U64 Traverses the Suez Canal!

[maillemaker]

So I was just east of Freetown and my boat got chewed up by some lucky merchants with their deck guns.

So I docked with the Python down south and patched up my boat, and then decided to round the cape of South Africa and see what it was like on the east coast of Africa.

In many years of playing this game I have never done that.

So I cruise up the coast...and it's rather boring. And it was non-stop rain. I bagged a couple of ships, and then wondered, "Hey, I wonder if you can travel through the Suez Canal?"

:D

So I tried it.

As you enter the canal from the south, you pass a couple of gun emplacements on the way in. I submerged to get by those, but it was too slow being so shallow to go submerged the whole way. So I surfaced.

Everything went smoothly until you reach the little lake just inside the canal. The Brits had a surprise for me. Not one, not two, but three V&W class destroyers. Tried to sneak by them but they heard me and came after me. I nailed them all with down-the-throat shots, though they ran over me a couple of times. Fortunately no major damage.

It is 1941 after all.

So I continue along the canal and I took the branch of it that took me furthest away from Port Said. As I cleared the canal I could make out gun emplacements once again, so I ran decks awash, but again it was so stormy they never saw me.

Had to dodge an ASW trawler in the shallow waters off the canal, but I was home free in to the Med.

Bagged a small convoy on the way to La Spezia, and now my crew is on the Italian beach enjoying the sun and girls.

When we leave via Gibraltar, I will have completely circumnavigated Africa.

Steve

[Tupolev]

Better break out the Vaseline getting through Gibraltar! Especially in that fat IXB!

[kaleun Peter Gipp]

This is what I enjoy greatly in this simulation , a world of possibilities , do keep us up to date on how you reach the Atlantic . :Kaleun_Binocular:

[maillemaker]

I left La Spezia and headed for Gibraltar. I killed a lone merchant, and then resumed my course. Saw a merchant lead and trailed by an escort, so I turned towards them until they saw me and started shooting.

Ducked underwater and turned and pointed my stern tubes at them. Only the lead escort came, the trailer stayed with the merchant.

The lead got close, came straight in with no zig-zagging, so I easily hit him in the chin with a magnetic fish. Unfortunately it did not kill it, and, as is usual, when escorts get damaged they immediately give up the fight and go back into convoy formation. Then the trailing escort broke off and came after me.

Same deal - came straight in and this time my fish blew him dead.

I surfaced and manned the deck gun and put a dozen or so shots into the wounded escort and killed him before he ever hit me.

Then I turned my gun on the merchant and put it down also, and likewise they never hit me with their gun, either.

I turned towards Gibraltar again and made my run. As soon as I spotted a destroyer, I dove to 220m and creeped through the straight.

We surfaced on the other side, and I came to a stop in the darkness and pulled in my external stores. Then we started off again.

No sooner had we started out on flat seas, now outside the Med, we got an alert of a large convoy nearby heading towards the straight.

Went to flank speed and made a perfect intercept and dove silent, letting the convoy come right over us. I easily shot out the front and rear tubes, and reloaded and hit more ships as they passed by my nose and tail. Took down 4 merchants and damaged another when an escort was coming our way.

I turned fast and let him give chase, and fired a magnetic straight at him. Unfortunately, I forgot to set the target speed to zero so the torpedo swerved away in the wrong direction. We dove to 220 m and easily sailed out the rear of the convoy.

Surfaced a while later and looked back with the periscope and saw the wounded merchant sitting there. I surfaced and finished her off with the guns.

Then I turned tail west and ran before the help showed up again.

I just happened to come up on the bridge, and low and behold right there in the dark, not 1500 meters away, was a Black Swan burning and dead in the water. I assumed, since we were so close and they had not lit us up, that it was dead, but all of a sudden my WO finally woke up and said, "Ship sighted!!!". Holy crap it was alive!

We dove and headed towards it, and I easily put a steamer right into its side and blew it sky high.

