on the eels and our guns when necessary. However use of the gun to finish off a couple merchants in broad daylight may have resulted in our first warship encounter - we sighted a lone destroyer headed in our general direction in grid BF13 and had to dive as he was soon headed right for us with guns blazing.

I turned and headed away from him on his same general course with the periscope up while getting ready to ram a stern shot down his throat. We'd taken a little damage on the surface from the long range fire, but once we dove and it was obvious we were turning tail and trying to run away at p-depth, sure enough he came straight on for us at full speed, making no effort to zigzag at all. He caught up quickly enough and we fired from about 500m. Saw him try to turn away from the eel after it was in the water but it was running too fast and set for magnetic and he could not get the entire ship out of its path in time, so BOOM and that was all she wrote.

Sighted another destroyer coming through BF19 in broad daylight and calm seas, making a beeline straight north which would take her past us well to our east... she took no notice of us at all after we dove and headed north and east running silent but at full ahead trying to see if we could intercept. Since she was making around 14 knots and easily outstripping us in moving north I finally turned in eastward and hoped we could get just barely within range to shoot from p-depth as she came past still heading due north.

Set another fuse for magnetic and watching her approach I really despaired of getting off a decent shot from within normal attack range but finally ordered "los" from over 4000m distance - then began turning us around and preparing to run and set up a stern shot if she detected us and gave chase. Much to my surprise I heard the call of "torpedo impact" a couple minutes later and raising the 'scope again saw that we had a clean hit and she went down without further effort on our part.

After a few more days of good hunting in the lower Western Approaches we were down to one stern torpedo to play with so turned NW for the trip around Ireland and Scotland and home. Managed to sink a couple more merchants on the way home using the last eel and then just the deck gun, running up to them on the surface at night and then opening fire before they suspected any mischief. None were armed. Since we stayed well outside the reach of the Tommies' air cover and submerged upon sighting any ship at all in daylight while still rounding the British Isles we had no more run-ins with armed opponents of any kind.

Picked up our last enemy merchant off the coast of Norway as she was heading from there towards England... attacked and finished her with the deck gun and then it was nothing but neutrals and friendlies until we reached Willy again.

45 days at sea, 11 merchants and 2 destroyers sunk for a little over 50,000 GRT.

[Immelman]

Good job :up: Enjoy the early days while you can, because before you know it they'll be gone and DDs will be chasing you and not the other way around.

Why so dead set at nailing the 2nd DD since he was so far away and not threat to you, why not save the eel for a merchie?

[frau kaleun]

Good job :up: Enjoy the early days while you can, because before you know it they'll be gone and DDs will be chasing you and not the other way around.

Oh yeah, I am making hay while the sun shines. :yep:

Why so dead set at nailing the 2nd DD since he was so far away and not threat to you, why not save the eel for a merchie?

See point #1 above, lol. Also I was having such great luck and had already bagged my fair share of merchants at that point and still had eels to spare, including a loaded aft tube in case I missed. :O:

[Jimbuna]

Finished what might be my best patrol ever so far... started a new career last week and began our second patrol with the 2nd out of Willy on Aug 26 1939, assigned to BF19. Got news that we were at war with GB just as we were approaching the NW Irish coast.

Made way to our patrol grid taking out several lone merchants on the way, getting one good torpedo shot off on each and then finishing them off with the deck gun. Did fire two eels at the first large merchant we encountered, but only one did any damage so it was the deck gun crew to the rescue again.

Took some damage when we snuck up on a small freighter in the dark and put one torpedo into her - had the crew prepared to begin firing with the deck gun but only got 3-4 shots off before the "merchant" was firing back at us. We dove immediately and then began coming around into position for another torpedo attack from p-depth, but it turned out not to be necessary as she was already going down by the time we got her back in our sights.

Arrived in grid BF19 and completed our patrol there and then began patrolling outward into adjacent grids with continued success. Had excellent weather throughout which allowed for use of both magnetic fuses on the eels and our guns when necessary. However use of the gun to finish off a couple merchants in broad daylight may have resulted in our first warship encounter - we sighted a lone destroyer headed in our general direction in grid BF13 and had to dive as he was soon headed right for us with guns blazing.

I turned and headed away from him on his same general course with the periscope up while getting ready to ram a stern shot down his throat. We'd taken a little damage on the surface from the long range fire, but once we dove and it was obvious we were turning tail and trying to run away at p-depth, sure enough he came straight on for us at full speed, making no effort to zigzag at all. He caught up quickly enough and we fired from about 500m. Saw him try to turn away from the eel after it was in the water but it was running too fast and set for magnetic and he could not get the entire ship out of its path in time, so BOOM and that was all she wrote.

Sighted another destroyer coming through BF19 in broad daylight and calm seas, making a beeline straight north which would take her past us well to our east... she took no notice of us at all after we dove and headed north and east running silent but at full ahead trying to see if we could intercept. Since she was making around 14 knots and easily outstripping us in moving north I finally turned in eastward and hoped we could get just barely within range to shoot from p-depth as she came past still heading due north.

Set another fuse for magnetic and watching her approach I really despaired of getting off a decent shot from within normal attack range but finally ordered "los" from over 4000m distance - then began turning us around and preparing to run and set up a stern shot if she detected us and gave chase. Much to my surprise I heard the call of "torpedo impact" a couple minutes later and raising the 'scope again saw that we had a clean hit and she went down without further effort on our part.

After a few more days of good hunting in the lower Western Approaches we were down to one stern torpedo to play with so turned NW for the trip around Ireland and Scotland and home. Managed to sink a couple more merchants on the way home using the last eel and then just the deck gun, running up to them on the surface at night and then opening fire before they suspected any mischief. None were armed. Since we stayed well outside the reach of the Tommies' air cover and submerged upon sighting any ship at all in daylight while still rounding the British Isles we had no more run-ins with armed opponents of any kind.

Picked up our last enemy merchant off the coast of Norway as she was heading from there towards England... attacked and finished her with the deck gun and then it was nothing but neutrals and friendlies until we reached Willy again.

45 days at sea, 11 merchants and 2 destroyers sunk for a little over 50,000 GRT.

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

http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/ROFLMAO.gif http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/ROFLMAO.gif http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/ROFLMAO.gif

[Paul Riley]

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

http://www.dirtybutton.com/media/db75-bull-gores-sack.jpg

:rotfl2:

[frau kaleun]

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

http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/ROFLMAO.gif http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/ROFLMAO.gif http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/ROFLMAO.gif


Well I'll try to take out a couple extra ships with just the flak gun next time, howzat? :D

[Jimbuna]

Well I'll try to take out a couple extra ships with just the flak gun next time, howzat? :D

Pictures mind.....or it didn't happen :smug:

[Brag]

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

http://www.dirtybutton.com/media/db75-bull-gores-sack.jpg

:rotfl2:
This pitchah belongs in the SH5 Moo thread :D

[frau kaleun]

Pictures mind.....or it didn't happen :smug:

:hmmm:

If I posted a picture of my gunner firing the flak gun at a ship, and then a picture of the same ship sinking, how would you know I didn't just torpedo her first and then use the flak gun to finish her off?

Which I actually did more than once on one patrol in my longest career to date (RIP Herr Oblt Schmidt :salute:) after we ran out of ammo for the deck gun. My gunner got an Iron Cross for his outstanding work on those occasions.)

Oh hey that reminds me, I know in the crew mgmt screen having three POs and/or ratings at the deck gun station is the max and the WO stays on the bridge. But if you're going to give out medals for gun crew performance, in RL the WO would be included in that, right? Because I'm assuming that in RL he did more than just stand on the bridge and watch the show, even if the game sorta makes it look that way.

Which also reminds me, is there any advantage to having a WO with a gunner qual on duty when the guns are manned? Does that affect the efficiency of the gun stations even though the officer himself is not "moved" to that station but remains on the bridge? I use a PO with a gunner qual with two of the other guys who were standing watch and the station always shows 100% efficiency, so I don't really know what effect the WO's quals would have if any.

[Brag]

Interesting patrol, Frau K. Drinks are on you :D

[frau kaleun]

Drinks are on you

They better not be, I just got my dress blues back from the cleaners. :O:

[KL-alfman]

This pitchah belongs in the SH5 Moo thread :D



mooooooo! :up:


@ Fr Kaleun:
very aggressive approach to sink all DDs in range of sight!
impressive!

[Brag]

They better not be, I just got my dress blues back from the cleaners. :O:

Oh, well. Since you have clean clothes. I'll buy. :DL

[Jimbuna]

:hmmm:

If I posted a picture of my gunner firing the flak gun at a ship, and then a picture of the same ship sinking, how would you know I didn't just torpedo her first and then use the flak gun to finish her off?

Which I actually did more than once on one patrol in my longest career to date (RIP Herr Oblt Schmidt :salute:) after we ran out of ammo for the deck gun. My gunner got an Iron Cross for his outstanding work on those occasions.)

Oh hey that reminds me, I know in the crew mgmt screen having three POs and/or ratings at the deck gun station is the max and the WO stays on the bridge. But if you're going to give out medals for gun crew performance, in RL the WO would be included in that, right? Because I'm assuming that in RL he did more than just stand on the bridge and watch the show, even if the game sorta makes it look that way.

Which also reminds me, is there any advantage to having a WO with a gunner qual on duty when the guns are manned? Does that affect the efficiency of the gun stations even though the officer himself is not "moved" to that station but remains on the bridge? I use a PO with a gunner qual with two of the other guys who were standing watch and the station always shows 100% efficiency, so I don't really know what effect the WO's quals would have if any.

Put three ordinary ratings on the deck gun....now remove them leaving just the one...now place a WO without a gunners qualification in the tower/bridge...now replace him with a suitably qualified WO and look at that green bar....pretty impressive change I think you'll agree :o

[frau kaleun]

Put three ordinary ratings on the deck gun....now remove them leaving just the one...now place a WO without a gunners qualification in the tower/bridge...now replace him with a suitably qualified WO and look at that green bar....pretty impressive change I think you'll agree :o

So having a WO with a gun qual on the bridge vastly improves the efficiency of the deck gun crew even if said crew is only one guy with no gun qual at all? Could you even operate the deck gun with one dude at the station in RL?

[Immelman]

Nope you couldn't even turn it let alone fire it with a single guy. It would take half an hour just to prep the gun for firing with a single guy :o

[Jimbuna]

So having a WO with a gun qual on the bridge vastly improves the efficiency of the deck gun crew even if said crew is only one guy with no gun qual at all? Could you even operate the deck gun with one dude at the station in RL?

Can't honestly say I've tried....let me know :hmmm:

The reason I said leave one guy on the gun is because that is the minimum the game will allow and will certainly show you a very small 'green bar'....efficiency rating to act as a starting point.

[frau kaleun]

Nope you couldn't even turn it let alone fire it with a single guy. It would take half an hour just to prep the gun for firing with a single guy :o

Um yeah, that's what I thought. I always have that station manned to the max.

Though it's good to know that I can make up for the lack of a PO with a gun qual by having a WO on duty who also has one.

[frau kaleun]

The reason I said leave one guy on the gun is because that is the minimum the game will allow and will certainly show you a very small 'green bar'....efficiency rating to act as a starting point.

Lol, that's kind of what I thought. I guess the real test would be to put only one dude there and then order the gun fired at something and see how well he does.

"Dude, what's taking so long? The guy on the bridge yelling directions at you is fully qualified for deck gun duty. Chop chop!" :O:

[Immelman]

Third War Patrol
Date: 24 Jul 1942
Time: 20:33
Patrolling PZ South of Malta

“Aircraft of the port bow, medium range and closing!”
“ALAAARM! Dive the boat Chief fast. Clear the bridge!”
The sounds of a stampeding crew brought me out of a fitful sleep as the crew scrambled to transfer all possible weight forward shaving seconds off our dive time. By the time I got to the control room I had to hold on tight to the periscope, the steep angle of the deck threw me off balance. The deck tilted further as the diving planes fully extended bit the water driven by the props that were turning at maximum revolutions. Without any prompting from me as soon as we passed 30m Gerhart ordered a hard turn to port turning in the arc of the bombing run the text book evasive maneuver. A few seconds later a splash was heard followed by an explosion that rocked the boat.

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3ACattack.jpg
Bombing run on U-83's last known position. In the middle of the spotlight the bomb is dropping...

“Damage report, Chief check the boat for leaks, pay extra attention to the aft compartments.”
“Yes Sir!”
“Gerhart, what the hell happened exactly?”
“He came out of nowhere Sir. We couldn’t see him in the bloody overcast. It’s a miracle he saw us in this storm!”
“Miracle or a technological marvel called radar lad. Either way we are lucky to be alive. Lets hope the boys back home come up with a counter to it soon or its going to put us out of business. Good thing you spotted him when you did. A few seconds later…”
“Wasn’t me this time herr Kaleun, it was Albert that spotted it.”
“So the Becks goes to young Albert, good job lad we will make a sailor out of you yet”


Third War Patrol
Date: 28 Jul 1942
Time: 04:17
Patrolling PZ South of Malta

“Is this bloody storm ever going to pass her Kaleun?”
“It will Gerhart, like all storms it will pass eventually. In the meant time we stay down here nice and relatively dry.”
“Your move Sir”
“Bold move old boy. Check”
“Scheiss”
Think of it this way, we sit here and play chess while Johan has to do all the hard work! Now how great is that?”
“Not so great Sir since I have lost the last two games.”
“Anything new Johan?” My IWO asks hopefully.
“Still intermittent contact, I keep loosing her in all this background noise from the storm its hard to get a fix, but its firming up Sir.”
“Very well keep at it lad.” I tell him with a smile. “Not off the hook yet friend we still have time to finish up.”


Third War Patrol
Date: 28 Jul 1942
Time: 04:52
Patrolling PZ South of Malta

“Now that was a perfectly executed blindfolded attack herr Kaleun!”
“Preceded by a text book hydrophone triangulation. Thanks to Johan we didn’t even need to see her to find her exact position course and speed. In this bloody storm it would have been impossible to find her unless we accidentally rammed her.”
“Unbelievable Sir!”
“What are you praising me for? I was busy kicking your butt at chess while he was doing it all.”
"We are lucky to have found what's left of her at all, even on fire she was hard to spot in this storm"

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3SternShot.jpg
U-83 managed to find the stricken ship in time before it sunk beneath the waves.

[frau kaleun]

Just finished going through my patrol log, turns out I actually sank 13 merchants and 2 destroyers for a total of 15 ships sunk. :O: Here's the official rundown.

U-49, 2 U-Flotilla Saltzwedel
ObltzS Helmut Wolf, Commander

Patrol 2

August 26, 1939, 01:29
Departed: Wilhelmshaven
Mission Orders: Patrol grid BF19

September 7, 1939, 22:09
Grid AM 57
Ship sunk: SS Adherity (Coastal Freighter), 1869 tons
Cargo: Scrap Metal.
Crew/lost: 24/4

September 8, 1939, 01:56
Grid AM 57
Ship sunk: SS Barbacena (Granville-type Freighter), 4707 tons
Cargo: Military Stores
Crew/lost: 67/38

September 9, 1939, 08:22
Grid BE 33
Ship sunk: SS England (Tramp Steamer), 2076 tons
Cargo: Wine/Spirits
Crew/lost: 24/0

September 10, 1939, 00:01
Grid BF 14
Ship sunk: SS Mona (Tramp Steamer), 2077 tons
Cargo: Coffee
Crew/lost: 35/30

September 11, 1939, 21:45
Grid BF 19
Ship sunk: Q Ship HMS Brutus (Small Freighter), 2364 tons
Crew/lost: 78/66

September 14, 1939, 20:19
Grid BF 13
Ship sunk: HMS Bulldog (A&B classes), 1350 tons
Crew: 177
Crew lost: 67

September 19, 1939, 15:38
Grid BF 11
Ship sunk: SS Accordance (Coastal Freighter), 1870 tons
Cargo: General Cargo
Crew/lost: 32/6

September 21, 1939, 15:07
Grid BF 18
Ship sunk: SS City of Hull (Large Merchant), 11512 tons
Cargo: Phosphates
Crew/lost: 98/97

September 22, 1939, 03:35
Grid BF 19
Ship sunk: SS A. M. Simpson (Coastal Freighter), 1872 tons
Cargo: Scrap Metal
Crew/lost: 30/13

September 23, 1939, 13:40
Grid BF 19
Ship sunk: HMS Wanderer (V&W class), 1188 tons
Crew/lost: 102/69

September 24, 1939, 13:56
Grid BF 18
Ship sunk: SS Zealand (Tramp Steamer), 2258 tons
Cargo: IronOre
Crew/lost: 31/11

September 26, 1939, 14:48
Grid AM 87
Ship sunk: Q Ship HMS Maunder (Small Freighter), 1969 tons
Crew/lost: 75/16

September 27, 1939, 03:59
Grid AM 76
Ship sunk: SS Hastings (Coastal Freighter), 1873 tons
Cargo: Coal
Crew/lost: 21/0

September 28, 1939, 01:56
Grid AM 46
Ship sunk: SS Nebraska (Large Merchant), 9449 tons
Cargo: Grain
Crew/lost: 56/55

October 5, 1939, 00:17
Grid AF 75
Ship sunk: SS Santa Clara (Medium Cargo), 3884 tons
Cargo: Military Vehicles
Crew/lost: 54/35

October 9, 1939, 09:41
Returned: Wilhelmshaven
Crew losses: 0
Merchants sunk: 13, 47780 GRT
Warships sunk: 2, 2538 GRT
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Total ships sunk: 15
Patrol tonnage: 50318 GRT

Promotions: Matrosengefreiter Hans Emmerich, Matrosengefreiter Klaus Meyer, Matrosengefreiter Wilhelm Scholten, and Matrosengefreiter Paul Werner, to Matrosenobergefreiter

Awards: Oberleutnant z. See Helmut Wolf, Iron Cross 2nd Class

[Weiss Pinguin]

Well, decided to duke it out with a PBY today. Manned the lone machine gun on the conning tower, and decided to pull out the deck gun just because. (Not many flying targets bigger than a PBY, after all)

For my trouble I got a salvo of 3 bombs, all along the starboard side of the boat. Some minor flooding, a little damage, but nothing compared to the 5 guys on deck who bought it - Lost an officer, and a watch-qualified Oberbootsman! :dead: All of this on Christmas Day no less!


To make it worse a little bit later I got an update on the merchant I had tried to intercept earlier. :shifty:

[Wilbo]

My first post :salute:

Just started my first ever campaign, after buying SHIII through Steam this weekend. So, a quick report on my first ever mission!

---

In Summer 1939, I was given my first command - a Type IIA with the 1st Flotilla, with a mission to patrol just outside of the Firth of Forth. I left Wilhelmshaven to cheering crowds and plotted my route.

On arriving at my destination, at night and in clear weather, I spotted a cargo ship and dove to periscope depth, switched to the electric engines and moved to intercept it, setting myself up for a right-angled attack as it passed by at a distance of about 1000 metres. As it passed in front, I launched two torpedoes with a ten second interval – a minute or two later and KABOOOOOM! We hit her dead-centre, so she burst into flames, but then KABOOOOOOOOOOM! The second torpedo hit and she split in two.

Later on, I found a single fishing boat. I wasn’t sure if it was a worthy target and felt a bit guilty, but gave it a go anyway, with a single torpedo. KABOOOOOM! This one blew up into the air before crashing back down. The poor fisherman actually saved lives by taking my torpedo though, much to my annoyance, for later on I spotted a giant cargo ship, which I hit with my last two torpedoes dead centre, heavily damaging it but allowing it to crawl into port, albeit very low in the water... If only I hadn’t taken out the damn fishing boat!

My crew extremely tired, I then spent some time swapping them around to get some rest while fleeing back to Wilhelmshaven, travelling by periscope in the day, as I was being hunted by small aircraft.

Mission complete and back in port, I’ve now hired some more crew and bought a flak gun to deal with the damn air support!

---

I'm currently using auto targeting, but intend to give manual a shot - I figure it'll improve my trigonometry skills!

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard Wilbo http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/welcome.gif

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

[frau kaleun]

Ahoy and welcome, Wilbo! :salute:

[KL-alfman]

welcome to the pack! :salute:

[Immelman]

Third War Patrol
Date: 09 Sep 1942
Time: 10:31
Arriving at La Spezia

“Ah, home sweet home!” I exclaim with delight as I give the city of La Spezia the once over with my binoculars.

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3LaSpezia.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3FriendlyUboat.jpg
Friendly U-boat



“There’s our escort Sir of the port bow.”

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3PortEscort.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3U83fromEscort.jpg
U-83 from the escort

“There’s no place like home!”

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3U83Docked.jpg
U-83 safely docked

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Immel17/U83/P3Log.jpg

[Weiss Pinguin]

Well, just bagged another 14k tons or so. Got a contact report of a merchant south of us heading our direction, so I put together an intercept and steamed over. We we arrived I dropped down to 25 meters and reversed course to meet the merchant. Apparently my soundman was sleeping, though, as he only reported the merchant after it was right on top of us. I shot up the periscope, and I mean it was literally RIGHT NEXT TO THE BOAT HOLY CRAP.

