Close calls, tell your story!

[Dowly]

It was early 1940, I left from Wilhemshaven on my VIIB and had to go trough the english channel. Everything went fine, but then suddenly 3 destroyers came from the west and 2 from the north. I dived to 15m. There was so shallow, I almost hit the bottom. i managed to evade them.

Destroyers dropping their load on the wrong spot:
http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/7527/destroyers0ij.th.jpg (http://img358.imageshack.us/my.php?image=destroyers0ij.jpg)

I raised my periscope to get a better view. Then suddenly, out of nowhere a 6th destroyer a fast towards me. I lowered my periscope, but it was too late. It had spotted me.

6th destroyer giving me a beating:'
http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/6997/6th1hn.th.jpg (http://img358.imageshack.us/my.php?image=6th1hn.jpg)

View from inside the sub:
http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/4438/inside8ji.th.jpg (http://img358.imageshack.us/my.php?image=inside8ji.jpg)

I got a really bad flooding to my bow torpedo room and minor flooding to bow quarters. My deckgun was smashed, conning tower damaged, flag gun smashed, hydrophone dead and two sailors were killed. I still managed to lose that destroyer from my tail. I dived slowly to bottom, repaired all the damage and completed my mission.

That`s it! Now post your close calls!

[Bill Nichols]

December, 1939 on my first patrol in a brand, new Type VIIB out of Kiel. I was transiting on the surface at night, south of the Shetland Islands en route to the Western Approaches. My Watch Officer spots a ship, I look and see a destroyer at short range off my starboard beam! I order hard right rudder to line up for a shot... The destroyer's searchlights come on, tracers fire and my superstructure is riddled with gunfire. Crash Dive! Depth charges go off all around me, but without effect. I manage to sneak away, lesson learned: Next time, I'll dive to periscope depth before starting my attack :oops:

[Carcassonne]

VIIC '44 AM51. At periscope depth approaching a convoy. Send 2 salvos of 2 eels each. The first at medium the second at fast. Seconds after firing I was picked up on radar, I'm guessing. I dive to 150 meters. I'm crapped on like never before. I take flooding in all compartments except bow torpedo room. I literally was dropping meter by meter and at 185 meters flooding is stopped and recovery begins. I'm blowing ballasts to buy time and at 205 meters I finally maintain depth and finish repairs all the while more DCs are dropped in my general direction.

I couldn't have planned a more exciting tense moment in my SH3 gaming experience, it truly was something movies are made. I would have loved to hit a sandy bottom at 180 meters only if it existed in AM51.

[v!por]

It is july of 43 and yes I know I mod'ed to get the 21 this early:<) I am traveling north of England.... coming around to the Southwest.. and I looked away from screen.... next thing two ac are almost on me... crash dive... usually down to 50 meters b4 they can get to me.... I was down to about 20 meters.... at 10 knots.... several dc rocked the boat and ....

took out my fuel tanks (below control room)!!!!! so much for this XX1 and this mission! Can not repair at sea.

[Apocal]

I had torpedoed a destroyer after a quick snapshot and was satisfied she was going down. I passed close by when suddenly her forward magazine went up... sending a piece of debris in my direction that landed so close it soaked my watch crew.

[1916]

14 February 1941

I was on my way back from a patrol in AM19 when I got a war contact on my radar. I went to periscope depth (from a previous depth of 50 meters) and saw that it was a Destroyer (C class I believe). I was detected by the destroyer so I went silent trying to avoid him (all machines stop). I couldn't dive so I just sat there waiting to see what would happen, the destroyer passed above me, maybe 6-10 meters was all that seperated my boat (VIIB) and the hull of the destroyer. I managed to slowly creep away after taking some light damage from the depth charges and surfaced for repairs once I was clear.

Not to much of a deadly situation, but that was the second close call I've had with a destroyer (the other happening in a single mission).

[Zie Chuckinator]

being stuck at 210 meters and having turds being dropped by 2 V&W's 1 Clemson, 1 J Class, and a Flower corvette. heavy flooding foward and aft. about a night and 2 hours in the morning later, they decided to run off or they ran out of turds. surfaced with 93% hull integrity (what the??? lucky or bug?). finished patrol with 50,000 tons.

[Damo1977]

My closest call was last nite, I got vodked and decided to drag my computer with me outside when I needed a lung torp.........

[August]

Pulling into the dock way too fast and have to order emergency reverse to barely keep from smashing into the dock in front of all those bigshots and pretty nurses.