I then turned north to follow the belly of Spain back to Lorient. Got a notification of a ship, so I headed towards it on the surface at flank speed. Perfect weather and daylight now, and we get attacked by aircraft.

I try to man the guns but we never get a hit. Well, we got a hit, but we never brought it down. They killed my AAA crew, including my qualified PO, though, and brought our hull integrity down to 72%.

I closed in on the target nonetheless, the aircraft was diving on us but was out of bombs, and I saw where the aircraft had come from. A CAM-2 freighter with a catapult on the front.

I dove and got into a perfect firing position and let lose 3 of my last 4 torpedoes. One miss, one dud, and one hit. I tried to follow up with my last eel with a snap shot and missed with that one, too.

I stopped and let it cruise on to about 3000m away, blew ballast and shot to the surface. I manned the deck gun and with my last 6 rounds sent her to the bottom.

Since I only had one external fish left, and we were down to 72% HI, I made a quick detour over to the Thalia for repairs and more torpedoes.

Steve

[Admiral Halsey]

NEVER FIGHT THE PLANES! Always crash dive the moment they're spotted! This is the once scenario where being less aggressive is the right approach.

[banryu79]

Nice story, maillemaker! :salute:

-- BE LESS AGGRESSIVE! -- :rotfl2:

[captgeo]

great read:yeah:

[Wreford-Brown]

Great story maillemaker. What mods are you playing with?

[maillemaker]

Great story maillemaker. What mods are you playing with?

Thanks. I'd have to go do a dump I have not fiddled with them for some time.

GWX 3.0 of course.
Lifeboats and debris
Torpedo damage
16km visibility
Hi-Res
Hitman Optics (to fix torpedo firing in Hi-Res mode)

I play dead is dead on 100% realism, including no map updates. I've made it as far as 1943 before. I'm certain this time I will make it to the end! :rock:

I only carry steamers in the external loads, electrics inside. I don't pull in external loads without coming to a full stop and the weather must be at least good enough to man the guns.

Well, I cheated on this one twice. Once the surface was so flat it was like glass so I had my guys pull in the torps while we moved to re-engage a convoy. The other time the weather was just choppy enough not to be able to use the guns but I came to a full stop and waited out the reload as usual.

I also "game the game" in that I know how to kill escorts pretty consistently and will do so if I cannot evade or if detected on approach.

And I run at full/flank speed with the periscope up.

Steve

[banryu79]

Thanks. I'd have to go do a dump I have not fiddled with them for some time.

GWX 3.0 of course.
Lifeboats and debris
Torpedo damage
16km visibility
Hi-Res
Hitman Optics (to fix torpedo firing in Hi-Res mode)

I play dead is dead on 100% realism, including no map updates. I've made it as far as 1943 before. I'm certain this time I will make it to the end! :rock:

I only carry steamers in the external loads, electrics inside. I don't pull in external loads without coming to a full stop and the weather must be at least good enough to man the guns.

Well, I cheated on this one twice. Once the surface was so flat it was like glass so I had my guys pull in the torps while we moved to re-engage a convoy. The other time the weather was just choppy enough not to be able to use the guns but I came to a full stop and waited out the reload as usual.

I also "game the game" in that I know how to kill escorts pretty consistently and will do so if I cannot evade or if detected on approach.

And I run at full/flank speed with the periscope up.

Steve
Nice rules, mine are similar (and I have similar mod soup minus the hires and hitman optics) but I have map contact updates enabled (I'm on my very first career) and I restric myself to use the scope only if running 3 kts or less. I have decided that Dead Is Dead for me too, but if (well, when) I die with my current character I will start a new career in the same year/mounth so I can explore the whole war conditions...

