Operation Drumbeat

[scott_c2911]

Ive just started my 24th patrol. Its Boxing day 1941 and Im en route to grid CA64 340km SE of New York. Im in U-123 a TypeIXB. Wish me luck. I will keep you all updated.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 10 1942 grid CB94. Nothing to report so far. Weather has been ok. Im worried about fuel but the navigator assures me we will get back.

[Dread Knot]

Should you make into New York Harbor give my regards to Broadway. :shucks:

[scott_c2911]

Jan 13 1942 grid CA64. Ive reached the assigned grid. Still no contacts?

[scott_c2911]

Jan 14 1942 1600 grid CA64. Aircraft sighted. Crash dived to evade.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 14 1942 2114 grid CA64. Surfaced to resume patrol.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 15 1942 0148 grid CA56. Have left CA64 and I have set course for CA52 to carry out another 24 hour patrol. Still no ships encountered. (I sincerely hope this thread gets some action).

[scott_c2911]

Jan 16 1942 0103 grid CA52. Contact report received of a lone merchant travelling fast in a southerly direction through grid CA52. Plotted intetcept course.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 16 1942 0435 grid CA52. Small Tanker sighted. Engaged submerged with 2 torpedoes scoring 2 hits. She sank for 2051GRT. The first one snapped the hull into two!

[scott_c2911]

Jan 16 1942 0939 grid CA28 Ive decided to extend the patrol into the mouth of the Hudson River expecting more contacts. Fuels still ok by about 5000km.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 16 1942 1320 grid CA51. We are in sight of the coast. I intend to sail south along the coast as far as CA54 and then set course for Lorient. No contacts in the mouth of the Hudson.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 16 1942 1805 grid CA51. Coastal Tanker sighted and sank using deck gun for 1240GRT.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 16 1942 1811 grid CA51 2 Great Lakes Freighters sighted. Engaged both with deck gun and sank for 1788GRT and 1789GRT respectively.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 17 1942 0400 grid CA54. Ive decided to extend our southward journey to CA81, 150km West of Norfolk.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 17 1942 1451 grid CA81. Set course for Lorient. If we hit a storm going back we will be running on fumes. It has been a poor patrol so far. We are going to follow the England - Halifax convoy route back for some of the way. We may catch a convoy.

[scott_c2911]

Jan 18 1942 1527 grid CA94 Small Freighter sighted and sank for 2228GRT with deck gun.

[flag4]

...YOU HAVE TO READ THIS - if you already haven't.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Operation-Drumbeat-Germanys-Attacks-American-ebook/dp/B003YCOP5M/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394925503&sr=1-2&keywords=operation+drumbeat+the+dramatic+true+stor y+of+germany%27s

happy times:salute:

[scott_c2911]

I will thanku. My patrol just got interesting. I apologize if its been a little boring.

Jan 19 1942 0116 grid CA95 2 Armed Ore Carriers sighted sailing south east line astern. I spent the next three hours trying to overhaul them. I got into a perfect position undetected and fired 2 torpedoes submerged at each sinking them for 8084GRT and 8085GRT respectively. A 5th torpedo was needed for the rearmost one to finish her. The torpedoes were set for 7m with mag pistols. The draft of an Ore Carrier is 6.6m. (I love under the keel shots).

[RConch]

Two ore carriers-very tasty!:salute:

[scott_c2911]

To flag4 that book is very good. Its more like a novel than history book. I didn't realise I was emulating Reinhard Hardegan, I just thought I have a type IXB and the dates are about right, why not have a pop at the Americans. He really was an extremely good commander and a good seaman. Once again thankyou for the recommendation. Thce mission continues...

[scott_c2911]

Feb 2 1942 1324 grid BE55 We have unfortunately just reached our last nav point before reaching Lorient. We have another 1800km to sail. Weather is ok. We may run into the enemy but it is fairly unlikely unless its an aeroplane. I pushed the fuel as much as I dare. Donitz will probably say "Be more aggressive" as usual. I have less than a quarter of a tank. It has been an extremely long voyage. We have sunk 25265GRT so far.

[scott_c2911]

Feb 3 1942 2011 grid BE65 Convoy reported in the neighbouring grid BE66 heading SSW at 8kts. The weather has changed dramatically and max speed is probably about 10kts in the huge seas. I cannot intercept without risking the safety of the boat (running out of fuel) or disobeying orders. I could refuel at El Ferrol but I have been told to return directly to Lorient to be debriefed. I wouldn't overhaul them until a point West of Porto or Lisbon anyway.

[scott_c2911]

Feb 5 1942 0907 grid BF42 Small convoy reported in grid BF45 headed roughly North at 9kts. Its close enough to intercept and still make it home. Reversed course.

[scott_c2911]

Feb 5 1942 1021 Lead escort sighted. Manouvering into attack position submerged.

[flag4]

To flag4 that book is very good. Its more like a novel than history book. I didn't realise I was emulating Reinhard Hardegan, I just thought I have a type IXB and the dates are about right, why not have a pop at the Americans. He really was an extremely good commander and a good seaman. Once again thankyou for the recommendation. Thce mission continues...

a great favourite of mine...:up:

[scott_c2911]

Feb 5 1942 1028 grid BF42 Engaged Liberty Cargo and a Passenger Cargo with 2 torpedoes each. We can visually confirm 2 hits on the Liberty Cargo but the other 2 torpedoes have missed. Dived to 145m at silent speed to evade the C and D Class destroyer escorting the convoy. No sinkings reported by sonar as of yet.

