Most embarrassing reason for U-boat losses?

[Knotical]

Reading the new Osprey Pub. book "WOLFPACK", by Gordon Williamson, I came across this on page 166. Talking about the 1 available "head", and how difficult and disgusting it was to use:
"At least one U-boat (U-1206) was lost because of incorrect handling of the toilet flushing apparatus. In this incident the U-boat had to surface immediately to ease water pressure and was attacked and fatally damaged by Allied aircraft on reaching the surface." It then goes on to say the entire crew survived because the boat was close to shore.

U-boat.net says this http://www.uboat.net/boats/u1206.htm

I am also suprised at the number of U-boats (esp. type IX's) operating in remote coastal waters destroyed by very small patrol craft armed only with a few depth charges and very small guns (which the U-boat could have easily outgunned on the surface).

A good example of this is U-166; http://www.pastfoundation.org/U166/index.htm
This website is one of the best I have seen, with excellent photos of a very well preserved IXB, 3d models, original crew/boat photos, etc.

[satmax]

Better tell them boys to pinch it off half-way!! :rotfl:

[kiwi_2005]

That was fantastic reading, i didn't even know the story about U166.

[Dowly]

Maybe we can tell our most embarassing deaths in game too?

I`ll start, I was on patrol from Brest to grid AM39 (Near Ireland), I had sunk only one coastal merchant and I was about half way to my objective grid. Then BdU send me contact report of a large convoy, so I took heading for the convoy. I reached it fast and noticed, that there were no escorts! Around ten to twelve merchants and tankers just sat ther waiting for me to sunk them. I decided to save my torpedoes, so I only launched two. On separate targets, both hit and sunk the targets. I surfaced and started blasting with deck gun. I sunk maybe four or five of them. Then I started scanning for good targets and BANG! I looked NW and almost fell of the chair! Small tanker was coming fast straight towards me! I had no time to evade it, he was ~50m from me. He collided me and my command gontrol got flooded killing everyone in there. So my 4 days of patrolling and good tonnage was splashed right there in tankers bow. I laughed and cried at the same time. :D

[Duncan Idaho]

My most embarassing death was trying to sneak into the English Channel near Dover during rough weather. I got in quite a ways, then the weather turned to max roughness, and I got my sub beat to death in shallows. I tried to turn about, and head back out of the channel, I couldn't surface because all those Destroyers and Elcos running around forced me to stay submerged until I took one final massive hit on the bottom, and died. Thus ended my first career on my 11th patrol. (And there rests the Captain Duncan Idaho, never to sail again *sigh*). I've never admitted this death to anyone, and would probably have lied about how I died if anyone asked. :oops: :lol:

From this I learned that big waves in this game, just like in real life, can be hazardous to your health.

[Carcassonne]

I started a career last night...hit ahead flank and TC'd to get out of port and on my way...my career literally lasted 3 minutes. I collided with something and I got the screen with option of abandoning career.

I'm just glad it didn't happen after say 5 or worse 15 patrols since I play DID.

[jason210]

I fired a homer at a destroyer from the fwd tube of a VIIC as it approached me head on. After I fired, I ordered a hard a starboard and began a crash dive.

The torpedo missed the destroyer and begin swinging round it in a big arc to come back to the target. Meanwhile the destroyer had swung over to me in it's attack run, and was very close. I watched the torpedo coming and saw that there was now at risk I could get hit, so I stopped the engines and prayed that the torpedo would get the DD before I was DC'd. It was very close. Suddenly I saw the Destroyer passing right above my sub in the 3rd person view, and just as her stern passed over my stern, the torpedo hit the destroyer and knocked the prop and rudder off, but also knocked my stern down a few metres and caused severe flooding in my in the aft compartments. The flooding turned out to be unrecoverable, but before we all died I had the consolation of seeing the "Enit Unit Destroyed" message.

You could say I checked-mated myself...