That was a close one

[DerKaleun]

First Mission with snorkel...

Grid CG81 with a Type VIIC out of St.Nazaire down to my grid. No encounter. Then I decided to change Base to La Spezia and I went to the strait of Gibraltar.

Four DD´s became victims of well aimed T1´s at night. :arrgh!:

With the snorkel out towards the strait and then down to 150meters silent running towards the mediterranean. I´ve send the sonarman to the bunks, because he was busting my time compression always with contact reports, and so we sneaked with 2 knots at 150m depth into the strait.

Suddenly exactly south of gibraltar... "Wir wurden entdeckt Herr Kaleun!!!" .... ehh what ? :huh:

"Der Feind hat uns in der Ortung, Herr Kaleun!" what the f....?? :o

"Wirft Wasserbomben!!" ... damn :dead:

"Beide Maschinen AK, auf 50 meter hoch, schnell!!!" (Both Engines Flank, up to 50m, fast!)

close DC detonations. Damn 100% realism - I would really like to look up whats up there, since my sonarman is yelling one contact report after another, warships, freighters... according sonar there must be someting like 5 destroyers up there... this really SUCKZ. That was definitely NOT my plan! :damn:

Reached 50m again on silent running, now I wanted to know whats going on up there...

"Auf Sehrohrtiefe gehen!" (Periscope depth)

When the Spargel popped through the sruface I figured out in what kind of deep s.h.i.t. U-339 got in...

On exact the same course like ours a convoy was heading for the mediterranean. The seeking DD in front of it must have located us, since they where closing in with a speed of 3 knots on us, the convoy was doing about 5 knots, judging the bow wave of the freighters.

To make it short. I´ve sunk one troop transport, two C2´s, one T2 and one small Merchant. Then I was out of eels, just the two in externals bow and aft left which where unusable. Four fish were wasted on 4 DD´s before entering the straits.

We got DC´d like hell... the hull was badly damaged so deep dive was no longer an option. LI and Crew were busy keeping the water out of the boat, and we made it back out of the strait to the atlantic after hours of cat and mouse play with half of the Royal Destroyer fleet.

Snorkel depth and all ahead Flank. Back home. Still just a few miles west of the Gibraltar strait, daylight coming on, and the sea very calm. U-339 speeding at 11m depth with yelling diesels at 15 knots back into the atlantic.

Suddenly depth charges detonating near the boat. What the hell, no ships here !! What was ist... DAMN SUNDERLAND SUCKER!!!

That nasty packer almost blasted our Kraut asses! Hull down like hell, half the boats status read, luck - no human causalties or injuries. Everybody is fine. Snorkel Down, and with electric Power outa here... LI could fix the heavy damages.

After a few days U-339 arrives at St. Nazaire wirth 9% hull integrity :rock:

Its now mid 1943 and I survived on 100% without reloading and saving... I hope it will stay so.

We will be back to sea soon... BdU gave me brand new U-571 and Gibraltar is still there... :arrgh!:

[bigJ47]

WOW!,

Great mission :up: ,

hope I have one like it soon! :ping:

congrats to you, and your crew :up:

BigJ47.

[STEED]

Its now mid 1943 and I survived on 100% without reloading and saving... I hope it will stay so.

Your days are numbered :dead:

Good Story :up:

[Ducimus]

Its now mid 1943 and I survived on 100% without reloading and saving... I hope it will stay so.

Your days are numbered :dead:

Good Story :up:



Let me tell you, 0.03 CM radar is your worst nightmare. Stick so much as the tip of that snorkel up for so much as 2 hours whith a clear sky periscope and you'll have a sunderland park an ashcan right into your wintergarden.

Then theres the HK groups.. i cannot understand what makes them so deadly. It's like they know EXACTLY where you are, long before you know their in the area. Even if you spot them with the most advanced radar warning recieive you can get (or create :roll: i think mine is around 12KM range for the top end RWR), and they pin point me every time. I have dodged an HK group only ONCE, and that was after a long depth charging that put snorkel, deck gun, and AA guns all out of action.


When you get to mid 44, good luck, your gonna need it ;)

[VonHelsching]

Nice story! :up:

Been there (1944). Make sure your snorkeldepth exposes just the tip of your schnorchel.

Oh! And get Jungman's fix. This would help a little bit.

[DerKaleun]

It´s March ´44 and I´m still alive :D

I´ve got a VII/42 now with the Über-Flak Tower, two 20m Vierlings in the aft and one 3,7cm Zwilling on the bow. :smug:

I was jumped by 4 swordfish bombers when my boys where reloading Torps from the external stores inside the boat (I reload only at calm sea and, when I do this, I do not dive for 3 minutes when I am suprised by enemy).

I manned my turrets, and they gave the brits plenty of munitions to eat. Downed all four of them :rock:

After Loading the torps inside I went to snorkel depth and continued my patrol :arrgh!:

[Rhodes]

Lucky Guy... :)

[Keelbuster]

I love swordfish...s'like duck hunt.

