(Story) Operation Rheinubung - U-64 saves the Bismarck (revised - multiple pics)

[lonehawknz]

OK guys. Here's the better version (with the full set of screenshots!):


U-64, a Type IXB ocean boat with 7th Flotilla, 4 weeks out of Lorient on her 16th war patrol in May 1941, is returning from a long cruise along the Cape Verdes - Western Approaches convoy route taken by the Freetown bound SL convoys.

Kapitanleutnant Kris Von Leahy's crew had already sunk several large tankers and some smaller cargo vessels in and around the Rockall bank but the trip to the African coast was long, dull and very boring. Returning north, U-64, freshly painted with a smart black Viking longship, the pride and joy of bosun's mate Jens Hagen, makes a swift detour to sink a lone T2 tanker spotted steaming northeast towards Cornwall by Luftwaffe long range Condors on the 26th May.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/1.JPG

That night, short on ammunition, torpedoes and fuel, with the boat heaving in the teeth of a sou'wester gale, nobody is surprised when the captain makes the welcome decision to head back for Lorient, the safety of the Keroman bunkers and the comforts of the old town's brothels and nightclubs. Cheering crewmen drown out the storm outside, bottles of beer stashed in the for'ard head are cracked open and for the first time in weeks, there's a real celebration onboard. Nobody much cares if there are Tommies about, in this storm they could be 5 metres away and no-one would be the wiser!

2nd Officer Ernst Rosemann approached the captain, sitting mopping his brow with his hat; "Iron Crosses all round for the Baltic Star and the Louisiana Express eh Herr Kaleun? We really hit them this time!"

"Yes, yes Rosey, just get me a damn drink man, for god's sake, before I die of thirst!"

"Old man Donitz wouldn't like it if he knew we had this on board sir!"

"Well Donitz isn't here is he?!" smiled Von Leahy. "Let's toast our gallant foe, and hope he sends us more fat oilers to sink!"

The cheering echoed round the boat. Just one beer per man, but enough to put aside the tension and boredom that had afflicted them all in equal measure.

Suddenly Fritz Loster, the radioman, races to the con with clear broadcast urgent traffic from BdU. Something serious must be afoot for U-Boat Command to be sending signals in the clear.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/2.JPG

U-64 had received news of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen's destruction of HMS Hood 2 days previous, and the spectacular victory was greeted with joy and astonishment. The Royal Navy were not invincible, and Germany could win at sea! It was unbelievable!

Now reality struck home, Bismarck was in dire trouble. It was obvious from the signal that the wolves were closing in for the kill. At this point Von Leahy and his crew had no idea that in an even worse stroke of fate, the one hit scored on the Kriegsmarine's mighty battleship in an air raid earlier that day, had disabled her steering gear and damaged one propeller so that she made barely 7kts and was going round in circles!

4 hours from the expected point of intercept for the Royal Navy capital units stalking the crippled Bismarck, Von Leahy called for flank speed from the tired engines. A ripple of excitement and trepidation swept through the boat. A few minutes ago, they were going home. Now they were going to hell...


(pt2 to follow)

[lonehawknz]

Racing south at flank speed, U-64 reaches the area in which the Bismarck is reported to be steaming at around 0800hrs on the 27th May.

Setting a course northwest to intercept the battleship (supposedly heading for Brest) and submerging to listen for the telltale high pitched whine of high speed warships, U-64 is astonished to find herself surrounded by utter silence in the inky black depths of the Atlantic.

"Nothing Herr Kaleun. Even the fish aren't swimming today, the weather's so foul..." reported Sonarman Klaus.

"Full sweep man! There must be something out there...?!" said Von Leahy, hoping against hope that they were not too late and Bismarck had not already succumbed to her pursuers further out to sea.

Raising the scope, he could see that finally the weather was clearing slightly. The rain had eased and the horizon was lifting to around 1000m. All around hung the grey pall of a sea mist, a good day for a funeral. He hoped it wouldn't be for Germany.

Suddenly a hiss from Klaus brought the Kaleun racing over to the hydrophones.

"Propellers, Bearing 340, Herr Kaleun. Closing fast! They're warships!"

So they were not too late after all.

