When Does The War End... I Can't Take It Any More!!!

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

i've managed to keep this crew alive all the way to Nov, 1944...

uboat command has sent us to patrol a sector smack in middle of the english channel... that's right, THE ENGLISH CHANNEL!!!!!

they must have lost their minds... i mean we did manage to sneak into Dover and sink a few anchored targets... i thought that would be the hardest... but our passage through the channel has been horrific...

every time we poked up our scope or snorkel to get a recharge... planes... planes... and more planes... dropping bombs... bombs... and more bombs...

fast time is now reduced to a maximum of 64... just to give me enough time to duck under and make a rapid course change... i had a real close call that i do not want to repeat... i may not get away with the minor damage that i did the next time...

more than once the battery level dropped to within a hair of being totally depleted... the last time fortunately some bad weather came up, and that, with the cover of darkness, allowed us to get a good charge in...


this was the roughest passage through the channel ever for us... we went right through our patrol area, without slowing down for the mandatory 24 hour patrol time... and am now heading out to the safety of the deep in mid atlantic...

i never thought that i would be saying this... but i've had enough... from the radio reports i'm getting, it seems as if the war is already lost...

i'm setting course for the carribean... then, on to south america... my men are exhausted... they're tired... and i'm not endangering my crew like this any more...

our boat is damaged... and my men are starting to show symptoms of combat fatigue... one of my best engineers, a guy named Yohan, has already cracked once... :-j hey, they've have done more than their part... they deserve some rest now...

we'll take it slow, and get away from the allied air cover... find a peaceful island down south and spend the rest of our days there till the war ends...

or maybe head around the cape and into the pacific...

i'm getting ready to send our last message to uboat command... i don't know if i should tell them of my plans... or send a fake sinking report... :-j

either way... we are sailing off to find some open skies... and peaceful waters... :sunny:

auf vieder sein (is that how you say it)... :arrgh!:

--Mike

[Nightowl]

Good One Mike! :rotfl: :rotfl: -Nightowl

[Iceberg]

Happy retirement under your palm tree!! :sunny:


Iceberg

[Twelvefield]

Give my regards to the "Boys from Brazil"!

[Hitman]

LOL...at least you keep you good humour :-j

Historically speaking it is correct that U-Boots where sent to the english channel and the waters around England in the last months of the war. Some years ago, while I was creating the Aces campaign for SH2 I searched a lot of info about these last months, and found that they are almost ignored in all books and webs and never mentioned (Usually focus lies in the new elektroboots that never entered service). It took me a lot of time to determine that BDU stopped forming wolfpacks in the atlantic in march 1944 and let the U-Boots at the pens waiting for the invasion of europe. On june 6th the U-Boots were sent against the landing forces, and those who survived later went to Norway, where flotillas were regrouped. From October 1944 till the end of the war, operations where as follows:

-13th & 14th Flotilla opereated in the Arctic sea against JW/RA convoys

-Long range Type 9 U-Boots operated individually near Cape town and in the Indian ocean

-All other type 7 U-Boots were deployed around british coastal waters, operating individually with schnorkels

:ping:

[DreamWizard]

Quitter! :nope:

:rotfl:

[hakkikt]

auf vieder sein (is that how you say it)...
--Mike

Auf Wiedersehen (pronounced "owf veedersayn")

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

:D

--Mike



[added]
hey... i almost forgot... we made it out into the Atlantic... 61% hull integrity... the air cover seems to have thinned out a bit... but i'm not taking any chances... not yet anyways :-j

i ran up on a lone tanker in the midst of a medium squall... tracked in on him submerged by sound... went to periscope depth and caught a glimpse of him out there at about 3000 meters...

i lowered the scope and preset my eels to run straight out for about 2000 meters... and i guesstimated the range and speed real quick...

firing point procedures at next scope raising... after adjusting our heading and waiting a few seconds... i let two fish loose, lowered the scope... and waited to see if my guesses were right...

amazingly enough.... KABOOOMM!!! we hear the fist impact... then the second...

i poped the scope just in time to see the secondaries light up the stormy sky... but in a moments lack of thinking i was now heading straight into the burning remains of the cargo ship and it's floating cargo...

my first thought was do flood negative and try to go under the ship... but it had broken in two, and parts were already angle at least deep enough to reach out and grab a sub trying desperately to go under her...

a change of heading at this late stage in the game was also out of the reason... i ordered all back full... but it was too late....

we sailed straight through the middle of a flaming remains of a ship split straight down the middle, with the bow and stern ends sticking up, and the center section submerged... the sudden sounds of our hull scraping against metal gave me a few seconds for pause... is this gonna be the end of my not so illustrious, but extended career... would we ever bask in the rays of the South American sun...

fortunately... all there was was sounds... no more damage was taken... and i watch as the flaming hulk slowly descended beneath the waves...

i lowered the scope... and resumed a course south southwest... to the warmer climes of the South Americas... sunny days... ahead...

we stayed under... just in case this guy managed to get a radio signal out before he went down... just in case :-j

--Mike

[Patboot]

I and my crew will be joining you when that time comes.