So I called ahead flank, brought the boat around, and blew ballast, thinking I would hop on the deck gun as soon as we broached and blow the bejazzus out the ship. As soon as I jumped on the conning tower, though, I was greeted by TWO ships, both of which were armed and less than 200 meters away. :o

Quickly ordered the boat back down to periscope depth at ahead flank, but before not before I lost my soundman (Serves the lazy bugger right) and radio operator, and took a few hits along the hull.

As soon as I could pop the periscope back up I set up a snapshot on the trailing ship, and fired off with both aft tubes, and then tubes #1 and #3 as soon as the bow came around. Once the torpedoes were on their way I worked up a solution on the lead merchant (I didn't even know what type she was, so I had to eyeball the range and took a wild guess at the draft), and emptied the remaining forward tubes into her.

All torpedoes hit, and sent up some impressive fireworks. As soon as I decided they were going down I surfaced the boat again, and sent a few rounds with the deck gun into the lead ship, just to get back at them for scaring the everliving crap out of me.

When I calmed back down I checked the log, and it turns out I knocked out a large merchant (10000+ GRT) and a medium merchant (4000+/- GRT), in exchange for 2 crewmembers. Heading for Freetown now, but if this keeps up I won't have a crew by the time I return to Lorient. :lol:

[Fozzy22]

My last patrol had to end early in my IXB as i got strafed by two Hurricanes off Gibraltar and my hull integrity was 45%, that and i couldn't hit anything in the horrible weather we were in. :cry: Ah well there's always the next patrol. :up:

[Exakt]

Sadly for all of you chaps, I will most likely post less often my progress, since I have just started working at Beenox, an Activision-Blizzard studio.

Also, sadly, as per the NDA I have signed today, I will not be able to discuss, review, submit cheat codes, walkthroughs, easter eggs and "Will Not Fix" bugs and coming titles that I will be working on, you will know when reading the credits of those games (Jason Gagne will be the name to look for... *shameless plug...lol*)... Also, I can no longer work on mods, to say that I was actually starting to submit skins for ships and subs, but can no longer release anything publicly.

Maybe in 3 months, I will be able, if they don't renew my contract (of which I doubt that they will not renew).

[KL-alfman]

congrats for the new job!

but you can still play and write your stories, I assume?! :D

[Davy_Jones]

Date April 1st 1941
Time 17:14
Ship DKM Bismark (WSM3)
Location 221 miles from Halifax

I have just stumbled on to a escorted convoy about 40 ship 10 destroyers and when i arrived their i see a resupply Uboat using its deck gun against the escorts so i go to rescue the Uboat by taking out the escorts and the armed ships

Date April 1st 1941
Time 17:16
Ship DKM Bismark (WSM3)
Location 222 miles from Halifax

Unfortunately The Uboat has been destroyed by the escort :nope: it slowly sank to the bottom of the sea if only i was their earlier... on the way back i held a moment of silence for the fallen comrades


Total tonnage 169857 tonnes

[Weiss Pinguin]

Left my game running earlier to take care of something, and while I was away apparently a PBY stopped by. Now I'm up to 9 crewmen lost. :dead: At least I have 40k GRT to show for it.

[rudderless]

KAPITÄNLEUTNANT WILLI LAUE
Patrol 15
U-65, 2nd Flotilla
Left at: September 6, 1940, 06:32
From: Wilhelmshaven
Mission Orders: Patrol grid CG11

2247: 8.9.40. Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! S.S. Agu (Large Merchant), 9714 tons
1627: 11.9.40. Grid AN 55 Ship sunk! S.S. Empire Corporal (Large Merchant), 10415 tons
1637: 11.9.40. Grid AN 55 Ship sunk! S.S. Quiberon (Large Merchant), 10416 tons
0506: 12.9.40. Grid AN 54 Ship sunk! HMS Opossum (Black Swan class), 1250 tons
0519: 12.9.40. Grid AN 54 Ship sunk! HMS Storm (S class), 767 tons
0540: 12.9.40. Grid AN 54 Ship sunk! Altair (Small Depot Ship), 6250 tons
0606: 12.9.40. Grid AN 54 Ship sunk! S.S. Neva (Coal Freighter), 3091 tons
U-boat damaged (H.I. 60.74%)

Well, that patrol certainly wasn't sooo boring.
On the surface charging batteries when we spotted the S.S. Agu. Got into good position, gave him a salvo of 3 for 2 hits, 1 dud. Didn't take him long to go down. Resumed course.
Contact report from Bdu on the 11th placed a convoy 30k east.
Found a position ahead of the convoy in about 65m depth. Position ok but range is about 4k+. Willi is not all that crash hot over 2000m. Only decent targets are the 2 LMs. Salvo of 2 from from about 3500, shift target second salvo. First target 2 hits (Boy, weren't we surprised), second target managed 1 hit right on the bow.
Getting chased by 1 escort when Herman's boys arrive. Bombs everywhere, escorts putting up an antiaircraft barrage and Willi dodging depth charges. Played this game on and off for years and never seen an air attack, now seen two. From an 8 ship convoy they were left with 3, two of those heavily damaged.
Then Willi had a brain explosion :o and decide to have a look in Blythe. To cut a long story short we were caught by the ASW trawler in 17m. He ended up on the bank, we ended up with the bow torpedo room destroyed, stern tubes destroyed and critical flooding at one stage. Could not lift off the bottom. Stopped the worst of the flooding and effected some engine repairs. Still stuck at 16ms, managed to creep along at 1 knot until out a bit , blew ballast and took off with all speed for home which was a hair raising trip in itself.

[timmy41]

april 1943! w00t!
900,000k tons too so far!
latest sortie http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=168623

[Exakt]

congrats for the new job!

but you can still play and write your stories, I assume?! :D

Yes I can and I will, but it will be less often than what I first did...

[gazpode_l]

Am unsure but I think my last posting was earlier this week (or end of last) where I had gone around the top of the Irish sea and had got lucky and encountered a lone merchant in seas that were calming down compared to the malestrom we'd encountered in the open atlantic. We had already obliterated a lone merchant with a succesfull magnetic torpedo shot, before I chose to resume my progress from monday night where I'd pottered around ireland for a little while chasing a lone merchant. :up:

I had another chance to finally have another campaign session of SH3 last night and BOY did I find it frustrating. I was off the coast of holyhead, persuing a solitary, small merchant and I discovered that I was unable to lock either of my periscopes or my UZO onto the ship ( I could but only for a short time) :help:

It was raining again and winds were 6mtrs per sec, with a slight sea-state. (Which could be why). After shooting a torpedo and missing I decided I would not continue to persue my contact in these pathetic conditions (In actual fact I'm getting tired of bad atlantic storms in oct 1940). :nope:

I decided to turn tail and run south towards my base and make a desicion on my next course as we pass longships. :hmmm:

Shortly after I turned in 40winks in my bunk and I had barely nodded off when I got awoken by the buzz of my radio man, reporting that he'd recieved a message saying that Bdu had visual intelligence of a good-sized convoy just some 20 clicks SSW of my position which were on a NNE'rly course. Holding a tea in one hand and pencil in the other, I did some rough, very quick calculations, using some of the methods i've read about on these forums in the "noob" section. :salute:

Before long I arrived at my planned intercept point and proceeded to sit silently and awaited the arrival of the convoy. This was a convoy every Kaleun dreams of - Un-escorted! Although they didn't have anything much larger than medium cargo's they were still worth having a "butchers" at. :arrgh!:

So before long they were upon me and I began locking up and firing at the various targets. However, I noticed my persistant problem of the sight locking bug was still with me and therefore I began to work on a couple of manual solutions! I got lucky and counted three explosions topside. I obliterated one contact (reported as a med cargo in my log) and damaged one or two others.

However in my salvo I expended around half of my torpedoes and I'd prob say 85% of them were wastage because of the sight lock problems and also me forgetting I'd still got my TDC set to manual imput, so any direction I was looking to shoot in, my torps were simply running straight and true from the tubes with no turning and without anything crossing my bow to be shot at by the torpedoes. (i'd read somewhere else about another guy achieving amazing success with straight out of the tubes bow shots - anyone who can post me the link - wld be really appreciated) :rock::salute:

Cursing my rotten luck I ordered ahead flank and turned away from the convoy to run away - I was very lucky this was unescorted. :yep:

After running for 1 game hr, I sat on the surface for another hour re-loading my tubes and bringing inside my external load-out, ready for another go at the convoy. I set ahead full and at daybreak I was beginning to catch upto the last of the trailing ships in the convoy. :ping:

I fired again and my shot scored a direct hit although I think my shot merely damaged the vessel rather than an outright kill. :stare:

I got into a firing solution again with another vessel and launched three torpedoes at him, one struck but failed to detonate (set running hight too high/shallow, combined with a poor vessel angle) and the other two simply whizzed by. :damn:

Feeling rather peeved :damn: :mad: I exited my patrol and shutdown my computer and went to bed.

I have thus far bagged only two kills for aprox 7,000 GRT and have wasted alot of torpedoes in far from ideal situations. I am definately showing a very green element to my skippering. :ahoy: I will spend a few days mulling over it in port and probably play the in-game training exercises :/\\x: before we put to sea again, hoping that the persistantly beautiful weather i always seemed to be blessed with in lorient upon departure, actually holds and follows me to the UK!!! :arrgh!:

Written by Kaleun Gazpode
Patrol #1 (career2)
Sunk: 2 ships for Aprox 7,000 Grt.
Game date: Mid Oct 1940.

[Weiss Pinguin]

U-163 is finally in port again, safe and sound. Departed December 3rd, 1941, and returned January 14, 1942, with 3 wounded and 10 less crewmembers than when I left, all in exchange for 5 ships totalling 40,750 GRT. This is probably my worst patrol yet - I've never lost that many crew before, not without losing the submarine as well, anyways. :dead:

[KL-alfman]

heads up, Mr Penguin!

now you can pay-back in your next patrol.
maybe in pillaging the U.S. east-coast??!! :up: :salute:

[pickinthebanjo]

U-571 heading out for first patrol out of La Spezia. I've always stuck to the Atlantic but this time I plan on trying the Med for a while then transfering to the Pacific

[Jimbuna]

U-571 heading out for first patrol out of La Spezia. I've always stuck to the Atlantic but this time I plan on trying the Med for a while then transfering to the Pacific

In SH3? :hmmm:

[KL-alfman]

In SH3? :hmmm:


Monsun boats?
your beloved IXD2?? :O:

edit: not so sure now if Penang and Djakarta only belong to the Indian Ocean .....
sry, Jimbuna, if I messed up.

[unterseemann]

14 Apr 1942 - 2nd flotilla Lorient
U-125 ( Kptlt Dieter Haguenau) is back after a 43 days patrol.
Patrol zone: African west coast, canaries islands approachs
7 ships sank for 45.271 tons

3.3.1942: U125 left Lorient

6.3.1942: Unescorted british merchant sunk in BE95
SS Aldan (small merchant) 2376 tons

7.3.1942: Convoy reported in BE89. One or two minutes before attack, as uboot turned perpendicular to convoy detected by flank escort.
Dove to 45m then deployed decoys. Depth charges exploded behind us, presume escort engaged decoys so decided to come back to PD and prepare a four torpedoes salvo 'blind' shot.
4 torpedoes in the water, we dove again. 4 minutes later as uboot was at -90m, 2 impacts heard but seconds after depth charges exploded near the uboot: Damages and flooding in bow sections. Uboot began to sink by the bow: blow ballast, reverse course and repair team stopped it at -144m...

Dodged others depth charges and 2 hours later uboot safe. In the meantime the two impacts turned into two sinkings.
-Medium Merchant 5200 tons
-SS Empire sunbeam ( empire type freighter) 5746 tons

Surfaced the boat, damage to the hull ( 67% HI) but no vital equipment destroyed. BdU ordered not to attack the convoy once more but to continue patrol south where lone merchant shipping is more important (west of portugal to canaries islands).

21.3.1942: After 14 days without any contacts, southbound convoy detected between Dakar and cape verde islands in EK41. Although convoy well escorted we attacked it, sunk a large british tanker and escaped unharmed.
-MV Inverdargle 11.910 tons

10.4.1942: After 20 days without anything else but bad weather and neutral encounters, luck is back! 400 miles west of portugal coast in CG71 a small convoy is detected. A hunt class destroyer followed by:large merchant, empire freighter, medium merchant. Speed estimated to 9kn course 61.
First attack: a torpedo miss the escort, another one hit the large merchant 3 torpedoes wasted against the zigzagging ships... Eventually the large merchant sank
-SS Glenorchy 10.951 tons

11.4.1942: A second attack is made against the empire freighter and the medium merchant. 1 miss on the empire freighter and 1 hit on the medium merchant. Escort unable to find us. No sign of sinking but the merchant seemed to lose speed
5 hours later we found the straggler and sank it with gunfire.
-SS Golden Fleece 4404 tons CG48

11.4.1942: Hydrophon operator reported dolphins. Several crewmen went to hear them and discovered a ship nearby! One hour later contact was made with an american small merchant. Sank it with our last torpedo. Debris and crew revealed after that it was a granville type freighter and not a small merchant...
-MV Agra ( granville type freighter) 4707 tons

14.4.1942 U-125 is back to Lorient
7 ships sunk for 45.271 tons

Total tonnage sunk by U-125: 195.699 tons
Kptlt Konrad Tietz: 3 patrols (10 jul1941 to 31 jan 1942): 150.428 tons
Kptlt Dieter Haguenau: 1 patrol (3 mar 1942 to 14 apr 1942): 45.271 tons

[pickinthebanjo]

In SH3? :hmmm:

yeah in SH3, I was surprized there was 10th flotilla and even more surprised when I got U-571 it just takes forever to travel there
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/2219/98880699.png

[Weiss Pinguin]

February, 1942

U-163 is sailing to DB94, off the coast of Florida. I hear the fishing is good this time of year. ;) Received a contact report to the south earlier, and after arriving at the intercept point I switched on my brand new radar set, and picked up the merchant fairly quickly. Unfortunately I botched the solution and ended up firing 4 torpedoes at a bulk freighter for <~ 3000 tons.

Oh well, moving on. Should be an interesting patrol. :arrgh!:

[KL-alfman]

not the med Jimbuna was questioning but the Pacific.
I still don't know if Indonesia is more to the Indian or Pacific Ocean ..... :hmmm:

[frau kaleun]

not the med was Jimbuna questioning but the Pacific.
I still don't know if Indonesia is more to the Indian or Pacific Ocean ..... :hmmm:

Looks to be right smack between the two:

http://www.bdvoyage.ru/img/foto/article/1182238371_indonesia_map.gif

[KL-alfman]

Looks to be right smack between the two:

http://www.bdvoyage.ru/img/foto/article/1182238371_indonesia_map.gif


fine! :up:
now there's evidence that the PTO can be simmed in SH3 :D

take that, Jimbuna! :cool:

[pickinthebanjo]

Im still on my way down there as it's a long trip but it should be worth it i'm thinking

[armyguy]

Ok i am in a IID and i ran in to a 50K+ ton task force go for it yes or no?
Edit
I got the BC but got no tons for it :damn:

[Weiss Pinguin]

February 13, 1942

Returning to Lorient. Critical engine failure, max. speed 10 knots. Current position CF24.

U-163

[pickinthebanjo]

February 13, 1942

Returning to Lorient. Critical engine failure, max. speed 10 knots. Current position CF24.

U-163

I know that feeling, I blew the port engine when I did it. Had no scopes, hydro's or flak and already exhausted my 88mm shells. Hopefully your not in That deep though, Good luck

[Weiss Pinguin]

Wow :o We're not that bad off, actually I loaded a save and SH3 commander just decided it was time for a malfunction. When your top speed is 10+/- knots, an Atlantic crossing is pretty much out of the question. (Thank goodness I was only halfway across!)

[pickinthebanjo]

Wow :o We're not that bad off, actually I loaded a save and SH3 commander just decided it was time for a malfunction. When your top speed is 10+/- knots, an Atlantic crossing is pretty much out of the question. (Thank goodness I was only halfway across!)

I've been using the Sabotage/Malfunction feature as well but I have yet to notice any effects from it. Although once my TDC was giving me incorrect values. (I would set it for a strait run 000 Degree shot and it would go +-10 degrees in either way)

[gazpode_l]

Kpt Lt Gazpode
Patrol: #2
Game Date: Okt 22, 1940
Boat:U-65
Status: At Sea - Grid AM97
patrol Grid: AM53!
Ships Sunk 1
Tons: 1600 aprox
Crew: 35A 8D

I left Lorient on a repeat "2nd" patrol after upgrading my gaming to include SH3 commander. it somehow deleted my second patrol I finished the other night, although I'm not too bothered SH3C decided to bin it! :shifty:

Proceeded on my standard routing of up around past western france and to go up past longships and up the st george's channel, irish sea etc.

Aprox 50km SW of longships my crew spot my first contact - an ASW Trawler.

"Leave him be, he's a long way off"

About ten mins or so go by and water begins splashing around us! :o

So I order the ship to dive, not before we took a light conning tower hit.

I turned my u-65 and position the enemy ASW dead astern and carry on at slow speed - he's gaining upon us rapidly. I prep a down the throat shot as read about from other kaleun's and before long a detonation is heard..

Well? I ask urgently to my new young hydrophone man
"Kaleun, he continues at normal speed!"
"********n" I shout an obscenity in German, which my crew look at me with amazement!
"Get used to that boys" I snap angrilly back at them
"Neuer deifer sexctzig meter"

I command my ship to come down to 60 meters where we will play a game of cat n mouse. The ASW runs directly over us and the boy reports D/C being laid. They explode a fair way above us!
"Gut" :) I exclaim with a rhy smile
"neuer course 90"
"und"
"neuer deifer 13 meter"
Come my next three commands - I'm obviously doing well as I get a pat on the back from my chief of the watch for my good usage of german!!

We head back to periscope depth at 13 meters and I look around to find the ASW circling above us.."Auftaufen" I ask and before long we surface to rapid gunfire...My crew cafefully man the deck gun and begin shooting at the asw.

Before we cld pickup sufficient speed though the ASW is ramming us! "S******E" what have I DONE! I shout at myself in english! :damn:

It was two late! A flash and a bang follow and all of my watch and gun crew are dead, except my watch lieutenant who was below on the crapper! :dead:

I order us back down to 40 Mtrs and my medic reports 8 Fatalities...A tap on my shoulder indicates my sound-boy wan'ts my attention....

"Ship breaking kaluen" He makes a gesture with his hands to motion that the ship is sinking. I go onto the 1MC and announce the good and bad news to the crew.

I call a team meeting amongst my remaining officers and Senior crew to find out what they want to do - Head back to lorient, or continue the patrol!

CONTINUE is the unanimous oppinion - we are to carry on with our duties with renewed vigor and eager to extract even more pain on the merchants and escorts.

I order us to head towards longships and we slip into coastline of longships island an hr later. A short funeral service follows before we bury the dead at sea just off longships :salute:

Get us the friken outta here I scream and we tear out of the area at flank speed. Some 7.5km later I order us back to standard speed and settle down to my book. Couple of hours later, just after dark I get alerted to an enemy destroyer, some 3000m away.

"Again, Leave her be, and see what she does, the moment she turns on us we get the friken outta here and bomb down to 90m"

She continues her course but she is getting quite close for comfort. I order a standard dive to 13m where we continue to monitor her position whilst sitting there silently.

She duly runs by us without even a blink and before long she's a fair way off and I order us to-resurface. My new Conning tower officer reports that she is roughly 4km away. I order us back to standard speed, and I hand over to my second in command as I head below for rest.

We are currently in AM97 crusing north, plan is to keep going like this for another 3-4 hours before dropping back to periscope depth for a listen. If no contacts prevail then we continue to AM53 where we will relax a bit listening for up-coming convoys!

