U-Boot stories

[Gizzmoe]

New! The Outsider (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=105428)

The Italian Squadron (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=101627)

U-46 puts to sea again (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=83139)

Marlena Hessler Story (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=91223)

Operation Rheinübung - U-64 saves the Bismarck (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=93735)

U-66 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=96671)

Hechler's war (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=98578)

[WilhelmSchulz.]

Here is a Story seires from UBI. It is still Going on. This link is the latest but there are links to all the other Noob Patrol stories. YEET!!!

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/857101043/m/5181005694

[Kresge]

Laughing Swordfish's U-46 story has inspired me to start a blog now that I have time to return to SHIII. For now it is more of a log of my in-game patrols, but I recently began blogging to brush up on my writing skills; long since diminished after college and working in a hardware store. I hope, with time, to rise to the level of LaughingSwordfish! :up:


I hope you enjoy the adventures of Jurgen Trompetespieler:
http://trompetespieler.blogspot.com/

[bookworm_020]

Could we get a copy of the winning Subsim story's posted. At least the ones they are not listed above.

[Wave Skipper]

No sonar contacts -
Nothing in the scope but wind and rain -
Surface!
Where the hell did that silly trawler come from?!!
Its trying to run over us - crash dive! Oops, no time! Okay reverse engines full, he's headed toward our bow!
We are going under but our speed is about ZERO. At least the trawler won't hit us!
Oops, that's not a trawler, its a corvet!
Depth Charges!
Major flooding, engines dead. Blow tanks....
He's coming back around - we are dead in the water - still flooding.
Depth charges going off on our port side and bow!
end of game

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r77/Wave_Skipper/enginesdead_forcedup.jpg

When Donitz lost his three top U-boat commanders it was during a major storm.

[Von Hinten]

I've recently (as of this morning actually :yep:) started converting the patrol logs I did in Word files to my forums so if any of you are interested you can follow up on my so called adventures here: http://forums.gprt.net/forumdisplay.php?f=63

We, the GPRT, have but a few sub captains among us and I'm urging them to start logging their patrols too as to me it's in a way completing the game. I feel like I'm more the captain now than before.

[Brag]

Hi guys!

After being "busy" learning the new intrincacies of GWX, got around to posting a new installment of The Outsider and the mad patrol of the U-551 under the command of the mysterious Helmut Hagel.

Here is the link:
http://www.freewebs.com/kielman/u551.htm

Hope you'll enjoy it. :lol:

[Von Hinten]

Hi guys!

After being "busy" learning the new intrincacies of GWX, got around to posting a new installment of The Outsider and the mad patrol of the U-551 under the command of the mysterious Helmut Hagel.

Here is the link:
http://www.freewebs.com/kielman/u551.htm

Hope you'll enjoy it. :lol:
That's a wonderful site m8, very well done and a breeze to read. Keep up the good work. :up:

[Brag]

Here is the link. I hope you'll enjoy it :D

http://www.freewebs.com/kielman/u551theoutsiderstory.htm (http://www.freewebs.com/kielman/u551theoutsiderstory.htm)

[Jimbuna]

Very enjoyable...well done kaleun :up: :arrgh!:

[ubootcomrade]

hello this is my first posting on subsim:smug: ,im a sh3 verteran (at 14:cool: ) and my story is this...(sorry no screens:damn: )I was patrolling near leningrad cos i heard there was a ruskie battleship about, well i was near leningrad when i got jumped by a destroyer. I crashdived went to silent running, he dropped a few charges one went rather close and had a nasty effect on my hull, well i went to periscope depth to find the russian heading strait for me, i checked the destroyers draught and sent a torp right up the ruskies nose:arrgh!: ,his bridge burst into flames and sank in a few minutes. Afterwards i headed to leningrad to find the 'talin' only to be caught on the surface and rammed by another destroyer:damn: :damn: :damn: . Well thats my story i hope it wasent as rubbish as i think it is

[bb-subs]

First posted in another post.

"Norway
What is the single Task Force up in Norway just sitting there?
I am on the way up should I take a run at them?
Grant"

This is what happened and how to get 4 easy warhip kills,
"http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/images/icons/icon4.gif got them!!!!
I dont know if you know the TF I am talking about but I started my career with Commander in Oct 39.
Right know this is patrol 7.
The TF I seen before but never got there as I had to reinstall the game, when setting up GWX1.2. :down:

But I got them:rotfl: :rotfl:
If you approach from the east you will find the water just 11 to 13 m deep so the creep in. I found the task force to be a Sheffield at the tip the south end, then followed in line ahead by two troop transports, then just behind them two tribals with about 2000 m's seperating them.
Then there is another Troop Trans. but way back what didnt see was the third Tribal. I crept up to the center Tribals and picked the furthest first with a TII, then another TII about 15 secounds after the first.
Down they go. :rock:

Then the unseen Tribal comes from the north, all of the convoy is parked facing south and is stationary.
He cant find me as I am at 2 knots with 3 m's under me. Yuck what a place.

I got him though then went after the Sheffield and put two into her the Troop ships can wait till the cruiser is gone.

This is my best warship kill to date.

Grant"

Good Hunting

[TarJak]

Part one of a story about U56's 1st Atlantic patrol has been posted here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=109569

Part two will be posted when I finish writing it.

[HM.Medico]

I've just started work on one called Modern Buccaneers. It starts off with one of my harbour raids which I am so fond of

Can you add it to the list?
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=522086#post522086:up:

[Sledgehammer427]

ok, im new here, and i have a screen, but not on this comp.
but, i was patrolling, in campaign mode on the vanilla SH3 but i was near scapa flow, its late 1941, the happy time. i wanted to see if i could nab a battleship. so, on my way in i came across a circling destroyer. musta been a glitch. but. i came in silent. in a type 9 to be exact. and, i watched my approach in the nav map. closely watching my stealth meter, i was at periscope depth, with the scope down. i decided to go to external. and bam! the destroyer found himself just meters from ramming my conning tower. i almost s*** myself.
long live 10th flotilla!

Sledgehammer427, jolly pirate of the atlantic:arrgh!:

[ahaseurus2000]

My last patrol:
Left port on 15 Feb 1942. A couple of times in the Heavy Fog a destroyer popped out of nowhere, and at 1024x time I could barely react! Crash dive to 110 meters, run silent and slow, they quickly lost me and went away.
Anyway, off the SW coast of Ireland all these Sutherlands appeared out of nowhere and began straffing me, at least 10 at a time!! I got crew on both flak guns (double barrelled) and had a shootout for twenty minutes, three crew wounded including my flak petty officer in exchange for three planes shot down. Then more appeared with bombs... Crash Dive!
I should have saved game after that, cause I got depth-charged trying to outrun a tribal destroyer... :nope:

But that shootout was so cool :rock:

[S Rafty]

Laughing Swordfish's U-46 story has inspired me to start a blog now that I have time to return to SHIII. For now it is more of a log of my in-game patrols, but I recently began blogging to brush up on my writing skills; long since diminished after college and working in a hardware store. I hope, with time, to rise to the level of LaughingSwordfish! :up:


I hope you enjoy the adventures of Jurgen Trompetespieler:
http://trompetespieler.blogspot.com/

Amen...Same thing. After college and the McDs lol. My mind..rotted! Will never finish my novel. lol!:damn:

[Kriegsmarinesalior1942]

I leave the Sub pen at brest at 2300 hours heading for the Grand Banks. The boat is running well at 2/3 when the bridge crew spots a V and W destroyer berring down on us . I order Crashdive and hear the Xos shout of Alarm of the closing of hatches. Yet i am a dumkoff! i have dove with only 15 meters under my kiel. the crew braces for impact as our VIIC hits the bottom destroying tubes 3,4. I curse loudly and cut the engines. soon we have flooding through the bow compartments. Yet we can not fix the problum because of the now lurking v&w pack above us. We creep along at ahead slow for 1 hour before losing the brits thank god for decoys!. We surface and make repairs. We head north at ahead flank when we spot a c3 operating alone. we surface and manover around the freighter firing our 88' at her keel. We finally send her to the bottom when the sound of aircraft reach our ears. there is no time to dive and we are to shallow to even think of it. The gunners man there stations and continuosly pump out 20 cm shells aluminating the night with there muzzle flashes. we score one hit and a smoldering B-24 lets of a hiss of steam as its super heated metal hit the atlantic but i suffered the fate of many captans and was destroyed by the 2nd flight of 24's in the next 5 min.:damn: :nope:

[Lafferty]

Wow this is intresting thanks for posting.

[Andrewsdad]

Here is one for the books !

I am off the Dutch coast in a Type IID when aircraft are spotted. A sharp-eyed lookout identifies them as He-111's headed to bomb England. A hour later more aircraft. Spitfires !!! Crash dive and hope they didn't see us....

Now at the north end of the Channel. Lookout spies a destroyer heading straight toward us at 5000 meters. Down we go and the hunt is on !!!

Speed set to one knot. Silent Routine. This DD is pretty good as depth charges are close and I can't seem to get out of the circle she is making around us.

Sound detects a second destroyer. Now we are really in the soup !! As one listens the other pings and makes runs on us. However they are just a little astern and we may just escape. Then the sound of distant explosions on the hydrophone. What is that? Well I take a sneak peak with the camera and sure enough, the Luftwaffe has arrived and level bombers are dropping on the Englanders. Their AA is firing furiously as they circle around. I am not sure if the distraction will allow me to increase speed so I stay slow and quiet and continue to creep away.

The bombers are gone and the two destroyers continue to hunt. They are still very close and I am not yet safe.

About fifteen minutes later the sounds of surface detonations again !! Another look and I hear the unmistakable sounds of Stuka sirens !!! In moments the Ju87's have hit both destroyers and they are flaming wrecks !!! The mainmast one one falls overboard as the second ship sinks bow first. In five minutes the second destroyer is gone and I am safe.

We sent a case of schnapps to the Luftwaffe !!!