[Twitch]

I had a queer Ensign on my boat, this one time... the radar op woke me over the speaker about a contact.. i flipped on the light just in time to see Ensign Dooseldorf standing at the foot of my bead with a pair of micky mouse ears on his head, a fat coheba in one hand, a bottle of KY in the other...


i had him shot out of tube 4 at 50m

[mr darcy]

Attacking a convoy in medium fog, i'd already taken care of the corvette escorts.

I was approaching the convoy from it's Starboard, I'd used one bow tube to sink a T3 and both aft tubes to sink a C3 when my ever vigilent lookout crys "Warship Spotted" Looming out of the fog was a Aux Cruiser!

She opened fire as i ordered flank speed and periscope depth. His first salvo is a hit on my bow. Flooding in two compartments, damage to my radio room, bow quarters and torpedo tubes. I'm not going to get under before he sinks me!

Then i spot the sinking C3 from earlier, change my course and use it the screen the Cruiser to buy me a minute to get uder the waves. Of course the Cruiser kept firing and the last thing i saw of the Transport was it's bridge getting blown clean off!

Most Fun moment
--------------------

Being chased by a corvette while i dodge through a convoy sinking transports at flank speed with him hanging on my tail as i try to duck behind sinking ships.

Managed 4 runs through the convoy, then the other two escorts noticed and i slipped below the waves.

When i got back to base i found my hull was at 32%.

[Heffalump]

I'm in August of 42, not far from the US east coast in an IXC, and the happy times it ain't. Have been attacked by an endless stream of aircraft, most of which have missed thanks to a pathetically inadequate aim, but what they lack in aim they make up for in number...

Anyway, I was on the surface at DC35 when the first attack occurred. I was trying to load some external torpedos down below. My lookout gave the chilling cry "flugzeug gesichtet!". I didn't immediately dive because the boat was in no condition to do so while loading externals (self-imposed rule) so I sat helplessly on the surface for several minutes while a group of Catalinas dived on me.

I ordered our best flak gunner up top and we did our best to fend them off while the crew buttoned up the ship.

The water erupted around us as the first load of bombs fell. None of them hit. Another plane dived on us. Another miss. But the machine gun fire was tearing us apart. Both flak gunners were killed. Fortunately the bombs kept missing us. One of the aircraft was hit and plunged into the water.

Finally, after several minutes, my exec reported we were ready to dive. I ordered a crash dive and all hands rushed below, bringing the bodies of our fallen comrades with us.

Our bow was under, our stern helplessly exposed, when the bomb hit us. Just aft of the tower. BOOM! We lost our port diesel, radio both flak guns were destroyed, and suffered flooding which I eventually brought under control. But our hull integrity was severly weakened and damage to the engine could not be repaired..

In the face of such unrepairable damage I abandoned our patrol and we're now heading for home. For two days we've been limping away from the area and are now about a 100 miles due south of Bermuda. The air bombardment has been intense. At best I've managed two hours on the surface before the planes com. Typical time is 30 minutes. We've taken further hits and have now lost our radio, deck gun, and suffered further damage to hull integrity.

I don't know if we'll make it back.

(Our blackened boat....)

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9079/sh3img15820052221399682ar.th.png (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sh3img15820052221399682ar.png)

[Stymnus]

Pulling into the dock way too fast and have to order emergency reverse to barely keep from smashing into the dock in front of all those bigshots and pretty nurses.

Heh! Yeah, I did that on my very first patrol, before realizing you don't have to go back to the docks, just within 20km...it's fairly forgiving.

[Farside]

I had a close shave just outside valetta, I had just came from alexandria and en route to la spezia I decided to pay the maltese a visit, after doing so I was caught on the surface by a hurricane, which evidently radio'd my position to the surface fleet, which came swiftly, two hunts, a tribal, a corvette and a pt boat. The hunts made thier passes and took out my aft dive planes, gave me severe flooding in the rear and i started to go down.... and down I came, hard.


I was quickly approaching the bottom (the bottom was 260 metres down, which in a VII/C is rather scarey) the lights were blinking the flooding worsened, luckily i had an engineering officer and the repairs were continuing, I had reached 230 metres and I blew ballast, it slowed my decent, the flooding was soon fixed, but i had no chance of an attack with the bow tubes destroyed and no more forward torps left, so I lay on the bottom, listening to the DC's falling around (I never knew they made a sound till I checked the hydrophone). Eventually they gave up and I raised to the surface, it was dark when I eventually broke the water, I had been down for 5 hours of intense attack, but I survived, but ofcourse I still go patrolling around valetta :)

[Carcassonne]

Pulling into the dock way too fast and have to order emergency reverse to barely keep from smashing into the dock in front of all those bigshots and pretty nurses.