Barbados, or Cartagena?

[Ula Jolly]

Ahoy, that sounds like a fiiiiine retirement deal to me! :rotfl:

[benetofski]

i'm getting ready to send our last message to uboat command... i don't know if i should tell them of my plans... or send a fake sinking report...



......sounds to me like your crew should mutiny and throw you overboard!
:arrgh!:

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

hahahaha... ok benetofski... lets take a quick look at the history channel... it seems as if someones found your crew's last patrol report... written some 60 years ago... washed up on an English beach... floating in a bottle...

the report reads as follows:

captain OLt.z.S.Benetschik (benetofski) found deceased in his cabin... probable cause...
he slipped on his tea...

the captains body was found 2 minutes after he notifyed his men that he was taking em back through the channel :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

no signs of his crew or of the submarine has ever been found...


this is the history channel signing off... be sure to tune into the history channel next week when we visit the Carribean Islands Navy, and tour their amazing type ix submarine... one of the oldest subs they have in service...


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

--Mike

[U-104]

lol :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[KL Seestern]

On june 6th the U-Boots were sent against the landing forces

... and according to Herbert Werner, in his book Iron Coffins, they were even issued orders to ram vessels of the invasion fleet when they ran out of torpedoes. But it seems that in the end, not many U-Boats actually made it into action. In the confusion that reigned on the German side on D-Day, sailing orders were issued and cancelled in quick succession, until eventually Werner's boat and several others were told to make for the Channel in the afternoon, but they were so heavily damaged on the way that they had to turn back. The orders for 'kamikaze' attacks were then withdrawn, since it was clear that the submarines would never get close enough to carry them out; there was hardly any chance they'd even get within maximum torpedo range.

[Laughing Swordfish]

It's true that desperate ramming orders were given, for D-Day, but no commander worth his salt carried them out. Most didn't even get close enough by that stage of the war.
Although one I believe, running on schnorkel, crept up the Solent into Portsmouth Harbour by navigational mistake
Some boats tried to run for Brazil or Argentina. Legends persist about who or what they were carrying. Werner's boat made it to to a Japanese-held base and were interned. Fortunately he was one of the few to survive to give an account of the Battle of the Atlantic from the U-boat side.
I say, don't quit! Get through to the end of the war, and show that black flag with pride!

Regards, Lt de Bunsen, U-46

[Perseus]

I've learned that timing can be all that's needed to slip through the Channel... Time it so that you can go submerged at about 1/3rd ahead when the sun sets. Hug the French coast and you should be able to round the Dover coast before you have to surface or use the schnorkel.

Although I must admit that it can get a bit problematic when you surface without listening to sonar first and then popping up 5.000 metres from a destroyer, argh! (February '41)

That was one hell of a narrow escape.

[Floater]

Regarding the "ramming order", there's some controversy about what was actually said. Some people who were present later said that no such order was given, and I believe there's only one person (apart from Werner) who recalled an order to ram.

The official, written orders certainly didn't mention ramming - the phrasing was something like "attack with aggression, even at the risk of losing your boat".

I suppose we'll never know for sure what was said in that room.

[crazyhorse]

I know how you feel. I'm in Sept.'44, half way through the long trip from St. Nazaire to the new port of Bergen. I've somehow managed to sink the 39K of tonnage that's crossed my path, in between the air attacks, and have a hull integrity of 49%. This game was allot more fun before '44, and now has settled into a cat and mouse contest of survival, tonnage is secondary. Because of the change, I now only play for about an hour each evening. That's about all of the continuous surfacing and crash diving I can take. At this rate, I may wear out before U-262 doe's! Before being pounded to 49%, I was looking forward to bad weather for cover on the surface. Now, I'm not so sure even that would be on my side with a weakened hull.

On the bright side, thank goodness for the radar detector! Without it, this career would've ended long ago.