Einzelganger
10-15-05, 11:26 AM
G’dday all
I’ve picked up SHIII a few months ago and have been looking around this forum since. But, up until now I did not feel I really had something to add in such a great group of people.Until now that is.
I’ve read many posts about passenger liners and BB’s but apart from a Nelson in Loch Ewe in the early days of my career I had never seen anything larger than perhaps a Fiji in open seas. To be honest I felt like one of those people who were probably never going to meet these ships on the Atlantic. But that would change…
I’m currently in my 30th patrol and this happened to me on my 28th patrol.
The beginning of June 1943, Allied aircover is becoming more challenging and even the odd DD can now give me a fair run for my money. U-96 had received orders to sail to AK 02 which seemd a bloody long way for my VIIC but orders are orders.
A failed tracking of a hydrophone contact had led me to enter AK 39 from the East. During 1 of my standard hydrophone checks we picked up another contact and after the standard runs on the surface and rechecking of the hydrophones my IWO had a visual contact.
It seemed a normal sized merchant convoy but among those merchants I saw some shapes which I had not seen on open seas before, and apparently there were no DD’s present to protect this convoy. Curious, I decided to bring the boat in position for a possible attack to see what I had come across.
It was then that I could not believe our luck. Through my scope I identified a Revenge / King George V & Nelson BB together with a Illustrious and Bogue CV. And, just as the merchants they were plodding along with 6-7 knots :doh: Suddenly, I found myself thanking my lucky stars for the lousy weather which had prevented me from attacking a convoy a few days earlier. I still had a full load of torpedoes !
The convoy’s 1st line started with several small merchants. The 2nd with T3’s and the 3rd line with Troop transports and the Bogue CV in front of them. The 4th line was were my attention
was with a T2 upfront, the BB’s in a straight line right behind her. The 5th line was made up of again T3’s and a Auxiliary cruiser behind. The remaing 2 lines were filled with C2 and small merchants. With no escorts being seen I felt like a fox in a chickenfarm.
I stalked this convoy for the entire day, attacking it 4 times in total. The best defense that was put up were a number of Avenger bombers who disappeared after 15 minutes and didn’t seem too good in targeting, dropping their few bombs left and right between the convoy lines.
In my 1st attack I sunk the Bogue and Illustrious CV’s. During the 2nd attack the Nelson & Revenge BB were shown the way to a watery grave. In my 3rd attack the King George V met her end along with an unlucky Troop transport and the Auxliary cruiser.
During the 4th attack I expended my last torpedoes in the remaining Troop transports ( I always have a thing about sinking those after finding them in a convoy ) after which I decided to surface. My deckgunners wanted to join in this frenzy aswell.
In my previous attacks I had noticed that only 2 merchants were armed, both with a single deckgun which were quickly dealt with after which the convoy was powerless to stop this U-Boote from emptying it’s deckgun on some of the T3’s. After expending our last shells we saluted the surviving ships and with Tipperary playing on the grammophone we left the convoy for home. :P
At the end of the day I had ravaged this convoy. 18 of it’s ships were sunk for a total of 263612 tons. The lack of air support was unbelievable and whichever British officer had arranged this convoy should have been shot as a traitor for leaving these valuable ships so weakly protected ( or maybe be awarded the Knights Cross ). But the Kriegsmarine will thank him anyway.
Upon our return to France we will request the IXC and have a party the likes of which the U-Boot Waffe has never seen before. May we all get drunk…… :up:
I don’t know if this is convoy is spawned regurlarly or not but for those wanting to know I came across it on June 5th 1943 at the western edge of AK 39.
Good hunting
Regards
Einzelganger
I’ve picked up SHIII a few months ago and have been looking around this forum since. But, up until now I did not feel I really had something to add in such a great group of people.Until now that is.
I’ve read many posts about passenger liners and BB’s but apart from a Nelson in Loch Ewe in the early days of my career I had never seen anything larger than perhaps a Fiji in open seas. To be honest I felt like one of those people who were probably never going to meet these ships on the Atlantic. But that would change…
I’m currently in my 30th patrol and this happened to me on my 28th patrol.
The beginning of June 1943, Allied aircover is becoming more challenging and even the odd DD can now give me a fair run for my money. U-96 had received orders to sail to AK 02 which seemd a bloody long way for my VIIC but orders are orders.
A failed tracking of a hydrophone contact had led me to enter AK 39 from the East. During 1 of my standard hydrophone checks we picked up another contact and after the standard runs on the surface and rechecking of the hydrophones my IWO had a visual contact.
It seemed a normal sized merchant convoy but among those merchants I saw some shapes which I had not seen on open seas before, and apparently there were no DD’s present to protect this convoy. Curious, I decided to bring the boat in position for a possible attack to see what I had come across.
It was then that I could not believe our luck. Through my scope I identified a Revenge / King George V & Nelson BB together with a Illustrious and Bogue CV. And, just as the merchants they were plodding along with 6-7 knots :doh: Suddenly, I found myself thanking my lucky stars for the lousy weather which had prevented me from attacking a convoy a few days earlier. I still had a full load of torpedoes !
The convoy’s 1st line started with several small merchants. The 2nd with T3’s and the 3rd line with Troop transports and the Bogue CV in front of them. The 4th line was were my attention
was with a T2 upfront, the BB’s in a straight line right behind her. The 5th line was made up of again T3’s and a Auxiliary cruiser behind. The remaing 2 lines were filled with C2 and small merchants. With no escorts being seen I felt like a fox in a chickenfarm.
I stalked this convoy for the entire day, attacking it 4 times in total. The best defense that was put up were a number of Avenger bombers who disappeared after 15 minutes and didn’t seem too good in targeting, dropping their few bombs left and right between the convoy lines.
In my 1st attack I sunk the Bogue and Illustrious CV’s. During the 2nd attack the Nelson & Revenge BB were shown the way to a watery grave. In my 3rd attack the King George V met her end along with an unlucky Troop transport and the Auxliary cruiser.
During the 4th attack I expended my last torpedoes in the remaining Troop transports ( I always have a thing about sinking those after finding them in a convoy ) after which I decided to surface. My deckgunners wanted to join in this frenzy aswell.
In my previous attacks I had noticed that only 2 merchants were armed, both with a single deckgun which were quickly dealt with after which the convoy was powerless to stop this U-Boote from emptying it’s deckgun on some of the T3’s. After expending our last shells we saluted the surviving ships and with Tipperary playing on the grammophone we left the convoy for home. :P
At the end of the day I had ravaged this convoy. 18 of it’s ships were sunk for a total of 263612 tons. The lack of air support was unbelievable and whichever British officer had arranged this convoy should have been shot as a traitor for leaving these valuable ships so weakly protected ( or maybe be awarded the Knights Cross ). But the Kriegsmarine will thank him anyway.
Upon our return to France we will request the IXC and have a party the likes of which the U-Boot Waffe has never seen before. May we all get drunk…… :up:
I don’t know if this is convoy is spawned regurlarly or not but for those wanting to know I came across it on June 5th 1943 at the western edge of AK 39.
Good hunting
Regards
Einzelganger