Vipre
10-14-12, 11:57 PM
Wherein I and my crew are introduced to the RAF.
Added SH Commander and one option made for interesting immersion.
Wasn't going to write down another but after the way it began I had to.
Glad I did.
U-3 Hans Richter
Patrol 2 - 6/10/39 to 21/10/39
Our second patrol started off down a man. One of my Maschinisten thought getting drunk and arrested in town was a good way to
spend his downtime and was unavailable for the mission. I turned to the recruitment pool for his replacement. Another sailor was transferred
out and by coincidence his replacement, a senior seaman for whom this would be his first patrol, was the brother of another crew member.1
We also begin this patrol down a torpedo, leaving us four instead of five. I'm still not certain the details but somehow between our exit of port
and the short run to the Jade, tube three was fired. No one was in the room at the time and the weapons officer was in the aft sleeping compartment. I put Mecanikaermaat Jorg Zander to the task of finding out the cause...this can't happen again. I very much hope as well there is no official inquiry.2
Our orders this time are to patrol the waters of AN16 South of Skapa Flow. Tooling around Norway was one thing, driving straight into the waters
off Britain another and I'm wondering how to approach this. For now I've decided on a triangular course entering in the SE corner of the grid, taking
us up relatively near Skapa, then paralleling the coast South-Westerly down to the lower grid edge, and finally back to our starting point. I'll revise
once we arrive in the patrol area as the situation dictates.
With exception of our patrol craft and destroyer guarding the bay entrance we've so far had no contacts during our trip, Certain there should be
something out there I ordered a turn to starboard, periscope depth and an all stop once there. Despite Creutz' insistence there was nothing
to hear I took the headphones for myself and found not one but two contacts. The first a deep sound I guessed it to be a large vessel, the second
a much higher pitched noise. My first thought was about the quality of Creutz' hearing, my second that the deeper of the two might be a British ship. After further review once back on course to the patrol area however I determined both were coming from the South-East making the most likely answer that they were our own ships passed much earlier.
9 Oct AN61
03:50Picked up an enemy contact moving ENE at medium speed.Plotted rough intercept course.
06:30 Second contact same heading and speed, assuming same ship. Adjusted course expecting intercept in two hours.
07:10 Contact on hydrophone, appears to be a merchant bearing 318 still medium speed long range. This will give me time to get set and have a
welcome ready. Still expecting intercept in one hour.
08:00 Ship intercepted, British C2 Cargo ship. Fired one torpedo...impact just behind engine room...ship dead in water. Should have went with
my gut and sent a spread of two.
08:18 Ship still afloat. No time to waste bobbing around waiting for it to sink, debating on using a second shot. Believe I heard a plane and what
sounded like an explosion nearby, not taking any chances. Fired second shot and put the cargo ship down, ordered an emergency dive
and resumed course to patrol area with two torpedoes left.3
11 Oct AN44
07:08 Two RAF aircraft spotted. Seas too rough to engage, ordered dive to periscope depth hoping to get under before being seen. Too
late...lead plane attacked with dive bombing run. Ordered emergency dive - Ahead Flank.
07:10 Two more runs made as we dove. None of the runs came close aside from the first. In total five bombs dropped, No damage. No doubt
this will make our patrol more difficult as they now know we're coming.
Definitely more excitement this time around, lets hope we don't have more than we can handle.
10:00 We should arrive in the patrol area in an hour, noon at the latest. Fuel levels nearing fifty percent. How I'm expected to stay a
full day and still return to port I don't know.
11:15 Arrived in patrol grid AN16. Fuel level fifty percent...two torpedoes...no contacts.
AN16
12:43 Aircraft spotted! Crash dive! Two bombs dropped, No damage. Seas still too rough for flak gun use. The men are certainly on their toes now.
Decided not to attempt reaching Skapa Flow. I simply don't trust this boat to have enough fuel to return to port if I risk the extra two hundred
plus kilometer round trip it would take to get there and back to our current position. Additionally with only two torpedoes and no deck gun...not
that the blasted sea would settle enough to let me use it if I had one...I'd be lucky to make a dent in anything there and luckier to get out. Best
to wait until I either command a larger boat or have a strong death wish before I start going at enemy ports directly.