Heh! Yeah, I did that on my very first patrol, before realizing you don't have to go back to the docks, just within 20km...it's fairly forgiving.

Actually I do believe it's 30km. I've ended patrols and "dock at..." was given upon clicking exit patrol.

[Dowly]

Man the fog is a deadlier than an destroyer! :)

I was cruising my way trough the channel between Ireland & England. Weather was bad, wind 15m/s, fog heavy. I was almost on my patrol grid so I stayed on the surface to get there faster. I was on nav map and TC was 1024. Then it dropped to 8 and I saw this ship icon on the map. I put quickly TC to 1 and ordered flank speed and rudder full to left. Then went to conning tower to check, how close the ship was. I almost had an heartattack! All I saw was the grey metal of the C3 cargo ship!!!

Here`s the pic:
http://img335.imageshack.us/img335/8459/close0nx.th.jpg (http://img335.imageshack.us/my.php?image=close0nx.jpg)

[Zie Chuckinator]

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: are u high, giddy, merry, whatever u call it or are you having ur moment?

[Dowly]

lol, nah, not high or anything. Just sleepy. :) And I like drawing, tho I suck at it! :rotfl:

[kiwi_2005]

Cruising back to Kiel from a successful patrol, in the BE grids, im just out of the english channel and what i thought would be all plain sailing from here on i decide to throw on my earphones hit the compression time to 2x speed and listen to some good old german music. i got external view and are happily watching my VIIb skim the surface at flank speed. I let the crew light up ciggarettes and yell out an order to bring me up a coffee on deck. Music is blaring we're all singing, then all of a sudden BOOM! BOOM! Aircraft attack! our boat rocks side to side i spill my coffee all over my keyboard, i give the order to crash dive, heavy damge and flooding in 3 compartments, then a loud griding noise appears and i realise we have hit the bottom SHALLOW water! next sonar yells out destroyer closing fast. RIG FOR SILENT RUNNING! Engineer reminds me we wont be able to repair boat in silent running. The tension is on me all eyes looking my way, what is the kapitain going to order. PERISCOPE DEPTH! ahead slow. Destroyer now 1200 yrds running fast zigzaging UP PERISCOPE! set torpedoe for fast! fire when ready. Swoosh! torpedo running Sir. 20sec, 40sec, ....we miss. F**K! Take her down 025 feet ahead flank. Nothing happens, speed zero! My crew are too bummed out to react to my orders! Bloody RUB MOD! engineer looks at me strangly wondering what im mumbling about. We're sinking slow amazingly destroy comes next to us but doesn't drop any charges... we're now on the bottom and i order the crew to rest, engineeer shuts down all engines. Now its just a matter of waiting.... to be continued. :rock:

[Seeteufel]

Phew, that was close (BF13, Oct 23, 1939, Type VIIB boat), two Hurricane fighter bombers dropping their load on our boat to revenge the C-2 cargo torpedoed and sunk 3 minutes earlier (...one single bomb each of whatever size, were loud Bangers though, killing a lot of fish right behind us (40-50m), but not causing any damage to the boat...).

I guess it was lucky that we were just going back to course, the boat making 15kn towards home ... Bootsmann Adolf Conrad bagged one with the 2cm Flak...I think he'll be among the first to be promoted and awarded back in Kiel...

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/7113/luckyshot23tn.th.png (http://img164.imageshack.us/my.php?image=luckyshot23tn.png)

[akula_krieg]

December 1942, grid square BE33.

Sonar contact, lone merchant traveling slow. Surface and find out the weather's gone to hell since I've been under. Heavy fog, heavy seas, hard rain, visibility out to maybe 400 meters at most.

It takes me awhile to locate the ship, but eventually I'm on her tail. Still can't see her; I've been tracking for two hours through sonar checks every twenty minutes.

Then, out of nowhere, she appears out of the fog, about 350 meters dead ahead, and she's a fully-armed liberty cargo. Turned my bow into twisted metal within five seconds. I quickly snapshot two torps and crash-dive...due to high seas, the boat's slow going down and the cargo continues to rake the deck with fire as accurate as a seasoned destroyer.