Salute !!
AD

[Brag]

Laughing Swordfish's U-46 story has inspired me to start a blog now that I have time to return to SHIII. For now it is more of a log of my in-game patrols, but I recently began blogging to brush up on my writing skills; long since diminished after college and working in a hardware store. I hope, with time, to rise to the level of LaughingSwordfish! :up:


I hope you enjoy the adventures of Jurgen Trompetespieler:
http://trompetespieler.blogspot.com/

Amen...Same thing. After college and the McDs lol. My mind..rotted! Will never finish my novel. lol!:damn:

Persevere! If you write one page a day, you'll have a novel in a year. :D

[mcf1]

well I left at December 12 1940 07:59
From Lorient to patrol AM41
on my way there a report came in about a task force moving west at 7kts. it was about 150km NW of my position, so i changed my course and tried to get there as fast as possible,after i got there i was sure that i'll never find it, but iestimated it's course and started patrolling and after a while at 19:45 i heard: merchand, moving slow,bearing 059 long range.then i went to periscope depth and followed the ship.
I wanted to wait until sun fall to surface and get close enough and ofcourse stay undetected,a while later I was at about 1100m from the last row. This is my chance i thought and got to periscope depth. I couldn't see any destroyers nearby(although i knew ther was one my WO detected it) and at ahead flank i tried to place my uboot at perfect position to hit a T3 tanker i aimed for it and 2 c2 cargos next to it and fired i had only one bow torpedo left loaded and i saw the destroyer he was to my right, i cut the engines and turned to face him, i fired and i got him, all lunched torpedoes had hit their targets the T3 and one of the C2 were destroyed at once, so i kept firing torpedoes and struck the biggest ships close to me. Soon i had left only the external reserves and i wanted to sink more tonnage so i surfaced to load them and i started firing the deck gun to destroy what was left(personal experience: when firing at ships like C2 or C3 try to shoot at their cargo they make great explosions and less shels to sink)Soon i had nothing more to shoot, but i wanted to do more damage and i started firing with my 2cm AA gun. it
doesn't do much damage but managed to sink a cripled coastal merchant. Anyway tht was my best hunt ever, I scored over 80000 tonns.

[CNS]

My best patrol so far.....

Left Lorient around september 1940 and plotted a course to the north of Ierland when I got a contact report of a convoy not to far away from my position. Plotted an interceptcourse and headed full steam ahead.

After a short while made visual contact and went to periscope depth. Got into a position on the corner of the convoy to take a look at the escorts. Front escort was a Flower corvette and I let the convoy pass to see the escort in the back which turned out to be a Flower corvette as well. After the convoy is passed I surface the boat and position myself in front of the convoy. I decide to do a daring surface attack on the first Flower as a faily inexperienced CO :88).....and attack the Flower with my deckgun from a fair distance headon. After a few hits the Flower sinks :up: and the Flower from the rear steams through the convoy to attack me. Because of this he cannot get to me head on and I have a good lock with my deckgun on the side of the second Flower which also sinks after a few hits :up:.

Yes....finally we have a unescorted convoy at our disposal and I steam through the convoy to pick the best targets. Suddenly shell are impacting around the boat and get the message "Das boot ist beschadigd herr Kaleun" :eek:. I make a quick sweep with my attack periscope and discover an auxillary cruiser on the far side of the convoy. ALAAAAARM. I go to periscope depth and attack the cruiser with 2 torpedos aiming at the ammo bunkers. Both torpedo's hit their target and the cruiser goes down :rock:. I make a second sweep with my attack periscope and make sure there is absolutly no other warship in this convoy. Finally no more warships in this convoy and start attacking pyro ammunition ships, large cargo's and such.

After having uses all my torpedo's and deck gun ammo I report to BdU and I'm beeing orderd to return to base.

Final result
War ships sunk = 3
Tankers sunk = 1
Mechants sunk = 13
Total tonnage = 130000+

Also my first 100k patrol :arrgh!:

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard Kaleun mcf1 :arrgh!:

[Ivan Putski]

Just a little run in with a surfaced "S" class sub, my first ever. I wrote a short description of the action at SHIII forums, Sim HQ, I`m providing the link if anyone is interested. Puts

http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2388182#Post2388182

[sasquatch]

My best patrol so far.....

Left Lorient around september 1940 and plotted a course to the north of Ierland when I got a contact report of a convoy not to far away from my position. Plotted an interceptcourse and headed full steam ahead.

After a short while made visual contact and went to periscope depth. Got into a position on the corner of the convoy to take a look at the escorts. Front escort was a Flower corvette and I let the convoy pass to see the escort in the back which turned out to be a Flower corvette as well. After the convoy is passed I surface the boat and position myself in front of the convoy. I decide to do a daring surface attack on the first Flower as a faily inexperienced CO :88).....and attack the Flower with my deckgun from a fair distance headon. After a few hits the Flower sinks :up: and the Flower from the rear steams through the convoy to attack me. Because of this he cannot get to me head on and I have a good lock with my deckgun on the side of the second Flower which also sinks after a few hits :up:.

Yes....finally we have a unescorted convoy at our disposal and I steam through the convoy to pick the best targets. Suddenly shell are impacting around the boat and get the message "Das boot ist beschadigd herr Kaleun" :eek:. I make a quick sweep with my attack periscope and discover an auxillary cruiser on the far side of the convoy. ALAAAAARM. I go to periscope depth and attack the cruiser with 2 torpedos aiming at the ammo bunkers. Both torpedo's hit their target and the cruiser goes down :rock:. I make a second sweep with my attack periscope and make sure there is absolutly no other warship in this convoy. Finally no more warships in this convoy and start attacking pyro ammunition ships, large cargo's and such.

After having uses all my torpedo's and deck gun ammo I report to BdU and I'm beeing orderd to return to base.

Final result
War ships sunk = 3
Tankers sunk = 1
Mechants sunk = 13
Total tonnage = 130000+

Also my first 100k patrol :arrgh!:

You were using a Type IX, weren't you?

[BulSoldier]

a story of unfortunate death (like there is fortunate ) ,bit long but if someone is about to read it,be my guest,ill be happy to hear what would you say about it.May find some similarities to das boot characters (or may not in any case it is hasty made story). Gramatic errors are sure to be present since my native language is not english,not at all :) (i hope to understand some of the strangly written words :))





A step too far



Early octomber 1942 , the war in the Atlantik is getting more savage.The tommies are learning.They arent making mystakes anymore,the uboot losses are rising.Aircrafts are making uboots vunarable,day and night. Yet the most successful Kaleun in the Ubootwaffe is sailing out of Lorient.Horst Rummel made himself legend throught the third reich with his successes both with convoy attacks and surface engagements.
But now the tide of the war has changed, yet again.With every step Grossadmiral Doenitz does to give advantage to his ubootflotte the enemy`s creativity counters in a few months.This time the enemy gets the upper hand,and there is no sollution over the enemy aircrafts hunting the boots,neighter to enemy`s ever increasing effectivnes of the escorts.

The boot sets out of the harbor with one third ahead.Slowly cutting waves infront of her bow.U-125 is sent in the carribean, a destination on the edge of her range.First days are clear,no enemies in sight.The boot moves towards her intented patrol area and ever vigilant watch crew has set eyes on the horrizon,looking for targets,both ships or planes.
Kaleun Rummel does regular dives for sound sweeps of the area, but to no success.He is not happy,knowing the enemy can be only 30 miles from his position,may be a massive convoy,yet no way to find it.
After the first clear days comes the severve weather of the Atlantik Ozean in the late autumn.A heavy fog , a strong wind and a waves as tall as the boot itself.The crew in the boot is strugling to be calm,but weather is a force so mighty that noone can strugle with it. Kaleun Rummel goes deep and surfaces only for battery recharge and oxygen refreshment.The weather stays in such a way for a week. Then as suddenly as it has changed into a storm,now it is clear.Wind still is strong, making waves witch hit the boot sending her on one side,then another,yet she can endure this,if there is a ship witch could survive the worst of weather,this is Das U Boot.Several days the weather stays clear and windy.Thats not a problem with her crew,they had endured such a treatment now several patrols,but the total absence of enemy is making them tired.Books and jokes,that`s all they can do,but that is until first few days,a week may be,then what.Everyone knows each other for years now,staying toghter in the boot with months in few occasions.One attack can keep their morale high for days,that is if the boot survives the usual depthcharging.
That’s the worst.Staying in the iron coffin,listening to the enemy,waiting to hear either the PING of the asdik, or the sound of enemies propellers going full ahead, prepearing the depth attack.Then only holding on something hoping the Kaleun made a successful evasive maneuver and evaded the wasserbombs.And then,the terrible blow of the bombs.Sometimes distant, sometime a meter too close, making the boot strugling to keep itslelf pressurized.

A contact !

A foggy day but that is of no matter.The enemy is nearby,if it be only a 2k ton steamer but enemy non the less.Closing surfaced due to the fog Commander Rummel gets us 1000 meters of the contact estimated position since last hearing it.Diving at periscope depth and yes,it is very close to the estimated by the Kaleun.Closing a bit more and yes a visual contact is established by the periscope.Little more than a minute and Rummel gets a firing solution on the ship.Firing with 2 Aals the small ships has no chance of surviving the blast.Nothing can be done now,waiting to hear the blast.Kaleun gives me a glans through the periscope,yes it is a small ship but a target.For a second a though strikes, what about the men in there,in that weather they have little chance,not including that we are in the middle of the ozean in a stormy winter weather.Not our concern,they are the enemy and that’s it.Besides the boot barely holds the neccesery crew to keep her running.Barely gets enough room for all the food.No,no place for picking survivors.This is not a commerce raider,not a surface ship with room to spare,no, this is small pressurized hull with a place barely keeping her crew and that’s it.

A blast rips the hull of the mearchant ship,and a second one,she sinks.A scream of joy by the crew.

Takes deeper chief , are the words of Rummel and after several hours creeping away the boot surfaces and continues her journey towards carribean.

A month at sea ! The crew is dirty as it can get.It is not summer in mid Atlantik,no a winther in nord atlantik. The crew cant go swimming cleaning part of the dirt.No infection yet but the health is not good.Young men are as beardy as old seawolves, but that is how it is in U boot.The Lords of the sea left the harbor as young boys and when return they look as a true grey wulf of the sea,like a viking of the medieval ages.

Carribean, close to heaven in the summer,not now.Stormy and foggy is the weather.One thing now concerns Kaleun more than other,the fuel.Such a long and almost fruitless journey with so much spent fuel,little left for activly seeking targets.He is in a dilema.Should he spent more fuel on the hunt and then goes to the milk cow to refuel for a return journey,or play it safe and set sail to home as soons as the fuel reaches close to critical for trip to home.No, he cant risk the boot,what if the milkcow is destroyed,then a surrender or death of starvation.No he will set sail to home as soon as fuel reaches the limit.