**ENDS**
Signed: KAPT GAZPODE

[rudderless]

Patrol 16
U-65, 2nd Flotilla
Left at: October 26, 1940, 11:08
From: Lorient
Mission Orders: Patrol grid BE22

0038:10.11.40. Grid AM 52 Ship sunk! S.S. Takii Eddin (Small Merchant), 2083 tons
0759:10.11.40. Grid AM 52 Ship sunk! S.S. Bennestvet (Small Merchant), 2084 tons
0917:11.11.40. Grid AM 54 Ship sunk! M/V Asterion (Medium Cargo), 4787 tons
2059:16.11.40. Grid AM 36 Ship sunk! M/V Sarpedon (Large Cargo), 6797 tons
2103:16.11.40. Grid AM 36 Ship sunk! M/V Empire Soldier (Medium Cargo), 4445 tons
1743:19.11.40. Grid AM 53 Ship sunk! M/V Bald Eagle (Medium Cargo), 4579 tons
0125:23.11.40. Grid BF 16 Ship sunk! S.S. Battler (Small Merchant), 2203 tons
0334:23.11.40. Grid BF 16 Ship sunk! S.S. Rio de Janeiro (Tramp Steamer), 1826 tons

Playing with manual targeting and GWX installed gives this game a whole new dimension. Playing at 82%, like the cameras and stabilizer view too much.
Not much excitement on this patrol until the last convoy.
Had bad position and the convoy was zig zagging all over the place. Fired 2 salvos with both missing their intended targets. Sunk the S.S. Battler and damaged the S.S. Rio de Janeiro. Quite a few ships on fire in this convoy including the lead escort.
Took a couple of depth charged hits for only minor damage and managed to lose him for a bit. Thought I would have a quick look with the camera to see what the convoy was up to. Hit the > key and next minute I'm looking at a surfaced sub blazing away with his flak guns at what looks like a frigate or corvette, which was giving him what for with his 4 inch.
Had to duck back to my control room as the escort was pinging us again. Never saw the sub after that.
So far with this career I've seen 2 air raids and now this.
Be gentle as this is my first screenshot.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4069/4565002844_4881df8ddf_o.jpg

[Jimbuna]

fine! :up:
now there's evidence that the PTO can be simmed in SH3 :D

take that, Jimbuna! :cool:

LOL :DL

[KL-alfman]

LOL :DL


:up: :D

[gazpode_l]

So far with this career I've seen 2 air raids and now this.
Be gentle as this is my first screenshot.

Pretty amazing stuff mate! :up: Nice find with the pic! :o

[pickinthebanjo]

Damn, got strafed on my way to Penang, I guess that journey will have to wait till another career. I guess U-571 was about as successful as it was in that damn movie :D

[gazpode_l]

Damn, got strafed on my way to Penang, I guess that journey will have to wait till another career. I guess U-571 was about as successful as it was in that damn movie :D

I take it then u-571 now adorns the bottom of the ocean does she? :dead:

[Immelman]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4069/4565002844_4881df8ddf_o.jpg

Is it me or did you just get hit in the bow quarters on your port side? :dead:What kind of damage did you suffer? Lost any crew?

Oh and why on earth did you remove the deck gun??

[rudderless]

Is it me or did you just get hit in the bow quarters on your port side? :dead:What kind of damage did you suffer? Lost any crew?

Oh and why on earth did you remove the deck gun??
That's not me, it's an AI sub, unless one of you guys teleported into my game when I wasn't looking. I'm somewhere else in about 80m dodging depth charges. I was just flicking through the camera controls when I found that.
Oh! if it is one of you guys, stay out of my game. I have enough trouble hitting targets when they travel in a straight line.:D

[Snestorm]

Posting 2 patrols because, the internet was down.
(Good thing I love my SH3, and didn't take an interest in SH5!)

Patrol 2. Patrol Grid AM41.
Left Wilhelmshaven on 25.okt.39.

31.okt.39 AF75 (100 miles north of The Shetlands).
11.23 Alarm! Crash dive for aircraft.
Route to patrol grid shortened due to the amount of time we will now have to travel submerged. I don't like being late.

On 8.nov.39 (Present position AM18) U27 recieved a radio report of a convoy in AM29, moving east at 6 knots.
At 20.31 we had arrived in AM29, and recieved a repeat of the radio message.

We finaly found the convoy at 22.24.
In 3 attacks over the next 24 hours U27 expended all 11 torpedoes, sinking 3 ships for 21.634 GRT.
Enemy aircraft arrived on the evening of 9.nov.39

U27 docked at Willie 21.nov.39


PATROL 3. Patrol grid BF47.
Underway from Willie on 19.dec.39. U27 will be transitting Der Kanal on the outbound leg of this patrol.

23.dec.39 AN79 (Near Bristol, England).
At 08.21 we got a sound contact that grew into a convoy.
In spite of the total depth being 36 meters, and 2 destroyers as escorts, 2 torpedoes were fired at considerable range, at 2 targets. A C2/Medium Cargo was struck in the bow by a G7A torpedo. The G7E did not find it's (Little Merchant) target. (217. 6 knots.)
Nothing sank, and no retaliation came from the escorts, or any other warships in the area.

A status report had to be sent that night. "0 ships sunk. 9 torpedoes left."
Admiral Jimbuna was running the BDU Comm Center that night.
"BE MORE AGGRESIVE!", came his reply.
Uh oh, already in trouble, we are.

The weather changed to heavy fog, and stayed that way until year's end.
On 1.jan.40 a new status report was sent detailing our new year's exploits.
1 ship sunk for 2.049 GRT. 8 torpedoes left.
Having used our external stern tube, all 8 torpedoes are in the bow.

2.jan.40 BF47
U27 has arrived on station after 14 days at sea.

4.jan.40 BF17 (SW of England)
After picking up a sound contact U27 manages a submerged daylight attack.
3 torpedoes are fired at a T2 Tanker making 10+ knots on course 079.
2 impacts (bow & midships) had to be helped by my gunnersmate.
We submerged to avoid aircraft and reload torpedoes until nightfall.
A status report is sent that evening. 2 ships sunk for 12.923 GRT. 5 torpedoes left.

6.jan.40 AM76 (W of Ireland)
Another sound contact turned target.
C2/Medium Cargo making 6 knots on course 148 was sunk, at the cost of 4 torpedoes.
All 3 G7Es hit, but failed to sink him. A G7A finished the job for 6.453 GRT.
Upon surfacing that evening a status report was sent.
3 ships sunk for 19.376 GRT. 1 torpedo left.

7.jan.40 AM49
Radio report of a 6 knot convoy in AM01 moving ESE.
U27 goes to full ahead in reponse.

8.jan.40 AM46
At 01.47 the convoy becomes immaterial as U27 fires her final torpedo in a night surface attack, upon an encountered merchant making 5 knots on course 175.
Coastal Merchant (2.026 GRT) sunk. He too needed help from the deck gun!

At 02.55 a status report is sent. 4 ships sunk for 21.422 GRT. 0 torpedoes left.
And at 03.08 comes the expected reply. "Return to base."

19.jan40 AN98
19.44 Docked safely at Willie.

In 3 patrols, U27 has sunk 10 ships for 58.336 GRT.

[Weiss Pinguin]

U-163 is heading back for America (DE94), with the engines, scopes, and everything else in working condition this time. Got the radar set up and running, maybe we'll find something on the way over.

On that note, how does the FuMO 29 work out in the field? I understand that it has a very limited field of view (field of scan?), so how effective would it be if I had it sweeping the entire time I was running on the surface?

[pickinthebanjo]

I take it then u-571 now adorns the bottom of the ocean does she? :dead:

With many holes and angry dead people, we went down firing though

[gazpode_l]

awww comizeration herr kaleun. :salute:

Time to start a new, fresh campaign.

The first time I properly played a campaign, it lasted 2 patrols! :shifty:

[MrKWMonk]

U-6, a Type IIA boat, just returned to Kiel from her 6th patrol mid Feb 1940. Got the game last week this is my first SH3 campaign.

A mixed patrol with only mediocre success in and around AN41.

After arriving on station without incident hit a small freighter during a submerged daylight attack. She looked to be going down with water over her deck so I headed away but never got a credit.

It was very quite apart from one aircraft alarm. A few days later spotted a coastal tanker making 9kts. Being daylight I closed and submerged but my intercept was off and as the angle on bow got worse I fired a single shot at ~4000m which missed.

There was then a report of a task force heading to Aberdeen. I wasn't able to catch up which wasn't a bad thing I guess as they were hugging the coast where it's only about 50m deep.

On the way back to AN41 around midday during a raging storm and in all the vast ocean I manage to cross paths, within visual range, of 3 RN destroyers. The first 2 or 3 DC runs were close enough to rock the boat but after I got down to 100m and went to silent running it seemed they couldn't get a good fix on me. After about 2 hours I was able to sneak away west. So U-6 survived her first brush with the Royal Navy.

Spent a few more days patrolling and with fuel down to 25% was just setting course for home when we spot an Empire Freighter. Make a night surface attack and get 2 torpedoes into her. She settles, listing heavily to port but doesn't roll over. I keep an eye on her for a while and not wanting to miss out on a credit again I circle around to her starboard side put my last torpedo into her and she goes down.

On the way home we of course ran into a large Polish freighter at night and 6000m range but with only 20mm and bad language to throw at it it's their lucky day.

Arrived safely at Kiel 36 hours later.

Enjoying the game, wondering why it's taking me so long to finally get it! Am not minding the type II patrols at all, is helping to make me feel like the inexperienced new captain I am learning the ropes before I get my hands on the bigger boats.

:arrgh!:
-kwm

[KL-alfman]

exciting patrol you had! :up:

sink em all :salute:

[Snestorm]

Enjoying the game, wondering why it's taking me so long to finally get it! Am not minding the type II patrols at all, is helping to make me feel like the inexperienced new captain I am learning the ropes before I get my hands on the bigger boats.

:arrgh!:
-kwm

You're doing great, and have a good approach to the game.

Anytime you're feeling doubtful about your successes, you can go to uboat.net, and compare your results with the real U6, or any other boat. I think you'll find your results to be more in line with historical accuracey than you now percieve.

[krashkart]

To: BdU
From: Bernard, U-122

On our last patrol, Herr Kaleun made a pit stop at the head after setting course for a coastal freighter we had disabled with a stern shot. Upon completion of his objectives in the restroom he decided to brush his teeth, and in that time our sub crashed into the freighter, which in turn tore away the attack periscope and caused a great deal of hull damage. Myself and the crew are begging you to please transfer that idiot to a desk job and send us a competent commander!


To: U-122
From: BdU

Negative. All other assets are committed. Continue with assigned patrol as fuel and ammunition permits.




Several Days Later.....

To: U-122
From: BdU

Kapitanleutnant Krashkart, you have been awarded the Kriegsmarine Bronze Cross for Personal Hygiene, and the Deutschland Pink Tiara for Vanity Under Fire. Admiral Donitz himself will be present upon your arrival to Wilhelmshaven. Congratulations, and keep up the good work!

[STEED]

I got two IXB's in October 1940 doing well so far. :)

[Weiss Pinguin]

Nein, nein, nein, nein!

I finally reach the target-rich ED sector, and a storm comes barreling through. I've been sitting through several days of rain and zero visibility, but at least I caught a fleet tender just before things really got bad. A while ago I stopped for a soundcheck, heard a merchant that had just passed us. Even if I had tried to intercept, the rain would've made an attack impossible.

In the words of the immortal Old Man, "F@ck and d@mn this sh!tty weather!"

[gazpode_l]

Well my career o u-65 is over after my second patrol! we had already nearly wrecked the ship on a silly encounter with an asw trawler when we surfaced right next to him and he rammed us, gouging a nice hole in us and blasting away 8 of my crew! :damn:

Then TONIGHT i was running north when I encounterd a convoy - we got engaged by the lead escort - a flower corvette..

We crash dived and crushed to death as we passed 65mtrs. :stare::o:doh::dead:

I guess I will be queuing up gazpode II when I next get the chance to play in mid-week as i'm away at the lover's tomorrow and out rest of week!
http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii66/gazpode_l/Silent%20Hunter%203/careerdead.jpg

[rudderless]

Patrol 18
U-66, U-Flotilla Saltzwedel
Left at: January 25, 1941, 01:40
From: Lorient
Mission Orders: Patrol grid DJ19

3.2.41 contact report from Bdu:
Westbound convoy Grid CG 95
Weather perfect.
Contact with convoy 1600. 1 Empire, 3 medium and a number of smaller vessels.
Fwd tubes set magnetic, a salvo of 2 each for the medium and empire.
Stern salvo at the granville.
First salvo missed the medium. All tubes reset to impact and shallower depth.
One hit on the granville and 2 on the empire.
Took some damage from depth charges, managed to sneak away.
1738 Ship sunk! S.S. La Estancia (Granville-type Freighter), 4708 tons
1758 Ship sunk! S.S. Garm (Empire-type Freighter), 5555 tons
Managed to keep contact astern of the convoy through many course changes.
Just after dark we were jumped by aircraft.
One moment we were cruising along admiring the stars when a bloody searchlight lit us up and they bombed the crap out of us. The attack scope is stuffed, deck guns all gone. Luckily there wasn't a great deal of flooding and we managed to fix the engines, observation scope and tubes.

Regained contact in Grid CG 94
Managed to get around the escorts into a good position ahead of the convoy.
Set a fwd salvo of 2 magnetic. Conditions ideal for a run under the keel, range approx 2500.
2 hits a fwd of aiming point but all good.
Worked into position on next medium.
Fired 2 for 1 hit, didn't look to damage her much at all.
Took some more damage from the escorts, 3 of the buggers had us pinned. We are holding the old girl together with chewing gum and spit.
The 1 hit damaged her enough that she dropped astern of the convoy.
Finally managed to get up to her after being chased deep a couple more times by the escorts, no more damage luckily.
4.2.41. 0005 Grid CG 94 Ship sunk! M/V Enseigne Maurice Prehac (Medium Cargo), 5396 tons
4.2.41. 0533 Grid CG 94 Ship sunk! M/V Baron MacLay (Medium Cargo), 5397 tons
We are making our way home, hopefully get another ship or two without incurring any more damage.

[KL-alfman]

1939-10-30
U-48 (Oberleutnant Joseph Kleer)
2.Flotilla, Wilhelmshaven

after patrolling our assigned grid AM23 for a week with not traffic and very bad wheather U-48 is heading on a course SE to patrol the Approaches east of Rockall's.
so far only only 2trawlers were sunk by deck-gun around the Orkneys.
hopefully, radio will tell us about a near-by convoy soon.


edit: hehe, 1,000!

[Lord_magerius]

I brought Rudolf Strasser out of retirement, in January 1944. Got sick of looking after all those kids at the academy :O:
Assigned to 7th/13th with U-1116 a shiny new VIIC/42 :D We left on January 6th to patrol grid AM41, came across a couple of small freighters and coastal merchants which we sunk no problem :O: Got to AM41 and recieved a contact report of a task force heading straight for us. We sat at periscope depth for about 6 hours when the familiar sound of a destroyer was picked up over the hydrophones. 20 minutes later the task force entered visual range 6 destroyers and 1 Casablanca class. Set up a shot on the Casablanca, all 3 eels hit her perfectly and within 5 minutes she was at the bottom. Managed to evade the destroyers by diving down to 230m and deploying decoys. Headed north to the Rockhall Bank where we intercepted a convoy, took out one destroyer that had clocked us and an ore carrier. Things got too hairy to carry on so we dived to 230m again and ran like hell. Took slight damage from depth charges. Headed back south to return to base, picked up a V&W and two coastal freighters. Sunk all three and headed home with 30000 tons chalked up :D

[KL-alfman]

excellent work for being already in Jan1944!

[Zedwardson]

Well my first campaign ended last night, Otto Van Graff and U-46 where off of Bristol, July 1940, and came across two torpedo boats, was able to hide in the very shallow waters, but when I came to the surface to get out of there, a ASW Trawler was on top of me, firing within a hour of surfacing, I moved to avoid this, and I ran into two more groups.

Ended up having two Torpedo boats, a ASW Trawler, a flowers Class, and FOUR V&W class ships on top of me in no more then 40 meters of water. My first escape was foiled by dud torpedos (fired three at a V&C that was blocking my escape, and two duded, and it survived the one strike.

The they had me circled and closing in, the first round of depth charges damaged my rudders, and I knew I had to do something drastic, I told my men I hoped they told there families and girls back home that they loved them, and went to flank, surfacing, hoping to at least be able to zigzag into deeper water. Never made it to the surface as one of the V&Ws dropped depth charges right on top of me.

Starting a new one tonight, of course, tempted to mod my recently purchased game with GWX and SubCommander.

[KL-alfman]

Ended up having two Torpedo boats, a ASW Trawler, a flowers Class, and FOUR V&W class ships on top of me


:o

you sure like the challenge! :up:

welcome to SubSim! :salute:

[Lord_magerius]

excellent work for being already in Jan1944!
Thanks but I did cheat, originally Rudolf Strasser was sent to... wherever it is that you go when you retire. Just started a new game with the same character in Jan 44 to simulate coming out of retirement :)

[Zedwardson]

Well, I installed Sub Commander and GWX :|\\


Karl Myer is my new Campaign Captain - Commander of U-17, and has finished two patrols.

At the outbreak of the war he found a rich little 10,000 ton British cargo ship trying to get home. It never did, Two eels, on midships, and one in the rear. It slowly slid under, didn't get a chance to give out a distress call. The remaining three missed or duds, but he came home a hero welcome.

2nd patrol, AN21 - in a storm was jumped by a A&B, and even though I called a crash drive, it raked me with depth charges, I lost my Radio and Sonar man, plus another crew member, and had three more hurt. I had to stay under and craw at 2 knots for three hours before I was able to get away, since I didn't know how bad the hull was, and I was down six men, I returned to port empty handed. :down:

But hey, I survived a true depth charging, was really unsure if Was going to make it out alive. My officers, both Commissioned and most of my NCOs kept the ship together as most of my men where freaking out. These will be noted when medals will be given out. :salute:

[JohnWoo]

Oberleutnant z. See Kurt Gies, captain of the U-52.

Just finished my 1st war-time patrol in 1939, with a total of 99971 ton sunk. Not a bad start, if I say so myself :DL.
I even wrote an AAR about it, for those interested:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=169017

[KL-alfman]

great you did in your harbour-raid! :up:

[Jimbuna]

Oberleutnant z. See Kurt Gies, captain of the U-52.

Just finished my 1st war-time patrol in 1939, with a total of 99971 ton sunk. Not a bad start, if I say so myself :DL.
I even wrote an AAR about it, for those interested:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=169017

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

[Leg]

18 september '42 leaving La Spezia to patrol north-east africa coast; the Mediterranean experience is getting interesting.... in 3-4 patrols there I've sunk the King George V, the Nelson, a Dido and a Fiji class.

[frau kaleun]

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


Last time out I torpedoed England and she sank.

[Zedwardson]

Well, I am starting to get the hang of GWX, and actually have found some kill zones, and building up enough Renown to upgrade to a VII soon, Norway is about to be invaded, So I am might see the first of the scripted GWX events :salute:

I am grinding it out, with a IIA you only have five eels, and no deck gun, last few patrols I sunk 1-2 ships to keep a decent tally for the early war years.


Last Patrol I picked up one kill

Ship sunk! SS Empire Kingsley (Empire-type Freighter), 5845 tons. Cargo: Aircraft. Crew: 75. Crew lost: 62

after wasting 3 torpedoes at 1800 meters, I cornered it, calmly went to 90 degrees angle, and put one eel in at 500 meters. of course, that was most of my loadout in a IIA.

[krashkart]

Last time out I torpedoed England and she sank.

Fancy that... I couldn't find England last time I sailed out. :hmm2:


Breaking News: England Sunk By Lone Uboat. World In Shock As Germany Marches Onward Victoriously.

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/5/5/129175846121658000.jpg

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/5/5/129175840910251750.jpg


That's a wrap, people. The war is over! Everybody pack up your torpedoes and go home. Thank you all for coming. Happy times, happy times indeed.

[schlechter pfennig]

Well, I was gonna post something, but this is an impossible act to follow!

Fancy that... I couldn't find England last time I sailed out. :hmm2:


Breaking News: England Sunk By Lone Uboat. World In Shock As Germany Marches Onward Victoriously.

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/5/5/129175846121658000.jpg

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/5/5/129175840910251750.jpg


That's a wrap, people. The war is over! Everybody pack up your torpedoes and go home. Thank you all for coming. Happy times, happy times indeed.

[Snestorm]

Oberleutnant z. See Kurt Gies, captain of the U-52.

Just finished my 1st war-time patrol in 1939, with a total of 99971 ton sunk. Not a bad start, if I say so myself :DL.
I even wrote an AAR about it, for those interested:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=169017

The AAR would have fit nicely into this thread.

[Zedwardson]

Luck has changed for U-17 and Karl Myer.

After missing the Invasion of Norway (was assigned to AN18 area and used my last two torpedos on a 10k ton freighter as german forces shortied (first time playing GWX, and that was awesome) and by the time he finished refiting the Brits where falling out of norway, patroled the sector off Bergen, then recived a report of a task force headed SSE slowly out of Scapa, U-17 made a run to Northfolk to try to beat the task force to that point (missed them by about six hours) sinking a small cargo-passenger ship that crossed it path. However, a large convoy was headed NNE from the channel, and U-17 found itself in ideal position. As Radio reports that Germany had invaded the low countries.