[scott_c2911]

Feb 5 1942 1351 grid BF42 The destroyer moved of an hour or so ago. Sonar reports Liberty Cargo as stationary or very slow. Moved in for a coup de grace with a single torpedo. She sank for 7335GRT. Thats a bonus I certainly was not expecting. I shall eat my words from an earlier entry. Returned to course and surfaced.

[scott_c2911]

Feb 7 1942 0130. Arrived at Lorient. Patrol results: 8 Merchants sunk for 32600 GRT.
It wasnt the turkey shoot that happened in history but it was a respectable tonnage. Hope you enjoyed following my patrol.

[gar]

I have found that Operation Drumbeat is not well represented. Between the lack of ships and the higher level of readiness of an unprepared America. If you have not read the book, I suggest you do so.

Good Hunting
Gar
keep the wind at your back and the sun on your face

[Riccardo1975]

Hello Scott

Dec 19th 1941 and heading WNW toward Halifax. Its taken me hours to get here in my Type IXC. I hope the East coast has more ships than what you found or Im going back to Tangiers/Freetown! Lol

:rolleyes:

[Sailor Steve]

Good reports so far. Minimal but entertaining. Keep up the good work. :rock:

[scott_c2911]

They are minimal mainly because I haven't got much of an imagination for story telling but I originally started this post as it was the first time my game was stable enough for me to attempt the mission and I was interested to see if SH3 recreated it well. I was also, through luck, commanding U-123 the most famous boat during the operation. I am still playing and I am still in command of U-123. My installation has survived to March 1943 despite several blue screens leading to corrupt files, corrupted saves and at one point I had to completely format my HD due to a virus I picked up attempting to patch SH4. (Avoid gamespot, use ubi.com). The rule to follow here is backup, backup and backup some more if you want to keep playing from where you left off. My XP rig has not fully recovered from the virus (I am using XP SP2 with no updates) and is now offline for good and I am using it as a console. It is basically an x-box with a keyboard lol. I am lucky that I have a Vista laptop to do my downloading. I just wanted to let people know that since Microsoft have dumped XP to rot the biggest battle I have fought (that hasn't been in game) has been keeping the computer and therefore the game running. Most of you use later versions of windows and better PCs but I have had no luck getting any stability on them, (I have tried Vista and 7). All is now well and I am struggling to survive the Allied onslaught of aircraft. THE AIR GAP IS A MYTH!

[Riccardo1975]

Good reports Scott. Just sank a medium cargo in the Hudson bay with one torp and 11 105mm rounds. Glad I didnt turn back at Bermuda. :)

[Fourfifties]

I read Operation Drumbeat recently (as well as O'Kane's books) and that was my inspiration to reinstall SH3 after many years. I'm playing with GWX at the moment. What are people's opinion on how well GWX models drumbeat or are there mods that do it better? In GWX, where are the hot spots on the U.S. coast? Is Cape Hatteras busy with shipping like it was historically?

[Aktungbby]

Fourfifties!:Kaleun_Salute: belatedly; We missed you on your first post 5/31

[Sailor Steve]

They are minimal mainly because I haven't got much of an imagination for story telling
I wasn't criticizing. I like minimal. I tend to write straight-up patrol reports myself, with no commentary at all.

[Jimbuna]

I read Operation Drumbeat recently (as well as O'Kane's books) and that was my inspiration to reinstall SH3 after many years. I'm playing with GWX at the moment. What are people's opinion on how well GWX models drumbeat or are there mods that do it better? In GWX, where are the hot spots on the U.S. coast? Is Cape Hatteras busy with shipping like it was historically?

A great deal of work went into the campaign layers for GWX and as such are pretty much accurate as far as time and effort allowed...my advice would be to interrogate the scripted and random layers with Mission Editor if you want the most precise information.

Welcome :sunny:

[Riccardo1975]

Just spent late December 1941 and January 1942 running decks awash between Norfolk and Cape Hatteras. Lots of unarmed ships, no aircraft and the nastiest piece of kit I encountered was an armed tugboat. Great place to score 100k tonnes but just watch the shallows. Sank an ore carrier in water about 15 metres deep.

Forget crash diving..... :)

March '41 with radar, turm 2, decoys and two zwillings and heading back to CA29. :thumbup:

Riccardo, U-501.

[Skink5150]

...YOU HAVE TO READ THIS - if you already haven't.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Operation-Drumbeat-Germanys-Attacks-American-ebook/dp/B003YCOP5M/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394925503&sr=1-2&keywords=operation+drumbeat+the+dramatic+true+stor y+of+germany%27s

happy times:salute:

Indeed . A part of my library . I've read it three times . :up:

[Fourfifties]

Fourfifties!:Kaleun_Salute: belatedly; We missed you on your first post 5/31

Thank you, belatedly, for the belated welcome. Nice community here :up:

[Jimbuna]

Thank you, belatedly, for the belated welcome. Nice community here :up:

I've certainly come across a lot worse.