[maillemaker]

My mod list:
GWX - 16km Atmosphere
GWX - Enhanced Damage Effects
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
Hitman Optics for GWX3 v.1
Real Depth Charge
Torpdeo Damage Final
LifeBoats&Debris_v4
Q Ship mod GWX3.0
TDW_Ship_Plane_Fire_Damage_v1_4_SH3
Wolfehunters_IXB_U124_1_2
OLC's Modified Searchlight Beams for GWX3
Waterstream+Exhaust Combi V2.3 for GWX3
Type IXc - The Wolf
SH-5 Water for SH-3 Ultimate V10 16Km
Merchant_Fleet_Mod_3.2
MFM_v3_Skin_Packs
GWX - No Medals on Crew
TDW_DC_Water_Disturbance_v4_0_SH3
GWX - Late War Sensors Snorkel antennas
Das Realistic Food

I'm not sure the TDW_Ship_Plane_Fire_Damage_v1_4_SH3 works. A while ago I set an attacking sea plane on fire and it merrily flew off into the sunset while on fire. Looked like a meteor. :)

Steve

[banryu79]

My mod list:
GWX - 16km Atmosphere
GWX - Enhanced Damage Effects
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
Hitman Optics for GWX3 v.1
Real Depth Charge
Torpdeo Damage Final
LifeBoats&Debris_v4
Q Ship mod GWX3.0
TDW_Ship_Plane_Fire_Damage_v1_4_SH3
Wolfehunters_IXB_U124_1_2
OLC's Modified Searchlight Beams for GWX3
Waterstream+Exhaust Combi V2.3 for GWX3
Type IXc - The Wolf
SH-5 Water for SH-3 Ultimate V10 16Km
Merchant_Fleet_Mod_3.2
MFM_v3_Skin_Packs
GWX - No Medals on Crew
TDW_DC_Water_Disturbance_v4_0_SH3
GWX - Late War Sensors Snorkel antennas
Das Realistic Food

I'm not sure the TDW_Ship_Plane_Fire_Damage_v1_4_SH3 works. A while ago I set an attacking sea plane on fire and it merrily flew off into the sunset while on fire. Looked like a meteor. :)

Steve

Well, mod list for mod list, this is mine:
---
Thomsen's Sound Pack V3.2cg
GWX - Enhanced Damage Effects
GWX - Main movie - 'Das Boot'
GWX - No Medals on Crew
LifeBoats&Debris_v4
Flags_enlighten
TMTv2+ThomsensShips v4.4 for GWX3+Xtra ships
TheDarkWraith_Ship_Plane_Fire_Damage_v1_4_SH3
MaGui F
TorpedoSolutionButton for MaGui F (NYGM-GWX-WAC)
M.E.P v4.2
M.E.P v4.2 to v4.3
Optional - FSF for MEP v4.2
Optional - ShipVanishingHull for MEP v4.3
M.E.P v4.2 - VisualSensors for GWX3
Moon_light_mod
Officer 3D icons
OLC's Modified Searchlight Beams for GWX3
Das Boot Clothes
Johnfb Crew Management and Officer Icons
Johnfb's Sepia toned crew managment
---

And you know what? your mod list gave me some inspiration, I mean about these:
1) Real Depth Charge
2) TDW_DC_Water_Disturbance_v4_0_SH3
3) Q Ship mod GWX3.0

I run to learn about them, but if you desire to elaborate on them feel free to do so :D. I expecially like to know your personal feelings & feedback about the three above mentioned mods :arrgh!:

In change I can tell you that in my installation the mod "TheDarkWraith_Ship_Plane_Fire_Damage_v1_4_SH3" works correctly or I'm inclined to believe so (and from my point of view if the game makes me believe a mod is working I'm happy enough :haha:) because I have directly observed many times the delayed effect of fires (provoked by gun hits) on ships. With planes I had only one experience till now: I was attacked by an unidenditified plane while approaching my patrol zone (Nov 1939) near the east cost of Britain. I decided to stay on surface and shot the thing down in flames. My man hit several times the plane on his two bomb runs on us but short after it take fire he evaded and escaped towards home (still in flames). We lost him very quickly so we never known if he made home or not.