As the convoy neared, a massive foggy storm covered the sea, and U-17 was desprately looking for signs of this massive convoy. Went to scope depth for the hydrophones and found out that U-17 was in the middle of the convoy, and on the surface, a large frighter appeared off starboard 300 meters away. Doing a quick look around, Oberleutnant Z S Myer saw a large Ore Carrier at 1500 meters who would be at a good shot angle in about 2 mins, so he quickly planned his attack. making a long port turn, he fired tube one at the frighter that was now heading away and at a somewhat bad angle, keeping the port turn, opening the doors on 2 and 3, the Ore Carrier came into view, waiting for the rudder to go to 0 degrees, then aimed two eels at the Ore Carrier, one at the bow and one admid ships, and fired. Checking the weapon officer he found that the remaining Eel would be loaded in 30 seconds, so Karl stayed on the surface to see what happened.

The frieghter shot missed, but the Ore Carrier was hit by both torpedos, it did not go down and Karl looked down to do a third shot. Then there was a explosion. The watch was covered a yellow flash as the first shot of a A&B had hit the IIA watchtower, calling for a cash dive Karl looked at the crew screen, figuring that he had lost most of his watch crew, however they where unhearmed, but the conning tower was badly damaged (red). Diving fast and turning, the crew heard the screws overhead, and braced themselves.

"Depthcharges in the water!" was called out. He heard one sailor say "Vater unser im Himmel,geheiligt werde Dein Name. Dein Reich komme.." when the charges exploded, Myer calmly called for a change in directions and had his new watch officer (his old useful one died in the last patrol in a bad depth charge attack) to lead the dewatering operations and repair the boat. The Crew heard the screws again, and then a loud explosion, but the sonar man was screaming "The Ship is going down!" as the Ore Carrier went down. The crew suffered a second depth charging, and the sonar and radar man where hurt, but they where bunked in the dry births and Myer ordered a change of direction and while not silent running (U-17 is a leaky boat, and it had suffered some bad damage from that first shot) went slowly and away, till the excort returned to the Convoy. The Scope, Radio, and other items where completly ruined, but the crew was able to repair the watch area so that the watch on the surface could be maintained, and U-17 limped back to port, even with a eel in the tube, as the boat was damaged.


Myer earned a Iron Cross, first Class for his bravery, and now his entire crew has the war vet pin. BdU for a while thought that U-17 was lost, as it had lost radio contact. But the Crew was happy that everyone was buying them drinks as it appeared that "Unlucky" U-17, who has lost a number of men and snuck into scapa flow to find a empty port, Luck might be changing.

Of course, Myer has been pestering BdU about a VII, as the improved Eel loadout and deck gun would mean a much better abilty, But seven merchants and a V&W from a IIA is still a respectable tally as the phony war turns into a real shooting war.

[frau kaleun]

That's a wrap, people. The war is over! Everybody pack up your torpedoes and go home. Thank you all for coming. Happy times, happy times indeed.

Now that my wartime job is done I've decided to enter politics. I'll be challenging Adolf to a winner-take-all cagematch for the position of head of state. Once I win (pretty much a foregone conclusion) we'll be getting rid of all this unpleasant Nazi business, giving everybody back their countries (well, except England, nothing to be done there I suppose, we'll just give the survivors an all expenses paid trip to Canada or Australia or wherever) and making a few major changes regarding how some of the folks here at home are being treated.

After that I'm not sure what my longterm plans are although I'm definitely putting Göring on a very strict diet because I've already checked with the head of the Reich Chancellery custodial staff and they don't make janitor's uniforms that big.

[gazpode_l]

:hijacked: :smug:
there is me looking to read about what people are really upto whence they actually "PLAY" silent hunter 3!!! Like i said above I think this thread has now been :hijacked:

[Jimbuna]

:hijacked: :smug:
there is me looking to read about what people are really upto whence they actually "PLAY" silent hunter 3!!! Like i said above I think this thread has now been :hijacked:


http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4872/1182400429cr.gif

[frau kaleun]

there is me looking to read about what people are really upto whence they actually "PLAY" silent hunter 3!!!

What, you don't have the Hitler Cagematch mod? Dude, it ROCKS! :rock:

[JohnWoo]

Fancy that... I couldn't find England last time I sailed out. :hmm2:


Breaking News: England Sunk By Lone Uboat. World In Shock As Germany Marches Onward Victoriously.

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/5/5/129175846121658000.jpg

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2010/5/5/129175840910251750.jpg


That's a wrap, people. The war is over! Everybody pack up your torpedoes and go home. Thank you all for coming. Happy times, happy times indeed.


Damn it. And I was just getting the hang of those U-boats:shifty:

[robbo180265]

People would pay good money to see that cagematch:D

Awesome stories here, I love reading this thread:up:

[Zedwardson]

11.4.40 was a bad day for the British navy and a convoy off at AN84 and AN78.


Karl Myer, in his new Mark VII U-102, was ordered to patrol AN81, but seeing a convoy heading near him, he decided to intercept.


He comes across the convoy off of Lowesloft, and a black Swan class (HMS Pelican) is between him and the convoy. The Convoy appears to be seven merchants in two lines and two escorts, and the water is shallow. U-102 tries to make a end around, but the Black Swan starts to head right to U-102, So Myers calmly turns the boat head on to the HMS Pelican, and seeing that it is not turning, he opens doors 1 and 2 and fires two Electric eels down its throat.

BOOM....BOOM.... and soon the Pelican is sinking, and U-102 sees the other escort heading towards the area, bone in mouth and swerving. trying to make some distance so he can make a pass at night, the Black Swan Class HMS Redpole however is on the case too fast, and U-102 hits the ground trying to be quiet, but gets shaken around badly, knowing that it too shallow to wait it out, U-102 decides its time to fight the escort to the death. headed to scope depth, Myer finds the Redpole is Broadside, 600 meters away from the rear tube, quickly clicking the steam torpedo for Fast, and opens and fires.

BOOM!!!...and the Redpole is slipping stern first into the water. The crew cheers go silent when the hydrophone operator reports another warship closing in fast. Looking though the scope yet another Black Swan class is charging down the pipe. The HMS Black Swan doesn't know what happened except that two of its fellow escorts are sunk, and some where there is a U-boat causing mayhem.

Myer Fires no 3 torpedo at 1000 meters, but the electric eel misses, No 4 tube is empties at 750 meters, and is also a miss, the Black Swan does not know where U-102 is, but Myers knows that if he is found, he might be dead. so at 600 yards Tube one, which had been reloaded, is fired, and the clock says it missed, but then there is a massive explosion and secondary fireworks. Three Black Swans lay slain, and Seven Juicy merchants are Unescorted

Less then two hours later, seven merchants are sunk, U-102 is out of Eels and has three more shells, and quickly leaves before air cover arrives! The only issue was one of the freighters lowered Anti-aircraft guns at close range and raked my gun and flak crews.

14.7.40.
0936 Grid AN 84 Ship sunk! HMS Pelican (Black Swan class), 1250 tons. Crew: 224. Crew lost: 159
0955 Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! HMS Redpole (Black Swan class), 1250 tons. Crew: 227. Crew lost: 65
1000 Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! HMS Black Swan (Black Swan class), 1250 tons. Crew: 182. Crew lost: 81
1027 Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! SS City of Sydney (Empire-type Freighter), 5769 tons. Cargo: Wine/Spirits. Crew: 69. Crew lost: 47
1033 Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! SS Ciltvaira (Small Merchant), 2385 tons. Cargo: Grain. Crew: 57. Crew lost: 7
1049 Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! SS Wyoming (Large Merchant), 8488 tons. Cargo: Machinery. Crew: 84. Crew lost: 10
1054 Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! SS Quebec City (Granville-type Freighter), 4707 tons. Cargo: Coffee. Crew: 104. Crew lost: 21 1117 Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! MV Badalona (Intermediate Tanker), 3490 tons. Cargo: Gasoline. Crew: 23. Crew lost: 22
1128 Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! SS Formigny (Small Freighter), 2396 tons. Cargo: Textiles. Crew: 31. Crew lost: 18
1135 Grid AN 76 Ship sunk! SS Aage (Coastal Freighter), 1869 tons. Cargo: Steel. Crew: 33. Crew lost: 14 1143 Patrol results
Crew losses: 2 wounded, 4 dead
Ships sunk: 10
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonnage: 32854 tons


Some Action photos :arrgh!:

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img6-5-2010_14170_103.jpg

A Swan is going diving....

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img6-5-2010_142216_998.jpg

The Redpole has suffered a mortal wound.

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img6-5-2010_14250_612.jpg

Three Swans lay on the bottom, now time to get the loot.

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img6-5-2010_14491_697.jpg

Last moments of the SS City of Sydney


http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img6-5-2010_151347_411.jpg

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img6-5-2010_15317_42.jpg

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img6-5-2010_154742_271.jpg

I lost four of my newest crew members to this one...was happy when he went down.

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img6-5-2010_154932_101.jpg

No more convoy.... :sunny:

[JohnWoo]

Seems you had a nice hunt :salute:

[MoN]

What, you don't have the Hitler Cagematch mod? Dude, it ROCKS! :rock:

heres a trailer for the mod:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY_Htk2Lnwc

[pickinthebanjo]

U-52 Avoiding constant strafing runs, for late 39' the RAF is sure putting up a good fight. Some close calls

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/2151/17060136.png
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3349/30845921.png
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/442/29539085.png
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/2167/24872077.png

We had one rake our conning tower pretty hard, I was amazed that no one got shot.

[unterseemann]

20Jun1942
U-125 report Kptlt Haguenau
Pos: CA4774
Patrol zone: US east coast Cape Hatteras
Days at sea: 34
Ships sunk:8 for 37.769 tons ( 6 sunk in patrol zone)
Ships damaged: 1 medium tanker

10jun42 CA88 Coastal freighter
10jun42 CA87 Coastal freighter
13jun42 CA84 Small freighter
14jun42 CA81 Large merchant
16jun42 CA81 Medium tanker damaged
20jun42 CA58 Whale factory ship
22jun42 CA69 Medium cargo

Medium damage to hull, Attack periscop destroyed ( observation ok), no casualties due to air patrols

Enemy activity: Lots of merchant shipping , None or few escorts, air patrol high activity, radar and Leigh light equipped airplanes ( catalinas++)

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b161/gneisenau/SH3Img6-5-2010_23106_484768x576.jpg

[Leg]

4 october '42

Off the coast of Egypt, I've sunk a couple of single merchants (one of them with escorts).
I've been busy also with the metox, not always working as it should.

[Zedwardson]

U-102 has not reported in, and is thought to have been lost while attacking a convoy in the Irish Sea, all hands presumed dead. :down:

Karl Myer overall stats are

9 patrols (81 days) 23 (19/4) 86945 (82007/4938) (file:///C:/Users/Distorted%20Humor/Documents/Personnel%20Files/SH3/Karl_Meyer/Aces.html) 0 enemy planes downed
65 crew lost

[armyguy]

Ok guys i got up to 6.5k renown in my IID so do i get the IXB or save up a bit more and get the IXC

[Snestorm]

Ok guys i got up to 6.5k renown in my IID so do i get the IXB or save up a bit more and get the IXC

IXB!

[Leg]

8 October '42 off Alexandria
During a storm I intercepted some radar signals and headed to their source.
Dived at PD the hydrophone operator signaled 2 DDs and a merchant just a few kilometer far and slowing down. I rised the attack periscope and just ahead of me there was a big sinking liner. I fired a single torpedo to the sitting duck but no explosion was heard or seen; then I fired a second one and eventualy the liner (about 50k tons, probably the heaviest ship I ever sunk) went down slowly.

[krashkart]

U-122 - November 12th, 1940


Returned to Lorient following unscheduled patrol vicinity Reykjavik. Air patrols light, encountered two medium aircraft. Surface patrols heavy. At least three groups sighted. Hydrophones indicated perhaps six to ten more warships in area but did not investigate further. Forced to engage twice, sank one destroyer and possibly one MTB or trawler. Suffered direct hit to forward deck, which killed all three gunners. Expenditure of 13 rounds 8.8cm, three TI torpedoes. One dud.

Harbor facilities patrolled regularly by light group. No presence of shore defenses detected by watch.

Vessels observed at dock:

Aux. cruiser
Southampton class
Destroyer (class undetermined)

Several medium-large tanker, light-heavy cargo/freighter.

Vessels destroyed:

Aux. cruiser
Southampton class

Expenditure of two TI torpedo, three TII torpedo.

No further damage to U-122. No further crew losses.


Of note: reports of two convoy vicinity Reykjavik, one I/B one O/B. Reserve of fuel prohibited safe pursuit - returned home.


Recommend primary AE47, alternates BD59/83 w/ resupply Belchen.

[Jimbuna]

Ok guys i got up to 6.5k renown in my IID so do i get the IXB or save up a bit more and get the IXC

Go for the IXB and don't upgrade again until the IXD2 becomes available.

[pickinthebanjo]

whats wrong with the IXC?

[Snestorm]

whats wrong with the IXC?

For one thing, it doesn't dive as fast as the IXB.
Aircraft. A L A R M !

[armyguy]

Ok i going to get the IXB you get a lower dive time
and a higher submerged range but you get lower knots (by 0.1) and lower
range surfaced (8,700 vs 11,000)
edit
ok a big hello for the U-103
my ship is full of newbes bye bye full vet crew :haha:

[TBoone]

I've been running SH3 GWX 3 with SH3 Commander My ship is U-2535 a type XXI U-boat my crew is elite and from 1939 to late 1944 I've sunk over 1000000 tons of shiping including the HMS Revenge Battle Ship. Playing on 0% realism.:rock:

[pickinthebanjo]

I see, I've been getting constant air attacks when I cross northern England so that is good to know. Though I'll probably stick to The VII

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8049/69943263.pnghttp://img263.imageshack.us/img263/165/83365250.png

[Leg]

I see, I've been getting constant air attacks when I cross northern England so that is good to know. Though I'll probably stick to The VII



Consider the IX is for long range patrols, in zones with few or no aircrafts around.

[raymond6751]

I've had this game since the day it came out and have been playing it too. I have never finished the campaign and very rarely finished a patrol.

My problem is that I love mods. I keep finding new ones to play. That involves starting in port, since I don't have the patience to wait until a patrol finishes.

I must see the new mod stuff.

Talk about eternal patrols ! :)

[KL-alfman]

I must see the new mod stuff.


be sure to check out these newer ones:
- rik007's SH5-water for GWX
- FM New Interior
- wide-screen fix
- Hitman's GUI
- MaGUI 3.2.1

there are a lot more which were released lately.

[Jimbuna]

whats wrong with the IXC?

Nothing....but why waste renown when you can get the final IX model a short while after and have enough renown to rig her out with all the latest equipment?

[Jimbuna]

I've been running SH3 GWX 3 with SH3 Commander My ship is U-2535 a type XXI U-boat my crew is elite and from 1939 to late 1944 I've sunk over 1000000 tons of shiping including the HMS Revenge Battle Ship. Playing on 0% realism.:rock:

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

[Zedwardson]

Well, since my last guy died, starting a new one at the start of the war.


Setting sail on September 1st, Otto Van Graf and U-35 set sail, with the war in Poland just starting.

Heading to grid BE61, the radio reports that Germany and england are at war, at is spotted by a pair of ASW Trawlers, french flagged, and is able to avoid them running silent. Soon he finds his first ship of the war, a Granville-type Freighter and torpedo strike and then finishes off with the deck gun, just as the boat is sinking, a shot goes over U-35 bow, and a A&B DD is headed to the boat, quickly getting submerged, Von Graf is shocked when the A&B breaks off at 1200 meters and goes broadside to the boat, right across its front tubes, not looking a gift horse in the mouth, the HMS Antelope is put to the bottom with a electric eel.

Further down the channel a Moter Boat and two Coastal Freighters are put to the bottom by the deck gun, and then U-35 is chased away by some British Torpedo boats. U-35 heads west to the patrol grid.

A Naval Tugboat and a Passenger-cargo boat are put to the bottom on the western part of the channel, though two Irish tramp steamers had to be let go, being of the wrong nation.

Almost at the grid location, and down to four eels in the front, and two in the rear, Otto is gleeful when a massive convoy appears in ideal location, and quickly is intercepted.

coming in the eastern side of the convoy, he spots a Ore-carrier among small freighters, and launches a long steam torpedo strike, which hits, then is chased deep by a tribal, who does not detect the U-boat. So heading back to scope depth, the 2nd long steam eels from the tube five in launched, and hitting the same ore-carrier, this time the Tribal as more of a idea, and Otto watches as it gets closer and closer. (Stupidly) launching Electric Eels at it at 1200 and 1000 meter marks. staying calm as the Tribal has not indicated that it knows where the U-boat is in the choppy water, at 700 meters and the Eel is a direct hit, and the DD falls dead into the water, and is quickly sinks. No other escorts are in this convoy of approx 15 freighters, so spotting a large freighter, U-15 comes along side, and fires a shot from the stern, which explodes prematurely, reloading, and setting it to impact pistols, U-35 puts a Eel into the freighter, but it stays afloat, U-35 shadowed the convoy as long as they dared, and the Ore-Carrier eventually floundered, but it never was calm enough to use the deck gun, which would of added to the total greatly, as U-35 had to watch a unprotected convoy get safely in.


Patrol results
Crew losses: 0
Ships sunk: 9
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonnage: 21923 tons

[gazpode_l]

My previous skipper got D/C to hell so I started a new career (my 3rd this month).

My new skipper Walter Suhr has been assigned aboard u-93 (a vIIC) based out of Kiel. The only problem with Kiel is that it is right in the heart of Deutschland.

We've set out in March 1941 and have encountered one aircraft flying overhead, he did not fire but we were closer to norway than England.

We've been set a grid of AM21.

Just a few days out of port and although we are progressing through a storm we've yet to encounter anything i'm hopeful that I can last out this career a bit longer.

ALthough my career WILL be enforced by a REAL TIME holiday aboard a beneteau 331, provided the ash cloud and strikes allow us to even get to greece.

Regards
Gazpode

[Zedwardson]

Otto has just come back from his second patrol.

Starting out at 4.10.39

heading out sank a number of freighters, including a Norwegian ship that didn't have lights on and Graf thought it was British. After patrolling the grid for the time frame needed, U-35 went hunting north of Ewe and Southwest of Scapa, in a storm he found a V&W crossing his bows at a ideal angle, and a single eel put it in the bottom in seconds, no time for lifeboats, and quickly another DD, this time a J class came along the same line, but they had lost sight of each other in the storm and the J Class stumbled on like a dunk girl at a nightclub. It too was sunk and U-35 sailed on, wishing the sailors best of luck in the storm, and glad to adding to the misery of the Royal Navy.

The rest of the patrol consisted of putting eels in single merchants on the North West coast of scotland, and had just put the finishing touches of a sinking, when the boat had a real scare as the watch officer, Gustav Reschinsy spotted a plane, his alarm saved the boat as we just had enough time to crash dive before bullets and bombs fell. Other then glancing off the bottom as the boat didn't stop fast enough once Otto realized that he was in just 40 some odd meters of water, and sunk a last coastal freighter with the last two eels and then returned home.

Gustav Received a Iron Cross, 2nd class, and Otto has informed him that after the next patrol, he will be released for his own command.


Patrol results
Crew losses: 0
Ships sunk: 8
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonnage: 23297 tons

[MrKWMonk]

July 1940. Kiel. Just finished my 11th patrol in the type IIA U-6.

One ore carrier and a medium merchant sunk in the area of AN55 for ~12000GRT (4 short range impact pistol, 1 dud). Have noted increased RN ASW activity but bad weather helped me to avoid them and kept the RAF grounded.

Have finally upgraded to a type VIIB :woot:

We've sortied for patrol 12 but have only gone as far as the Kiel breakwater. Wow the VII is fast compared to the type II. Doing 14kts at ahead standard. She's so quick and I was so busy admiring the boat I scraped it along side the Kriegsmarine pilot boat taking me out of the harbour :oops:

Luckily no damage. Just a dent or two, some scratched paint and many red faces. I'll never live that down.


Do I need all these crew members? I notice there's not enough beds like in the type II, so where to keep the extra's - the torp rooms or the inactive engine?

Looking forward to going into action tonight once I get home from RL.


:)
-kwm


Career #1 @ 60% difficulty

[Zedwardson]

Monk, it better to put them in the inactive engine then the torp room in regards to fatigue....


and congrats on the VII, just as a note, the II, while not having many torpedoes and no deck gun, is very nimble, and the VII can get a great II captain killed by not timing it up right. :shucks:

[Fozzy22]

Started a new campaign in the Med out of Salamis with the 23rd/29th Flotilla. On way to patrol grid I came across a small convoy of two granvilles escorted by FOUR Black Swan destroyers, I shadowed them for a bit and got in front of them to set up an attack run. Then the Luftwaffe show up and start to bomb the merchants. after the planes got shot down I sank both merchants and then started getting depth charged by all the destroyers. After about 40 minutes some stukkas show up and sink one of the destroyers and while the other three are caught up i slipped away to safety. Thanks fly boys! :salute:

Wish I could have taken screen shots but it doesn't work and trying with FRAPS causes CTD :cry:

[schlechter pfennig]

While on the way to DG99, on my second patrol after taking over U-64 from her first commander, I received on 4 September, 1940, at around 2345 hours, a radio contact report of a large convoy approximately 60km from me in CG42.

