Sophist
06-04-17, 12:54 AM
(TLDR: Interesting part at ***)
Informal KTB of U-46, Leutnant z. s. Sophist
I made this Subsim account some time ago, hoping to put in some good hours into SI3 and post some interesting stories. Life got busy, and I was unable to do so. Here I am, after a bit of lurking on the forums, with a little story of a debacle that I thought might be funny to the old salts.
I put in a few dozen hours (~40) into the vanilla career. I figured out, slowly, how to mount an effective attack under decent conditions and eased myself off the training wheels. I figured I was pretty decent at the vanilla game; let's try this GWX thing I've heard so much about.
I start off a career in 1940, around the time I left off my vanilla career. Right off I'm impressed by the depth of GWX. I skim the recognition manual as my type VIIB slowly floats out of Lorient. BdU sends me somewhere around CF33. I patrolled for about 24 hours with no sightings. Then word comes in: large convoy sighted near CG11 headed NNW slow.
Now, bear in mind. I had, to this point, never engaged a convoy - neither in vanilla nor GWX. I get quite intimidated by the nasty frigate and corvette escorts. I unsuccessfully shadow the convoy and get spotted several times. I lost contact when some air patrols force me under 200 km off Cornwall. [REDACTED; no offense intended].
After some time, report comes in of another convoy, this one outbound west. I decide on a new strategy: get visual contact, estimate the course, then dip around and wait way out front. I do so, sitting quietly under the waves, and soon I'm getting sound contacts all over the place. I wait, real patiently, while the sound contacts get closer and the contact I figure must be the lead frigate passes on by. It looks like I'm at the southern edge of the westbound convoy. It's deep night at this point, so I raise my periscope cautiously to take a look around.
The waves are massive and I can see nothing but torrential rain, frothing waters, and darkness. My periscope goes under the rough sea so often that I have about four seconds of visibility at a time before the waves blind me again. Bottom line: I can't see a thing. But I've got a dozen or more sound contacts all around, and I'm not about to lose them. Rigged for silent running, I start off cautiously westward, just barely slower than the convoy.
***
Time is running out. If I don't decide on something soon I'll lose them in the bad weather.
I actually whisper to myself: "Skrew it." If I can't see anything from periscope I might as well surface and see if that helps, even if the sound contacts are all but on top of me. "Auftauchen" (really enjoying these new GWX audio cues). I hop on on deck to take a look around. I can't believe it: nothing. More blackness. But the sound contacts were right there - right on top of me. My watch crew reports no sightings. Carefully, carefully, I swing around with my binoculars.
Then, something. A grey splotch almost totally hidden in darkness, rain, and waves. Right around bearing 270. I swear it's under 100 meters. We're running almost perfectly parallel. It's heading is steady. I don't think it's seen me. I turn to my watch officer. Do you see that?? The watch crew reports no sightings (!!!). God's sake.
I scratch my head. The grey splotch (it's rather small) is pulling slowly ahead of me. I don't want to increase my speed, because God if I know how it hasn't seen me yet. If I don't do something now, I'll lose it. On the one hand, I'm afraid to launch a torpedo at this range lest I get caught in the blast. On the other, I'm afraid to maneuver away and lose sight of the ship, that beautiful prey that I've been chasing for about two hours of my own time.
I mutter to myself again: 'Skrew it.' I begin to rig a torpedo for firing with a magnetic detonator. I'm running at speed so my gyro angle calculations would probably be useless. I manually adjust the angle to run about 50 degrees port. Fire. I watch on the event camera with my fists clenched (Yeah, I use the event camera - for dramatic effect). There's the hull. Aaaaaand CLANG! Bounces right off.
I hold my breath, waiting on deck for all hell to break loose in the convoy. Nothing. How did the crew not notice that? No time to wonder. I must have got the angle too steep. I rig the next torp (also magnetic) to run out further ahead of me, then right angle port. That should get a solid hit. No chance of a bad angle here. Fire.
I hold my breath again, praying we don't get caught in the blast. I watch the event camera. There's the hull! It's perpendicular. It's gonna hit. There it goes... Aaaaaaand CLANG! Bounces right off - again.
No time for confusion. I watch in horror from my bridge as, at almost the instant of impact, a spotlight flashes to life on the deck of my prey and immediately swings starboard. I disappear below deck as the floodlight drifts over our hull. Alaaarm! Crash dive! We hear a number of rounds ping off the exposed conning tower as we run like Hell down. We got lucky that we got deep enough and far enough to avoid the depth charges, though a number came real close. I held my breath for the next twenty minutes with no kills to notch on my bullet-riddled conning tower.
What went wrong?
The first torp probably hit at too steep an angle, but the second hit dead on.
Well, my greenness sure didn't help. I later found the magnetic detonators unreliable on several occasions. I switched to impact only and had much more luck.
I can think of a few things that might have happened.
1. The ships had demagnetized hulls and my detonators were not yet rigged to compensate. My patrol was in late 1940 so this might be historically accurate.
2. The magnetic detonators will only go off underneath the a target in GWX. This is how they were intended to be used historically, but I don't understand why literally hitting the side of the hull wouldn't set them off.
3. The detonators are unreliable. This would also be historically accurate for 1940, but after so many failures I have to wonder (as did the real life kaleuns and Doenitz himself when the British found a way to demagnetize their hulls).
I'm leaning toward the first conclusion. I've since switched to contact detonators with much more success, but I don't think the BdU will be all that happy with me if I continue using primitive detonators indefinitely.