A course to nord est , atlast a long journey home has began.Weeks pass, 46 days at sea and again mid atlantik,with even worse weather and as barren as throughout the patrol.
The crew is in bad shape.The long journey makes them lazy and slow.No much to speak with others.Everyone who wants to speak of anything had spoken already,nothing to talk about.The one thing noone says a word is the course of the war,that is tabu.

Few days later, a contact !

The procedure is the same,this time the weather is not foggy but clear,yet still a moderate waves.Not suitable for a deckgun attack on the signle mearchant,so the Kaleun plots intercept course and goes full ahead.Reaching intented destination and goes down to periscope depth.A contact is established and being tracked.Periscopes down we creep to about a kilometer from the target,perfect angle of attack.Rising periscope, indentifing the ship,calculating distance,speed, and angle of the bow.Firing solution calculated, firing 3 Aals, and a minute later all the three explode.The ships sunk,again those thouths about the drawning sailors.A loss but it is either we or them.Part of the officers are happy to destroy the ships,especially the chief.He loves the machineries,for him they are living breathing souls.To see them sinking, such a good ships.The lords of the sea have no such concerns,they are young thinking about glory and still believing in the fuhrer.The Kaleun, Chief and second watch officer are from the first group.They are from so called the old band.From the beginning of the war sailing in such a boots.They atleast are like a true brotherhood, always together.Noone really knows why Kaleun Rummel is not transferred to the training flottilla.

The sixty third day, we are several hundred kilometers west of Spain. A strike of luck or the baddest report received.
A contact send by a fellow Kaleun in another U BOOT.The convoy is heading directly towards our current position.After more than two months at sea, Horst Rummel doesn’t really want to attack anything,everyone is tired from such a journey.Yet no such wish can be red on the face of herr Kaleun.He decides the duty to attack enemy at every oportunity must be fullfiled.Attack will be initiated.

Several hours and a sound contact is made.A bad luck or a good one, the weather has changed through this few hours.From light fog to a very heavy one.It is dark but Rummel is on high alert.It seems he has a some sort of feeling and by the look on his face,this is not good one.
He decides to make surface attack,though the hydrophone the cource by the convoy is nearly perfect for attack.It seems the front convoy escort has passed them and the boot is somewhere between the front escort and first sideone.The visibility is less than a kilometer.It was a bad luck,it was ! The watch crew cries ALARM ! Kaleun Rummel sees for a second the approaching bow of a ship,too narrow for a meachant,after few more second the falling shells confirm this, a zestroyer.

The crew now is as fresh as it was in the first days after going into sea.The Lords force their way to the bow and she slowly goes down.Luckly no depthcharges are being dropped on the boot..Rummel orders course away of the convoy slowly going deeper and moving silently.A dreadful sound is heard.The ASDIK ! A bombing for hour, everyone is on the edge of his nerves,yet after so much dodging the attacks everytime the destroyer finds them.The bombs began falling closer,yet still managing to evade them.Now moving at full ahead again trying to dodge the attack, explosions are so close that the boot creaks under the force.
Few minutes at silent running and again the ping of the asdik, but it is worse now, a second hunter has joined the hunt.Another wave of wasserbomben and another dodging of the attack,but not without damage.It seems the flak guns has been damaged by close falling depth charges.Herr Kaleun decides to go as deep as he dares, 200 meters, a magic barrer in the uboots. Yet even as deep as that the tommies are too good,they don’t leave them, moving close and bombing becomes more accurate.Now the position in witch Rummel fell is not good at all,being bombed by experienced crews,already token some damage and it seems with no big chances of easy escape.Nomatter what he tries, the her majesty ships keep finding him.

Again wasserbomben, a words witch arent welcome from any mouth,escpecially this of the sonarman,not in this situation.

A explosion echoes throughout the boot, “FLOODING” cries out someone in the bow. Heavy leaks thoughout the front of the boot, everything towards the bow after the central room is being flooded and the crew strugles both to stop the leaks and pump out the water.The explison was close but no critical to the pressure hull, it keeps the boot in one piece.But the situation is not good,at 200 meters the boot is sinking slowly, and another attack is about to be carried.Chief curses, so does the Kaleun, but it does nothing to help the boot.Orders said by Rummel are carried out and all depends now on the crew.

A cold sweat is visible on the forehead of the Kaleun, 210 meters, he never dived so deep.The creaks of the pressure hull are loud enough to scare him,and he is not a man to be scared easily,no matter by the pressure or anything else.A beginning of a prayer is heard,but with no end, the pressure is too strong….

[SilverGhost]

Another small freighter dies, there were no survivors. April, 1940

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y157/rinker80256/SH3Img15-12-2007_14311_640.jpg

[Checkmate King 2]

While cruising in our 2nd cruise in the U-53 VIIB towards our patrol grid BE31, I decided to take a gamble to check out a "certain port" in England that has been known by the BdU to have a "certain" capital ship docked there in late summer, early fall, in 1939. While attempting to sneak into the harbor, around 07:30, we were able to avoid the 2-3 boats patrolling the main entrance to the south by hugging the shoreline at periscope depth. I picked out a nice spot to wait until dusk, before I made any attempt to raise my scope to see if any ships were in port.

While getting very close to my "waiting area", I received a report that we were receiving damage. Son-of-a-gun!!!; We ran into a submarine net!!! I immediately stopped the boat and sent the damage control party into action. After fixing the minor damage I received, I tried to reverse out of the net. It was no use. We were stuck!!!!!

While trying an emergency reverse, our stern starting to raise, since the bow was hooked to the net. I stopped all engines before the stern broke the surface. Next, I lowered the depth of the boat to as close as I could get to the harbor floor without hitting bottom. I then tried an emergency reverse again and I started to receive more bow damage. I had the repair crew fixing what they could. The noise from trying to get out of the net was getting louder and louder!!!! The boat started to move!!! Finally, we were free from the net but what about the patrol boats? .....Had they heard us?

Nothing!!!! The enemy still does not know we are here!!!! Boy, were we lucky!!!

Was I invincible or foolish? Only time would tell!!!

Since we had not been detected yet, I decided to run parallel to the net and try to find an opening. Lucky for us, we found the end of it less than 100 feet to the west. I continued to press on. We preceded north until we were close to one of the sea walls. I decided to raise my scope, for a quick 360 degree look, to see what was around, and then lowered it. The harbor looks almost deserted!!!! There were 1-2 small ships!!! Where are the big ones!!! I decided to do another quick look. While, scanning the harbor, I saw the same small ships I had seen the first time.........but wait what was that!!!! I spotted the mast and superstructure of a capital ship barely visible due to a dock structure blocking it. I dropped the scope and went in closer for a better look.

There she is!!!!! The HMS Hood still moored in her berth!!!!

I was able to position my U-boat so I could get a bow shot and still have the proper distance for the torpedoes to run. We fired 4 eels and registered 3 hits all in the same location. The Hood started to sink right away. With her resting on the bottom of the harbor sea floor, at her berth, the sea water didn't even touch her decks. After seeing her radar still rotating , I attempted fire another torpedo however, it just bounced off the hull. I decided I was really pushing my luck; time to get out of here!!!
We were successful in exiting the harbor, the same way we came in. Lucky for us, I had remembered to mark the location of the submarine net and its opening on the map and proceeded to exit the area.

About 20 -30 minutes after clearing the nets, I decided to raise the scope to see what the patrol boats were doing. Panic over took my face as I saw an ASW trawler less then 300 feet away and closing right on top off me (hydrophones had picked up nothing). I yelled out for ahead flank, hard to port. The trawler came right over me and dropped 3-4 DC’s. Wham!!! Wham!!! Wham!!! Next, I receive the dreaded news, “Sir we are taking on damage!” I did a quick check on the damage screen; all 4 bow tubes destroyed!!!!

For over an hour we tried to shake off repeated attacks from the trawler with a small PT type torpedo boat covering him. The trawler is slowly ripping my U-boat apart with numerous successful DC attacks in shallow water. Things are getting more and more critical my the minute as our carbon dioxide level is getting high. I need to do something. Do I attempt to surface and try to out run him or do I try to put an eel in him from aft; my single remaining working torpedo tube?

After raising the scope again, I saw that the trawler was all by himself. The PT type boat was not too far away however, I saw the PT boat must have gone to get his sister; there were two of them now heading back in my direction.

I quickly flooded the aft tube as I had gained a lock on the trawler. The seconds are going by as hours!!! I hold out on firing as long as I dare, while trying to put some distance between us. Finally, 425, 450, 460, 470, FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


It wasn’t long before we heard an explosion!!!! The trawler was hit!!!! Within a minute she started to sink stern first. Lucky for us…..the PT boats don’t know where we’re at!!! Maybe we’ll be able to sneak out of here!!!!!

We made it out of the area and back to port with no more excitement.

We were very lucky!!!! The dock workers will be very busy fixing the U-53; We arrived back at home port with our hull integrity at a 52.32% !

From getting untangled from a submarine net to penetrating an enemy harbor in daylight and sinking a big capital ship; It will be a patrol I"ll never forget!!!

[hammer-princess]

All of these stories sound very interesting! I will definitely get stuck in with SHIII and get some of meh own stories to share! (I hope...)

[magicsub]

once, i was in the open ocean.

there was a problem.......

a destroyer was heading straight for me!!!!!!!

i fired a torpedo!

but then i heard a cool noise!!

cool noises mean cool things!

15 short sunderland search planes all crashed to gether in the sky!

what was more important???

i watched the planes :down: crash and my torpedo hit the boat!

how do you gwx people get 30000 ton patrols???

i can bearly get 10000:lurk

[Jimbuna]

once, i was in the open ocean.

there was a problem.......

a destroyer was heading straight for me!!!!!!!

i fired a torpedo!

but then i heard a cool noise!!

cool noises mean cool things!

15 short sunderland search planes all crashed to gether in the sky!

what was more important???

i watched the planes :down: crash and my torpedo hit the boat!

how do you gwx people get 30000 ton patrols???

i can bearly get 10000:lurk

Practice, experience and luck ;)

15 Sunderlands in the sky all crashing together :hmm: ......doesn't sound like GWX2.0 to me :nope:

[Abd_von_Mumit]

"The Phantom" story by GoldenRivet is absolutely worth of adding to this thread in my opinion:
Part I http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=130308
Part II http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=130330
Part III http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=130343
Part IV http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=130355

[Kaptain Hans Wolf]

i would love to sit down for a few days and write a good story of my own, if only i had the time!