Good run DerKaleun - it was a bit psycho to come to PD with 5 DDs pinging you. I mean, you pulled some sweet tonnage on that convoy, but yer damn lucky it didn't make you into fishfood. I hate that pass. I've had some really bad experiences there recently. I had a TF run over me while I was doing the same thing you were. I was at PD and the lead escort charged me and DCed me to hell. By the time I started to dive he shot my periscope with a machine gun and was lobbing deck gun rounds under the waterline at me. I got lucky too, but I don't think i drew a breath for like 30 minutes.

KB

[DerKaleun]

I had to change depth quickly, because the DC´s where damn close at 150 depth, and i noticed that at shallow depth with a lot of ships around you, they have problems locating you. It´s really easier to get away at PD with freighters around you then at deep depth with pings all around you. It was night, so my sparges was hard to spot, and this saved my ass I think... Nevertheless I won´t try this again :roll:

[Myxale]

Wow Cool Story! Keep Posting Herr Kaleun.
I'm sure your KTB is chockefull with good stories! :arrgh!:

[DerKaleun]

MyXale okay I´ll try... the 22 Patrols so far where really exciting, my first 100% career. I alsways was doing 92% before (camera).

Heading for AM52... (yea it´s 1944, and I am crazy I know) and I was suprised by a squadron of Sunderland... All honors to my Über-Flak Crew, but I decided to dive like hell, when I received radar signals. Heard DC´s behind me... far behind me, so I´ve put the Spargel up. And I was laughing loud, when I saw this...!

Two Sunderlands where doing a dive run on my suspected position... from opposite directions. :huh: I guess you can imagine what happend :D

YES... these bozos did a perfect mid air collision... morons :-j too bad they have not invended TCAS these days :rotfl:

They exploded and fell into the sea like clumsy ducks... hehe they really made my day :up:

[Keelbuster]

Nice - didn't know that about shallow running and ASW evasion in convoys. I always go to about 140m (just to give me a little room in case I get damaged).

I would love to see two sunderlands buy it that way. Justice served.

[DeepSix]

Nice - didn't know that about shallow running and ASW evasion in convoys.

Oh, yeah. My favorite place to be after firing my bolt at convoy targets is right underneath the center of the group. You can bang away at flank speed and hide in all the prop noise (usually), plus it's harder for the DDs to maneuver and attack if you're underneath their friendlies. If you have enough battery and oxygen, the best outcome is that you just cruise along underneath the convoy until the ASW gives up the hunt.

[Keelbuster]

In my experience, after I let all my torps Los!, the escorts tend to close on my general position. They come in through the lanes, dodging ships, and ping. If it is rough water, I could imagine you're okay for a bit (also because of prop noise, though i actually didn't believe that was modeled), but I can't imagine that they will just stick to passive detection - what about active? Then ping you hard, they close on you, run you over, and drop a dc on your back. At depth, even if yer DCed, you can always dodge it by flanking at the last minute.

Kb

[DeepSix]

At depth, even if yer DCed, you can always dodge it by flanking at the last minute.

Kb

Oh, absolutely. Well, in theory at least - sometimes my "last minute" is a little too "last minute...." :D

Good points; they don't always stick to passive sonar, and I've been detected in the middle before - usually when the convoy spreads out and the merchants either come to a stop or slow down so the DDs will pick you up. Once they find me I definitely try to go deep.

I didn't mean to suggest that hiding under the convoy was perfect, only that it's generally the first trick I try. I don't know what "formula" was used to make use of surface noise, prop noise, etc., but it seems to be realistically modeled to me. Also, I forgot to mention that, instead of staying shallow, I do usually go down to 50m (or try to) when getting under the convoy. That's about as deep as I can get, at a quiet speed, between the time I fire and the time the first torpedos strike. But of course that depends on how far away you like to shoot from. And then there's the thermal layer you sometimes benefit from.

That's one of the things I love about the game - there's no one foolproof way to do it.

[andy_311]

It´s March ´44 and I´m still alive :D

I´ve got a VII/42 now with the Über-Flak Tower, two 20m Vierlings in the aft and one 3,7cm Zwilling on the bow. :smug:

I was jumped by 4 swordfish bombers when my boys where reloading Torps from the external stores inside the boat (I reload only at calm sea and, when I do this, I do not dive for 3 minutes when I am suprised by enemy).

I manned my turrets, and they gave the brits plenty of munitions to eat. Downed all four of them :rock:

After Loading the torps inside I went to snorkel depth and continued my patrol :arrgh!:

Been there 45 is even worse I ran out of AP shells blasting away at aircraft.
And all for what? 9/5/45 Germany Surrenders I end up right bang in a centre of a convoy DDs open'ed up on me snank the bloody lot of them just to get my engines taken out by Sunderland's couldn't fire at the ran out of ammo.