What do the vets say? Are the hulls demagnetized, or am I just Bernard?
Informal KTB of U-46, Leutnant z. s. Sophist
I made this Subsim account some time ago, hoping to put in some good hours into SI3 and post some interesting stories. Life got busy, and I was unable to do so. Here I am, after a bit of lurking on the forums, with a little story of a debacle that I thought might be funny to the old salts.
I put in a few dozen hours (~40) into the vanilla career. I figured out, slowly, how to mount an effective attack under decent conditions and eased myself off the training wheels. I figured I was pretty decent at the vanilla game; let's try this GWX thing I've heard so much about.
I start off a career in 1940, around the time I left off my vanilla career. Right off I'm impressed by the depth of GWX. I skim the recognition manual as my type VIIB slowly floats out of Lorient. BdU sends me somewhere around CF33. I patrolled for about 24 hours with no sightings. Then word comes in: large convoy sighted near CG11 headed NNW slow.
Now, bear in mind. I had, to this point, never engaged a convoy - neither in vanilla nor GWX. I get quite intimidated by the nasty frigate and corvette escorts. I unsuccessfully shadow the convoy and get spotted several times. I lost contact when some air patrols force me under 200 km off Cornwall. [REDACTED; no offense intended].
After some time, report comes in of another convoy, this one outbound west. I decide on a new strategy: get visual contact, estimate the course, then dip around and wait way out front. I do so, sitting quietly under the waves, and soon I'm getting sound contacts all over the place. I wait, real patiently, while the sound contacts get closer and the contact I figure must be the lead frigate passes on by. It looks like I'm at the southern edge of the westbound convoy. It's deep night at this point, so I raise my periscope cautiously to take a look around.
The waves are massive and I can see nothing but torrential rain, frothing waters, and darkness. My periscope goes under the rough sea so often that I have about four seconds of visibility at a time before the waves blind me again. Bottom line: I can't see a thing. But I've got a dozen or more sound contacts all around, and I'm not about to lose them. Rigged for silent running, I start off cautiously westward, just barely slower than the convoy.
***
Time is running out. If I don't decide on something soon I'll lose them in the bad weather.
I actually whisper to myself: "Skrew it." If I can't see anything from periscope I might as well surface and see if that helps, even if the sound contacts are all but on top of me. "Auftauchen" (really enjoying these new GWX audio cues). I hop on on deck to take a look around. I can't believe it: nothing. More blackness. But the sound contacts were right there - right on top of me. My watch crew reports no sightings. Carefully, carefully, I swing around with my binoculars.
Then, something. A grey splotch almost totally hidden in darkness, rain, and waves. Right around bearing 270. I swear it's under 100 meters. We're running almost perfectly parallel. It's heading is steady. I don't think it's seen me. I turn to my watch officer. Do you see that?? The watch crew reports no sightings (!!!). God's sake.
I scratch my head. The grey splotch (it's rather small) is pulling slowly ahead of me. I don't want to increase my speed, because God if I know how it hasn't seen me yet. If I don't do something now, I'll lose it. On the one hand, I'm afraid to launch a torpedo at this range lest I get caught in the blast. On the other, I'm afraid to maneuver away and lose sight of the ship, that beautiful prey that I've been chasing for about two hours of my own time.
I mutter to myself again: 'Skrew it.' I begin to rig a torpedo for firing with a magnetic detonator. I'm running at speed so my gyro angle calculations would probably be useless. I manually adjust the angle to run about 50 degrees port. Fire. I watch on the event camera with my fists clenched (Yeah, I use the event camera - for dramatic effect). There's the hull. Aaaaaand CLANG! Bounces right off.
I hold my breath, waiting on deck for all hell to break loose in the convoy. Nothing. How did the crew not notice that? No time to wonder. I must have got the angle too steep. I rig the next torp (also magnetic) to run out further ahead of me, then right angle port. That should get a solid hit. No chance of a bad angle here. Fire.
I hold my breath again, praying we don't get caught in the blast. I watch the event camera. There's the hull! It's perpendicular. It's gonna hit. There it goes... Aaaaaaand CLANG! Bounces right off - again.
No time for confusion. I watch in horror from my bridge as, at almost the instant of impact, a spotlight flashes to life on the deck of my prey and immediately swings starboard. I disappear below deck as the floodlight drifts over our hull. Alaaarm! Crash dive! We hear a number of rounds ping off the exposed conning tower as we run like Hell down. We got lucky that we got deep enough and far enough to avoid the depth charges, though a number came real close. I held my breath for the next twenty minutes with no kills to notch on my bullet-riddled conning tower.
What went wrong?
The first torp probably hit at too steep an angle, but the second hit dead on.
Well, my greenness sure didn't help. I later found the magnetic detonators unreliable on several occasions. I switched to impact only and had much more luck.
I can think of a few things that might have happened.
1. The ships had demagnetized hulls and my detonators were not yet rigged to compensate. My patrol was in late 1940 so this might be historically accurate.
2. The magnetic detonators will only go off underneath the a target in GWX. This is how they were intended to be used historically, but I don't understand why literally hitting the side of the hull wouldn't set them off.
3. The detonators are unreliable. This would also be historically accurate for 1940, but after so many failures I have to wonder (as did the real life kaleuns and Doenitz himself when the British found a way to demagnetize their hulls).
I'm leaning toward the first conclusion. I've since switched to contact detonators with much more success, but I don't think the BdU will be all that happy with me if I continue using primitive detonators indefinitely.
What do the vets say? Are the hulls demagnetized, or am I just Bernard?