[Smooth Operator]

Here's the best story ever.

Captain's Log, 14 November 1939

Five days into the second patrol. We have just past the coast of Denmark, South of Bergen on our way to harass English shipping all around the British Isles, and if ammunition and fuel allows it, French shipping along the Atlantic coast as well. We came under attack by a lone Hurricane fighter, so I, the captain ordered full steam and man the ack-ack guns.

Little did I know that this line airplane was followed by a full squadron, and minutes later we found ourselves in a shallow stretch of the North Sea surrounded by marauding Hurricanes strafing and dropping bombs. Our AA gunner was killed.

ALAAAARRRRRMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dove to 50 meters and cruised submerged for about fifteen minutes until the Hurricanes left us alone. Periscope depth, chief. Screened the surface and the sky for possible contact before surfacing. Nothing. Surface the boat. U-45 looked more like a fighting ship than a stealthy submarine; Her deck was riddled with pock marks, the hull has sustained considerable damage, and a bright blood trail ran from the conning tower down to the control room. Upon surfacing we gave the dead sailor a proper burial, and continued our patrol. Smooth sailing on a beautiful November day; Duke Ellington's "Take the A-Train" was playing in the radio room, and I was enjoying a New England (a coast that I hope to reach in my later patrols) Clam Chowder lunch with my officers. Suddenly the music stopped and the radioman yelled from his station:

"Received multiple contacts in and around the port of Hartlepool, Herr Kaleun!"

I looked around the table. Everyone was quiet. Then our chief, an old veteran who was a submariner in U-20 in 1916, looked at me and nodded his head. Back to the control room.

"Mr. Totenhagen, plot a course to Hartlepool. We are going to take this war to their backyard pool."


The crew was stunned. A harbor infiltration on our second patrol? I knew this young captain was gonna get us killed!

Reached Hartlepool, 25 km from the harbor.

"Sound contact! Warship, bearing 090, constant distance, long range!"

I had spotted a V&W destroyer and lined up for a torpedo shot. Range 1200m, angle on the bow 24stb, speed 17kts, tube 1, fire! One minute later, BOOM!

Continued our submerged cruise at 4 knots until we were inside the harbor. Reached the harbor at 0551 hours. Spotted a C2 Cargo and a T2 tanker. Ordered a full complement on the bow torpedo room. Fired 2-shot salvo at the C2 off to port and another 2-shot salvo at the T2 off to starboard at a range of 1500m. A minute passed, and a huge explosion off to port. Seconds later, a titanic explosion off to starboard. Both freighters hit. We watched as both freighters sat in the shallow waters burning. Not only did we sink 2 ships, we rendered 2 piers useless for a good month. But we had to get out. Soon enough the patrol boats and that menacing trawler sailing back and forth would find our position and send destroyers to kill us all. Navigator reports depth to keel is 14 meters. No escape.

Ordered ahead full and broke the surface 10km and steamed towards deep waters until we spotted another destroyer. Another V&W destroyer. Lined up for a stern shot at 1800m and scored a direct hit on her stern. She started to sink stern first and list to starboard but as minutes passed she just sat there. I surfaced the boat 1000m away from the crippled tin can to inspect the damage. Much to our surprise, the crippled ship opened fire on us! I shouted to the stokers to give it all she's got and had a crew man the deck gun. Now we were to the destroyer's stern where she could only train one main gun on us and their torpedo tubes' limited traverse couldn't kill us. 5-inch naval shell, 40mm and 20mm rounds were flying over our heads but we returned fire with our own. Their 5-inch hit our stern, disabling our stb diesels and flooded the stern torpedo room. Our 88 scored a direct hit on their stern guns but their AA guns were still firing on us. Lost 3 men but we kept fighting. For a menacing 10 minutes we exchanged fire until finally one shot from our 88 hit something big in that destroyer. We saw the biggest explosion we had ever seen. Must have hit their aft magazines.

After that engagement I ordered the navigator to plot a course back home to Kiel and assessed the damage. We limped our way back home doing 7 knots on one engine, and had lost four sailors. I told the radioman to put Duke Ellington's "Take the A-Train" back home and breathed a sigh of relief as we entered German-patrolled waters.

I for one am not sympathetic to the Nazi cause but was I happy to see a warship flying a red flag with a swastika .

We didn't reach the Atlantic English coast of the French coast but that was my most eventful patrol yet.

[U-84]

was sneaking out of portsmouth, at 2:15 hours, decided we were far enough from the harbor to surface..when all the sudden when i got surfacedt a destroyer was heading straight for us! straight ahead...by then i was pissed :nope: and decided what the hell, im gonna get sunk, why not go down fighting..so i ordered the deck gun manned and fired about 7 shells at the destroyer..which too was firing back, and those shells sounded as if a bus flew past me.. five of our shells hit the target, when the destroyer was about less than 800M, i ordered a dive of around 25m to avoid getting hit...went submerged, and then i see enemy unit destroyed, i surface the U-boat and sure enough the destroyer was sinking behind me...what luck huh. funny because of all the ships i have sunk in the game...i have only sunk one destroyer...any tips on sinking those guys? just started playing SH3

[Jimbuna]

Cool http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/9026/wolfthumbsuprw5.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[Ivan Putski]

It`s late Feb. 1943 as U-88 slips from her bunker, and is guided past the minefield that guards St. Nazaires harbor, we are on our 33rd patrol. The U-88 has been a lucky boat so far, we`ve seen more than our share of action, and have evaded DD actions against us, with only minor damage during her previous 32 patrols.

Once away from the coast we set a course for AL 87 our new patrol area. We are equipted with the latest in Hydraphone, and Radar, just having an upgrade last patrol, the crew is mostly "Old Salts" with plenty of experience under their belts.
Suddenly a warning breaks the late aftrnoon air "Radar Detected" , "Crash Dive take her to 80 meters, we pass 50 meters, and I reduce speed to 2Kts as we decend. Hydraphones not picking up any contacts. Probably A/C as they`ve become like flies lately, They have taken their toll of U-Boats since the first of the year. I let an hour go by, then slowly come to periscope depth. Before I can raise the scope, "Contact, heading NE, moving slow, long range. She`s out of Observation scope range, I have a look around, all clear, and surface the boat.

After several minutes I get another "Radar Detected message, this time I know for sure it`s A/C, a British Catalina to be exact, "Crash Dive 80 meters". We get under fast, when he makes his attack run, we pass 65 meters as we hear the explosions, they were distant, as was the next drop. "Contact, merchant heading NE, moving slow, long range". Damn, a nice target, and I can`t take the chance of losing the boat to the Catalina. It was painful to listen to my Hydraphone Operator, call out the merchants position, till she was out of range. After and hour passed we came to PD, a look around and ,after an all clear surfaced. Shortly after we got the batteries recharged, an the oxygen replinished when again radar was detected, she was another, Catalina, or perhaps the same Chap. He did`nt get us, and I only know I lost some tonnage to the RN Flying Boats this day. May be U-88 will have better luck in the coming days, watch out for enemy aircraft though, Good Hunting. Puts

[Jimbuna]

Read this whilst eating a sunday mid morning breakfast.......excellent, well done http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif

[Bosje]

thanks :) im really enjoying writing it, it's actually done in real time, I write it while waiting for a visual etc. It's getting quite long so I think I'll just make a new thread for it

edit: removed them and put them up under: 'U-2 War Journal'. I hope you guys like it

[Ivan Putski]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y205/IvanPutski/SHIII%203/DC3.jpghttp://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y205/IvanPutski/SHIII%203/DC2.jpgOberleutnant z. s. Gerhard Jager U-88

7th Flotilla, St. Nazaire, France

24 April, 1943 18:12 hrs.


My mind races back to regain lost hours, I`m trying to remember clearly the details that have put us here in this time, and place. We are a dead, and dying crew, as I look around I see their faces, some sobbing, some coming to grips with their fate, while others are going mad, unable to mentally cope. I drift back to this morning, and another moment in time......

24 April, 1943 04:21 hrs.

We are traveling surfaced at 7 kts. the sea is calm, and the salt air is a little brisk. Ever since the first of the year the Allied air patrols have picked up, and the ever present Catalina`s, and Sunderlands make it almost impossible to travel surfaced during the day. We were attacked only 150 km off St.Nazaire when we departed on the 13th of this month. The vaunted Luftwaffe offers us little if any protection these days.
The dawn will soon arise, and so will the RN`s flying boats, we will dive shortly, and decrease our speed to 2 kts, spend most of the day at 20 meters, and listen for contacts. I recall in early March we were attacked at night by a Catalina, whose powerful searchlights lit up the U-88 like a "Christmas Tree". What a crash dive that was, below decks food, drink, and anything not secured flew thru the boat, the Brits nearly chalked one up that night. A lesson well learned.

24 April, 1943 04:45 hrs.

"Dive the boat, level off at 20 meters, set speed to 2 kts." We scramble off the bridge, and I make sure the hatch is secured, now I can take a little breather, a moment of rest, perhaps a little sleep. The different smells, and the noises surrounds me, machinery running, creaking of the hull, and the water moving against it, voices speaking in normal tones echo thru the boat. The HD operator is busy now, we are equipted with the latest in sonar, radar, and radar detection devices. Last month we also got engine, and battery upgrades. The old girl even got a long overdue facelift.

24 April, 1943 06:06 hrs.

"Contact Sir, Merchant bearing 003 degrees, moving slow, closing." I`m awakened, told the news, the crew is coming alive. I head for the control room. We are in Grid CG 85, close to Gibraltar, a prime hunting area, although a dangerous one . The Kpt. orders "Periscope Depth." We reach 13 meters and he orders the observation scope raised, a few moments pass, then 4 ships appear at long range. "Down Scope." As he lets the range close, he wants sound updates at 2 minute intervals. I think back to last months slim pickings, we only sank a Small Freighter, in all 35 days out. "Contact Sir, Warship bearing 005, moving slow, closing." The observation scope is ordered up, and at full magnification reveals their type. In the lead is a fat Troop Ship, followed by a Medium Tanker, then a Small Tanker brings up the rear. On their Port side 3 quarters down the trio`s line glides a deadly Black Swan.