It's now 0730 in CG75 and I've attempted five attacks, two which have been successful. The first attack netted a large cargo and a large tanker at 0236 on 5 September, while the second one netted a large merchant and an ore carrier on 6 September at approximately 0220 hours, for a total GRT of 35002.

Of the three unsuccessful attempts, two of them I aborted due to poor positioning, while the third one resulted from an early detection by the escorts, who swarmed in my direction like bees to spilled honey.

Twice now the convoy has made slight course changes, making a good intercept resolution difficult. I've been harrassing them for about a day and a half and I'm still shadowing them as we 'speak', calculating their course once again before heading off at flank speed to reach a good interception point.

[gazpode_l]

Wish I could have taken screen shots but it

Try using Cntrl-F11. Then look in yr game directory for the bmp files.

I then used a picture editor to change these to jpeg's and then upload to somewhere like photobucket and post the photobucket link here.

[gazpode_l]

@ fozzy 22 - check yr PM's. :up:

[Leg]

10 jan '43

I am being chased by a DD in the med for more than 8 hours! Will I ever make it through? It's quite wierd and never happend to me something like that, I am at 230 m and I've finished the bolds... I don't know if the boat will resist; I hope is not some kind of bug.

[frau kaleun]

10 jan '43

I am being chased by a DD in the med for more than 8 hours! Will I ever make it through? It's quite wierd and never happend to me something like that, I am at 230 m and I've finished the bolds... I don't know if the boat will resist; I hope is not some kind of bug.

It is a bug... it's the bug up the butt of the destroyer's commander, who wants to squash you like one. :O:

[Leg]

It is a bug... it's the bug up the butt of the destroyer's commander, who wants to squash you like one. :O:

:O: hehehe

At the end I made it. :woot:

Now I am back safe and sound to La Spezia. But that wasn't a nice experience.

[flag4]

ich bin auf Rockall Bank.

...days come and go like the waves around us.

Nov 1939. we have been here for weeks. the weather is flat calm, constant sun. we wait. we hear nothing from BdU other than wait. we think something is coming. the crew are restless. we had a birthday and threw him in the sea because he wanted a present, so.

we left Wilhelmshaven in September. encountered nothing so far. it is cold but hot, how is that?

when we pulled Jurgens from the water he did not seem so cocky!

it is like a holiday - but anxious limbo, we wait.

this morning we saw two planes, dived, but nothing. they could have been anyone. they were so high and we sat almost motionless. maybe we looked like a whale as we dissapeared?

how is everyone else coping

Lt.z.S. V. Frankz

[Scape]

Sept 10, 1939
GWX3,COMMANDER,REALISM 100%,D.I.D

LEUTNANT Z. S.: Kurt Giesse

Finished shakedown and assigned to Kiel transferred from Königsberg.

Crew was excited to get to sea as the Luftwaffe have been pounding targets none stop. Our Panzers have not quite secured the land bridge to Danzig so our 1st stop is Gotenhafen hoping to snag a few stragglers in all the confusion before they sail away to enemy ports.

21:00 We arrive to a deserted port with everything that isn't nailed down (and a few supplies that were) managed to sprout legs and leave before we arrived. Not to be deterred we set course for the adjacent port of Hela.

21:30 Skies slightly overcast we can make out the outline of ships harbored in port. At 5 klicks out set speed to 10 knots decks awash and have the deck crew load the 1st round. We can clearly see the well lit colours of the neutral ships of a Norwegian freighter, Lithuanian tramp steamer, medium cargo and tanker (dammit!) and a Yankee Freighter.

Moored side by side are two Polish V&W class destroyers and nestled in docks are also two Polish Tramp steamers. I set my course to seam broadside to the destroyers like we expected to be there with the intent to get 2 broadside eels from the Bow tubes while the aft takes out one of the Tramps.

At 2 Klicks out I order P depth and set to all ahead one third. At 1500 meters my sonar man starts telling me we are being pinged! CRAP! I was hoping this was going to be easy. I pop up the observation scope to look up at the surface without breaking the surface of the water... sure enough there is the milky white outline of searchlights scanning in our direction but not exactly. Odd I thought, they must of seen us just before we dove perhaps? Undeterred I order all stop and bring the scope to the surface. Sure enough the destroyers are lit up like a Christmas tree but not moving... I zoom in and see movement of the crew on deck and what looks to be mechanics scurring about. Perhaps that's why they are still here, they can't move! I drop scope and order ahead one third. The constant pining in stereo by the two V&W's is maddening but they make no move from port. Do they not have the crew or they don't have the orders? Perhaps they are just luring me in?

500 meters and they start firing intermittently at the water, like fish in a barrel and we are the fish. The crew firing must be too green or too nervous because they scatter shot everywhere, a few rounds strike home on the conning tower... so much for the new paint job. Nothing a few wackes of the hammer won't fix thou.

350 meters. We start to turn to face the broadside of the destroyers and set to ahead slow. Feels like an eternity as the pinging only gets louder and louder and it's so bright underwater with the floodlights and the rounds from the destroyers violently tearing into the water in and around my boat. At this range I forget to set the eels and order the door open to the #1 tube. I just want that pinging to stop! What if they fire up the engines? I take one more look through the attack scope this time to get the shot lined up. I want to use the boat as the gyro and make sure they are dead set in front of me.

Fire 1!

Whoosh! I drop the scope, more rounds splash around my scope and ping against my hull. They can't miss me now, but neither can I miss them.

Tick... tock.

I cross my fingers and hope it doesn't dud them KABLAM! It strikes home! I check for damage, she broke her back clean in two!!! I give her a three count and fire #2! It's a gamble, it might hit the hull of the sinking hull but she was split wide and fore and aft are jutting high. The next torp hits home and this VW was packed with powder and blows sky high. Less then a minute she is below the shallow waters to a cresendo of secondary explosions.

Down scope! Surface the boat! Open tube 5!

I hope smartly to the bridge and as soon as I do the two tramp steamers snap on their lights.

Los!

WHAM! Another hit!?!? And all magnetic triggers at that! I can't believe my luck. Not a single dud! I order the deck crew to man the gun and put to use that round I chambered. The tramp was already on fire and just two more rounds set her already lit cargo to explode!

The last Tramp is too hard to get a shot at between peirs so I bring my boat along side and let my crew go nuts on her with the deck gun while I man the Flack to take out the glaring lights. Dam Tramp was made to last, must of taken nearly 40 shells to sink her! Was almost impossible to hit the waterline on her but she went after she was paid sufficient attention. We look longingly at the neutral tanker but head to sea... next time perhaps.

Now off to the coast of Ireland and some high seas targets!

[rudderless]

Patrol 19
U-66, U-Flotilla Saltzwedel
Left at: March 22, 1941, 15:09
From: Lorient
Mission Orders: Patrol grid DT98

Headed down the coast hoping to pick up something coming out of the Med.
As luck would have it we run into a convoy. Mainly small merchants.
We managed to take out the only worthwhile targets and escape with minor damage.


28.3.41 - 2114 - Grid CG 79 - Ship sunk! M/V Anglo Indian (Medium Cargo), 5647 tons
28.3.41 - 2133 - Grid CG 79 - Ship sunk! S.S. Fabian (Empire-type Freighter), 5811 tons
29.3.41 - 0243 - Grid CG 79 - Ship sunk! M/V Moena (Large Cargo), 8801 tons

Decided not to bother with the small merchants so set course for our patrol zone.
Finished our 24hr patrol with not even a sound contact. Needed to make a decision whether to head towards the convoy route or closer to the coast on the single ship route. Decided to head towards the coast and lucky we did as we run into a large convoy. Weather was on our side with flat seas and reduced visibility.
After a few calculations we managed to get in good position but found most of the good targets were on the other side including a large tanker, first we have seen and we really wanted it.
Escort was coming up, we were moving at 1kt, silent running when I accidentally clicked on ahead full and before it could be rectified the escort was after us. Took a bit of a pounding but crept away, surfaced and planned the next attack.
I'm down in the control room having a bit of a relax when I hear the sound of shells whistling overhead. Rush up to the conning tower and there's an escort steaming out of the fog about 2k away guns blazing and my lookouts are all looking the wrong way or scratching their chins in thoughtful repose, bastards.:o Another bloody crash dive, sneak away and try to make up lost ground. Well bugger me if the same bloody thing doesn't happen an hour later.:damn:
From then on I've had to be up there myself because they can't see sh#t.
Got into position but could not sight the tanker. Decided to go with what we could see.


8.4.41 - 0844 - Grid EJ 63 - Ship sunk! S.S. Olivegrove (Large Merchant), 8171 tons
8.4.41 - 1205 - Grid EJ 63 - Ship sunk! S.S. Adirondack (Granville-type Freighter), 4753 tons

Managed to lose the escorts, surfaced, set off to get ahead and finally managed to get in position for the tanker


9.4.41 - 0823 - Grid EJ 35 - Ship sunk! M/V Sabine (Large Tanker), 13201 tons
9.4.41 - 0825 - Grid EJ 35 - Ship sunk! S.S. Poelau Roebiah (Ore Carrier), 8907 tons

We damaged an ore carrier with a shot from the stern tubes but didn't seem to slow him down. We started to track the convoy from astern and noticed that the damaged ore carrier was dropping out slightly. Very harrowing episode this, trying to dodge the stern escort. He forced us under a few times but finally managed to catch up with the ore carrier.


9.4.41 - 1159 - Grid EJ 32 - Ship sunk! S.S. Prentiss (Ore Carrier), 6588 tons.

We are down to our last 3 torps so we will try one more run at them and hope to survive.
I don't suppose anybody's figured out a way to submerge while your lookouts are still up top.:hmmm:

[Zedwardson]

Otto Van Graf lost on of his best warrent officers by a partisan attack (in 1939!!!), apparently celebrating one night, he said some things about the poles and Danzig, and some Polish national stabbed him in the back alley. :nope:

Used some of my pull by being a top captain to grab a good warrent officer.

cought a pair of frighters in the passage between Scapa and the island north of Scapa, and did the long passage around Ireland and now hunting in the western Approches.

[Leg]

End Feb '43 near Tunis, Med

I attack a small merchant escorted by one of these new DDs; one torpedo right under the keel and the ship slows down.

I was waiting quietly for the ship to sunk and suddenly two Regia Aeronautca dive bombers attack and sunk the crippled steamer, stealing me the kill :cry:

[Zedwardson]

Well after the loss of our Warrant officer on shore, we promised to do him proud.

seven ships and 18k tons later, I think we did.


Nothing bigger then a Mid or a Granville, but the most exciting moment was I was gunning a crippled mid, when suddenly our watch saw a warship (a A&B) as I was near the Bristol channel. sp I put 2nd torpedo in the mid and then went to scope depth, tried to put a spread of three eels on the A&B, but all missed, so I crashed dived and his depth charges where well off. So I slowly surfaced, and and waited till he was turning on his search pattern, and put a torpedo in his gut. :yeah:


Also gunned down two trawlers, a bad day for fish and chips in Britain!

When I go out next time it will be December 1940...

[Sailor Steve]

Karl Fischer, U-30, Type VIIa out of Wilhelmshaven. Was sent to patrol BF16 on August 19, 1939. Have been at sea two weeks. Two days ago war was declared on Poland, and today the British declared war on us. Who knows what the future will bring?

[Zedwardson]

Dear BdU Grossadmiral Karl Dontiz ,


My men on U-35 set out on December 2, 1939, while we would prefer the war to be over by Christmas, we understand that the British Lion must be tamed, so we aimed to be home for Christmas, I had a argument with the quartermaster, seems that he loaded all T1 steam torpedo in my boat. Normally, this would be a complaint, but in the end, it blessed us greatly.

After sinking the SS Glenbeg, a large merchant off the coast of scotland, and finding a tug that we used the deck gun on, we where heading to our patrol area when there was a report of a enemy ship in our area, sailing to us, so we investigated.

Also, Please check the security of our Enigma machines, someone sent a false report that we had abandoned ship.

At night, in a storm, we found ourselves in ideal position as a task force bared down on us, at first I thought the core of the task force was a south-Hampton class cruiser, but I saw something deeper in the Task force, and we identified a Revenge Class Battleship, now, we where at extreme long range, using a scope, 4000+ meters, but we had the steam torpedoes to do the long range shots. Instead of waiting for it to come to me, I moved my bow over and the computer and weapon officers quickly determined that we where ideal range for a slow torpedo launch. Instead of spread, I launched two sets of torpedoes, thirty seconds apart, the first to to get a shot in, and then the next two as we where closer and I let go of all my weapons.

Then there was desperate waiting, two of the torpedoes detonated early, and just when moral had dropped to its lowest level, we had a impact. We are unsure if one or two torpedoes impacted the battleship, and the escorts where looking too close in for us, as they where not expecting such a long, "sniper" shot on the battleship. we noticed the fires where burning, then they went out. and we hug close as we where hoping to place a shot into the crippled Battleship, but it turned out to be unneeded, as the battleship sank bow first as it slowly succumbed to flooding. We dove deep, more to be on the safe side, and carefully extracted ourselves from the Task Force. We promptly sailed home, and where still surprised by the hero welcome we received.

Many thanks for the two Iron cross, 2nd classes and the Iron-Cross, first class for my crew. May I please recommend my watch officer, who now has a 2nd and 1st class Iron Cross, for a command? He will be a good commander for our U-boat fleet.

Also, while my neck still itches for Oak leaves, the first class Iron Cross does eliminate my neck itch till at least my next patrol.

OBERLEUTNANT Z. S. Otto Von Graf
AKA - the man who sunk the HMS Ramillies


Photos of said action below

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img13-5-2010_205042_323.jpg

Ok, this isn't April 1st!


http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img13-5-2010_222428_986.jpg

This almost brings tears to my eyes....

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img13-5-2010_222716_243.jpg

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img13-5-2010_22413_569.jpg

This is when I realized the Battleship was doomed.
http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img13-5-2010_22426_311.jpg

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/DHflight/SH3Img13-5-2010_224654_187.jpg

:arrgh!:

[Zedwardson]

Otto Keeps killing them...

After loosing his watch officer as he was promoted to a commander, and signing on another officer, and also the talk is that U-35 XO might be getting a command soon, so too much turnover can upset a ship.

After the long party, after sinking a BB and letting the crew enjoy Christmas, U-35 set out again, with a patrol grid deep in the Atlantic, catching a few coastal oilers and trawlers unawares in the Scottish coast as he tried to get around Britain, using the deck gun to good effect. found a Mid Freighter, and had FOUR duds, so in frustration, gunned the mid freighter with the deck gun as well. after crash diving to avoid a plane attack, Graf decides to get out to his patrol grid.

Long uneventful trip out, and due to the spotting system, finds a nice G-Frighter, which two eels puts to the bottom. with four in the front, and three in the back (including a external storage) there was some talk of taking the British unawares in Gib, however off the Spanish coast, I found two french flagged freighters, a mid and a large, running as a paired unescorted convoy. after pulling a end around, and stopping 1200 meters from where they will pass, Graf sets his eels up, 1 and 2 slow, 3 and 4 fast, impact and run shallow. As soon as the front ship was in ideal angle for the slow torpedo, Graf let go those two eels, and immediately moved to the large freighter, and launched the two fast eels at it. Just as the second eel hit the mid freighter, the first eel hit the large freighter, and within seconds, the two freighters, and about 15k in tonnage, was doomed.


Graf returned to base, just seven merchants for 23518, not bad as the new year of 1940 strikes. :know:

[Zedwardson]

Crap - Otto Van Graf will not be returning to base. :down:


heading out on his sixth Patrol in late Jan 1940, he intercepts a convoy, and it was a LARGE convoy, five lines, full of yummy targets, and the convoy will be overrunning him shortly. So at scope depth, scope down, he waits, running silent at a stop, as the Black swan that was leading the way had already passed. Suddenly, it turns around, and charges bone in its teeth at our location, Poping the scope up, fires steam from no five, then crash dives (the torp just didn't have enough time to arm) U-35 reaches the bottom, at 70 meters as the total depth is 80 meters.

There is pinging of the boat, which is now running silent to the west, when there are depth charges in the water, and they HURT.

The boat finds itself on the bottom, one warrant officer dead, and flooding in three compartments, and the conning tower is damaged. Otto crew does heroic attempts at damage control, the boat was on the bottom, "Sunk" even a emergency blow will not get it off the ground. So more work is done to do repairs, and finally, the boat is dry, there is a short term celebration, till the boat rises off the surface, and start to rocket to the surface! :o

Knowing that he cannot stop the emergency blow, he turns on flank speed, starts to turn, to the shock of the convoy, the Uboat flys out of the water right in the middle of the convoy!

being forced on the surface, as a large merchant was only 100 meters away ready to plow into the U-boat, U-35 decides to stay on the surface, as a dive would cause it to be rammed and sunk, Graf orders the deck gun to be manned to at least keep the mayhem level up, and he hears the watch officer die at his station, a DD bearing down.

as soon as he cleared from the merchant ship, crash drive is sounded, and U-35 find itself deep again, being hammered by depth charges. the first few runs shake the boat, but no damage, but they are getting closer, and the convoy is now pass the boat, and Graf orders a course (going slow and silent) to get away and limp home.

sadly, the next run of depth charges where dead on the boat, and U-35 was lost with all hands. :-?

[Brag]

@Zedwardson
Doom de doom doom :nope:

Meanwhile at BDU, I'm still cleaning ashtrays and stiring Doentz's coffee. However Balz is very close to finishing collecting all the bits and pieces needed to build a U-Boat. :salute:

[STEED]

My two IXB's are now in May 1941 and still going strong, sunk a few ships in the area today. :DL

[unterseemann]

U-125 Kptlt Haguenau
Patrol 3-Left Lorient 13 aug 42

04sep42:
Western Approaches Grid BE6511
8 ships sunk for up to 55.000 tons
no damage no casualties
5 torpedoes, fuel and food ok.
weather clouds overcast, reduced visibility.

[Leg]

June 43 Mediteranean Sea, south of Lampedusa

Intercepted Task Force directed to invade Lampedusa and sunk three Troops transport and damaged one tanker; heading east due increased ASW measures.

[JohnWoo]

Oberleutnant z. S. Kurt Gies, commander of the U-52 has safely returned to Wilhelmshaven, ending his 4th patrol. :salute:
Here follows his report:
U-52 left Wilhelmshaven on the 3th day of the new year 1940. We were assigned to patrol the grid AM 34, near Scapa Flow. I drew a course that would take us through the channel, coursing the south of Great-Britain to Ireland, as I was hoping for some big merchants at [AM 53].
After a day, we spotted our first target at [AN 76]; The SS Cortona, an Empire-type freighter. She was heading towards us, so we waited. She passed us at about 700m and 2 torps made sure here voyage ended there.
Nearing the StraBe von Dover, I felt like making a quick harbor-raid. My first one, raiding Scapa Flow, had been a success, with the sinking of HMS Repulse and over 90k sunk. After studying various aerial photographs, I decided to set course to Dover [AN 79], as it seemed an open harbor, good for a quick in and out.:arrgh!:
Around 14:30pm we reached Dover. The WO spotted a destroyer in the distance, so we dived and ran silent past him. Luckily, we weren't spotted. Observing Dover, I’d seemed I had made the right decision as it was full of big merchants. Besides the destroyer and 2 ASW Trawlers, no other warships were spotted.
I ordered our first torpedo to be fired at (what I thought was) a stationary destroyer inside the harbor, to neutralize a possible threath. 2 other torpedoes would be fired at the SS Durham, a large troop transport. We maneuvered ourself at 90°, ready to sneak away quick and launched the torpedoes.
It was now 15:11, the attack had begun. The first torpedo hit 'the destroyer' right in the middle of its bow. Almost instantly, the message of her sinking came in. Looking at the patrol log, the ship I had taken for a destroyer was in fact the HMS Glasgow, a light cruiser (Southampton class). I would say that that was one torp well spend. Of the other 2 torpedo’s only one made it to the SS Durham, due to a premature explosion.
We sneaked to the east, away from our firing position, while the hunters awakened. With the periscope I spotted 3 ships looking for us, but they didn’t seem to find us. Just as I was about to lower the periscope, I noticed the shapes of a floating dock inside the harbor. 33000 tons, that was worth the risk. Since we weren’t at any risk of being detected, I gave the order to sneak ahead, right into the harbor. My idea was to fire a rear torp at the floating dock, turn and steam out into the open sea.
Unfortunately, I forgot about the torpedo nets. From the moment we hit those, U-52’s tower became visible, alerting our hunters. They were heading straight for us, as we were now trapped in the harbor. (At this moment, I thought that U-52 luck had ran out and that my first U-boat would soon have a burial at sea:cry:) But my crew recovered fast and once again we ran slow and hidden in the shallow waters, ready for the fight to come.
My negative thoughts were premature, as luck was on our side. Alerted of our position, the hunters steamed straight toward us. In fact, their course was so straight that they collided head-on with one of the dykes, that protected the harbor. 2 hunters were down in a matter of seconds:O:. The remaining ASW trawler, now steaming into the harbor, was swiftly delt with thanks to the rear torp.
At that moment, I realized I was alone in a harbor full of un-armed merchant ships and tankers.. :hmmm:
I’m not going to explain the next 3 hours in detail, as this would take too long, but we left the harbor with all torps and ammo expended. 12 merchants lay sunk and another one severely damaged. I couldn’t finish her due to a lack of ammo.
We arrived in Wilhelmshaven on 6 January 1940 after a patrol of 3 days. My shortest one so far.:yeah:
The total was 12 merchants and 3 warships, good for tonnage of 110840ton sunk. I realized my first goal for SH3, sinking 100k. So now for the 150k!