[maillemaker]

And you know what? your mod list gave me some inspiration, I mean about these:
1) Real Depth Charge
2) TDW_DC_Water_Disturbance_v4_0_SH3
3) Q Ship mod GWX3.0

I run to learn about them, but if you desire to elaborate on them feel free to do so :D. I expecially like to know your personal feelings & feedback about the three above mentioned mods :arrgh!:

I have run with these so long I don't remember what 1 and 2 do any more, or what the game was like without them.

Number 3, though...heh heh heh it's a good one. Just last patrol I closed on a lone freighter at night and engaged with guns at close range only to discover it was a Q ship and it beat me up pretty good before I could sink her.

My only complaint with the Q-ship mod is that there is only one ship style of Q-ship, and I can pretty much identify them on sight now. I slipped up with the one above because it was night and I had forgotten about Q-ships it had been so long since I saw one.

I wish there were more variants of Q-ships, or even better, if the Q-ships looked just like the rest of the game's merchant vessels.

What does the moonlight mod do?

Steve

[banryu79]

Number 3, though...heh heh heh it's a good one. Just last patrol I closed on a lone freighter at night and engaged with guns at close range only to discover it was a Q ship and it beat me up pretty good before I could sink her.

My only complaint with the Q-ship mod is that there is only one ship style of Q-ship, and I can pretty much identify them on sight now. I slipped up with the one above because it was night and I had forgotten about Q-ships it had been so long since I saw one.

I wish there were more variants of Q-ships, or even better, if the Q-ships looked just like the rest of the game's merchant vessels.

Could you (or someone else) please be so kind and give me a link to that thing? Cause I have tried searching in the SHIII mod section but no luck till now (I use the advanced seatch function and I curse the tons of result I obtain; the culprit, I suspect, is the word "ship" in "Q-Ship", that assure hundreds of results... :hmph:


What does the moonlight mod do?

Simultate nighttime light caused by the moon (in reality it use an ambient light, but it do so in a clever way). Give a somewhat nicer visual effect (so it's cosmetic) but also it *should* slightly comes in play for visual sensor consideration.
Here it is:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=207581&highlight=Moon+light+mod

[maillemaker]

I used Google to find this thread on it:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=149513

If you scroll down a bit you will see a version for GWX3.

Well, U-64 bought the farm last night.

It was July 1942. We were off the coast of the United States, off the continental shelf just off Charleston.

We received a radio notification of a ship contact in shallow water, so we made a dash for it. On the way, we spotted a Fletcher class destroyer. I decided to use my tried and true down-the-throat shot to take him out.

It was a bright sunny day, with flat seas, so we manned the deck gun and lobbed a few shots at the destroyer to get his attention, which we promptly did.

He ran straight at us, and we at him, until he got within pinging range, and I let my torpedo fly. Sadly I had forgotten to set the target speed back to zero, and so my torpedo went in the wrong direction. I made a quick correction and a follow-up shot but he was too close and the torpedo did not arm.

We tried to turn away, but we were too close. The destroyer hit us with an earth-shattering crash and the tearing of steel. Then we heard an explosion just aft of us. The sound man reported, "She's going down!"

We tried to open the hatch to the conning tower, but it was jammed shut. So we went out the aft hatch. The conning tower was...just gone. Completely sheared from the hull as if a giant scythe had come along and cut it away like grass. To our stern the Fletcher class was sinking rapidly by the bow and on fire, with men jumping off the sides into the sea.

With no bridge to station outlooks upon, we turned towards the open sea at flank speed, completely blind down below.

Within minutes we were rocked with explosions and we could hear the roar of aircraft engines. We were knocked down to 17% hull integrity and extreme damage. The port diesel was destroyed. Flooding. I put the damage control team to work, and we went for periscope depth with only 20 or so meters under the hull.

We got submerged, but I guess there was a fuel leak or they could see us in the clear, calm shallow water, but another burst of bombs fell on us, and knocked us down to 7% hull integrity.

Even at only periscope depth, the hull began to come apart around us, and we sank to our shallow grave.