The Kpt. moves to the attack scope, and orders silent running, "Up Scope", and final adjustments are made. They are coming on to us closing slowly, unaware of our presence. The Kpts. plan is simple, we`ll target the Medium Tanker first, the Troop Ship next, leaving the Small Tanker unscathed. This will force the Black Swan to hunt for us, or guard the remaing Tanker, and assist the striken ships.

Depth has been set on all four forward eels, the tubes 4 thru 3 are opened. "Up Scope" a slight adjustment to port is made," Fire 4, Fire 3." A four degree turn to port brings us in firing position on the Troop Ship, as doors 2, and 1, are opened. "Fire 2," "Fire 1." The moment of truth, and proof of the pudding is near, as the Kpt. orders "Down Scope, Take her to 150 meters, 10 degree right rudder." The boat glides deeper, as the Helmsman, calls out the depth, and the Hydraphone Operator keeps track of the Black Swan. We pass 52 meters as we hear the first torpedo impact, then another, two hits on the Medium Tanker, it must be a living hell up there. A few moments pass, and another impact followed by yet another. There`s shear panic aboard that Troop Ship now, I feel for those aboard, maybe the Black Swan will call for assistance, and stay with the survivors. The Kpt. orders "Rudder Amidship" as we decend past 100 meters. The Black Swan is making no attemp at locating us, and we hear the ships topside breaking up, explosions, and bulkheads being crushed.

24 April, 1943 07:42 hrs.

It`s been over an hour and a half since we made contact. we are putting some distance between us, and the Black Swan which is still on station picking up some of the stricken vessels crew. The Kpt. secures from silent running, but we will soon have to surface, replinish oxygen, and recharge batteries. This will have to be done quick as possible, there will be no time to load the spare torpedo, I`m certain air patrols will be searching for us, then back to the depths to hide for the day. At 08:00 hrs. the Kpt. orders the boat to periscope depth, the crew is in good spirits, and fresh air entering the boat will do us all good. We reach periscope depth, and the Observation Scope is raised, after a 360 scan, and hydraphone check, the order to suface the boat is given. At 10 kts. we glide across the surface keeping a close watch out for aircraft. The flak crew is at their post in case of unwanted company. After what seems like forever, the batteries are fully charged, and oxygen reserves at 100%. The order is given, "Dive the boat, depth 20 meters, speed 2 kts. continue on present course." As I go below, and make my way to my bunk, I hear the crew talking about our latest victory, there will be much to brag about when we return to base. I will try to rest now, and put this mornings events behind me. We were lucky again, it all comes down to making the right decisions, and carry them out at the right moment. 11:07 hrs. I will sleep now.

24 April, 1943 13:20 hrs.

I`m awakened by a shudder in the boat, we have increased speed, I will head for the control room,to find out whats happening. We`ve had a sound contact, and the Kpt. has brought U-88 to periscope depth. After several minutes no visual is reported, and no further sound contacts are picked up. We reduce speed to 2 kts. An hour passes before we pick up another sound contact " Contact Sir, Merchant bearing 357, medium speed, closing." Looking thru the Observation Scope, she`s a Large Merchant, she`s alone, the Forward torpedo room prepares Tubes 1, and 3, as the Kpt. changes course, to close the distance. We lower the Observation Scope, and wait. The Kpt. raises the Attack Scope, and goes to full magnification, she`s flying the American flag, and in a hurry to go somewhere, he corrects our course a couple degrees, she will cross our "T" at 1000 meters, a classic shot, and perfect AOB. Tubes 1, and 3 are opened, the order to fire 1, and 3 are given, both eels were set to impact, and streak toward the the target. The Attack scope is lowered, and the .seconds tick away. The first torpedo finds it`s mark, but the second is a dud. The Kpt. raises the scope, and starts to setup another shot, a massive explosion rocks the merchant, one after another explosions rip her heart out, a huge pillar of black smoke that can be seen for miles, races skyward. Her rear cargo hold ignites, and the cargo hatch is blown clear of the ship. "She`s going down Sir." The doomed vessel heads to the depths bow first. We leave the area, our course is East toward Gibraltar.

24 April, 1943 16:39 hrs.

In a few hours, it will be dark, we will surface to charge batteries, and load the external torpedo, then turn NNW away from Gibraltar, and the coast line, we will then head for our beloved St. Nazaire. "Contact, merchant bearing 001 degrees, moving slow, closing, long range." "Contact Sir, Warship bearing 003 degrees, slowing, closing, long range." So she has an escort. "Contact Warship bearing 358 degress, medium speed, closing, long range." Two escorts, she must be special, something the Allies need. We must have this prize. The OB scope is raised, and we have our first look at her, she`s a large vessel, with a pair of escorts, too far off to make her out as yet. We will get closer, for a better look. "Down Scope." The minutes drag, as we approach this trio of ships. The HD station has been updating their bearing, and speed. "Up Scope.' The Kpt. has a good visual on her now, she`s an ammunition ship, loaded, low in the water, she appears wounded from a previous engagement. The Kpt. calls for the Ship I.D. and quickly thumbs thru the Warships, every now and then saying no, until That`s it, the escorts are a pair of Buckley Class. We have not encountered the type before, and glean the pages for info.

"Down Scope," and she slides into her armoured housing. We will be able to take out the closest escort, but the other Buckley is on the starboard side of the Ammo Ship. We will setup to fire a single torpedo at the nearest escort, then two into the Ammo Ship. If all goes well, we will secure from silent running, go to max speed, and show our stern to the remaing escort. We have a Fat II loaded in our stern tube, when he closes the range, we`ll fire the "Stinger", and crash dive.

This is madness, but if executed correctly they`ll never know what hit them. We take another look, still on the same course, moving slow, and in range. All the torps have been set, and double checked. "Down Scope." The seconds fly now, as the Kpt. puts our plan into action, no time for screwups. "Up Scope" The first escort is going to be dead meat, "Fire 1" echoes thru the boat , "Fire tubes 3 and 4, max power, hard right rudder, as we secure from silent running, a deaf man could find us now. The first eel slams into the escorts midship, and breaks her back. The others two find their mark, and the Ammo bucks upward, and settles back into the sea. Horrible explosions, and raging fires, doom her. The second Buckley has come alive, an angry Hornet, hellbent for revenge. The U-88 shudders as we complete our turn and put rudders amidship, the Kpt. turns the scope 180 degress, and I note the expression on his face, and a slight smile on his lips. The Buckley is now astern of us, racing like a bat out of hell, she`s at 900 meters when the Kpt. yells "Open Tube 5, Come on you Beautiful S.O.B." The range has closed to 650 meters.

The Kpt. orders "Fire 5, then Crash Dive, take her to 150 meters, 10 degree left rudder," as all the available crew rush forward adding weight to U-88`s bow. To our horror, the Fat II detonates prematurely, we are now in deep crap. We`ve only past 47 meters, when th HD room reports "She`s pinging us Sir." We barely get to Silent Running, as splashes of canned death fall around us. "We`re taking damage Sir." All hell breaks loose, as we take two hits at the forward crew quarters, flooding that section, and isolating the forward torpedo room. Worse the explosions have killed both the radio, and hydraphone operators, and destroyed the Kpts. cabin. We are blind, and wounded, no need to run silent, the repair crews are dispatched to the area to stop the flooding. The forward torpedo room reports they are trapped with injured crewmen in the compartment.
The Buckley is making a run on us, and all we can do is take it. She hits us again, as reports of conning tower damage, both scopes destroyed, flak, and deck gun mounts destroyed, the boat again pitches downward, as the repair crews fight the flooding. All the crew that went forward are now trapped there, adding extra uneeded weight forward, worse we are short handed. We are passing 180 meters, now, and still in one piece. I glance at my watch, as the lights flicker, but come back on. It`s 17:49 hrs.

24 April, 1943 18:01 hrs.


Another salvo of Depth Charges fall around us, breaching the pressure hull at the forward crew quarters, instantly killing all the repair crew working there. Only the command rooms water tight doors hold the sea back, and keep us alive. We`ve lost the forward batteries, and all communication to the forward torpedo room, One can only wonder their fate. The boat is groaning now as we approach crush depth, rivets popping, water fittings bursting. The order to blow ballast is given. The boat
shudders, and creaks painfully, as she tries to rise from the blackness of her grave. The U-88`s rear batteries give out as, the floor plates buckle, and bulkheads moan their last eerie sounds, the lights fail, as U-88 slips back into the abyss of her own making............ Puts

24 April, 1943 18:13 hrs.

For U-88, and her crew, it will forever be 24 April, 1943 18:13 hrs.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y205/IvanPutski/SHIII%203/DC4.jpg

[Bosje]

The train is shaking violently all the time, much like U-93 used to do. It makes writing quite hard. I wonder how Bernard managed to write in his war diary all those times he retreated to his quarters. He was my friend and I miss him a lot, Oberleutnant zur See Bernard Vom Bosch. All that remains of him and his boat are me and the battered old journal in my pocket. It has suffered greatly from the salt water and rough treatment it received since I found it among the debris as I was looking for survivors. There were none. We were tracking a convoy near Gibraltar in very bad weather, suddenly shells started hitting the water around us. Before we could dive, the destroyer came charging out of the heavy rains, guns blazing. How he found us was a mystery to me until I recently started hearing spooky things of this new radio waves location device, radar. Anyway, our boat got shelled intensely by this bastard, bodyparts of the watchcrew were flying all over the place as I was hurled out of the open bridge into the heavy swell. By the time I came to my senses, the boat was gone along with all my comrades. The destroyer was nowhere to be seen either, he vanished as quickly as he had appeared. I found my Kaleuns journal, stuffed it inside my jacket and started to swim for the Spanish coast.

Several hours later I was picked up by a fishing boat which dropped me off at their home port in Spain. There I was, on my way back to the fatherland. Shaken and distrought: Leutnant zur See Freiherr Beckman, known to his mates as 'The Duke'. First Officer on The Rooster and sole survivor of it's demise. Now, 6 months later, still alone in the world and on a train to the Norwegian port of Bergen. After half a year of waiting, training and more waiting, I am now being given my own command. I am officially a veteran after the war patrols under Kaleun Vom Bosch so everyone has full confidence in my abilities, but it is an entirely different war now. Radar and far extended air cover as well as improved asdic have made life very unpleasant for us, the grey wolves of the Atlantic. But we are not defenseless and I was always one to enjoy the hunt. I do admit I am scared and I purchased a small writing journal of my own when I arrived in Oslo last week. It seemed to help my old Kaleun deal with his fears and I guess it won't hurt to vent my emotions through my pen, even if I am already well established as a cocky and arrogant but also aggressive and capable seadog. We shall see.