A scant few seconds later, more screws could be heard closing from the northeast. And then, a strange high pitched screw noise mixed with clanking and clattering from dead ahead to the west. They realised a ship was damaged, and coming from a totally different direction, it had to be Bismarck!

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/3.JPG

"Steer 300 helm! Chief, keep her steady at 12m! All ahead full..!"

Von Leahy aimed to place himself between the westernmost group of British ships and the obviously wounded German battleship.

Meanwhile, Admiral Tovey and the crew of the two mighty Royal Navy battleships, King George V and Rodney, steamed at 23kts straight at Bismarck, who was being shadowed and harried by escorting destroyers from the 2nd Cruiser Sqn. Determined to avenge the loss of Hood, there would be no mercy for Bismarck.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/4.JPG

Suddenly, through the blurring scope, with the remnants of the gale washing around the lens and making clear sighting impossible, Von Leahy glimpsed the looming shape of a battleship ploughing through the heaving seas dead astern. The profile was unmistakable, it was Bismarck, limping hopelessly and turning toward the U-boat.

Swinging the lens around, the Kaleun got the fright of his life when two British battleships, unmistakably a Nelson class and another, bigger ship came crashing out of the gloom straight off the bows of U-64 parallel to Bismarck's course.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/5.JPG

They couldn't see each other! Neither ship made any attempt to fire. But U-64 was bang in the middle and could see all of them!

The u-boat was perfectly placed for a shot, by total accident Von Leahy had a chance to even the odds for their big brother...

(pt3 to follow)

[lonehawknz]

Bismarck steamed lazily in a circle towards the British battleships

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/6.JPG

and Von Leahy knew he had to act immediately...

Lining up the Nelson in the scope, he passed the course and speed to Rosemann, the weapons officer, who punched the detail into the TDC.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/7.JPG

With the solution set, there was no time for fine-tuning...

"Nummer zwei...LOS!!! Nummer drei...LOS!!!"

U-64 resounded to the whoosh of the torpedoes leaping from their tubes and Von Leahy prayed that Rosemann's solution was accurate.

Lining up on the 2nd ship, now clearly seen to be a King George class battleship, U-64 took a further 2 snapshots at her, although Von Leahy didn't expect to hit anything vital.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/8.JPG

As the clock timed down, the air on board the u-boat was so thick you could cut it, and for once it had nothing to do with Leading Seaman Halder's feet..!

"Torpedo HIT!!!!" Von Leahy nearly screamed from the con. A plume of water shot up from the side of HMS Rodney, and then, almost in slow motion, she exploded in a sheet of flame.

"We must have hit the ammo bunkers Herr Kaleun!!!"

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/9.JPG

Rodney turned over lazily, afire from stem to stern and sank inside a minute, the few survivors clinging to planks of wood blown from the shattered ships boats.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/10.JPG

Turning the scope towards the King George, Von Leahy was amazed to see her dead in the water. The explosion of Rodney had masked the fact that another hit had been scored, either on the remaining ship's screws or her engine room.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/11.JPG

Consulting the BdU identification guide, the captain carefully selected where he knew his torpedo would have a chance of hitting a fuel bunker. No solution was needed. The target was a sitting duck.

"Nummer eins...LOS!"

(pt4 to follow)

[lonehawknz]

Fortune smiled on the Kriegsmarine that day. The horrified bridge crew onboard King George could do nothing as the telltale stream of bubbles raced inexorably for them. The battleship shuddered with the impact and erupted in flames as the fish tore a great gash in the armour belt and sparks ignited the primary fuel bunker.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/12.JPG

Surfacing the boat, Von Leahy ordered the chief to head to intercept Bismarck. U-64 had no torpedoes left and the Kaleun knew that every British Zerstorer would be gunning for him. U-64 needed the protection of Bismarck's 14" guns.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/13.JPG

But the battleship had problems of her own to contend with.

"British cruisers bearing red 040 Herr Kaleun!!!"

Time to dive once again!