[Keelbuster]

At depth, even if yer DCed, you can always dodge it by flanking at the last minute.

Kb

Oh, absolutely. Well, in theory at least - sometimes my "last minute" is a little too "last minute...." :D

Good points; they don't always stick to passive sonar, and I've been detected in the middle before - usually when the convoy spreads out and the merchants either come to a stop or slow down so the DDs will pick you up. Once they find me I definitely try to go deep.

I didn't mean to suggest that hiding under the convoy was perfect, only that it's generally the first trick I try. I don't know what "formula" was used to make use of surface noise, prop noise, etc., but it seems to be realistically modeled to me. Also, I forgot to mention that, instead of staying shallow, I do usually go down to 50m (or try to) when getting under the convoy. That's about as deep as I can get, at a quiet speed, between the time I fire and the time the first torpedos strike. But of course that depends on how far away you like to shoot from. And then there's the thermal layer you sometimes benefit from.

That's one of the things I love about the game - there's no one foolproof way to do it.


Cool. Q - I read that thermal layers weren't modeled, and that there is a mod project aimed at pulling it off. There is a distance/sound scale such that at depth your noise is less detectable by passive.

Anyhow, interesting - always cool to hear other people's convoy thrashing strategies. Do you run _with_ the convoy at 3 or 4 kts, or against the convoy?

I've been playing Dangerous Waters, and since then I've been trying to 'clear the datum' as fast as possible following attack. This involves finding the nearest gap in escort coverage, and heading that direction (usually 120 to approaching escort). Right after 'Torpedo Treffre!' I go to ahead standard and turn my bearing appropriately. Then I decide what's going to happen. If the escorts are far away, or extremely sluggish, and I have an extremely efficient crew, I might contemplate waiting to load another torpedo and getting it off into any injured merchants. But, more likely, I will use that initial confusion and (what I imagine to be) the sound cover of sinking burning hulks to get depth and clear datum - get distance from the convoy. I usually go 120 to the convoy direction (which is often also on an oblique angle to the escort's approach) at ahead standard or (if escorts are >4km away) ahead full. When I estimate that an escort is within 2km or closer, I cut to ahead slow, and then, at some arbitrary point, go silent and plod out. When I get pinged, I go to hydrophone and wait for the attack run, change course by 30 degrees and flank for the count of 10 or so then go silent. Works almost all the time (in 1941/2).

[DeepSix]

Wow, that's a strategy. I confess I haven't tried (methodically) many different tricks, and haven't played DW, but that's one trick I will definitely try. I don't play at an extremely high level of 'realism' (somewhere between 50% and 70%) due to the amount of time I have for gaming, but I try to play it straight, regardless.

As for running with or against, it sort of depends, but usually I try to run with the convoy, to maximize the time I'm under it. I don't feel comfortable once I'm out from under the umbrella unless the escorts are off on the goose chase somewhere else, and when I do get caught out I tend to do very very short spurts of 1 or 2 knots, just enough to be able to turn and just enough to sidestep the DC. I run with the convoy for a while, then try to sit tight until the warship sonar contacts fade, and only then do I fire up the engines and head away.

Usually I can run with it because when not engaged I don't run the battery or oxygen way down. When submerged I often maintain just 1 knot for the sake of keeping the boat trimmed. That way, I can stay down all day and don't have to be surfaced long at night to recharge and breathe. In places where there's a lot of warship activity, sometimes I don't even run engines to surface or dive if I can get away with taking the extra time to use the compressed air.

The other thing about running with the convoy is that sometimes I get a second chance, even if I blow the approach. Last patrol, I encountered a convoy leaving Gibraltar. It was just at daybreak, so there was enough light for me to see - and be seen - and the Tribal DD at the head of the convoy caught me in the search lights. Flank ahead, down to 150, into the convoy. I turned with it, cut back to standard, and rode along for a while. Finally came up in time to get off 4 torpedos at a passenger liner, two of which hit and disabled her. Motored on over and sat underneath her (for a stationary ship she sure made a lot of noise) at 50m until the convoy moved off, then crept out and came up for the coup de grace.

Anyway, disengaging after convoy attack is something I'm weak on, so another reason to try your tactic. It'll also improve my realism. 120 is probably the approximate angle I creep away at, but more by luck than design. More than once I've been able to break off just because I threw up my hands and went to All Stop, put everybody on damage control, and just rode out the DC (only if I'm down at 100m or more). Early war, at least, that seems ok (if not particularly true to life).

I was under the impression that thermal layers were included; seems like I read that - or saw it in one of the videos - way back when the game first came out. There have been several occasions when I was down deep and escorts had me dead to rights, pinging like mad, and then the pings faded and they just lost me, even though by my reckoning and the map bearing, I was smack in the middle of the cone of detection and only a couple hundred meters or so ahead (*not* astern). So I don't know - I was chalking it up to thermal layers but maybe I just lucked out.

Anyway - enough of my blathering! :D