A brand new type VIIC boat, U-735, is waiting for me in Bergen to take her into commission. Our first testruns are scheduled for september 1942 and after that I will take the boat to war. This journal will be on board.

The Duke

[Jimbuna]

Nice read http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/9026/wolfthumbsuprw5.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[danurve]

Ivan; good read but the scrolling back and forth because of the image size is driving me nutz. Can I suggest some 800x600 versions?

Ok guys I just had a thought about these fantastic short stories / logs.
I am working on an alternate font for the radio messages which would free up quite a bit of space. As soon as I determine the new charachter - spacing limit it would be possible then to have the game transmit the story / log in the form of radio messages. Authors permission of course.
They would most likely need to be grouped but sent in post-paragraph form.
What do you think?

[Rango]

Nice work Ivan and exciting.:up:

[Nicolas]

U-27, on 3rd patrol, captain ordered to dive a while,
- "Warship! closing!"
- "Let me hear... (damn that not sound like destroyers)"
New course 90, Surface the boat, ahead flank!!!"
- "Ship spotted Sir!"
- "What??, 1, no, 2.... :o :o :o BOTH OR NOTHING!! MAINTAIN COURSE!!!"
.....
- "We are ready Captain..."
- "Hood now on 20 degress, speed 17 knots, distance 2200, angle 90
Fire!!, Nelson 350 degress, distance 1600 Fire!!

HMS Nelson to the bottom:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh84/Nicolas1979/Nelsonsunk.jpg

(2 torpedoes hit Hms Nelson sinking it, only 1 HMS Hood crippling it):
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh84/Nicolas1979/crippledHood.jpg

HMS Hood was hit by 4 torpedoes before sink.
They had no escorts.
Manual targeting.
Very Happy return :sunny:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh84/Nicolas1979/Return.jpg

[Rango]

Nice, Nicolas:up:

Here is a small U-48's War Journal.

Difficult: 94% (WO help)
Mod:
-GWX 2.1
-Mission Orders
Sh3 Commander:
-Malfunctions and Sabotage.
-Randomise U-boat crush depth.
-Realistic crew:


U-Boat: U-48 VIIb
Leave port 29/03/1940
01/04/1940.
23:50 Message:
From: BdU
To: All North Atlantic U-boats
UNTERNEHMEN WESERÜBUNG: All U-boats in Northern Atlantic are to move to Norwegian coast in support of Axis capital ships and transports.
Order implemented immediately, full speed ahead towards Norwegian coast.

04/03/1940.GR AF38.Good visibility.Calm seas.
12:53 German Convoy sighted. 3 Destroyers, 1 Troop transporter.

04/04/1940.PQ AF85.Good visibility.Calm sea.
09:37. SS Torvange coast freighter sunk 1869 BRT with Deck gun.
18:05. SS Lone Jack Küstenfrachter sunk 1869 BRT with Deck gun.

09/04/1940.
11:50. Message:
From: BdU
To: All North Atlantic U-boats
UNTERNEHMEN WESERÜBUNG: U-boats in vicinity of Narvik are to establish defence of that port.
We are near, flank speed ordered towards Narvik.

09/04/1940.Narvik waters.Medium visibility.Medium seas.
01:38. We have reached Narvik waters. Move to deep water to intercept.
02:38. Task Force sighted at 6500m consisting of 10 Destroyers, nationality unknown. Go to periscope depth and move away. Convoy moves at top speed towards our position.
02:40. We probably can´t escape out of sonar range or sight of the destroyer. Aft torpedo ready.
02:41. Task Force clearly identified as German. Resurface.

09/04/1940.Narvik waters.Medium visibility.Medium seas.
12.34 Task Force sighted at 9500m consisting of 5 destroyers, nationality unknown. Intercept course not possible, attack aborted.

10/04/1940.Narvik waters.Medium visibility.Medium seas.
15:10. Task Force sighted at 9300m consisting of 5 destroyers, nationality unknown.
15:15. Targets identified as English. Poor attack angle, attack aborted.

13/04/1940.Narvik waters.Medium visibility.Heavy seas.
01:35 Task Force sighted at 5400m consisting of 9 destroyers and a bigger warship, nationality unknown. Convoy moves at top speed towards our position. Go to periscope depth and plot interception course.
01:42 Bigger warship identified as HMS Nelson, range 1800m. A safe interception course is impossible so a 4 torpedo salvo is prepared.
01:43 Enemies find us and open fire. Hits taken to tower with attack periscope, observation periscope, antenna and aa-gun destroyed. Tubes flooded. 4 Torpedoes fired blind. Order crash dive to 220m and evasion course.
01:44 2 torpedoes detonate too early.
01:45 1 torpedo hit and 1 torpedo missed target.
01:47 At 140m with bolts bursting. Order top speed and 130m depth. Hull highly damaged through hits to the tower.
01:48 Reach 135 m with multiple bolts bursting. Emergency blow ordered.
01:51 Reach safe depth at 110 m, slow speed. Destroyer approaching, order evasion course. Depth charged.
01:53 Battleship torpedoed with less efficency, still running at high speed.
01:55 Depth charge hit. Slight flooding, small damage. Bolts bursting. Emergency blow on and top speed.
01:57 Reach safe depth at 95 m. Slow speed. Damage repaired. Flooding stopped. Destroyer is approaching. Order evasion course. Depth charged.
01:58 Destroyers attacking tirelessly, evade with difficulty.
02:10 Probably only 3 Destroyers hunting us. Enemy sonar does not find us often. Destroyers probably bad equipped.
02:34 Destroyers out of range.
04:00 Resurface (Puh) and return to home base.

24/04/1940.Medium visibility.
Reach home base. Lucky day.
Hull: 39%
3793 BRT sunk (Very bad)
One Warship missed. :down:
U-48 goes to the scrapyard.

One unsuccessful patrol from U-48.:D

Greetings Rango

[Bosje]

'You are looking very gay this morning, Captain.'
'Come again?'
'I said you are looking very gay this morning, Captain. You know, cheerful.'
'Have you been listening to the Tipperary Song again, Wupperkrotsch?'
'No Sir, it was a gig by the Seekadett Choir, a great tribute to the Luftwaffe: Goering's guys are gay, hurray!'
'Right...'


Oberleutnant Von Braque felt himself increasingly troubled by all the forties' vernacular. He just kept having the uncomfortable feeling that, in fifty odd years, it would all sound very silly indeed.


'Get out of my sight, 1.WO and get the Oberbootsmann up here, I need a word with him about the Flakgun, the knobs could do with a rough polishing, there is rust all over them.'
'Willy's in the head, Sir, but I'll get him to report to you after he dumped his brick, Sir.'
'Oh for Heaven's sake, get down and be quick about it, you idiot!'
'Yes Sir, very good Sir.'


Willy came up through the hatch, stiffly saluting as he reported for duty.
'Ah Oberbootsmann, have you seen the Flakgun? I want that thing to shine again, get some seamen on it right away!'
'Yes Sir, I'm on it, Sir.'
'Oh and Willy, the spray has gotten to my tobacco, it's soaking wet. You don't happen to have any decent shag on you, do you?'
'Indeed I do Sir, allow me to fill your pipe.'
'Right...'


Von Braque gave his Oberbootsmann a disturbed glance and decided he would tolerate no more. He went down into the control room and got on the boat's internal speaker:
'This is the Captain, I have had it up to here with all this innuendo. If I catch anyone using any more crap double-entendres they will find themselves greasing up the sterntube with their toothbrush for a month!'

[Contact]

Well this forum is fullfiled with usefull info bout the game technically, but I feel a lack of threads here for ppl who simply would like to share the most interesting parts of their patrols :rock: . Sticky thread would do just fine :up:

As for me, my war is over too early. But I still concider myself lucky to stay alive after surfacing and waving the white flag :lol:
I confess honestly I was too greedy/aggressive in my latest career and that probably led me to early end hehe..

That night I should have left that small convoy alone, escorted by 4 J&K class destroyers which was sailing to SW ~150km away from Aberdeen :nope: I knew that was too risky to engage it due to shallow waters of about 50-60 meters only. But I just could not watch it passing by like that so easily :lol: . I picked the bigest ships, launched two torps at large merchant, one at medium cargo (aimed at second mast for bigger chance to sink it) and my fourth torp was ment to be for Granville type frighter. Large merchant was nicely hit and sank instantly (btw it appeared to be neutral :roll: ), medium cargo avoided the explosion by turning and lowering the angle. Granville got hit too, but I was unable to confirm its loss. At that time I got bigger problems with DD coming from 170 degrees, distance ~1200m straight at me, and that was a begining of the very end unfvortunately. Fired torp from tube 5 at fast speed, but DD made a slight turn to the left and my torp went just beside him.. Well from that moment I was surely on DD's palm, he folowed the torps wake pinging and got a lock on me. Switched off the silent runing, started to load torps 1 and 5. As I was in perispoe depth I ordered the new depth of 40 meters, and course 180 around away from convoy. When he got close enough I ordered ahead flank, it was shaky turn while depth charges blew around but my boat was fine so far. I was heading east on ahead flank to deeper waters and changing depth trying to fool DD on his charges depth set.. I was avoiding making larger maneuvers to save power and maintain bigger speed. Anyway after couple of bomb shake waves, he got my balls in his hands :lol: My boat received heavy damages. Flooding in all compartments, middle section of the boat even got red. Blew balast and prayed to reach the surface.. The last moment I remember is.. me on the bridge waving some white rag and my watch crew blinded by DD's search lights.. :o

The story goes later as follows:
Summary
Oberleutnant z. S. Contact and U-48 surrendered to the Allies on 17NOV39. Contact was sent to a POW camp in Scotland where he spent the rest of the war. After the war Contact served for a few years in the Bundesmarine and retired in March 1970. He died on 9 September 1972 in Kiel.