Thankfully, the torps blast her in two before I become another U-Boat casualty. I actually had to head back to port after that...my hull integrity was down to 93%, two bow tubes were permanently out of commission, and I had two dead crewmen.

Ever since then, I've decided to let bad weather pass before attempting an attack.

-akula-

[HMCS]

1st patrol in the fall/winter of '39 - brand new VIIb - rotten weather, so I cruise topside during the day, thinking that the gentlemen of RAF Coastal Command are taking the day off.

Boy, was I wrong - a Hurrie roars out of the clouds and fog and drops a bomb square onto my fantail - we hover at 50+ m. trying to control the flooding - we finally get it under control a 1/2 hour later- I decide to continue the patrol, and we get a payoff of 50000 grt sunk, three of them T3's

We make it back to Wilhelmshaven - with a blackened bum.

[glenno]

(march 1940)(RUB1.43) I was in the middle of a convoy at night with 15 knot winds . The waves were huge but no fog or rain . Best type of weather i think for subs because you are harder to spot in between the waves . Anyway i had just sunk two C2s and was parallel with a third going in the same direction about 700mts away . Suddenly a canon shot from the bow of the C2 . Hang on a minute , Do C2s have canons ............................ Crash dive............. A destroyer comes around the bow of the C2. The canon gets me . Bad flooding . I was able to stop the flooding and dived to 100 mts .

[Detritus]

Summer '42, east of Halifax in IXB. Until now, the patrol had been very good. Spent most my torps on the way to patrol grid between NY and Halifax, hitting Liberty's, Victory's and such like nobody's business. Thought I'd go and hit a convoy/task force in BB91, since lots of them seemed to go through that. Somehow, I managed to sail one grid too north and had a bit of hurry to intercept, thereby failing to notice depth changes on navmap. Hit the convoy allright: T3, 2x T2 and C3 and ordered ahead one third, course inside the convoy, depth 150 meters.Imagine my surprise, when we hit the bottom at 67m :hulk: In no time, 2 corvettes and 2 destroyers were pinging and DCing us like mad. The convoy was in shambles, so I tried to get merchants between us and the escorts, which seemed to work.. Two hours later I thought we actually managed to make a slip, inching our way to deeper waters- 20km away. Then the corvettes found us again and gave sheer hell for 2.5 hours. Eventually, I just gave up: " Screw this, were dead anyway and I've to hit the sack if I'm gonna go to work in the morning". Hit TC8 and in 20 seconds the bastards just left :-? You tell me, I only work here. 96% hull integrity, 166000 tons in the bag :|\

[Bill Nichols]

Here's a different kind of 'close call'.

September, '39. I'm on my first patrol, west of Great Britain. I've already sunk a destroyer and my crew is itchin' for more blood. Weather is shiXXy, 15 m/s winds and high seas. Fortunately, it's daylight and visibility is good.
Lookouts spot a ship heading my way. It's a large cargo ship! Dive! In position for a two-shot salvo at close range. Shoot! Both fish impact, but fail to explode :damn: I watch the cargo ship sail away, and only then notice the Stars & Stripes flying at its stern :oops:

(So what, if the U.S. had entered WWII in 1939, instead of 1941?) :arrgh!:

[Dowly]

Here's a different kind of 'close call'.

September, '39. I'm on my first patrol, west of Great Britain. I've already sunk a destroyer and my crew is itchin' for more blood. Weather is shiXXy, 15 m/s winds and high seas. Fortunately, it's daylight and visibility is good.
Lookouts spot a ship heading my way. It's a large cargo ship! Dive! In position for a two-shot salvo at close range. Shoot! Both fish impact, but fail to explode :damn: I watch the cargo ship sail away, and only then notice the Stars & Stripes flying at its stern :oops:

(So what, if the U.S. had entered WWII in 1939, instead of 1941?) :arrgh!:

Lol, I had a same thing with a french merchant. I launched a torp and just when I pushed the enter I noticed the flag. "Miss, miss, miss, PLEASE MISS!!!!" But it hit, good thing it didnt sink. :)

[Ula Jolly]

Similar to the two above:
Right south of Sydney early in the war I find a sound contact... plot a course on the map and steaming to intercept. Weather is dreadful, so I can only faaaaiiiiiiintly see the contures of the bastard in the fog. Becomes more and more apparent, so I finally lob a fish at'im.
External camera forward, and see the flag. I go something like:
:huh: :stare: :doh:

"BE DUD BE DUD BE DUD BE DUD BE DU, thank you GOD!"