JonZ
02-12-06, 01:47 AM
Lieutnant Heinrich Hühns, commander of U-861 reporting! (sorry for the english, it not my native language :()
--------------------------------
10th Patrol, 12th Flotilla
Sub: Type IXD2
Difficulty: 100% Realism
Mods: IuB, RuB AI AA settings, MVP 1.0
SH Commander Settings:
All Career options except Number of days spent in base,
Fatigue SH3 Model,
Water Density 8,
Deck gun reload time 10 sec.
--------------------------------
After a near disastrous 9th mission that almost cost the crew's life, we departed on April 3rd, 1944 from Bordeaux for a long mission on the coastals of Norway. We had to circle over Great Britain to avoid any contacts with the stronger british destroyers of the English Channel.
The mission appeared to be very dull. We patroled without any contacts for 9 days and our objectives were done already. So we sailed home.
On April 13, BdU has reported to us a Task force heading to SWW and sailing toward Shetland. We tried to intercept the fleet but unfortunately, it was too far and we never managed to make contact. However, once we regained the path to get home, BdU informed us that a Large Convoy was heading on our direction.
__________________________________________________ ________________
April 14th, Convoy Spotted!
We have succesfully positionned our boat for convoy attack. The sea is mediocre. Light fog, 15km/h winds. We patiently waited the convoy to cross our position. The convoy is composed mainly of C2 and Liberty cargos, two T3 Tankers and, surprise, a Bogue Carrier. Obviously we made the T3s and the carrier our priority targets.
We succesfully hit the T3 with a torpedo and the Carrier was next. We did not beign spotted yet. The hard weather make us difficult to aim and determine the speeds of the ships. The Bogue is close to 500m and immediately we fire 2 torps once the ship is completely 90degrees to us.
TORPEDO IMPACT! That sealed the fate of the carrier. The convoy starts evasive maneuver and we started to chase some juicy target and finish that T3. We managed to sank the T3 and bring a Liberty Cargo with her.
The convoy was now too far to get anything from it and the escorts were begining to be dangerously close. We dived and we headed to the oposite direction.
Total Tonnage: 33009 Tons
http://img342.imageshack.us/img342/9711/bogue4xu.gif (http://imageshack.us)
__________________________________________________ ____
We sailed to NW of Great Britain and BdU has communicated to us that the returning base has been changed to St-Nazaire, changing a bit our plans but not to our disadvantage. Few days later, BdU reported to us another large convoy close to our position.
April 18th, Convoy Spotted!
We carefully place our boat for a strike and began observing the convoy moving on us. Escorted by few Clemsons, the convoy has some good targets: T2, T3, Liberties, C2, C3, a Troop Transport and the ice on the cake, a Passenger Liner. We position slowly our boat for the Liner. Weather was still horrible, it either an advantage and disadventage for us.
The Troop Transports is the first target. Unfortunately, we fired 2 torps on it and it missed. So we went for the Liner, this time we had assure that our targeting datas were correct. We couldn't miss that opportunity! Once on the 90 degree, we fired 2 FaT torpedoes under the Liner's keel despite of the weather. Impact! But the target haven't break. We had no more fore torpedoes so we had to wait the reloading.
Meanwhile, we quickly fired 2 aft torpedoes to two Libertie cargos behind us. Both torps have hit their intended target while I was watching the Liner officially sinking. Officers on the command room started to cheers out of control as I reporting the events through my scope. Then, while I was scanning the horizon, I saw a corvette going flank on our position. We had no choice but stop it there and dive. While I was doing the maneuver I saw the two Liberties officialy sinking.
The smile on the officers face were short as we started to hear the
pinging destroyers. We launch a Bold3 and tried to hit the depths. We could hear the Destroyers coming on us with the Ping. Bracing ourselves on the poles hoping that we could evade the dept charges. We hear and felt the explosions, it was close. Bridges has took some damage but nothing serious. The Destroyers haven't been too insistent. They searched and bombed a spot far from us and they abandon their seeking. We waited an hour at slow speed before going to the surface. The path was clear to make another approach.
Total Tonnage: 63179 Tons
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4058/passengerliner5ou.gif (http://imageshack.us)
__________________________________________________ _______________
So we make it to the surface and repair the bridge and load in the external torpedoes while we were running at full speed trying to retake a strike position ahead of the convoy.