For now, U-52 has once again set sea.

[JohnWoo]

A little illustration of the attack

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/8051/tdcdoverattack.png

[pickinthebanjo]

U-53 Shadowing a convoy north of Ireland in late 39'. Been following it for about 9 hours waiting for dark, after a course adjustment I think I have it now and I'm making the attack

[pickinthebanjo]

Finished the attack, fired three torpedoes all three hit. Sunk an ammunition ship and a small cargo ship (tramp?)

[unterseemann]

17 sep42
U-125 (Kptlt Dieter Haguenau) is back to Lorient after patrol 3
35 days at sea- Patrol zone: Western Approaches
11 ships sunk for up to 65.000 tons (0 warship)
No damage, no casualties

Career total after 3 patrols: 26 ships sunk ( no warship) for 148.194 tons.

[Jimbuna]

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

[unterseemann]

Patrol 4 underway.
Kaleun just buy a new camera...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9erKgHHNpy4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wnVCDX6HZ0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERIF8PfKuw0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbCWuW5xV4c

[Herr-Berbunch]

Patrol 3 out of Bergen, hopefully will find something to sink this time as on Patrol 1, nil - but I almost got everything in Lerwick but thought I'd hang on for something meatier only to find zip (not including DDs - I avoid like the plague), Patrol 2, nil - I came across one merchant and was observing when something else got it first!

Better look this time out...

[RConch]

U 45, Type 7C, sailing down the West coast of Afrika toward EK 74. No sinkings as yet. Crew in excellent spirts so far.
May 21, 1941.

[Brag]

Patrol 4 underway.
Kaleun just buy a new camera...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9erKgHHNpy4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wnVCDX6HZ0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERIF8PfKuw0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbCWuW5xV4c

Good visual report :salute:

[RConch]

June 7, 1941
U 45, Type 7C
Oblt. Karl Wolff

Left St. Nazaire May 10, 1941.
First to EK 74, found nothing after 6 days.
Next down to near Freetown, constant crash diving due to radar equiped Cats and Hudsons. No traffic found.
Headed North to EK 44 and sunk Granville type.
Only other accomplishment is a wicked case of sunburn and heat rash.
Will resupply from Corrientes on return.
Need new gramaphone records.

28 days at sea so far.

[frau kaleun]

U-51, Type VIIB
2 U-Flotilla, Wilhelmshaven
Kptlt Kurt Dennert, Commander

Having my best career so far this time around... our 2nd and 3rd patrols (and first two assignments as a frontboot) netted us close to 45000 GRT. Mostly lots of smaller prey taken down with 1 good torpedo hit plus the guns, and occasionally with guns alone if the conditions were right.

Our last patrol turned into a long two-parter, with a one-day stopover in Las Palmas on Feb 4/5 1940 to resupply at the Corrientes. Just prior to that we'd intercepted a big juicy convoy coming north out of Freetown, no military escort, just one small armed freighter who couldn't keep us from sinking 2 large merchants and two ore carriers with a combo of eels and guns.

After leaving the Corrientes we returned to the same area after receiving a report of another northbound convoy out of Sierra Leone; when we made contact it turned out there was an escort this time around, but this amounted to one Black Swan leading the procession which we sank without her ever noting our presence. From there it was like shooting fish in a barrel, and oh what lovely big fish they were! We proceeded to put eels into as many as possible, leaving the wounded dead in the water or straggling far behind while we continued in pursuit of the remainder of the convoy. Some ships burned and sank while we were off attacking others, some required a little more attention... but after all was said and done, we'd taken down a large cargo, 4 ore carriers, and a 8500 ton tanker in addition to their hapless caretaker.

We turned for home with nothing much to speak of in the way of ammo left to throw at the enemy, but were lucky enough to pick up a hydrophone contact while running submerged NE of the Shetlands. When we surfaced and chased her down it turned to be yet another ore carrier, which succumbed to what was left of our firepower in due order.

We finally arrived back at Willy with another 89000+ GRT to our credit, and a total of 34 merchants and 1 destroyer sunk for 136000+ GRT overall. Iron Crosses were handed out en masse, several members of the crew received well-deserved promotions, and I achieved two of my three main goals for this career: a Knight's Cross and a promotion to Kapitanleutnant. (My third goal is to live long enough to make the transfer to a French base - wish me luck!)

We left on our current patrol at the end of March 1940, and after finding and sinking one large British cargo ship on our way through the North Sea, we ran into terrible weather which kept us submerged for hours at a time. We had multiple hydrophone contacts, most of them moving not much faster than we were due to the weather, but spent a great deal of time intercepting the potential targets only to find out they were either neutral ships or our own German merchants.

Consequently we were still making our way north for the inevitable swing around the Shetlands when we received a report of Royal Navy ships leaving British ports and heading, it was believed, for Norwegian waters. We resolved to take our time and stay closer to the Norwegian coast on our way north, preferring the deeper water there anyway, which served us well when operations began against Norway a few days later and the order went out to defend Narvik if at all possible.

By the time we were entering the Vestfjord, British task forces were already moving in and out of the area seemingly at will; we missed a chance to pick an Illustrious-class out of one when the sharp eyes of an escorting destroyer's lookouts forced us under before we could get close enough and in good position from periscope depth. They made what I would have to call a lackluster attempt at pursuing us, throwing a few depth charges at where we'd been when they'd spotted our 'scope but not coming near enough - even when we were still only 20-30m down - to do any damage.

Once we'd escaped from that little adventure we had reports of multiple RN task forces moving in and out of the area, but they always seemed to be too far away and moving too fast in the wrong direction for us to have any hope of intercepting them. Then we got a report of one heading on a course that would take her due south of our current position in about 12 hours. A few quick calculations and, why yes, I think it's doable! We plotted an intercept course and went to periscope depth about 2km from the expected intercept point and almost immediately picked them up on the hydrophones. At least seven, maybe eight ships... and when they finally came within view, there they were - a parade of destroyers with the HMS Warspite steaming along happily in their midst.

Now this, I thought, is personal. We'd gotten a report of a task force coming northwest out of the Irish Sea back in Sept 39, on our first combat patrol; and, miracle of miracles, when the report came in we were in what seemed like a good position to intercept it. We did get within visual range, and identified the Warspite as part of the task force; we even managed to get within 2500m of her, coming in at an almost perfect right angle to a course from which she seemed to have no intention of deviating. I'd fired a spread of four eels that seemed like it couldn't miss and then gone deep to await the expected retribution from her escorts. And waited... and waited... and... NOTHING. Not a single hit out of four torpedos fired. And given her speed, no chance in hell of catching up to get another shot at her.

But this time it was different. Checking and doublechecking, watching her approach nearer and nearer as I popped the 'scope up and down in the rolling waves... and... LOS! Then dive, dive, dive for all we're worth, and wait, and wait, and... YES!

I don't know how many hit, or where, but it was enough. She went down while her angry companions began crisscrossing the waters, dropping depth charges, and pinging away at their attacker. But by then we were 100m down, running silent, and getting the hell out of there.

And thus it was that I sank the first capital ship of my (and U-51's) career. :yeah:

Now I just gotta survive past June so I can see France!

[Hugo Stiglitz]

I just started playing this sim recently and my first career just ended badly. I was operating a VIIC, U-98, out of Brest with the first Flotilla. Set sail on 3 September of 41, and headed around the west coast of Ireland. I sunk several small merchants on the way with the deck gun and eels, and popped a C class destroyer with an eel, poor guy never knew what hit him. I then got a report of a large convoy headed into Liverpool off the north coast of Ireland. I plotted my intercept path southward, even though I only had 4 torpedoes remaining.

However things quickly went bad. I had been running on the surface to recharge my batteries from the last engagement with the C destroyer, when I ran smack dab into the convoy. I apparently my intercept course was a little too good and I encountered them sooner than expected. The problem being, it was foggy and I the part of the convoy I just ran into was a corvette. I issued emergency dive and flank speed, as he was just 4000m away and already headed straight for me when my watch officer made the sighting. I managed to evade the corvette, went to periscope depth, and fired off a 4 shot spread into the convoy.

Once again I immediately came under attack, this time by a J class. After about 45 minutes of maneuvering the magic BB finally got me. I was 100m down running silent trying to sneak out of the area when a depth charge got me on the stern, never was warned by the sonar man. It took out both rudders and props so I had no steering and was causing major flooding. Damage control was unable to stop the flooding and U-98 and all hands on board were lost on 7 Sep 1941, after sinking 191,454 tons of allied shipping and downing 7 aircraft.
:/\\chop


I don't think I did too bad for my very first career. I probably played that last patrol a little too aggressive, but I'm sure it made the BdU proud. :arrgh!:

[Sailor Steve]

23 August 1939
U-30 (Type VIIa)
Flotilla Saltswedel, Wilhelmshaven
Oberleutnant Karl Fischer

Have just arrived at Grid BF16, awaiting further orders.

(How many more times am I going to start the same career over? I've been doing this for five years now!)

[frau kaleun]

(How many more times am I going to start the same career

I'm taking the 'over' on this one.

STOP LOOKING AT NEW MODS! :O:

[Sailor Steve]

STOP LOOKING AT NEW MODS! :O:
STOP EATING ICE CREAM!

STOP WATCHING MOVIES!

STOP PLAYING SILENT HUNTER!




Girl, you don't ask much, do you? :D

[raymond6751]

I've got 5 careers going now; 2 SH3, 2 SH4 (one German), and SH5. My problem is that I'm addicted to mods. I'm always starting over to see the new stuff. I have never once finished a career, and rarely more than two missions. In fact, I'm downloading NYGM 3.0 for SH3 right now. :hmmm:

[Dissaray]

My current patrol is off to a roaring start! I have conclusivly proved that I can't tell the differance between the Dutch and French flags after engaging and sinking an empire freighter, which I thought only the English used. I also have conclusivly proved that the 10.5cm can, in fact, sink a schooner in two shots. I also just learned that it can cut a Q ship in half in a few good hits at the water line if you engage from around 500m. Unfortunatly I haven't found any targets that could prove a chalange just yet. My orders take me to the south west tip of the Rockwall Bank, maybe some thing fun will hapen there.

[Lost At Sea]

May 29 '40
Sailed to the English Channel from Wilhelmshaven in a VIIB. Operation Dynamo in full swing and contacts are all over.

Visibility poor, wind speed 15m/s and precipitation heavy.
I can hear them but can't see them at 600m .

Darn :-?

Lost

[Alpha Von Burg]

Early January, 1940
Radio report, U-48
Type VIIB

Had just arrived at AM53...
Ship sank... about 6...
Fuel... not a problem...
Crew fatigue... a problem...
Weather... Cloud cover... light, presipitation none, fog... light...
Ammunition... sadly only 3 eels left (there were a few, no a lot of duds and torps bouncing of the keel)

Mainly no problem but the crew endurence...
Hope to get back to Kiel in one piece...

[jasonbirder]

Noob alert!
My very first Silent Hunter III patrol...
(after training and practice single missions)
Realism 81% Type VIIB Home Port Willemshaven...
Headed out to a patrol grid in the Rockall Bank area...
Lots of neutral shipping encountered on the run North and West - US and French predominantly...Heading to pass north of Scotland between Orkneys and Shetland...first encounter with a British Flagged fishing vessel...engaged and sunk on the surface with Deck guns...Then encountered two separate lone merchantmen...one a Coastal Tanker and one a tramp steamer...sank both with torpedo's after submerged attacks...both had been located by hydrophone followed by a surface run to an intercept position...
Encountered a V&W class destroyer in the Fair Isle area...steaming along fat and happy in Fog...a four torpedo spread (overkill I know- but the destroyer frightened me) at extreme range resulted in one hit and the the destroyer sinking!
Expended an awful lot of torpedo's for very little tonnage - but pleased to head back to Willemshaven with an undamaged boat - 5000tonnes+ and a warship to point on my conning tower!
Bring on patrol no2

[jangles]

This thread makes for some fantastic reading :up:

As a complete noob Im yet to finish the academy before going into action for real.

I hope to be able to add to it soon.

[Herr-Berbunch]

This thread makes for some fantastic reading :up:

As a complete noob Im yet to finish the academy before going into action for real.

I hope to be able to add to it soon.

I'm sure it does, but nobody is going to put that two minutes out of port at high TC (because they need instant gratification) they've met their end in their own anti-sub nets or mines!

I'd like to point out that I've not done that. Yet!

If it's not been said before, welcome aboard :salute:

and the obligatory "Sink 'em all", "Be more aggressive", etc.

[STEED]

Now in July 1941 with my two IXB's, one of them got banged up the other day. Looks like the Allies are starting to learn.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Recently started my second career, U-48 VIIB with Oberleutnant William Brewer at the helm with the 7th Flotilla out of Kiel. It's early January 1940 off the south west coast of Spain, it has been storming constantly since I sailed through the Channel. Enroute I sank a small merchant in the Channel, and got depth charged by an ASW trawler that was escorting it. That engagement was probably a poor choice, but after the previous patrols I had an itchy trigger finger.:shifty:

I sailed towards my patrol grid of BF17. I acquired two merchants on hydrophone, but never was able to get a firing solution due to the hideous weather. After my 24 hours I decided to pack up and head south, hoping to get out of the storm. The rain eventually subsided and I was able to sink two other ships passing through the western edges of Biscay, one of which was a Large merchant. :yep:

I then arrived in CG85, and the storms began pounding me again. So we submerged to 40m and it was not long before we picked up a merchant on hydro. I tracked him as best as I could to close the distance and went to periscope depth. Eventually the ghostly appearance of an ore carrier emerged from the fog, visibility was less than 500m. I fired my first pair of steamers from almost directly astern and from about 350m. One eel bounced off the side, and the other hit him right in the screws, yet somehow he kept on going.:hmmm:

He then started his S turns and I moved off and lined up for 3/4 rear shot, this time deciding to use the magnetic pistol. Down to my last three bow eels (not counting my reserve), I decided to go ahead and fire all three at him. First eel bounced off the stern area, the second was a dud, and the third exploded under his bow. I then had to follow him for two more hours in the storm before he sunk. I then returned uneventfully to Kiel (went around the northern route this time), 4 ships sunk for 28869 tons and an Iron Cross First Class to impress the ladies with. :arrgh!:

[Reverie]

Your "Tactical" left a lot to be desired. Retrospectively, you should have floored ahead, then, Contact Report!, then Ambush from the Extreme Periphery. "42?! You've got at least TIIs. Withdrawal undetected. Reload, then re-engage from a second advantage point.

You're a U-boat Commander! You're in the grapevine! You heard of Hardegens suspicion of RADAR! UbiSoft did! GWX certainly did! Punch before you reach the Umbrella!

The chaps programming these MODs and the Programmers themselves are reading History, and then Modelling it. This is your Advantage. Their MacGuffin.

Late October? Large Convoy?
Saved Game, I hope. "Game" is a lackluster; play it like your PC depended on it.

You are in the Medal Winning Era! Honour. Recognition.

Or Reprimand.

It... IS... only...a game. For some of the Salts on their last legs, you Giants of Storytelling, of Adventure, of unsurpassed Creativity, are the shining source of Inspiration in a Cyber-Distraction. The little Stars in our Universe. I thrive on your Imagination. Thank you.

Be Stealthy. Come Home. The Programmers are challenging you. They are challenging you to look at the Past; and Learn.

Save the scathing of an Obsolete. My medication must have kicked in.
Ojala. :shucks:

Reverie

P.S. Please Donate. Monetary or Material. Either way, YOU ARE PRECIOUS.

[Brag]

This news will send everyone back for their meds. Balz is in command of U-45. Left Wilhelmhaven on 01 August 1939 :D

[frau kaleun]

Well, that explains the new fainting couch I saw in Onkel Karl's office...

[Herr-Berbunch]

Oct 1940 - I've been through The Straits and am currently south of Almeria in Spain with lots of single freighters with one escort passing westward, twin eels at the freighters with a crash dive to 120m and I'm safe as houses before the escort turns up!

Just came across a lone freighter struggling 4kts in a storm and now he's on fire and the chorus has struck-up!

Next I plan to nip into La Spezia to resupply and then I'm going to hang around Malta after reading Richard Woodman's 'Malta Convoys 1940 - 1943', a very good read - If the Italians had one backbone between them the whole outcome would've been different: Africa, Malta, Near-East and Balkans all Axis... we'd all be Deutsch sprechen!!!

[Jimbuna]

If the Italians had one backbone between them the whole outcome would've been different: Africa, Malta, Near-East and Balkans all Axis... we'd all be Deutsch sprechen!!!

More credit to the surface and sub surface elements of the RN....not forgetting Faith, Hope and Charity of course.


http://imgcash3.imageshack.us/img524/3058/sailornt1rr8.gif

[Paul Riley]

As its been a while since the last entry in this thread (which I actually started ages ago) I just wanted to post a reminder to keep the thread afloat,as some of the entries have been good reads to be honest.
Well,I will be updating my current patrol report sometime this week after a month or so of being away from the game (I know,this is not good)
Keep up the good work captains,I look forward to your new patrol logs/reports.

:salute:

[Herr-Berbunch]

Just had one of my best patrols, departed St. Nazaire end of November for AM41, got wind of a convoy so chased unsuccessfully but wound up around North coast of Ireland avoiding several ASW trawlers. Heading back to patrol grid I came across a lone cargo, despatched it to the deep and continued on my merry way. Then another, and another! Finally finished my patrol and was heading back to St. Naz when in the middle of a dark and stormy night I stumbled across a liner - Christmas day, unfortunately for them. Two eels later I hang around to make sure the orchestra strike up before a peaceful trip home.

So, for me AM41, 43, and 51 very nice, along with BF43.

I shall make sure to pass these parts in the near future before they catch on...! :yeah:

[Paul Riley]

Just had one of my best patrols, departed St. Nazaire end of November for AM41, got wind of a convoy so chased unsuccessfully but wound up around North coast of Ireland avoiding several ASW trawlers. Heading back to patrol grid I came across a lone cargo, despatched it to the deep and continued on my merry way. Then another, and another! Finally finished my patrol and was heading back to St. Naz when in the middle of a dark and stormy night I stumbled across a liner - Christmas day, unfortunately for them. Two eels later I hang around to make sure the orchestra strike up before a peaceful trip home.

So, for me AM41, 43, and 51 very nice, along with BF43.

I shall make sure to pass these parts in the near future before they catch on...! :yeah:

Good job HB :up:

[Herr-Berbunch]

Good job HB :up:

What, no BE MORE AGGRESIVE, or SINK 'EM ALL? :DL

[Paul Riley]

What, no BE MORE AGGRESIVE, or SINK 'EM ALL? :DL

Nah,that slot is reserved for JimBuna ;)

Still...BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!
http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2008/10/mousesnakeCEN_450x500.jpg

Way to go mouse! LOL

[Jimbuna]

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







http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/greywolftail.gif

[Herr-Berbunch]

January '41, patrol out of St Naz to some nondescript BE to no avail. Tried Rockall - zip. Came back down the W coast of Ireland and was running out of patience, I'd come across a very large convoy but hit diddly with five eels before sitting at 120m to long to catch up. I thought I'd tip-toe toward Bristol.

My reward, a meagre 1930 GRT merchant and a paultry 2599 GRT mail/liner, a tremendous loss of 119/130 souls for little tonnage. Eager to get back and start another patrol, one that was more fruitful I headed rapidly back to St N when I came across two tankers and a large cargo in good old BF16, but only two torpedoes left, and one of those was stored externally at the stern!

38 Tons of wreckage later, mostly thanks to the deck gun (only 12 rounds of HE left) with a little help from the flak gun and one torpedo that did actually work.

So that takes my tonnage to around 53k for this career :up: which means I'm getting better, woo hoo!