12 Oct AN16
09:55 Once again I let impatience get the better of me. After tracking another cargo ship for a few hours I let it slip through my hands by firing
a two degree spread instead of two individual shots. Worst of all is that both missed by mere meters, one across the bow and one just behind
the stern meaning had I sent them separately I would have been guaranteed a double strike.4 I have to get this under control, I'm four for eight, my hit/miss ratio is one to one.
09:58 12 Oct Sent Patrol report.
U-3, Position Grid AN16
Torpedoes left: 0
Cargo Ships sunk: 1
Total Tonnage: 4406
Now begins the long trek home. Took five days to get here, I plan to run the engines ragged and empty getting back.
21 Oct Wilhelmshaven
Well I did just that. Even conserving fuel by staying under as long as possible, and nursing the engines, we still ran the tanks dry...or so I
was told...sixty kilometers shy of port.5 Sat floating adrift at the entrance to the Jade river charging the batteries on fumes and finishing the
trip at depth.
Who thinks these long runs in such a small boat are a good idea?
Notes/Comments:
1 [[Same last name so why not. I had a good laugh when I read the SH3Cmdr transfer popup and it included the sailor being arrested. Wasn't
expecting that.]]
2 [[I'd like to think of a better way to describe how while taking my notebook from the top of my monitor I dropped my pencil on the keyboard and
in the process of grabbing for it as it fell smacked the enter key and fired the tube but this is all I've got. :D Leaving it out doesn't work for me as
everything that happens in-game happens in the journal with some minor embellishment of course.]]
3 [[I did hear an explosion, thought it came from the C2 but no indication of that, went external cam, heard the buzzing, looked around, spotted
the plane and promptly forgot I had the small AA gun on-board...I was at periscope depth still anyway. The plane helped make up my mind about
another shot, fired the torp and crash dove out of there.]]
4 [[SO close it hurt me to watch them miss. A one degree shot would have had the effect I was trying for of one halfway to the bow and the other
halfway to the stern from center as the ship didn't appear to see them in the rough water till it was too late to avoid.]]
5 [[The funny part is it took me twice as long to get back as it did going out. Running on the surface out there on standard used half a tank but the Navigator kept insisting if I tried the same back I'd run out halfway. I'm wondering if the guy needs more math/nav classes or something.]]
Added SH Commander and one option made for interesting immersion.
Wasn't going to write down another but after the way it began I had to.
Glad I did.
U-3 Hans Richter
Patrol 2 - 6/10/39 to 21/10/39
Our second patrol started off down a man. One of my Maschinisten thought getting drunk and arrested in town was a good way to
spend his downtime and was unavailable for the mission. I turned to the recruitment pool for his replacement. Another sailor was transferred
out and by coincidence his replacement, a senior seaman for whom this would be his first patrol, was the brother of another crew member.1
We also begin this patrol down a torpedo, leaving us four instead of five. I'm still not certain the details but somehow between our exit of port
and the short run to the Jade, tube three was fired. No one was in the room at the time and the weapons officer was in the aft sleeping compartment. I put Mecanikaermaat Jorg Zander to the task of finding out the cause...this can't happen again. I very much hope as well there is no official inquiry.2
Our orders this time are to patrol the waters of AN16 South of Skapa Flow. Tooling around Norway was one thing, driving straight into the waters
off Britain another and I'm wondering how to approach this. For now I've decided on a triangular course entering in the SE corner of the grid, taking
us up relatively near Skapa, then paralleling the coast South-Westerly down to the lower grid edge, and finally back to our starting point. I'll revise
once we arrive in the patrol area as the situation dictates.
With exception of our patrol craft and destroyer guarding the bay entrance we've so far had no contacts during our trip, Certain there should be
something out there I ordered a turn to starboard, periscope depth and an all stop once there. Despite Creutz' insistence there was nothing
to hear I took the headphones for myself and found not one but two contacts. The first a deep sound I guessed it to be a large vessel, the second
a much higher pitched noise. My first thought was about the quality of Creutz' hearing, my second that the deeper of the two might be a British ship. After further review once back on course to the patrol area however I determined both were coming from the South-East making the most likely answer that they were our own ships passed much earlier.
9 Oct AN61
03:50Picked up an enemy contact moving ENE at medium speed.Plotted rough intercept course.
06:30 Second contact same heading and speed, assuming same ship. Adjusted course expecting intercept in two hours.