It wasn't easy, we had to continuously dive and resurface to avoid Radar signal until we aknowledged a good position to catch up the convoy without beign detected. The torpedoes loading took few hours and we haven't yet catchup the convoy. We could see the smoke very far but the weather and the light fog make it difficult to decide how far ahead we were until we realised later that the convoy has turned to about 150Degrees! We had to dive to check with the hydrophones quite oftens. It not before the morning after we finally realised we were in front of the convoy and we were in good position for a second strike.
April 19th
We are now in position to strike the convoy once again, and try to take some T3 and the Passenger Transport. We had to do a 180 maneuver while in periscope depth to be in a nice position for the Tankers strike. It a dangerous maneuver that could have made us spotted or miss the oportunity window because of the timing. We succeed to rotate 180 and just as the maneuver was finished we were perpendicular to the first T3. Fired 2 torpedoes and it took care of it. The sinking made the convoy to zig zag again. Unfortunately The Troop Transporter turned into our direction making it impossible to sink it because it was too close for the torpedoes activation. We had to let her go.
The zig zaging convoy made us take the decision to run full backward so we can have a chance to take out a second T3. Another risky move because we were almost touching the other cargo ships by behind. We managed despite of that to sink a second T3. We tried to take out a liberty with aft torpedoes but they missed. However, a liberty ship that was very close behind has spotted us and started to fire their howitzer on us, damaging our deck. To that point we had to escape and give up the convoy as the aft escorts were closing and begining to chase us.
We managed to escape without beign detected by the escorts and resurfaced an hour later.
Total Tonnage: 86150 Tons
__________________________________________________ _________________________________________
The crew was very tired of the mission and I felt it was better to sail home again even with 6 torpedoes left, but again, once we flank speeded to home, BdU reported us another convoy, but not some ordinary type of convoy. We found that odd that a convoy run into the sea at 14 Knots! I ordered the navigation officer to give a meeting course and go flank to the meeting position.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/677/mapbdu5ou.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
April 20th, Convoy Spotted!
We were now to the meeting point but the convoy havent arrived yet, so we climb up to the last reported convoy and we could see the convoy smoke few hours later.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/8756/tankersconvoy34cj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Once we saw the convoy approaching we had a big surprise: the convoy is mostly composed of Tankers!
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/689/tankersconvoy20wb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/9648/tankersconvoy9oq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
We were amazed by the view. We could at least count a dozen of tankers, T2 and T3! We, again, positionned the u-Boat to a perpendicular strike.
As the convoy advanced toward us, we opened the aft tubes to sink a T3 until we realised that the convoy has also a major warship in it. Unfortunately the angle and the distance make it us impossible to identify it. So we cancelled the aft T3 strike, however we decided to strike the other T3 coming from the front. We sank a T3 with ease, but unfortunately the second T3 resisted a torpedoe and was still advancing even with a fire onboard.
The warship was now much closer and I was able to identify it. It was a Southampton Light Cruiser. We fire an aft torpedo under her keel, but it missed, the Cruiser has slowed down while I was firing. The tension was high. Only one Aft torpedo and one Fore torpedo left. I remade another firing solution and launch the last aft torpedo. IMPACT! However the Southampton don't go down, but as I commence maneuver to turn the u-Boat to 180 degrees to fire my last torpedo on it, officers cheers and reported to me that the Cruiser was sinking!
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7916/southampton9rz.gif (http://imageshack.us)
After all this, we had only one torpedo left and the damaged T3 was too far away. There was no way to catch it up. So we took the chance to take that last torpedo to a runing away T3 tanker with a thiny angle. We took datas and fired that last torpedo. The solution was bad, the estimated impact time has been passed, but 20 second later we saw the T3 explode and separate in two! All the crew was cheering and we quickly dive to ensure a safe escape.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/911/lasttorp5mk.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The scary moment has to be when we escaped, we could hear destroyers pinging, without pigning us directly. We popped a can of decoy. The pinging has few second laters stopped and we could hear the destroyers depth charging the decoy.
We succesfully escaped the convoy and we headed to St-Nazaire.
__________________________________________________ _________________
The return to base has not been without hassle. BdU haven't any reported contacts, but we encountered lone Destroyers and B-24s. One of the destroyers almost got us when they spotted our snorkel and fired shells on our hulls. We fortunately managed to escape the destroyer and the depth charge.
Four days later, we docked safely to St-Nazaire, the crew of U-861 is now eligible for a nice and well deserved rest. Unfortunately it will be a short rest. The war is still going on and the 12th Flotilla needs us more than ever.