I really hope some of u enjoyed reading my story as I enjoyed writing it.. :up:

Good Luck and Good Hunting! :arrgh!:

[ReallyDedPoet]

Contact, moved your post here as requested.


RDP

[abclkhan]

Hey

Im dead.:nope: :nope: :nope: It happened in gibraltar, sept 1940 . We crosssed the strait surfaced at night until its half, when spotted a small merchant. We opened gunfire and sunk it. 2 PT boats arrived and gave me light damage. The rest of the trip we spend underwater. Warships suddenly appeared from everyside and we escaped fine though.

The boat is a type VIIB in its secomd patrol (GWX 2.1). Left Lorient and sunk 40000GRT from a convoy close to spain. Then refueled at Thalia (milk cow at spain) and proceeded to the Mediterranean sea.

(Back to the point ) 25 km east from the strait, everything seemed to be fine when sonarman detected warships (DDs) coming from west and east. soon they were pinging at me. Not hard to evade the first time. When the uboat was at a probably safe distance, I ordered PD to take a look at a misterious contact who seemed to be a merchant (unknown) and then to sink it. To deserve so many escorts, a merchant had to be huge. Or many.

Pings restarted. We couldnt dive under 100m and battery was at 50%. DC from everyside falled over the boat, and for a long time I evaded without difficulty. But then, a corvette came from starboard. I could have escaped by ordering flank speed, but prefered to wait. If they were passing not over us, but slightly ahead of us, it would be better to be keep the position -- and stealth. But I couldnt distinguish exactly where was the noise coming from. I hesitated. :damn: When the slow hydrophone's pointer showed that she passed over the uboat, it was too late. two explosions made the bow start to flood heavily in two compartments pushing the uboat to the deep.

Compressed air blew the water out from the ballast tanks and engines were set to back emergency. Slowly at first, and then fastly, we returned to the shallow. The leaking was controled at 60m.

Another warship coming. Of course, loud noise coming from U-35, easy to hear. 60% floding in the bow and 30% in the bow quarters, the situation would be controlled if we had time. But Time was not what we had. The destroyer passed over the boat splashing depth charges over our heads once again. Moved by instinct, I ordered ahead flank:rotfl: , and this act sealed my destiny.

Now counting with the power from the engines, the water flooding in the bow compartments finally found a way to do what she was supposed to do: take u-35 to its final rest.

The boat lost control and sunk imediately, VERY fast. When the depth charges started to explode, we were far below.... dead.

Now, since I play dead is dead, this premature death on the second patrol, and on 1940, makes you freeze and feel like after watching a movie ends prematurely. A battle is made of choices. And I 'd choosed the wrong ones. Its not fair, its not easy. This is war.


Cool isnt it? I still surprise myself to see how imersive can be this game. :hmm:

[Jimbuna]

The good thing is.....you get another chance http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[Nicolas]

It's possible
On september 1940, u-27 (VIIC) spotted a convoy, with 4 escorts, a light cruiser and a submarine.
The chase took 24 hours, and 200 km.
(Total manual targeting, WO only to identify ships)

27-9-40, 1822: First attack u-27 sunk a large cargo firing at a distance of more than 3000 m, fired at a small merchant as well, but the torpedo was a dud. U-27 fired over a frigate but missed; the submarine managed to escape without being detected.
28-9-40, 0100: A succesful second attack on a 7000 tons freighter.
28-9-40, 0620: The third attack was more ambicious, this time focusing on the escorts, 2 of them sunk.
28-9-40, 1621: The final attack took down the remaining 2 escorts, the cruiser and the submarine, leaving at their own luck several merchants.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh84/Nicolas1979/SH3Img15-6-2008_6328_531.jpg
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh84/Nicolas1979/SH3Img15-6-2008_62728_937.jpg


Back to base, the sub crashed with the anti submarine net of Lorient taking damage.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Ok, I know I made a seperate post for this but I'm re-posting it here because my thread dies without really hearing any stories in similar detail. I hope maybe I can get detailed stories of this type here.



My hardest fight; ("The Enemy Above")

I'm sure some of you have seen the old movie "The Enemy Below" with Robert Mitchum and Kurt Jurgens. Any who have probably wondered just how exactly the DD captain (Mitchum) knew everything about U-boats and knew exactly what Jurgens' boat was doing for most of the movie.
I am convinced that the captain of the destroyer escort I tangled with a couple days ago was him.....

February 45'
I just recieved a shiny Type XXI that I should have gotten months ago but I didn't know they were flotilla-specific until I transferred from Trondheim to Bergen and was like "oh crap here it is". Understandably I was very excited and after putting the boat through its paces and dodging a bomber raid I set sail for the seas off of Northern Ireland (although my orders were to go somewhere else entirely).

After 5 days of feeling like a porpoise with the constant diving to get away from aircraft I arrive in the patrol area. I never snorkel as the enemy seems to pick that damn thing up on radar more easily than if I just surface the whole friggin boat.
3 more days skulking about underwater, listening I get a warship contact. Then another, and another, and another, and a merchant! It's a convoy headed almost directly for me.

Upon intercepting it became immediately apparent that there had to be around a dozen escorts of various classes, British and Ami. Fortunately I happened to have 8 Zaunkonig acoustics and even a pair of coveted Zaunkonig II's. In keeping with my usual bold but stupid tactics I raise the snorkel and begin revving the diesels to flank for brief periods to get someone's attention. Sure enough the lead escort start making his way toward me, zigzagging. At about 2000 yards, facing him head on, the first "Z" clears the tubes. A few anxious moments pass before a beautiful tower of fire bursts out of the DD accompanied by the explosive symphony of victory. I put "Panzer rollen im Afrika Korps" on the grammophone and repeat the process with each escort in turn as they approach one by one.
"This is almost too easy! Hell, it is too easy!"
I knock off all the escorts save for the ones astern of the convoy before I start attacking the merchantmen. The speedy reload of the torpedoes in the XXI gives me many more chances to attack and my superb speed underwater means no ship is out of my reach. Unfortunately, being light on G7a's because of all the acoustics I only get 4 ships sunk and one damaged, all tankers.

Now the fun begins.....
I decide to quit while I'm ahead as aircraft are showing up now and the last 3 escorts are making for me. I obligingly reuinite two of them with their comrades at the bottom and turn on the third, a Buckley-class escort destroyer (Enemy Below?)
My last, priceless ZII goes straight down his track..... and misses?!?
I jump to the hydrophones and dial in his bearing. Sure enough, his engines are alternating between stopped and fairly slow and the ZK is happily zipping along a straight bearing on its way to nowhere. Then, inexplicably, the escort starts zigzagging towards me at a good clip again. I only have 2 G7a's left and I'm sure to miss as it is getting light and he will probably see the wakes even if they are on a collision course.
Then....a ping! At almost 1200m he's pinging me!
"Well the cat's out of the bag now.. let's see what he thinks of this!"
Ahead flank full right down to 220m. Unlike my fat old type IX this boat makes the depth in seconds. I pick a course almost perpendicular and throttle down to creep away, dropping a BOLD.
I just pick up my book and settle in for a nice stealthy escape when I get a ping again. I don't even look up. Then another solitary ping. Still reading.... Then they start to come regularly, and then more frequently.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
I go to the attack map and the hydro bearing shows he's almost on top of us when the shout of "Wasserbombe!" comes.
I make a hard turn, flank speed and go down to 240, then slow as his bearing line shows him turning the wrong way. I drop a BOLD just in case. But then two incredible things happened. First, we ran smack into his K-gun pattern. A quick check of the slightly raised O-scope ( I know it's not realistic but I can't stand being deep and not knowing where the charges are) shows multiple ashcans only slightly to port of us silently falling. I don't dare rev the engines up to dodge because its not realistic ( as I wouldn't have suspected we were so close) and I'm sure we can survive the hit and escape without alerting the escort.
The second incredible thing was that the escort began turning the other way. And then the charges blew, at exactly my depth. Immediately, the bow tubes became damaged and the compartment started to flood, very bad news because we began to sink and we were already at 240. A few tense moments went by as the water was pumped out but we didn't implode and we got back up to 250. As a reward for my efforts I recieved a congratulatory ping. Many of them in fact.