07:10 Contact on hydrophone, appears to be a merchant bearing 318 still medium speed long range. This will give me time to get set and have a
welcome ready. Still expecting intercept in one hour.
08:00 Ship intercepted, British C2 Cargo ship. Fired one torpedo...impact just behind engine room...ship dead in water. Should have went with
my gut and sent a spread of two.
08:18 Ship still afloat. No time to waste bobbing around waiting for it to sink, debating on using a second shot. Believe I heard a plane and what
sounded like an explosion nearby, not taking any chances. Fired second shot and put the cargo ship down, ordered an emergency dive
and resumed course to patrol area with two torpedoes left.3
11 Oct AN44
07:08 Two RAF aircraft spotted. Seas too rough to engage, ordered dive to periscope depth hoping to get under before being seen. Too
late...lead plane attacked with dive bombing run. Ordered emergency dive - Ahead Flank.
07:10 Two more runs made as we dove. None of the runs came close aside from the first. In total five bombs dropped, No damage. No doubt
this will make our patrol more difficult as they now know we're coming.
Definitely more excitement this time around, lets hope we don't have more than we can handle.
10:00 We should arrive in the patrol area in an hour, noon at the latest. Fuel levels nearing fifty percent. How I'm expected to stay a
full day and still return to port I don't know.
11:15 Arrived in patrol grid AN16. Fuel level fifty percent...two torpedoes...no contacts.
AN16
12:43 Aircraft spotted! Crash dive! Two bombs dropped, No damage. Seas still too rough for flak gun use. The men are certainly on their toes now.
Decided not to attempt reaching Skapa Flow. I simply don't trust this boat to have enough fuel to return to port if I risk the extra two hundred
plus kilometer round trip it would take to get there and back to our current position. Additionally with only two torpedoes and no deck gun...not
that the blasted sea would settle enough to let me use it if I had one...I'd be lucky to make a dent in anything there and luckier to get out. Best
to wait until I either command a larger boat or have a strong death wish before I start going at enemy ports directly.
12 Oct AN16
09:55 Once again I let impatience get the better of me. After tracking another cargo ship for a few hours I let it slip through my hands by firing
a two degree spread instead of two individual shots. Worst of all is that both missed by mere meters, one across the bow and one just behind
the stern meaning had I sent them separately I would have been guaranteed a double strike.4 I have to get this under control, I'm four for eight, my hit/miss ratio is one to one.
09:58 12 Oct Sent Patrol report.
U-3, Position Grid AN16
Torpedoes left: 0
Cargo Ships sunk: 1
Total Tonnage: 4406
Now begins the long trek home. Took five days to get here, I plan to run the engines ragged and empty getting back.
21 Oct Wilhelmshaven
Well I did just that. Even conserving fuel by staying under as long as possible, and nursing the engines, we still ran the tanks dry...or so I
was told...sixty kilometers shy of port.5 Sat floating adrift at the entrance to the Jade river charging the batteries on fumes and finishing the
trip at depth.
Who thinks these long runs in such a small boat are a good idea?
Notes/Comments:
1 [[Same last name so why not. I had a good laugh when I read the SH3Cmdr transfer popup and it included the sailor being arrested. Wasn't
expecting that.]]
2 [[I'd like to think of a better way to describe how while taking my notebook from the top of my monitor I dropped my pencil on the keyboard and
in the process of grabbing for it as it fell smacked the enter key and fired the tube but this is all I've got. :D Leaving it out doesn't work for me as
everything that happens in-game happens in the journal with some minor embellishment of course.]]
3 [[I did hear an explosion, thought it came from the C2 but no indication of that, went external cam, heard the buzzing, looked around, spotted
the plane and promptly forgot I had the small AA gun on-board...I was at periscope depth still anyway. The plane helped make up my mind about
another shot, fired the torp and crash dove out of there.]]
4 [[SO close it hurt me to watch them miss. A one degree shot would have had the effect I was trying for of one halfway to the bow and the other
halfway to the stern from center as the ship didn't appear to see them in the rough water till it was too late to avoid.]]
5 [[The funny part is it took me twice as long to get back as it did going out. Running on the surface out there on standard used half a tank but the Navigator kept insisting if I tried the same back I'd run out halfway. I'm wondering if the guy needs more math/nav classes or something.]]