Total Tonnage: 119872 Tons
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1459/logpatrol4wf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7743/log14gp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6672/log21kx.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
--------------------------------
10th Patrol, 12th Flotilla
Sub: Type IXD2
Difficulty: 100% Realism
Mods: IuB, RuB AI AA settings, MVP 1.0
SH Commander Settings:
All Career options except Number of days spent in base,
Fatigue SH3 Model,
Water Density 8,
Deck gun reload time 10 sec.
--------------------------------
After a near disastrous 9th mission that almost cost the crew's life, we departed on April 3rd, 1944 from Bordeaux for a long mission on the coastals of Norway. We had to circle over Great Britain to avoid any contacts with the stronger british destroyers of the English Channel.
The mission appeared to be very dull. We patroled without any contacts for 9 days and our objectives were done already. So we sailed home.
On April 13, BdU has reported to us a Task force heading to SWW and sailing toward Shetland. We tried to intercept the fleet but unfortunately, it was too far and we never managed to make contact. However, once we regained the path to get home, BdU informed us that a Large Convoy was heading on our direction.
__________________________________________________ ________________
April 14th, Convoy Spotted!
We have succesfully positionned our boat for convoy attack. The sea is mediocre. Light fog, 15km/h winds. We patiently waited the convoy to cross our position. The convoy is composed mainly of C2 and Liberty cargos, two T3 Tankers and, surprise, a Bogue Carrier. Obviously we made the T3s and the carrier our priority targets.
We succesfully hit the T3 with a torpedo and the Carrier was next. We did not beign spotted yet. The hard weather make us difficult to aim and determine the speeds of the ships. The Bogue is close to 500m and immediately we fire 2 torps once the ship is completely 90degrees to us.
TORPEDO IMPACT! That sealed the fate of the carrier. The convoy starts evasive maneuver and we started to chase some juicy target and finish that T3. We managed to sank the T3 and bring a Liberty Cargo with her.
The convoy was now too far to get anything from it and the escorts were begining to be dangerously close. We dived and we headed to the oposite direction.
Total Tonnage: 33009 Tons
http://img342.imageshack.us/img342/9711/bogue4xu.gif (http://imageshack.us)
__________________________________________________ ____
We sailed to NW of Great Britain and BdU has communicated to us that the returning base has been changed to St-Nazaire, changing a bit our plans but not to our disadvantage. Few days later, BdU reported to us another large convoy close to our position.
April 18th, Convoy Spotted!
We carefully place our boat for a strike and began observing the convoy moving on us. Escorted by few Clemsons, the convoy has some good targets: T2, T3, Liberties, C2, C3, a Troop Transport and the ice on the cake, a Passenger Liner. We position slowly our boat for the Liner. Weather was still horrible, it either an advantage and disadventage for us.
The Troop Transports is the first target. Unfortunately, we fired 2 torps on it and it missed. So we went for the Liner, this time we had assure that our targeting datas were correct. We couldn't miss that opportunity! Once on the 90 degree, we fired 2 FaT torpedoes under the Liner's keel despite of the weather. Impact! But the target haven't break. We had no more fore torpedoes so we had to wait the reloading.
Meanwhile, we quickly fired 2 aft torpedoes to two Libertie cargos behind us. Both torps have hit their intended target while I was watching the Liner officially sinking. Officers on the command room started to cheers out of control as I reporting the events through my scope. Then, while I was scanning the horizon, I saw a corvette going flank on our position. We had no choice but stop it there and dive. While I was doing the maneuver I saw the two Liberties officialy sinking.
The smile on the officers face were short as we started to hear the
pinging destroyers. We launch a Bold3 and tried to hit the depths. We could hear the Destroyers coming on us with the Ping. Bracing ourselves on the poles hoping that we could evade the dept charges. We hear and felt the explosions, it was close. Bridges has took some damage but nothing serious. The Destroyers haven't been too insistent. They searched and bombed a spot far from us and they abandon their seeking. We waited an hour at slow speed before going to the surface. The path was clear to make another approach.
Total Tonnage: 63179 Tons
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/4058/passengerliner5ou.gif (http://imageshack.us)
__________________________________________________ _______________
So we make it to the surface and repair the bridge and load in the external torpedoes while we were running at full speed trying to retake a strike position ahead of the convoy.
It wasn't easy, we had to continuously dive and resurface to avoid Radar signal until we aknowledged a good position to catch up the convoy without beign detected. The torpedoes loading took few hours and we haven't yet catchup the convoy. We could see the smoke very far but the weather and the light fog make it difficult to decide how far ahead we were until we realised later that the convoy has turned to about 150Degrees! We had to dive to check with the hydrophones quite oftens. It not before the morning after we finally realised we were in front of the convoy and we were in good position for a second strike.
