Kaptlt.Endrass
09-06-15, 09:53 PM
November 1940, in a patrol I had before I lost my computer (Working on it, BdU of the LWF), a series of events occured that blew my mind. Take note, this is GWX 3.0, with only event cam, external cam, no map contacts, and Weps Officer assistance not selected. And the only time I used external was to watch the pretty explosions.
I was only 10 kilometers from the main approach into Scapa Flow on routine patrol. Earlier, I'd sunk a small merchant to the east as I'd come in with surface fire. We had been buzzed by Hurricanes, but little else had happened.
Feeling relatively safe and confident in my honed harbor attack skills, I decide to try for it to the north. We never make it, but jot for the normal reasons.
2-ish klicks out, we get a huge relief from our uneventful (relatively) excursion: One large depot ship moving leisurely along. We close to 400 meters at periscope depth and fire two T1s, trusting our proximity and the falling night to hide them. 30 seconds later, we have our prize.
As expected, Tommy didn't like the prospect of a U-boat in vicinity to a major naval base. A nearby destroyer turns up, just in time for us to go silent as we reload the forward tubes. More are approaching from Scapa, but as of now, we are undetected.
My plan: sink the destroyer, surface, and steam southeast towards home, damn the 24-hour patrol time. As it happened, the destroyer (a C&D class) was just entering our rear firing arc. Now, this is not reommended unless you are a veteran player AND just outside of torpedo arming range, but I had no time to manually target her and took a little guesswork, let that torpedo go at just over 310 meters, and she took off the bow of that DD nice and clean.
We surface, but almost immediately get hit with radar warnings. So, with the seas calm, we retreat back to depth, and put-put along at 4 knots. Three destroyers arrive on scene and begin an aggresive ASW search.
The bottom is only 26 meters here, so I know, I get contacted, the U-39 is struck from the BdU register. Just when we get out into the clear, a fourth destroyer arrives, and sends out a ping that hits us square on. But, he is coming in at 0-0-0, and I repeat the process from earlier, magnetically setting tube 2 for launch and throwing it out. And again, by some miracle, the destroyer is sent down.
We repeat this with all other tubes, scoring two hits and one sinking. By this time, the AI must have been extremely smart, as they gave up, counting their losses and unable to find me.
Maybe it was the fact all shots were just over arming range (except for one, I fired too late and the destroyer closed to around 250 meters before the eel got there.) Maybe I was unusually on my game that night. Whatever it was, I called it a patrol and we limped back to Wilhemshaven on one engine, the other destroyed in a depth-charging. Not to mention the repairs needed for the conning tower
I was only 10 kilometers from the main approach into Scapa Flow on routine patrol. Earlier, I'd sunk a small merchant to the east as I'd come in with surface fire. We had been buzzed by Hurricanes, but little else had happened.
Feeling relatively safe and confident in my honed harbor attack skills, I decide to try for it to the north. We never make it, but jot for the normal reasons.
2-ish klicks out, we get a huge relief from our uneventful (relatively) excursion: One large depot ship moving leisurely along. We close to 400 meters at periscope depth and fire two T1s, trusting our proximity and the falling night to hide them. 30 seconds later, we have our prize.
As expected, Tommy didn't like the prospect of a U-boat in vicinity to a major naval base. A nearby destroyer turns up, just in time for us to go silent as we reload the forward tubes. More are approaching from Scapa, but as of now, we are undetected.
My plan: sink the destroyer, surface, and steam southeast towards home, damn the 24-hour patrol time. As it happened, the destroyer (a C&D class) was just entering our rear firing arc. Now, this is not reommended unless you are a veteran player AND just outside of torpedo arming range, but I had no time to manually target her and took a little guesswork, let that torpedo go at just over 310 meters, and she took off the bow of that DD nice and clean.
We surface, but almost immediately get hit with radar warnings. So, with the seas calm, we retreat back to depth, and put-put along at 4 knots. Three destroyers arrive on scene and begin an aggresive ASW search.
The bottom is only 26 meters here, so I know, I get contacted, the U-39 is struck from the BdU register. Just when we get out into the clear, a fourth destroyer arrives, and sends out a ping that hits us square on. But, he is coming in at 0-0-0, and I repeat the process from earlier, magnetically setting tube 2 for launch and throwing it out. And again, by some miracle, the destroyer is sent down.
We repeat this with all other tubes, scoring two hits and one sinking. By this time, the AI must have been extremely smart, as they gave up, counting their losses and unable to find me.
Maybe it was the fact all shots were just over arming range (except for one, I fired too late and the destroyer closed to around 250 meters before the eel got there.) Maybe I was unusually on my game that night. Whatever it was, I called it a patrol and we limped back to Wilhemshaven on one engine, the other destroyed in a depth-charging. Not to mention the repairs needed for the conning tower