My story of U-93 & Claus Korth

[F1RacerDan]

So i decided to run my first proper career in this game after many years of just tinkering about with the game and not really getting into it. I decided to make a career that had a bit of meaning behind it, I usually just put my own name in a game but i thought it would be cool to actually research uboats and there captains after a long time fascination with the subject since i was a child (i guess we all do here at subsim lol)

After reading up on several captains i stumbled upon U-93 which was officially launched on June 8th 1940, my birthday is June 8th so this seemed to fit lol. U-93 was captained by Claus Korth so after reading a little about him i thought id use this name and boat and attempt to emulate a similar career and see what happen.

Using Commander i selected October 1940 (which was when she took her first active patrol) and the 7/13th Flotilla.

Now im not great at story telling but after reading a few other threads (story of U-104 by Mantibrutalis) im gunna try my best to report my patrols and share my experience with you all and hope you enjoy reading it as i enjoyed reading others :)

[F1RacerDan]

Patrol 1 begins for U-93

After awaiting fitting of our upgraded hydrophone we have set sail on our first patrol from St Nazaire on the 4th October, we are a little concerned that our patrol grid wont reward us much BE99, our navigation officer has reported we will arrive in just under 48 hours. If like i expect BE99 is a quiet area i plan on heading south along the Liverpool-Gibralter trade route, however we wont be going near Gibraltar in our first patrol. Myself and my crew will be wanting to prove themselves on our first patrol and i just hope that we get a little luck, I had a few days to inspect my crew and thanks to SH3 commander (randomising crews experience and specialties) im very happy with the level of experience the crew has although we do have some recruits which i will have to keep a close eye on during these first few patrols and watch for signs of fatigue. I want to keep the crew sharp and aware for i fear there will be very hard times ahead.

I will continue this patrol report after we have arrived to our patrol grid. I have ordered everyone not on station and reduced the amount of crew on stations to get there heads down while we are still in safer waters, ive asked my chief engineer to play a little light music and my favourite song J'attendrai plays so will sleep for a few hours.

Claus Korth/U-93

[GoldenRivet]

looking forward to reading more

good luck and enjoy the experience :salute:

[RustySubmarine]

Me too Claus! :up:

I must start my own writable career soon, just getting back into the swing of things first though, as it's been a while since I really got stuck into SH3.

[F1RacerDan]

Claus Korth U-93 Patrol 1 Update

7th October 1940 1500

Its been a long patrol and an extremely tough one at that, however im afraid to say not for the right reasons. the only enemies we have encountered have not been in the form of juicy merchant ship but bad weather, and when i say bad i mean bad! its like the storm seems to be following our U boat on our patrol, visibility is minimal, the rain is relentless and the waves are rocking the boat to the level of madness. This has played its toll on the crew as the fatigue levels are dropping much rapidly due to bad weather. I may have to spend a night submerged to allow the guys to rest without being thrown out the beds! Oh and the other enemy i was talking about was BOREDOM! after arriving at BE99 we took up a zig zag route and found nothing, went submerged and did hydrophone checks every hour and NOTHING! after our patrol was complete of grid BE99 we changed course and headed for the Liverpool-Gibralter route, lets hope it proves more fruitful than our patrol grid.

9th October 1940 - 2200

We'd been receiving several messages from BDU regarding a convoy in AL and several other Uboats were joining the fight, yet all we are doing in sailing in a storm in an area the British dont seem to be! the crew are getting restless and this storm is taking its toll now. both my watch crews are fatigued and i worry the British will sail right past us in this weather. Ive also given our radioman Karl Heinz a break from sitting listening to the empty seas. frustration is an understatement. I mustnt let this show to the crew, and will be sure to get a better grid when we return to port.

10th October 1940 - 0900

Finally we have hit some luck! the weather has settled drastically and its a calm as some of the old lakes i used to visit as a child.. The crew seemed to have lifted a little dispite no contacts in other a week since we left St Nazaire!

1500

CONTACT REPORT! Just as we started to give up hope and turn for home with a belly full of eels! First watch officer Lt Hans Kindler (my trusted first watch officer) screamed 'Ship Spotted' and i have never seen a crew so excited to hear those words. We were way down in the convoy shipping lane heading into Gibralter and were heading north back up the west coast of Spain and wed only stumbled into a large convoy heading straight for us. Now my only concern was with this beautiful clear weather had we been seen? I ordered the boat to periscope depth and made a slight adjustment to our course so the convoy would pass us on the perfect 90 degree angle so we could pick our targets well. From what i could tell there was one destroyer at the front of convoy and one to the side, luckily the other side from were looking on, I remember thinking to myself as i was looking through the periscope 'we deserve this luck' after a grulling week with nothing to show for, literally the moment that thought left my head, Karl Heinz shouted for my attention with a face of fear. one of the escorts had broken rank and was headed towards us, i turned the uboat towards the nearest merchant and released three torpedoes, front, back and rear. I was adement i was taking something down. We was forced to dive fast and not wait around to see the show. We heard all 3 eels hit the merchant hard as we dived to 160 metres and went to silent running.We turned hard to our left hoping the destroyer had gone past us ... This didnt work! they was pinging us and not long after she was right on top of us with an attack run of depth charges. The crew braced and the first explosion was a big one. luckily we suffered minor damage to the deck gun and conning tower, i ordered hard to port at full speed and tried to stay behind the escort but then 'PING PING' those damm british had the other escort come and do there dirty work, again tried turning hard to port as another barrage of depth charges hit us HARD!, suffering some damage to the hull, diesel engines and the pumps. We came a little higher to around 100 metres to keep them guessing and it seemed to work so far we have counter over 20 explosions but none have done anymore than rock our Uboat! the damage doesnt seem too bad but unfixable until we shake them. weve took on a little water also and bouyancy is now an issue! if we go any slower than 4 knots we start sinking, yet going any faster than 4 knots and the destroyers hear us move, I remember now thinking how lucky we was to hit this convoy and with a small merchant sunk was it really worth it! its been a few hours submerged with pretty much constant barrages of depth charges. I ordered a heading of east the opposite way the convoy was heading and im not going to lie, the bouyancy issue was a little worrying and shallower water meant we could at least settle on the seabed and make zero noise hoping we'd lose contact, that was the plan!