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/14.JPG

(pt5 to follow)

[lonehawknz]

As U-64 raced for the safety of the depths once more, Bismarck erupted out of the fog straight into the path of the cruisers Suffolk and Dorsetshire, who had heard the death throes of the battleships on their radios and were determined to avenge the loss. They could not understand how the crippled Bismarck had succeeded once again in humbling the Royal Navy, and were not sure that the garbled messages had said "torpedo" or something else. The german battleship was known to carry tinfish as part of her secondary battery but it seemed unlikely she would have used them first. Perhaps U-boats were in the vicinity, which was bad news.

Bad, but not as bad as Bismarck's main armament opening fire on them at point blank range...

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/15.JPG

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/16.JPG

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/17.JPG

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/18.JPG

Within minutes, although her superstructure was badly damaged by the cruiser's 12" guns, Bismarck had reduced the British ships to flaming wrecks. As Dorsetshire slipped beneath the waves, Kapitan z See Ernst Lindemann stood in his wrecked bridge, cap and clothes shredded, staring at the dying Admiral.

"Lindemann, your ship is a credit to the Reich! They will award you the Knight's Cross for this, I swear it!" gasped Lutjens as he clung to the last ebb of life.

"Danke, Herr Admiral, rest now. We must hope the Royal Navy has no more ships out there after our blood. We are not home and dry yet." Lindemann did not like the Admiral, he was not and ardent supporter of the party whereas Lutjens was a fanatic, and had endangered Bismarck through his misplaced enthusiasm for facing the enemy directly on unequal terms. But here was a dying man, who had, admittedly, braved the storm of enemy fire directed at the bridge unflinchingly.

As the Admiral was carried below, Lutjens looked out to where Dorsetshire's bow foamed and frothed until dissappearing from view entirely, leaving a thick oily slick as the only marker of her final resting place.

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/19.JPG

[lonehawknz]

"U-boat off the starboard bow Herr Kapitan!!"

The lookout stood pointing at U-64, which had surfaced, most unexpectdly, off to the right of Bismarck.

A broad grin split Lindemann's face as he recognised an older version of a wet behind the ears Fahnrich whom he had instructed in basic seamanship at Kiel 6 years previously, staring back at him and waving through his binoculars.

"Von Leahy, you cunning dog!"

Bismarck had heard the violent explosions of the Rodney and the King George but had no idea what they signified. But now Lindemann began to guess what had occurred and he thanked god for the little boat's most fortuitous appearance!

"Signal U-64. Well done little brother, you're a credit to the family, now get off home safely to mum!"

Aboard U-64, not a few of the watch crew choked at the moving tribute. Kapitanleutnant Von Leahy turned to Leading Seaman Brunwald, the signaller.

"Signal Bismarck. Our pleasure. It's good to have big brothers when there's a bully around!"

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/20.JPG

[lonehawknz]

Oh... THE END...

;)

[bigboywooly]

Whoa
Great story and great pics too
Can i ask what mods you are using to be part of that ?
Chance of a lifetime that and well played

Kudos Herr Kaleun

[lonehawknz]

Thanks Wooly!!! :)

I was using Harbour Traffic v1.46 by Rubini...!

Fantastic mod, and yep, I couldn't believe it when the message came through and I was close enough to help!

Mate, that was far and away my best SH3 moment so far.

Chris

[Sulikate]

Nice story.

[Umfuld]

Very cool.

I thought about tailling a German task force in hopes of seeing a battle. I didn't. Maybe I'll go back and find them now.

[Type941]

Awesome. You should use some skins available for the ships so you see the battle even more realistically! ;)

From my bismarck movie. :) Although it ends properly. :p

http://files.filefront.com/SH3_Video_BismarckTheMovie_LongVersion_Color/;4089329;;/fileinfo.html

[lonehawknz]

OMG! Type 941, I don't think my set of stills comes close to that...

;)

Salute!

Achingly beautiful...

[VonHelsching]

Excellent story! :up:

[HEMISENT]

Great writing

[JSalinger]

Excellent work Herr Kaleun. TWO British battleships...::awestruck:: we will win the war yet! LOL

[bookworm_020]

Nice work Indeed! You won't be buying any drinks when you get home.

[Skubber]

That was cool. :up:

[lonehawknz]

I still have no idea how I managed to hit KGV in just the right place!?? Sheer and total fluke! :p

But Rodney was more of a cert. Two TII's directed at vital parts. I just had to hope she didn't turn whilst the fish were en route! She didn't, and she copped it!