Steve

P.S. I was surprised as in game we could not station any men on the bridge as it said "compartment destroyed". I had thought that if this happened the game would continue sticking your men on the bridge and killing them one after another. I was relieved that did not happen, but in the end it didn't matter.

[Zosimus]

Sad, especially since it was completely avoidable. I guess you learned the hard way to triple check your torpedo settings.

[banryu79]

Sad, especially since it was completely avoidable. I guess you learned the hard way to triple check your torpedo settings.
I guess he learned the hard way not to engage warship when not stricktly neccessary, at least if he really worry about his ship and men lives :stare:

[Btw, maillemaker, nice AAR! And thank you for the Q-Ship mod link!]

[Zosimus]

I guess he learned the hard way not to engage warship when not stricktly neccessary, at least if he really worry about his ship and men lives :stare:

[Btw, maillemaker, nice AAR! And thank you for the Q-Ship mod link!]

Well, I can't really say what that's like because I assume he has better torpedoes than the steam-powered ones I'm working with. As far as I understand his real death came from the airplanes that caught him in shallow water. Certainly he should have set his TDC to speed: 0 before lobbing a few shots to get the destroyer's attention. War is war, and the U-boat job is to sink enemy ships. Personally I aim for ships with large tonnage, but to each his (or her) own. Based on his experience, he calculated that his tactic would work. Since he probably knows better than I do, I assume that it would have worked, had he gotten the targeting computer on board with the plan.

[maillemaker]

Based on his experience, he calculated that his tactic would work. Since he probably knows better than I do, I assume that it would have worked, had he gotten the targeting computer on board with the plan.Yeah, but banyru is really right, in reality you'd never pull the tail of a tiger like I do.

But, as I've said elsewhere, I have learned how to "game the game". I operate within the limits of the game, but I do operate fully to the limits of the game. It's hard enough to beat (I have not made it to the end of the war on 100% realism yet) so I'm ok with that.

I have found that the escorts in ST3 are predictable enough that I can, about 90% of the time, take them out at will.

If you allow them to detect you, they will charge you. They sill either come straight in, which makes life easy, or, more usually, they will make a zig-zag approach. But they will almost always start pinging you and drive straight in when they reach 400 meters. Your torpedoes need 200-300 meters to arm. If you have IDd the escort and know its draft, and set a mag torpedo, you can usually nail them on their attack run. Even with a steamer set at fast speed they cannot evade.

But, you need your stern (or bow) pointed directly at them on firing. And in heavy seas sometimes the ship will dip low and cause a dud impact on the nose. And if you miss, watch out.

Generally, if you are running away from them, and thus using your stern tubes, if you miss you can generally, at flank speed, avoid a collision, and if you are lucky you will be close alongside them in their turn so that neither their aft-dropped nor side-launched depth charges can touch you.

If you are backing away from them, with your nose pointed at them, it's a lot harder to avoid a collision if you miss.

Of course later in the war when hedgehogs appear this tactic no longer works. But by then you should have homing torpedoes. :)

Most of the time I make a "traditional" attack, in that I slip inside the convoy and fire from within, reloading and attacking until the escorts figure out the deal and then I dive and evade.

But if I am detected on approach, I go on the offensive and draw off the escorts and kill them one at a time as they leave the convoy and come after me.

The only downside here (aside from missing :) ) is that on occasion you wound the escort but don't sink it. The AI makes them immediately give up pursuit and they return to their picket position in the convoy. Which makes night surface attacks harder afterwards as they are sitting their with all their nice radar and guns when you reload and resume your attack on the convoy.

Once I get homing torpedoes, though, all bets are off. I use the bug where you can switch from the torpedo load screen to any other screen and back so that I can load as many of any kind of torpedo I want. Then I intentionally draw off the escorts and nail them with homing torpedoes. It's still a bit tricky as sometimes the darn things chase off after someone you are not hoping to hit but generally they work out fine.

With a Type XXI and a belly full of homing torpedoes you can wipe out convoys. :)

Steve

Steve