Goodnight all, this crew needs it's sleep :zzz:

[Gerald]

Location,near by Key West,my intention is to go up in the Gulf of Mexico,so far 18.000 BRT,
and 2 Catalina,the sea is rough and 10-15 m/s the weather condition have never be under 7 m/s after I leaving Lorient (well when I start 4 m/s), only singel ship along the trip...soo far,but this is OK! I prefer sometimes only singel ship,but now we are talking about some port raids and shallow waters,I prefer deep water in most time....but I need som fear too..:yep:

:lurk:

[Paul Riley]

Location,near by Key West,my intention is to go up in the Gulf of Mexico,so far 18.000 BRT,
and 2 Catalina,the sea is rough and 10-15 m/s the weather condition have never be under 7 m/s after I leaving Lorient (well when I start 4 m/s), only singel ship along the trip...soo far,but this is OK! I prefer sometimes only singel ship,but now we are talking about some port raids and shallow waters,I prefer deep water in most time....but I need som fear too..:yep:

:lurk:

Sometimes the storms seem to last forever,make sure next time you bring some sea sickness pills with you :nope:

Good luck on your patrol!

[Gerald]

Sometimes the storms seem to last forever,make sure next time you bring some sea sickness pills with you :nope:

Good luck on your patrol! sickness pills,what a ******** is this? :haha:



Note: Be care about your "new mission"

[Paul Riley]

sickness pills,what a ******** is this? :haha:



Note: Be care about your "new mission"

For when the waves are rolling all over the place,you know,to stop you puking overboard? :O:

[Paul Riley]

sickness pills,what a ******** is this? :haha:



Note: Be care about your "new mission"

For when the waves are rolling all over the place,the pills stop you puking overboard when you are about to engage a ship :nope::D

http://www.826valencia.org/store/img/merchandise/tablets.jpg

[Snestorm]

For when the waves are rolling all over the place,you know,to stop you puking overboard? :O:

Vikings don't do such things.

[Paul Riley]

Vikings don't do such things.

Ahh,now I get it :arrgh!:
Well,just keep them to one side,you may need them when the beer barrels start dropping on yer conning tower!

[aj906]

November 1942

I've been patrolling at the entrance to the North Channel (not fun! but orders are orders) and hit upon a very large convoy. Fire off a salvo of four eels from c.2,000m. All duds. sneak away to reload and plot an intercept closer to the inlet of the Channel. Surfaced, ran at flank, over-ran the convoy, turned in to an intercept course and found then attacked the convoy. Four more eels - all duds. Fired off several choice profanities. Snuck out and repeated the procedure. Chased ahead again and got into a firing position then suddenly wondered what the depth under the keel would be. Answer: slightly less than stuff all. Oh well, nothing for it as the convoy is going to sail over me anyway. Four more eels - two duds. Medium tanker blew up immediately, whaling ship hit in what I'm assuming the engine room and lost propolsion. Hid under the whaler till the neighbours quitened down and took their firecrackers home then slid off back out into deeper water having fired another dud and live eel to finish off the whaler from my stern tubes. In all 14 eels fired, three hits and c.20K.

While I was happy to get away with thrice penetrating the destroyer screen and sinking a tanker and whaler, I was not impressed at the failure rate of the torps. They were TII set to impact in calm weather. Must say, I had a LOT of luck all things considered. Both the live eels were aimed at the whaler but I stuffed the calculations on the second eel and it slid behind the whaler to hit the tanker. So that was a bonus.

Upon return to Lorient I put in for a transfer to the Med. If life has to suck then it may as well suck in the warmer climes, surrounded by beautiful (and hopefully more accomodating than the French) women...!

[Paul Riley]

November 1942

I've been patrolling at the entrance to the North Channel (not fun! but orders are orders) and hit upon a very large convoy. Fire off a salvo of four eels from c.2,000m. All duds. sneak away to reload and plot an intercept closer to the inlet of the Channel. Surfaced, ran at flank, over-ran the convoy, turned in to an intercept course and found then attacked the convoy. Four more eels - all duds. Fired off several choice profanities. Snuck out and repeated the procedure. Chased ahead again and got into a firing position then suddenly wondered what the depth under the keel would be. Answer: slightly less than stuff all. Oh well, nothing for it as the convoy is going to sail over me anyway. Four more eels - two duds. Medium tanker blew up immediately, whaling ship hit in what I'm assuming the engine room and lost propolsion. Hid under the whaler till the neighbours quitened down and took their firecrackers home then slid off back out into deeper water having fired another dud and live eel to finish off the whaler from my stern tubes. In all 14 eels fired, three hits and c.20K.

While I was happy to get away with thrice penetrating the destroyer screen and sinking a tanker and whaler, I was not impressed at the failure rate of the torps. They were TII set to impact in calm weather. Must say, I had a LOT of luck all things considered. Both the live eels were aimed at the whaler but I stuffed the calculations on the second eel and it slid behind the whaler to hit the tanker. So that was a bonus.

Upon return to Lorient I put in for a transfer to the Med. If life has to suck then it may as well suck in the warmer climes, surrounded by beautiful (and hopefully more accomodating than the French) women...!

Unbelievable! you exeperiencing 8 duds was it? I wonder if this was simply VERY bad luck or some other factor involved here,like a bug.
I think the worst dud rate I ever had in any one patrol was 2 duds,and even they may have bounced off the keel of the ship,i'll never truly know as I play with the event camera off.
Hard luck there mate :o

[aj906]

Unbelievable! you exeperiencing 8 duds was it? I wonder if this was simply VERY bad luck or some other factor involved here,like a bug.
I think the worst dud rate I ever had in any one patrol was 2 duds,and even they may have bounced off the keel of the ship,i'll never truly know as I play with the event camera off.
Hard luck there mate :o

I always set the depth to draft less 2 metres to avoid that possibility or slight surge from any swells... All torps were fired to 'cross the T' so to speak so high angle impacts and ricochets were not an issue... The thing is, this career started in August '39 and I think from 3.9.39 - 18.11.42 I've had three duds... two on magnetic pistols in '39. So it's just fate playing catch up, I guess.

It's true what they say, there are times the Gods are with you and then there are times they sit back on their mountain top p!ss!ing with laughter at all the sh!t you're in. So if anyone needs me, I'm off to slaughter some goats and worship me some (soon to be disgraced) virgins before my next patrol:salute:

[Paul Riley]

I always set the depth to draft less 2 metres to avoid that possibility or slight surge from any swells... All torps were fired to 'cross the T' so to speak so high angle impacts and ricochets were not an issue... The thing is, this career started in August '39 and I think from 3.9.39 - 18.11.42 I've had three duds... two on magnetic pistols in '39. So it's just fate playing catch up, I guess.

It's true what they say, there are times the Gods are with you and then there are times they sit back on their mountain top p!ss!ing with laughter at all the sh!t you're in. So if anyone needs me, I'm off to slaughter some goats and worship me some (soon to be disgraced) virgins before my next patrol:salute:

Two pieces of advice you may be interested in -
1: Always use impact pistol if possible,will eliminate most problems including premature detonations
2: You may fare better including the laughing devil on your tower,get some payback on them p##s taking gods! :rock:

[RegioSommergibile]

I am now on the 5th of January 1940 heading to my assigned patrol zone in BF29, way off Cornwall. Starting from Wilhelmshaven, Kaleun Lothar Allgau's Type VIIIB has travelled many hours along the Ostfriesen islands, the entered Dutch waters and passed in front of a Dutch port (I am using GWX and just 55% realism, with automatic targeting, yes I'm noob...). At night, I gave a casual look and to my surprise there was a Large Merchant flying French flag docked. I silently positioned myself and with two eels I literally snapped it in two. The Royal Dutch Navy coastal batteries took a couple of shots at me, but they did no harm to me. I continued and sank, in French coastal waters, an armed trawler with a well placed eel. It was most curious as it hit the screws and the power was such that it made a big leap forward and immedialtely started sinking. Along the Channel I came across a British Coastal freghter and this also went to say hello to Neptune with 3 torpedoes (one hit and two miss) followed by some cannon work.

Then, one more (and last aft) eel to greet a Coastal Freighter showing French flag off Cherbourg. I sneaked in the port there and sank with my rear tubes something I can't remember at the moment.

My men whooped and jumped in joy, but I said sternly to them to be quiet and keep the Boot on course as we had to go away avoiding Grenouilles patrols. We went on uneventfully until we were 300 miles from our patrol zone, down to a single torpedo in my rear tubes. Not good. I kept thinking: what if we get into trouble?

A call from the watch officer makes Kaleun Allgau jump to the bridge and press his eyes on the binoculars. And surely enough, at starboard, he seel lots, lots lots of smoke trails and a DD that spotted das Boot already. Flinging himself down the ladder the commander shouts "Seerohrtiefe, SOFORT LEUTE!!" (Periscope depth, NOW PEOPLE!) After some frantic moments das Boot goes to periscope depth and the sonarman comes up with the dreaded warning "Kriegschiff kommt naher"

Ow ow ow ow!!!:timeout: TAUCHEN!!! I don't want it to see my periscope or hear me. We went down to 80 metres, silent running naturally on, and we could hear the wasserbomben landing not too far. I let the destroyer go over me, meanwhile slowly surfacing, and then went to periscope depth, raised the seerohr praying that the seamen on board became suddely and inexplicably blind, and surely enough he was neatly lined up heading away from me for a bow shot at 1400 metres.

Then real life kicked in as mobile phone started ringing, and afterwards dinner was ready. :stare: I am resuming now, let' see if I can send that thing to keep company to Neptune as well. ;-)


Ah, one question: if I manage to evade and reach, say, Ireland, can I resupply at one of their ports?

[frau kaleun]

Ah, one question: if I manage to evade and reach, say, Ireland, can I resupply at one of their ports?

I don't think so.

If you go to the help screen in game (IIRC pressing F1 will take you there) I'm pretty sure you can check the list of available resupply ports, which vary depending on what date you're at in-game.

As far as I know the only resupply options in January 1940 involve either returning to a German port or heading south past Gibralter and meeting up with the Corrientes at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. (I could be wrong but checking the options in-game as noted above will tell you for sure.)

It may be that you could resupply at an Italian base but that would mean risking the Gibraltar passage and if you're going that far you're probably better off heading for the Corrientes anyway.

[Jimbuna]

Ah, one question: if I manage to evade and reach, say, Ireland, can I resupply at one of their ports?

In a word....no.

You can only resupply from milchcows, ships or friendly ports.

[Gerald]

In a word....no.

You can only resupply from milchcows, ships or friendly ports.

Some DD hunting you,just to avoid the enemy unit?

:hmmm:

[RegioSommergibile]

Thanks all for the answers, even if I must say that it hasn't got much importance now. I saved while (of course) underwater and now it won't let me load that mission anymore. Bleah!:nope:

Oh well...

[Jimbuna]

Thanks all for the answers, even if I must say that it hasn't got much importance now. I saved while (of course) underwater and now it won't let me load that mission anymore. Bleah!:nope:

Oh well...


Never save whilst submerged mate :nope:

[Paul Riley]

Never save whilst submerged mate :nope:

Agreed! :o

[Snestorm]

Patrol #4.
Pulled out of Willy for BF44 on d. 16. feb. 40.

Decided on using "Der Kanal" for the outbound leg.
Our tally for the patrol was 5 ships for 16.589 GRT.
4 of the 5 were alone, and without escort.
The biggest prize (C3 Cargo 7949 GRT) was sunk in convoy, 10 miles from Dover.
While south of Portland, the last torpedo was expended, forcing our return to base, back through "Der Kanal".

Side note:
While examining a flag, with a magnifying glass, my elbow caused an accidental release of 3 torpedoes. Bernard offered to take the blame, but was refused. Between the two of us, and some very fast math, the last bow torpedo found it's intended target.
Good thing my mistake involved 3 G7As set to "Slow", or the end of run detonations would have compromised our presence. On the bad side, they were the total number of G7As withwhich we left port. (I prefer G7As, but force myself to take a majority of G7Es.)

U27 arrived back at Willy on 1.mar.40 without damage, or loss of life.
4 patrols for 74.925 GRT (15 merchants. 0 warships.)

Thus far, this VII(A) has more tonnage to it's credit, than my last IX(A) (U37), at the same point in time. It should be interesting to see how that developes. She's also accomplished one more patrol, in the same amount of time. There's just a one torpedo difference. VII(A) = 11 torps. IX(A) = 12 torps.

[Gerald]

Patrol #4.
Pulled out of Willy for BF44 on d. 16. feb. 40.

Decided on using "Der Kanal" for the outbound leg.
Our tally for the patrol was 5 ships for 16.589 GRT.
4 of the 5 were alone, and without escort.
The biggest prize (C3 Cargo 7949 GRT) was sunk in convoy, 10 miles from Dover.
While south of Portland, the last torpedo was expended, forcing our return to base, back through "Der Kanal".

Side note:
While examining a flag, with a magnifying glass, my elbow caused an accidental release of 3 torpedoes. Bernard offered to take the blame, but was refused. Between the two of us, and some very fast math, the last bow torpedo found it's intended target.
Good thing my mistake involved 3 G7As set to "Slow", or the end of run detonations would have compromised our presence. On the bad side, they were the total number of G7As withwhich we left port. (I prefer G7As, but force myself to take a majority of G7Es.)

U27 arrived back at Willy on 1.mar.40 without damage, or loss of life.
4 patrols for 74.925 GRT (15 merchants. 0 warships.)

Thus far, this VII(A) has more tonnage to it's credit, than my last IX(A) (U37), at the same point in time. It should be interesting to see how that developes. She's also accomplished one more patrol, in the same amount of time. There's just a one torpedo difference. VII(A) = 11 torps. IX(A) = 12 torps.

Look forward for next report :up:

[Sailor Steve]

While examining a flag, with a magnifying glass, my elbow caused an accidental release of 3 torpedoes.
What version are you playing? With GWX that can't happen, and I thought it was true of the other supermods as well.

Great report, by the way. :sunny:

[Jimbuna]

Patrol #4.
Pulled out of Willy for BF44 on d. 16. feb. 40.

Decided on using "Der Kanal" for the outbound leg.
Our tally for the patrol was 5 ships for 16.589 GRT.
4 of the 5 were alone, and without escort.
The biggest prize (C3 Cargo 7949 GRT) was sunk in convoy, 10 miles from Dover.
While south of Portland, the last torpedo was expended, forcing our return to base, back through "Der Kanal".

Side note:
While examining a flag, with a magnifying glass, my elbow caused an accidental release of 3 torpedoes. Bernard offered to take the blame, but was refused. Between the two of us, and some very fast math, the last bow torpedo found it's intended target.
Good thing my mistake involved 3 G7As set to "Slow", or the end of run detonations would have compromised our presence. On the bad side, they were the total number of G7As withwhich we left port. (I prefer G7As, but force myself to take a majority of G7Es.)

U27 arrived back at Willy on 1.mar.40 without damage, or loss of life.
4 patrols for 74.925 GRT (15 merchants. 0 warships.)

Thus far, this VII(A) has more tonnage to it's credit, than my last IX(A) (U37), at the same point in time. It should be interesting to see how that developes. She's also accomplished one more patrol, in the same amount of time. There's just a one torpedo difference. VII(A) = 11 torps. IX(A) = 12 torps.

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

[Snestorm]

What version are you playing? With GWX that can't happen, and I thought it was true of the other supermods as well.

Great report, by the way. :sunny:

Thank you, sir.

No supermods, but it's not stock either.

Beery's Flotilla Mod. (With additional modifications by me.)

TweekSub. (Allows for a more historical torpedo loadout, without the hassles.)

SH3 Encore Version. (Comes with many modifications and improvements over my original install).

Quite a few modifications that I did myself. Many, but not all, are inspired by GWX.
(Although I do not have GWX installed as a whole, I must, and do, say:
Thank you, GWX Team! You have contributed greatly to my SH3 enjoyment.)

[frau kaleun]

U-51
Type VIIB
2-Flotilla, Wilhelmshaven
Kptlt Kurt Dennert, Commander

When last I reported in we had just intercepted a British task force whilst patrolling the Vestfjord in defense of Narvik in mid-April 1940, and had successfully attacked and sunk her proud centerpiece, the HMS Warspite.

We continued to patrol Norwegian waters until released from that duty by BdU, and did so in increasingly rough weather. Our only subsequent contacts there were via the hydrophone as we waited out the storms and poor visibility beneath the surface for as long as our batteries would allow - and Helmut, the senior man on station there, reported the sounds of the two nearest us sinking before I'd even given the order to reemerge into the tempest and attempt an interception. Whether they were friends or foes was impossible to determine, as was the means by which they met their unhappy ends. We could only stand by and listen as Helmut relayed his reports of their descent into the abyss and hope that anyone who had survived the sinkings would not be left to linger too long in the water before some merciful hand released them from their present misery. Whether it would be the hand of man, or of death itself, was a question none of us was willing to voice out loud.

After receiving orders from BdU to depart from the North Sea and attend to our original assignment, we headed northwest around the British Isles and then south towards our patrol grid, BE21. On the way there we sighted and intercepted a lone British ore carrier just east of Rockall, sinking her from periscope depth with two well-placed eels. Then it was a long dry stretch of no enemy contacts whatsoever until we completed our assigned patrol in early May and began patrolling the adjoining grids, slowly working our way south along the Liverpool-Freetown shipping routes.

Reports of a large neutral convoy further to our south and heading WNW drew us into what turned out to be a long and ultimately fruitless pursuit; although Helmut reported hearing their approaching screws - including those of their two warship escorts - when we submerged for sound checks, we had run into yet another fierce Atlantic storm on the surface. Our visibility was reduced to less than 4 kilometers in what passed, at least, for broad daylight. What it might have been had we continued on and found ourselves in the midst of our prey after nightfall was something I was unwilling to find out firsthand with no confirmation of enemy ships among the herd. We dutifully reported what information we could; perhaps some of our kamaraden would intercept and identify any potential enemy targets farther north or west, and under more fortuitous circumstances.

(to be continued...)

[frau kaleun]

(U-51, patrol 6, continued...)

We'd no sooner plotted a course back to our intended patrol area when we received report of another convoy, not far SE of us, this one heading WSW and with a confirmed Royal Navy escort. It was just after midnight, and the intercept course we plotted would put us in a decent attack position well before sunrise if the convoy held true to her reported course. And it was indeed just a few hours later when the first shout of "Ship sighted" from the watch brought me scrambling to the bridge myself. A destroyer, zigzagging back and forth in advance of the convoy. A quick drop to periscope depth and a sweep of the area from there revealed no change in her patrol pattern; she hadn't seen us!

I gave the order for silent running and lowered the scope; as I did, Helmut began reeling off reports of merchant after merchant heading directly into our intended line of attack, and then identified the screws of another two warships coming along with them. As they drew within visual range I raised the 'scope once more to have a peek at our oncoming adversaries; a battleship and, yes, another destroyer, the former cruising along in the middle of the pack and the latter just barely discernible as it nipped at the heels of its hindmost charges.

Another quick look around as we passed unseen in front of the first column of ships revealed the totality of the herd: three columns, none more than four rows deep, not including the warships, not one of which had altered course or given any indication that they'd tumbled to our presence. A quick 90 degree turn to port would put us nose-first into the convoy, in between the two starboard columns; good enough. Another well-timed turn would put all our tubes, fore and aft, in optimum attack position. As we maneuvered, slowly but surely, I popped up the 'scope again to choose my targets.

A Granville-type freighter and two medium-sized cargo tubs seemed to be the best the convoy had to offer, other than the menacing hulk of the afore-mentioned battleship; no doubt another capital ship would be a prize feather in my well-worn cap, but this patrol was about sinking merchants, and we'd probably not get a second chance at that - or have enough eels left over to make taking it worthwhile - if I went after the bristling monster in their midst instead. So be it. I popped up the 'scope again; still no apparent threat from the escorts, who all continued on their merry unheeding way; and now my first two targets were coming into range.

Rohr eins - los! rohr zwei - los! The first two eels were on their way, and if luck was with us today and not the Tommies that cargo ship would have an unpleasant surprise in, oh, about three minutes, give or take. Now a present for the Granville as well: rohr drei - los! rohr vier - los! And last but not least, a timely fart in the general direction of the second cargo ship. Rohr fünf - los!

The sound of the first explosion coincided almost perfectly with my order to dive. Helmut counted off two more distinct detonations as I lowered myself into the zentrale; Josef, my 1WO, insisted he'd heard four total. I glanced at Johannes, leaning over his chart table as usual, his stopwatch in hand, and watched as the young obersteuermann finally slid it back into its accustomed pocket and met my eyes with his own. A simple shrug told me the time had run out on our last eel; the noises that soon reverberated all around us told me and everyone else on board that at least one of our victims would never see port again.

Well, I thought, three - maybe four - hits out of five eels fired, and one confirmed sinking so far; not bad for a day's work, all things considered. And miracle of miracles, no sign of serious retaliation from the enemy escorts. We'd dropped to 100 meters, still running silent and making a scant 2 knots, as the tail end of the convoy had passed over us; one of the escorts had made a few passes on the outer fringes of the herd and put a few wabos in the water, but they seemed to have no idea exactly where the attack had come from or where the attacker had gone. The dreaded, unmistakeable ping of their ASDIC searching us out never came at all.

(to be continued...)

[frau kaleun]

(U-51, Patrol 6, continued...)