After 30 seconds of bouncing round my living room whooping loudly, I kind of felt bad about sinking the two proud BB's who do, after all, represent "my" side, but then I thought, nah, changing history was far more interesting!!!

:arrgh!:

[Keelbuster]

Wicked - totally wicked. I had wished to pull of this same stunt when the time came in my career. I was in the right place at the right time, and it was FOGGY. Such a shame. But I did manage to catch a TF _after_ the bismarck should have been fishbait. It was a revenge and an illustrious - not sure what they were up to (but I think in real life there were torpedo planes launched from a carrier that damaged Bismarck's rudder). I got them both with lucky shots. I felt like this evened the score with the Allies..

Kb

[lonehawknz]

Yep. Ark Royal launched a late evening strike in which Bismarck's rudder and steering gear were destroyed by a single torpedo from the attacking Swordfish aircraft. This really was the single biggest signal that airpower had rendered the battleship obsolete so far! Pearl Harbour would finally prove it.

:know:

[andy_311]

I don't know but I havn't seen that message for ages nowadays am playing GW just finished a career in GW and started another as a recall I seen no radio message to go assist the Bismark but also saying that in that time period am assigned to patrol a gid a couple of K fom the BE grid anway also I ignore most of the messages that are incomeing anyway especially if I sight a convoy the darn things get annoying at times.

[lonehawknz]

I tried to write the whole thing as close to the style of a Commando comic as possible. The very last paragraph (the "big brother, little brother" bit) is in fact paraphrased from a classic Commando issue (no.7), "The Ship They Couldn't Sink" which is one of my all time favourites about an RN destroyer taking on the Admiral Scheer. The rest is entirely my own!

:know:

[The_Blockade_Runner]

Great Read:up: :up:


I look foward to engaging in this battle when the time comes, but I am sure I could not achieve the same sucess in 30 careers.



Now all the Bismark has to do is plot a nice spiral course home:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[lonehawknz]

Ever increasing circles!

BTW, this is what happened when I got there too late...

http://www.cleahy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/21.JPG

:down:

[Brag]

An awesome scenario and pretty decent writing, too! :D

[Jimbuna]

apologies for catching up late....great, a real nice piece of interesting gameplay :up:

[mr chris]

Great pics and even better story Well done:up: :up:

[Steeltrap]

Although, at the risk of being pedantic, the Bismarck's main armament was 15", not 14", and the Brit cruisers carried either 8" or 6", not 12" (the Royal Navy didn't have any 12" guns). The KGV class BBs had 14", but the story that they were 'improved' and better than 15" was a nonsense - they simply didn't have the 15" available, and the design suited 14" better (just as the Scharnhorst class was supposed to have 9 x 15", but was fitted with 11" initially with the intention of replacing them when available).

Is there a guide somewhere that shows the vitals of ships in terms of target points?? One thing I like about manual TDC is ability to aim at specific points.

[NightCrawler]

Very nice story, you could have all the medals, and having lot's of renown for sinking 2 battle ship, specialy the last battle ship with 1 torp, bravo!!!!:rock:

[Laughing Swordfish]

I loved it too.

A great moment!

LS

[squeak]

Awesome story

two thumps up :up: :up:

[IceGrog]

Great story
I’ve tried this in single missions, and have been able to sink some of the Royal Navy but always at the end I can see the Bismarck succumbing to the enemy fire
in my GW mission the message came thru, but i was too far away to get there in time

[CptGrayWolf]

Nice! :up:
Btw, I see you have made some 'politicaly correct' Bismark pics :lol:

[kenijaru]

nice... wonderful :up:
the Bismarck "hunt" is scripted in the stock game's campaign or is it a mod?
if it is a mod, where can i download it from?

[FlyinS]

Very cool story with pics!!

Question for everyone, does the Bismarck encounter like that only occurr in a mod or does that happen in Vanilla as well? I haven't gotten that far yet.

[bigboywooly]

IIRC its a single mission in the stock game

[melnibonian]

Great story :up: :up:

[Sulikate]

Nice story.