April 19th
We are now in position to strike the convoy once again, and try to take some T3 and the Passenger Transport. We had to do a 180 maneuver while in periscope depth to be in a nice position for the Tankers strike. It a dangerous maneuver that could have made us spotted or miss the oportunity window because of the timing. We succeed to rotate 180 and just as the maneuver was finished we were perpendicular to the first T3. Fired 2 torpedoes and it took care of it. The sinking made the convoy to zig zag again. Unfortunately The Troop Transporter turned into our direction making it impossible to sink it because it was too close for the torpedoes activation. We had to let her go.
The zig zaging convoy made us take the decision to run full backward so we can have a chance to take out a second T3. Another risky move because we were almost touching the other cargo ships by behind. We managed despite of that to sink a second T3. We tried to take out a liberty with aft torpedoes but they missed. However, a liberty ship that was very close behind has spotted us and started to fire their howitzer on us, damaging our deck. To that point we had to escape and give up the convoy as the aft escorts were closing and begining to chase us.
We managed to escape without beign detected by the escorts and resurfaced an hour later.
Total Tonnage: 86150 Tons
__________________________________________________ _________________________________________
The crew was very tired of the mission and I felt it was better to sail home again even with 6 torpedoes left, but again, once we flank speeded to home, BdU reported us another convoy, but not some ordinary type of convoy. We found that odd that a convoy run into the sea at 14 Knots! I ordered the navigation officer to give a meeting course and go flank to the meeting position.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/677/mapbdu5ou.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
April 20th, Convoy Spotted!
We were now to the meeting point but the convoy havent arrived yet, so we climb up to the last reported convoy and we could see the convoy smoke few hours later.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/8756/tankersconvoy34cj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Once we saw the convoy approaching we had a big surprise: the convoy is mostly composed of Tankers!
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/689/tankersconvoy20wb.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/9648/tankersconvoy9oq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
We were amazed by the view. We could at least count a dozen of tankers, T2 and T3! We, again, positionned the u-Boat to a perpendicular strike.
As the convoy advanced toward us, we opened the aft tubes to sink a T3 until we realised that the convoy has also a major warship in it. Unfortunately the angle and the distance make it us impossible to identify it. So we cancelled the aft T3 strike, however we decided to strike the other T3 coming from the front. We sank a T3 with ease, but unfortunately the second T3 resisted a torpedoe and was still advancing even with a fire onboard.
The warship was now much closer and I was able to identify it. It was a Southampton Light Cruiser. We fire an aft torpedo under her keel, but it missed, the Cruiser has slowed down while I was firing. The tension was high. Only one Aft torpedo and one Fore torpedo left. I remade another firing solution and launch the last aft torpedo. IMPACT! However the Southampton don't go down, but as I commence maneuver to turn the u-Boat to 180 degrees to fire my last torpedo on it, officers cheers and reported to me that the Cruiser was sinking!
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7916/southampton9rz.gif (http://imageshack.us)
After all this, we had only one torpedo left and the damaged T3 was too far away. There was no way to catch it up. So we took the chance to take that last torpedo to a runing away T3 tanker with a thiny angle. We took datas and fired that last torpedo. The solution was bad, the estimated impact time has been passed, but 20 second later we saw the T3 explode and separate in two! All the crew was cheering and we quickly dive to ensure a safe escape.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/911/lasttorp5mk.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The scary moment has to be when we escaped, we could hear destroyers pinging, without pigning us directly. We popped a can of decoy. The pinging has few second laters stopped and we could hear the destroyers depth charging the decoy.
We succesfully escaped the convoy and we headed to St-Nazaire.
__________________________________________________ _________________
The return to base has not been without hassle. BdU haven't any reported contacts, but we encountered lone Destroyers and B-24s. One of the destroyers almost got us when they spotted our snorkel and fired shells on our hulls. We fortunately managed to escape the destroyer and the depth charge.
Four days later, we docked safely to St-Nazaire, the crew of U-861 is now eligible for a nice and well deserved rest. Unfortunately it will be a short rest. The war is still going on and the 12th Flotilla needs us more than ever.
Total Tonnage: 119872 Tons
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1459/logpatrol4wf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7743/log14gp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6672/log21kx.jpg (http://imageshack.us)