As the convoy slowly but surely pulled out of range I reversed course and headed back to the scene of the carnage, releasing the crew from silent running so Their Lordships could begin the arduous task of reloading the tubes with our two remaining eels. Once that was completed we began our slow rise back to periscope depth. Helmut had reported a merchant lagging well behind the pack, and we found her soon enough. One of the medium cargo ships, the crates on her foredeck ablaze in testament to at least one of the explosions we'd heard. She was listing slightly to port and looked to be making a mere 4 knots in the general direction of her now disappearing companions. Another eel in her side halted her progress and then sent her sliding bow-first beneath the waves. Off in the distance I could see a cloud of black smoke at the edge of the horizon. Our third target, I thought, most assuredly on fire, but still making good enough time to stay with the rest of the convoy.

We plotted another intercept course, one that would take us out of visual range until we'd left them well behind us and also put U-51 back into attack position; with any luck we'd have our chance to deliver a final, fatal blow to the damaged survivor of our first attack. With only one eel left to play with, we couldn't hope for much more. At last the periscope revealed no lingering trace of the convoy on the horizon, and I gave the order to surface and again considered our options. A lengthy chase south and west would take us even further from home than we already were, and if the convoy continued on at her last known speed - we'd estimated 8 knots - we'd have to throw economy over the side to catch up. The LI was already grumbling about our fuel reserves; there was a limit to how long and how far we could continue our pursuit and still have enough to make it back to Wilhelmshaven. There were other options for refueling between here and there, yes, but our last time out had stretched into almost 14 weeks at sea after a resupply stop in Las Palmas, with barely a week in port before being sent back abruptly into the fray. No one, including me, would be overjoyed at the prospect of an encore of that performance so close on the heels of its immediate predecessor.

A quiet conference with the LI confirmed what I'd guessed at already; we'd need to overtake the convoy and attack by mid-afternoon at the latest, then head directly for home or else give up any hope of making it there without seeking out some resupply ship and then no doubt receiving orders to make full use of what they gave us before returning to base. As much as I disliked the risks involved in taking on a protected convoy in broad daylight - and especially if the good weather held, as it seemed intent on doing - the failure of the escorts to offer an effective defense the first time around gave me some hope of success.

By midday we'd outflanked the convoy and turned in for our attack run; at periscope depth, running silent, and with our fingers crossed that the Tommies in those escorts would do no better this time around. Our intended target was easy enough to find, even at the edge of visual range - it was the other medium cargo, still leaving a telltale trail of black smoke but easily keeping pace with the rest of the herd. It must've been the Granville whose death agonies we'd overheard in the darkness before dawn. Another quick sweep with the scope revealed both destroyers and the battleship chugging along in their expected positions, giving no indication that we'd been detected; perhaps our luck would hold out today as well.

Our one remaining eel was in the stern tube, and I lowered the 'scope as I passed orders to the helm that would put us in a good spot to turn tail and fire on our would-be victim as she crossed our path. The boat had barely begun its first slow turn towards its prey when a ragged whisper came back up the ladder: destroyer, bearing 050, closing, increasing speed!

Verdammt noch mal! I popped the 'scope as far above the surface as I dared and there she was - heading straight for us, and closing at what had to be top speed. No more luck for us today, at least not the kind that sinks ships; I could only hope that the kind of luck that kept our little tub from sinking wouldn't thumb its nose at us as well. Flank speed and dive, there was nothing else for it. If we could just get deep enough before...

(to be continued...)

[RegioSommergibile]

Never mind, I started a new career completely, from Kiel this time with a VIIB.

I completed my pre-war patrol and I am heading now toward my patrol zone off the southwestern coast of Ireland. I will go through the Channel (it's still 6 september 1939) sink some french ships and afterwards go patrolling in my zone. I plan to return to home base passing NORTH of UK, I still have never tried to explore those regions and I am curious to see how the traffic (err, preys) is. Only, I fear the almost sure RAF presence...

One question though: I am using SH COmmander and GWX3, I ordered it to show real ship names already since the start of my last ruined career, but on that occasion nothing showed up on Captain's Log when at home again after a patrol with sinking. Just the usual reports. Any ideas? :hmmm:

(yes, I have installed that "patch" to make GWX and Commander work together as reminded to me by Jimbuna when I wsa downloading)

[Paul Riley]

Never mind, I started a new career completely, from Kiel this time with a VIIB.

I completed my pre-war patrol and I am heading now toward my patrol zone off the southwestern coast of Ireland. I will go through the Channel (it's still 6 september 1939) sink some french ships and afterwards go patrolling in my zone. I plan to return to home base passing NORTH of UK, I still have never tried to explore those regions and I am curious to see how the traffic (err, preys) is. Only, I fear the almost sure RAF presence...

One question though: I am using SH COmmander and GWX3, I ordered it to show real ship names already since the start of my last ruined career, but on that occasion nothing showed up on Captain's Log when at home again after a patrol with sinking. Just the usual reports. Any ideas? :hmmm:

(yes, I have installed that "patch" to make GWX and Commander work together as reminded to me by Jimbuna when I wsa downloading)

RAF presence is virtually non existant during 39 and probably most of 1940,so you should be safe,if in doubt though and you want to play it safe you could always travel submerged by day and surface to recharge your batteries at night.Please note though even though you will be safe from RAF attacks you still may encounter the odd patrol plane now and then.
When returning home be sure to pass between the Shetland Islands and the NE tip of Scotland submerged,you should pick up MANY contacts,that area is a very busy thoroughfare :up:

[Snestorm]

RAF presence is virtually non existant during 39 and probably most of 1940,so you should be safe,if in doubt though and you want to play it safe you could always travel submerged by day and surface to recharge your batteries at night.Please note though even though you will be safe from RAF attacks you still may encounter the odd patrol plane now and then.
When returning home be sure to pass between the Shetland Islands and the NE tip of Scotland submerged,you should pick up MANY contacts,that area is a very busy thoroughfare :up:

Hmmm.
Am I the only one who has MAJOR aircraft problems in the far north?
Sometimes even along Norway's coast, they show up!
But usualy from North of Scottland, well north of Færøerne, and halfway to Island.
And ja, even in 1939.

[Herr-Berbunch]

One question though: I am using SH COmmander and GWX3, I ordered it to show real ship names already since the start of my last ruined career, but on that occasion nothing showed up on Captain's Log when at home again after a patrol with sinking. Just the usual reports. Any ideas? :hmmm:

(yes, I have installed that "patch" to make GWX and Commander work together as reminded to me by Jimbuna when I wsa downloading)

What I have to do is exit the game, re-open Commander and click on 'other available actions' or whatever it is called, and then 'Update Profile' (these aren't the actual words but I'm in work at the minute and don't have Cdr to hand), this then opens up your web browser and lists your patrols, click on a patrol number and then you can see what vessels you sank!

Hope this helps (and is correct?) :yeah:

[Paul Riley]

Hmmm.
Am I the only one who has MAJOR aircraft problems in the far north?
Sometimes even along Norway's coast, they show up!
But usualy from North of Scottland, well north of Færøerne, and halfway to Island.
And ja, even in 1939.

The worst possible area for air attacks (later on) has to be the bay of Biscay,that area is lethal.Expect to make emergency dives almost every 30mins - 1hr as you attempt to break out/return to base...a true nightmare :o:dead:
And always try and get into the habit of travelling submerged on cloudy days as much as possible,sudden air attacks are terrifying! you should still be quite safe at night,until of course the development of the Leigh Light,which I myself have yet to encounter in the game.

Speaking of Leigh Lights are they as effective in the game as they were for real? (with GWX3 that is) I really cant imagine how demoralising it must have been to have been attacked at night without warning by aircraft then have your entire UBoat bathed in what can only be described as light from a bloody football floodlight! no more crash dive then,man the guns,pound the engines and zig zag like a madman,while reading verses from the bible.

[Gerald]

Hmmm.
Am I the only one who has MAJOR aircraft problems in the far north?
Sometimes even along Norway's coast, they show up!
But usualy from North of Scottland, well north of Færøerne, and halfway to Island.
And ja, even in 1939. Only slow swordfish,so take them down, is more like a picknick

:ping:

[Paul Riley]

Only slow swordfish,so take them down, is more like a picknick

:ping:

Wait until you get attacked by a Hurricane screaming out of the sun,you barely have chance to react forcing you to shoot it out with him then attempt a dive immediately as he passes over for his return strafe :o
Genuinely a frightening moment.

[Gerald]

Wait until you get attacked by a Hurricane screaming out of the sun,you barely have chance to react forcing you to shoot it out with him then attempt a dive immediately as he passes over for his return strafe :o
Genuinely a frightening moment. crew members ,and I force them to practice every day with flakgun, and they are good,but I now for sure,Hudson or Marlet could be hard to take down :yep:

[Paul Riley]

crew members ,and I force them to practice every day with flakgun, and they are good,but I now for sure,Hudson or Marlet could be hard to take down :yep:

Give every flak gunner a pocket bible,and a clean pair of underpants,just to be on the safe side :dead::03:
And against a formation of incoming bombers give them a rubber ring to put around their necks,they may shortly need it.
http://justwilliam1959.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/bird-bread.jpg

:rotfl2:

[Gerald]

Give every flak gunner a pocket bible,and a clean pair of underpants,just to be on the safe side :dead::03:
And against a formation of incoming bombers give them a rubber ring to put around their necks,they may shortly need it.
http://justwilliam1959.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/bird-bread.jpg

:rotfl2:
:haha:

[ReFaN]

Reinstalled Sh3 and thought id do a IXC campaign, DiD ofc.

Leutnant Z s. Paul Wolbitsch

2 June 1942, Enroute to United states of America, taking long at 128 time compression and some moments in Realtime.

[Paul Riley]

Reinstalled Sh3 and thought id do a IXC campaign, DiD ofc.

Leutnant Z s. Paul Wolbitsch

2 June 1942, Enroute to United states of America, taking long at 128 time compression and some moments in Realtime.

x128 ,best way to travel mate,then drop to x32 when expecting air attacks (especially through the bay of Biscay) :up:

[RegioSommergibile]

RAF presence is virtually non existant during 39 and probably most of 1940,so you should be safe,if in doubt though and you want to play it safe you could always travel submerged by day and surface to recharge your batteries at night.Please note though even though you will be safe from RAF attacks you still may encounter the odd patrol plane now and then.
When returning home be sure to pass between the Shetland Islands and the NE tip of Scotland submerged,you should pick up MANY contacts,that area is a very busy thoroughfare :up:


Ah, thanks for the tip!!

Now I am nearby Dunkerque, I sank with a torpedo a trawler that spotted me, I hit the thing with a torpedo in the propeller and it almost jumped out of the water. It left a big oil leak on the surface and then it sank quickly.
However from Dunkerque they sent after me a Bourrasque destroyer (stubborn French sailors......) and now I'll have either to go away (and give up entering in the port, where I would have liked to sink something with a blue white red flag) or send to Davy Jones' Locker that blasted thing...

[frau kaleun]

(U-51, patrol 6, continued...)

Wasserbombe! As I dropped from the ladder into the zentrale and stole a look through the fore hatch I could see Helmut tear the headphones away from his ears in anticipation of the impending blast. The last man tumbling through the gangway beyond disappeared as he rolled headfirst into the bugraum. I glanced at the depth gauge and knew in a heartbeat that only bad aim on the part of the Tommies would save us from a pounding this time.

But their aim was anything but bad. The sounds of glass shattering and bodies knocking into each other and their surroundings filled the sudden darkness as the first detonations rocked us side to side and doused our lights. As lamps were found and lit and damage reports came up from the bow our junior engineer - a trainee on this patrol, his first time on U-51 - sprang forward through the hatch in response. The LI had enough to do in the zentrale; we were still in a steep dive, soon dropping past the 80 meters I'd ordered with no signs of leveling off despite the chief's best efforts to bring our descent under control. A report of flooding in the bow, relayed back from his protégé now at work on the worst of it, gave a pretty good indication of why.

110 meters...

115...

120...

All back emergency!

125 meters...

127...

128...

Our descent was slowing, it seemed, but we continued down nonetheless, still pointed nose-first into the deep.

Anblasen!

The hiss of air forcing its way into the tanks joined the medley of sounds all around me: the ragged breathing and whispered prayers of the men in the zentrale, the muffled grunts and curses and clangs of damage control in the bow, the hesitant but hopeful shuffling of feet as crew and commander alike rearranged their bodies in response to every perceptible change in our angle of descent.

At last the needle on the depth gauge slowed to a stop and began to twitch happily in the opposite direction. We leveled off at 121 meters and, mercifully, stayed there. More depth charges exploded above and around us, but none near enough to add to the damage we'd already taken. As the screws of the attacking destroyer faded out of range of our naked ears I looked to Helmut for a better fix on the enemy's movements.

He had none to offer. The hydrophones, he reported, had been rendered useless by the first round of wabos. More damage reports came in as the moments passed. Our radio was probably knocked out as well as the 'phones; flooding was no longer a problem, but the forward battery was kaput; both 'scopes were inoperable without further inspection and repair that, in our present situation, would be impossible.

We headed east, away from the convoy, and prayed that her escorts would again decide that playing attentive shepherd to the flock was a far greater imperative than pursuing the injured wolf they'd left in her wake. And, much to my surprise and relief, this seemed to be the case. There were no more depth charges and never a hint of the hated ASDIC. Perhaps they weren't fitted out with it - hard to believe - or perhaps they'd marked us off as destroyed after that first successful and almost devastating attack run.

As time passed with no further indication of activity above us, we began a gradual ascent from the depths. Finally our best estimates told us we were well out of visual range of the enemy's last confirmed position. With a nod the LI leveled us off at 20 meters and another order from me brought U-51 to a dead stop in the water and all human activity to a standstill. In the silence that followed, every man aboard strained his ears for the sound of any nearby vessel that might pose a threat as we reached blindly for the surface.

Not that it made any difference. We had to surface. I gave the order and climbed the ladder to the tower hatch.

(to be continued...)

[frau kaleun]

(U-51, patrol 6, continued...)

We broke through the surface and the diesels roared to life. As I scanned the horizon and found it empty I marveled at how grateful I was to see nothing but sea and sky in every direction. How many days and nights had we plowed our appointed way through wave and wind, more numb from tedium than from the elements, and then grumbled to ourselves and each other as yet another hour passed with no contacts, no enemies, no anything in sight that might alleviate the boredom?

Today, for a change, no one would curse our fate at being the only evidence of human existence as far as the eye could see.

After a full inspection of our damage both within and without, and a consultation with my officers, we decided to set course for Vigo and the supply ship anchored there. The LI assured me we had enough fuel to return directly to Wilhelmshaven, but our forward battery was still out of action and the remaining battery aft refused to recharge despite his most fervent ministrations. Both the radio and the hydrophones were dead and our 'scopes could not be fully repaired with what we had on hand. Neither could the deck gun, although the flak gun had been dutifully repaired and - along with one stern torpedo - would be our only means of attack and defense should either prove necessary.

The compass, thank heavens, still worked, but as much as we would've liked to see it pointing us homeward with all possible speed, the journey there without the option of submerging for any reasonable length of time - and the certainty of being effectively deaf and blind should we do so - was not one I wanted to contemplate. How much could be repaired once we reached Vigo remained to be seen, but everyone agreed that we couldn't possibly leave there worse off than we already were. At the very least they could send our compliments to BdU and thus allay the fears of those at home who might otherwise assume us lost at sea.

So, to Vigo - and then, with any luck, home.

[Snestorm]

@frau kaleun

Thanks for the great read.

[frau kaleun]

U-51
Type VIIB
2-Flotilla, Wilhelmshaven
Kptlt Kurt Dennert, Commander

Our five day trip to Vigo and the resupply ship Bessel proved uneventful; no sightings of any craft approaching either by sea or air as we ran ESE towards the Spanish coast. Our diesels, thankfully, had taken no damage from our most recent encounter with the enemy, and I asked as much from them as I dared. That this was always slightly more than the LI could bear without casting a bearded grimace in my direction on occasion went without saying.

We had no radio to relay news of our impending arrival, but whatever surprise the Bessel's master and crew felt at our sudden appearance in their neutral haven that fine May morning soon gave way to an orderly determination to see us as well fitted out as possible for the return leg of our patrol. And the long spring day we spent by her side also proved a tonic for U-51's crew; it might not have been shore leave in Wilhelmshaven, but it was a very welcome respite nonetheless. The weather there remained fair and calm, allowing everyone on board to take his turn at a leisurely moment or two in the sun as those on duty worked to ready the boat for what we hoped would be a direct passage home.

It wasn't long after she'd reported our position and status that a reply began working its way through the usual channels and in due time was handed off to me by the Bessel's master. We would, indeed, return immediately to Wilhelmshaven for the completion of whatever repairs could not be sufficiently handled at Vigo; targets of opportunity encountered en route could be dealt with at my discretion, depending on the condition of our boat and whatever rearmament the Bessel could provide us for the journey.

The weather remained clear and calm long after we'd lost sight of our temporary shelter and pointed our bow first northwest and then due north toward the still distant waters between Rockall Banks and the British Isles. Our only contact before reaching them turned out to be another u-boat, a Type VIIC running due east across our path, making for the busy sea-lanes south of Ireland. Her bridge watch and their commander waved and yelled and signalled their greetings and good wishes; we offered them the same in return. From there it was another long stretch of empty sea and sky until we sighted a lone Granville-type freighter plowing due west between Rockall and the Faroes.

It only took a moment to make my decision. Night was falling, and the weather had grown increasingly rough as we traveled northward; we were out of range of RAF Coastal Command; and it wasn't as though our tubes were completely empty. The wolf might be scarred, she might be tired, and she might be looking forward to a well-deserved nap in a dry, warm den - but she still had some teeth left. And if by chance the freighter turned out to be armed and dangerous... well, we could always outrun her and disappear once more into the darkness whence we came.

As it turned out, there was no need for that. One hit below her funnel was all it took in the heavy seas of the night's approaching storm; we were still shadowing her and lining ourselves up for a possible second attack when an explosion tore through her midsection, sending her funnel up and then crashing down over the side into the deep. More explosions shook the air and illuminated her fate as the sea took her. We scanned the surface from a distance for men or lifeboats amid the debris, and saw none. Her end had come too fast and too hard.

After that we made our way through ten more days and nights of high seas and pounding rain before sighting, at long last, the familiar lights of Wilhelmshaven. The sky was still pouring buckets down our backs as we pulled slowly into our pen and came to a welcome and long-awaited stop.

Home at last, and even in those dark wet hours just after midnight, it never looked so good.

[frau kaleun]

U-51
Type VIIB
2-Flotilla, Wilhelmshaven
Kptlt Kurt Dennert, Commander

Final report, patrols 6/7

March 28, 1940, 16:35
Departed: Wilhelmshaven
Mission Orders: Patrol grid BE21

April 1, 1940, 14:05
Grid AN 43
Ship sunk: SS Prince (Large Cargo), 7531 tons
Cargo: Aircraft
Crew/lost: 54/19

April 12, 1940, 06:41
Grid AF 61
Ship sunk: HMS Warspite, 36450 tons
Crew/lost: 1069/652

April 28, 1940, 08:37
Grid AM 11
Ship sunk: Talthybius (Ore Carrier), 6938 tons.
Cargo: Iron Ore
Crew/lost: 74/24

May 15, 1940, 05:54
Grid BE 74
Ship sunk: SS Wray Castle (Granville-type Freighter), 4707 tons
Cargo: Paper Products
Crew/lost: 100/12

May 15, 1940, 08:27
Grid BE 74
Ship sunk: SS Sovereign of the Seas (Medium Cargo), 4479 tons
Cargo: Textiles
Crew/lost: 60/35

May 21, 1940, 07:07
Arrived: Vigo
Rendezvous with the Bessel for repair, refueling, and rearmament

May 22, 1940, 11:52
Departed: Vigo
Mission Orders: Return to Wilhelmshaven

May 27, 1940, 02:35
Grid AM 23
Ship sunk: SS Woodbury (Granville-type Freighter), 4707 tons
Cargo: Military Stores
Crew/lost: 51/22

June 6, 1940, 00:15
Arrived: Wilhelmshaven
Crew losses: 0
Ships sunk: 6
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonnage: 64812 tons

Awards: Kapitänleutnant Kurt Dennert, Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross; Oberleutnant z. See (Ing.) Hans Woiwode and Stabsoberbootsmann Gerhard Petersohn, Iron Cross 1st Class; Oberfähnrich z. See (Ing.) Ulrich Kaeding, Iron Cross 2nd Class and U-Boat War Badge; Matrosengefreiter Paul Hansen, U-Boat War Badge

Promotions: Oberfähnrich z. See Johannes Hutterer, to Leutnant z. See

Career Totals

Days at sea: 239
Crew losses: 0
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Merchants sunk: 39, 164864 GRT
Warships sunk: 2, 37700 GRT
Total ships sunk: 41, 202564 GRT