[FlyinS]

IIRC its a single mission in the stock game

Ahhh Thanks!

[Konovalov]

An excellent read and well worth the effort. Well done sir. :rock:

[Wave Skipper]

I know thats not a Rising Sun on its top deck. Is that the Rising Moon? :doh:

[vwc_maxwellsmart]

Hi guys

I'm using a vanilla european version of the game (no mods no patch...my comouter barely handles the game at 1024x768 :oops: ). I tried to find them in my carreer during my 14 th patrol, got to Be53 on May 19th and waited there (submerged most of the time) until may 29th with no results. Can anyone post an image with the Map (long distance so i can see the identification title as a reference point) so i can find them. In the sinlge mission my best result is delaying the bismark death, i sink the rodney :yep: and the bismark takes care of one of the destroyer :arrgh!: but in the end it sinks anyway.

Cheers

[U49]

Great reading and wonderful screenshot. Made me dreaming. .. :-) My current career ist in March 1941... We will see..

[StarFox]

and in this alternate history....I would assume the US navy left at least two battleships in the atlantic to deal with the Bismarck, Tripitz, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau

[lonehawknz]

The mod in use was Harbour 1.46 at the time :)

I didn't use anything else, and it was genuinely, in the vicinity during a patrol, rather than as a single mission. However, I knew pretty well where they would be ;)

Long time no see everyone. Been playing SH4 a lot more than 3 recently... now if only they could link the 2 games and make the whole world war playable... oh and Jap I-400s... and RN S-Class... and Italian submersible palaces.... etc etc etc ;))

One important note. I'm an avid student of history and a stickler for authenticity, I didnt remove or doctor the swastikas in the shots, they're not there in the first place ;) nothing to do with me. That choice is understandable but I wouldnt have scrubbed them off. You cant run away from reality or the truth of the past.

I always feel its a shame that some ill informed people lump every member of the Kriegsmarine in with the lowest, cruellest member of an Einsatzgruppe when talking about "the Germans in WW2"... hey ho...

I also have a pathological hatred of "PC"....

...occasionally I have a pathological hatred of my "PC" too... when it groans to a shuddering halt at 5-6fps ;))

Glad people are still enjoying the story :)

[lonehawknz]

StarFox - Royal Navy still would have had 4 Queen Elizabeths, 3 KGVs (albeit 2 still building at that point), 1 Nelson (Nelson herself), a few Revenges and various other tools with which to face the KM capital ships but it would have meant even fewer ships to allocated elsewhere.... perversely perhaps Force Z wouldnt have sailed, and PoW would have got a 2nd shot at Bismarck rather than being sunk by IJA airpower.

Having said that, there is one further piece of info to consider... the 14" shells did almost no damage to the Wotan armour on Bismarck although they did penetrate plenty of her upperworks... the real damage that put her out of the right was done by the original torp ofc and then by Rodney's 16" guns. Only the 16" shells had the punching power to do for her...

If you somehow end up with Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau AND lighter units such as Prinz Eugen available and all based at Brest or St Nazaire, jeeezuz.... nasty for the Allied convoys in '41 and '42. Then again, the RAF would have clouded the skies with Lancs to get shot of them... ah who knows ;)

[Spruence M]

IIRC its a single mission in the stock game

I swear I thought I saw this going on during my carear in GWX 1.03, but I was off Iceland and in no way could have made it...

[Schwartzkat3x]

Good story and shooting, but Bismarck had 15" Guns :lol:

[Task Force]

Im starting to get close to this date, could someone tell me what grid to hang around to meet these two (with torpedos):D

(date, grid)

Thanks alot.:up:

[jpm1]

that was the problem of the Bismark the ship was so a great realization that even if it was a pride for its owners the problem was that it's destruction was a great pride too

[Blue-Casket]

really enjoyed readig this story ;)
Great work ! :up:

And i would like to have a screenshot of the precise location of the ship too because i couldnt find any vessel in that area that day :cry:

[u-168]

My great uncle served abord the KING GEORGE V BATTLE SHIP.
I think he engagd the bismarck at that time i think the captain was Admiral Jhon Tovey i think he said. But its a good story m8.