2150
After over 6 hours of the hunter being the hunted its seems the destroyers have given up after giving it another hour we will surface and assess the damage.

2300

Finally we surface, the cold night air is a welcome after that torrid few hours, i send my chief engineer, my trusty loyal Willfreid Felsmann set about the repairs and i ordered minimal work stations to allow the crew som proper shut eye, we will head to St Nazaire to finish our patrol.

18th October 1940

8 days later we arrive safely at St Nazaire with a few bashes and bruises but in one piece, all that for a small merchant of 2397 tons! Was it my fault? had the long haul of seeing nothing made me to eager and not as sharp! i know i need to rest and make sure im 110% for our next patrol. i only hope our turnaround at port isnt too long i want the crew to keep there wits about them and not be drinking in the french bars for too long! also i want to talk to my superiors in order of a more fruitful grid position.

Claus Korth

[F1RacerDan]

Claus Korth U-93

Upon getting briefed on our second patrol i receive the terrible news (vias SH3 Commander) that one of the crew Richard Maer an experienced torpedoman was killed in a bar fight. Its a crazy world! a man survives the horror of war at 180 metres submerged for how many hours then killed in a drunken arguement probably over nothing. i worry what this will do to morale among the crew. Now time for some r&r

Claus Korth

[F1RacerDan]

Klaus Korth U-93 - Patrol 2 Begins...

17th November 1940

after a few weeks of R&R the crew reported in for our second patrol. AL69 was the the patrol grid we'd been issued with, I was much happier with this as was a lot of the more experienced members of our crew, and talking of our crew i decided to dismiss and replace for of our basic sailors with little experience with a few more robust sailors. We left port at around 2100 hours and made our way round the northwest coast of France then began heading north west towards AL69 sticking to the convoy route along the way. We also had an early contact report but it was only one of our type IXB subs, going off our last patrol thats just U-93's luck!. Weather doesnt seem too bad for a change. 'Long way to tipperary' beams out of the ships comms system as i write this so i will rejoin the chaps for a sing song before hitting the sack for a few hours. Morale seems much higher so far.. lets hope a few juicy merchants sinking at our hand will keep that up.

Klaus Korth U-93

[flag4]

Smooth report. I wish you greater success on this next outing.
Maybe you could shadow the next day-time convoy's until dark, then come in
for the kill?
Good luck!

[F1RacerDan]

Claus Korth U-93

19th November 1730

well the weathers holding off but very rough seas as we arrived at AL69 and we've had a sound contact from Karl Heinz our radioman so we adjusted course to attempt a visual on the surface, after following it for over 2 hours the darkness fell and a passenger/cargo liner flying the British flag appeared on the horizon heading west. We set an intercepting course and fired two eels one hitting dead centre and the other hitting hear towards the rear sending her down to the locker! i noticed one of the crew having an awfully sad look when noticing she was carrying passengers as well as cargo but my orders are simple, sink British ships and this ship had cargo onboard. i resumed course immediately as i didn't want the crew to see people overboard, come to think of it neither did I. overall the crew is just happy we've got some tonnage early on in our patrol. We will continue our sweep of grid AL69 then head North in search of some convoys.

Claus Korth

P.S i always feel bad for sinking passenger/cargo ships but our job is to cut off the British supply line, war is hell.

[flag4]

...the spoils of war are soaked in blood.
Don't despair...face forward - keep going!

[F1RacerDan]

Klaus Korth U-93 24th Novermber 1940

After starting our patrol so positively im afraid the rest of the patrol yeilded nothing, we sailed all the way up to the north of Scotland and back down again before running low on fuel and having to return to St Nazaire! I decided to hit the nightclub with some of the crew and was informed about Hans Jenisch bagging the '42000 ton liner Empress of Britain. Yet all we could bag was a lousy 2000 ton passenger/cargo ship! I only hope our third patrol will be more successful. Im hoping for a quick turn around in port as myself and the crew are eager to get back out there in this 'glorious war'. On the way out of the bar Erich informed us that the commander was worried we wasnt coming back due to the lack of radio reports wed not sent, presuming we been caught up in one of minefields, that got me thinking maybe a daring port raid would boost our tonage? are my crew ready for such a feat?