I had no idea how he knew that he had been turning the wrong way at first but he did or was lucky and now I was back in his path. He passed overhead and I repeated my previous actions but came UP to 200. Once again, I almost run into the K gun pattern but it's far enough away it just shakes us up a bit. The remarkable thing was that two of the half dozen or so, exploded at almost exactly my depth. This was starting to freak me out. My usual experience with any type of escorts is that they are poor shots and habitually set charges way too deep. As if this wasn't bad enough, I was coming off his starboard stern and he was turning to come back around on me hard-a-starboard. Being in his baffles I kept flank and replicated his turn, which would put me outside his "circle" and hopefully allow me to get away. Halfway through the turn I go back to slow ahead as I reason that he may be able to hear me again soon. To my horror, the bearing line steadies on and then begins to move the other way...
"This is IMPOSSIBLE!!!" I yelled aloud. For almost an hour this went on, me barely escaping the blasts of depth charges and surviving hedgehogs by the barest of margins. No matter what I did that cursed bearing line would always close on me.
My boat was ruined, several sections of the pressure hull had been heavily damaged and my starboard electric was destroyed. I despaired. My first patrol in this wonderweapon had been an unmitigated disaster. What kind of U-boat captain can't beat one lousy escort destroyer in an elektroboot?
I had come up to 60m now, fearful of the pressure hull buckling if I went below 100, being so damaged. I went to the O-scope to greet the falling depth charges from his latest run. He was a bit off this time with his aim but as always the depth was spot on. Then I noticed something. The lights for tubes one and four, shining like two wonderful green beacons of salvation...
I blew the tanks, repeatedly. I am of the firm belief that doing so makes you rise faster but really I can't confirm that. At 30m I order periscope depth and increase to 1/3 to help depth-keeping. We came to 15m painstakingly slowly it seemed and as the O-scope finally broke the surface my heart sank. We had missed our shot, the escort had already steamed past our bows.
I know this is long already but this bears some explaining. In months of playing SHIV, the addon and GWX I have never learned to use the target computers. Seriously. This sounds like a problem when you use manual targetting but I found that with a fast torpedo at 1000 yards or less, you need only lead the target one degree for each knot of speed. After getting the hang of it with a lot of misses in shIV I am now a pretty damn good shot if I do say so myself. This is why in 45 I'm using G7a's, because G7e's are too slow and throw off my targetting.
Unfortunately what I needed right now was a good angle-shot, which I remain incapable of. This meant I would have to let the DE run over me again, and circle back to bring him across the bows once more. This in turn meant surviving hedgehogs,depth charges, and worst of all, K-guns. Additionally, the loss of one electric meant I was also, in effect, a big, fat, expensive type VII, but with no stern tube. To top it all off there were horrible little planes buzzing about, dropping bombs.
It seemed that this was to be a terribly disappointing end to a 5-year career, representing such an investiture of time. Sunk by a knackered little escort destroyer, and in an Elektroboot no less!
Nonetheless, I resolved to fight to the end, because this game doesn't let you surrender.
(Almost done I promise)
The escort came at me perpendicular, determined to run over my conning tower as usual, when my first stroke of luck occurred. He came in too close before firing his hogs and they sailed harmlessly over my head. Still, the Buckley has a lot of K-guns and I still felt sure I would meet my end to one of those sideways-depth-charging bastards. But it was not to be. By this point I was convinced there was a little simulated Robert Mitchum on the bridge looming over me and even now he was confidently telling his watch how I was trying to get set up a desperate last chance torpedo attack so set the charges for shallow U-boat rape. And it was here, in an eerie parallel to the movie, that he made his first mistake.
I had already ordered flank ahead for what it was worth with only one prop and the destroyer veered to port to try and get over me again. Doing this brings his stern away from the U-boat and I have sunk a LOT of escorts by doing this, since he effectively removes his stern racks as a concern. Properly executed, this maneuver will put the stern charges 60-80m behind you when they explode. However, the K-guns can still fudge everything up as they are nearly impossible to dodge. The only way to not suffer damage from them is if he sets them too deep or fires them too early. Which is precisely what he did, on both counts. They still damaged the boat but no flooding.
As the Buckley steamed away I couldn't resist muttering, in my best Kurt Jergens impression, "Now American, turn the right way and I'll give you a pretty present."
He did of course, and I already had the two eels set for him. One magnetic and one contact. I make a rule of not using more than one torpedo on an escort of any class but this was a special case.
Slowly the little escort hauled about to come full circle and attack again, bringing him ever closer to the 10 degree mark on my scope where our fates would be decided. The tubes slid open, and his bow crossed the line.
I actually shouted "Torpedo LOS!" and two beautiful white spears of retribution streaked towards our now-doomed tormentor. I imagined the lookouts spotting the wakes and wished that I could see a captain on that bridge, just to see the look on his face. A second before the torpedoes hit I smiled cruelly, "Surprise A$$hole!"
What followed was the most perfect torpedo explosion I have ever seen. The first torpedo, the impact fuse, hit just under the bridge where the captain I created in my mind was standing. The mag hit under the K-guns and the resulting series of explosions actually made the game stutter a bit. Bits of destroyer, people, and great gouts of water filled my view as the Buckley snapped in half and rapidly sank.
It didn't break, it didn't split, it friggin SNAPPED like a toothpick and the two halves bobbed violently from the force. Sorry Ami, U-boats are ALWAYS the hunters. Despite the planes I remained to watch the enemy slip beneath the sea before going down to 40 and setting course for home.
The war ended before I could get my boat repaired but I didn't care. That fight was a wonderful climax to a long and hard-fought career.

Ok finally, I would just like to say thanks GWX team for making this experience possible. When I was young I never dreamed someone would make such a realistic and historically faithful game, or mod w/e you prefer.

[Brag]

Excellent report, Lance. Congratulations! :D

[Jimbuna]

Great to see you enjoying the GWXperience James http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif

[timbob]

The first patrol of U-99, Type VIIb.

October 1940.

My orders were to head South from St. Naziere and patrol a grid square in the DT region off the coast of Africa. Weather was rough almost all the way down past Spain, but calmed down as we passed through the Canary Islands. We made a special close approach to Tenerife, to glimpse the palm trees on the beaches, and were dive-bombed by local sea gulls!

Still no contacts as we made our way down to the assigned grid square, and patrolled for our 24 hour period. Still no contacts were made, so we turned for home, planning to spend some time patrolling around the Canaries again hoping to pick up some merchant vessels known to pass that way.

On the way back up North, we make a contact - a merchant vessel heading Southwards! An intercept course is laid out, and we maneuver into position and lay in wait, checking on the hydrophones as the target closes in.... Unfortunately though, just as the weapons officer is working out his targetting solution, I spot a Portugese flag on the cargo ship - a neutral, damn! Course homeward resumed.

Nothing is happening at the Canary Islands either, we patrol for a couple of days, but no contacts are made. After moving off and heading Northwards though, we make another hydrophone contact on a regular submerged hydrophone check. The contact proves a little elusive, but eventually we maneuver into position, ahead of one medium, and one very large juicy tanker. Unfortunately though, the fluttering Stars and Stripes of America denote the target as neutral at this early stage in the war - shame, it would have made an easy kill. Course homeward resumed.

Contact made, off the West coast of Spain - a small merchant moving North at high speed! Running at flank speed for 12 hours, we manage to move ahead of the ship and take up attack position. The ship does not appear, and just as I'm thinking of giving up, I hear it on the hydrophones - it has slowed down and is running behind schedule, pah! As the merchant comes nearer, it's positively identified as British - at last! A hostile target! Weapons officer comes up with his solution, we wait for the prime moment, and fire 2 torpedoes! One is a dud, but the second hits, sending the rear of the small vessel into flames. As the ship drifts to a halt, a third torpedo is launched, putting a gaping hole amidships, and she goes down. Only 2,500 tonnes, but it is my, and U-99's first ever kill!

The journey back to St. Nazaire is uneventful and slow, it's touch and go on fuel and we can't risk running at anything more than standard speed.

Eventually we make it back, are welcomed by a German escort ship, and steer a course into the harbour, avoiding the nets and mines, coming to rest in the massive concrete sub-pen inch perfectly - slap bang in the middle of a bay, coming to a halt with no bent metal, excellent!

Unfortunately, it seems my camera was ruined by the seawater - none of the shots I took during the patrol came out - my screenshots don't seem to have materialised :(

Never mind, U-99 survived her first patrol, and didn't come home totally empty handed! :)

[CptCrunch]

It's Christmas day, the girlfriend has cooked a wonderful dinner, we doze, I wake up and check out sub sim - Oh joy! - the inestimable GWX team have left us all a wonderful cracker in the shape of GWX 3 ...

I rip out my old installation download and install the new mod and begin my career anew.

I decide to try a new flotilla - the 7/13th. It's 1st August 1939 and I take command of a shiny new Type VIIB. I'm given order to patrol a nearby grid - most of which is inside the natural lagoon formed by the coastline. Ah well there's no war on so I decide to shake down the crew - we set off hapily ... before long 2 steamers approach us - I order flank speed and battle stations - just for the show! - the 2 merchants sail boldly towards me and as I pass between them with 500m clearance either side I see they are sporting British flags. I taste the blood on my lips but I resist the temptation to send them to the bottom, just training the guns on them as we pass.

We sail on and I wonder what we can do - it's quite shallow in the lagoon. On the nav map I spot 3 groups of target ships - surely this is what we're meant to do with our shake down!. Once more to battle stations - we run attacks ,coming in hard, guns blazing, pumping fish into the fat metal hulls (all bearing British ensigns I notice) - as night falls 6 blazing hulks slide into the sea - we turn proudly homewards- my novice crew have performed superbly. But hang on we still need to complete 24 hours on patrol...

I decide to take us outside the lagoon and run along the coast awhile - we approach moored friendly ships by the entrance - everyone is stood down,relaxed and we wave as we are bout to pass between them. Suddenly all hell breaks loose we are under fire! we turn from the merchants but something behind us (a moored destroyer) pumps round after heavy round into us. We wither under the crossfire - men are dying - I order a crash dive - we slam into the bottom at 34m flank speed, reverse thrust, blow ballast - damage control re doing their manly best - but all too soon we are crushed and die ...

You see - stock SH3 decided we were renegades for firing on the targetships and we were sent to the bottom by our own side with the loss of 400 renown :D

[A Very Super Market]

Well, the war hadn't started yet. I imagine thats why Tommy is so mad at you. Also, you crash dived on the coastal shallows... your crew probably would've murdered you...

[CptCrunch]

A Very Super Market wrote
"Well, the war hadn't started yet. I imagine thats why Tommy is so mad at you. Also, you crash dived on the coastal shallows... your crew probably would've murdered you..."

The point was that these were our own "TARGET SHIPS" ie. for practicing firing on - clearly marked as such on the nav map. "Target ships" should be neutral and fireable upon whatever the war state - the Kriegsmarine (and everyone else )definately practiced on target ships before the outbreak of hostilities.

Had to crash or we would have instantly died on the surface - was our only chance - we lost that time.:)

[timbob]

U-99 has just returned from her second patrol in the atlantic, a very successful one as it turned out!

We were ordered to patrol grid square BE99, just off the coast of Spain. This was excellent news, as it was about one quarter of the distance we'd had to travel during the boat's first patrol down in square DT. It would mean we could patrol the square for our 24 hours, then turn north, into the more fruitful hunting grounds of the North Atlantic.

We ;eft St Nazaire in the early hours of the 7th of November 1940. Travelling at a relaxed speed, we made grid square BE99 without incident, and patrolled for a whole day, with no ship sightings or soundings. Our assigned mission over, we turned North West, and soon had a convoy sighting, U-99's first!

The convoy was on a SSE heading, and we intercepted at about 22:00 hours, at periscope death on the convoy's port side. I counted 20 ships, and many escorting frigates - one sweeping ahead of the convoy, one one either side, and at least one to the rear. This would be tricky!

Using no more than slow engine revolutions, we moved into position, less than 1000 metres off the 1st column. Miraculously, the Frigate nearest us didn't spot us, and we were free to fire all 4 torpedoes, at 4 different ships in the leading row. Just as the frigate to the side of the convoy passed astern, we fired a rear torpedo snap-shot as well, but missed.

No time to waste, U-99 changed course, to head under the convoy - away from the nearest 3 Black Swan Frigates, and went deep. We heard 2 torpedo impacts, only a 40% hit rate, not too good! :(

Depth charge after depth charge exploded around us, but all were wide of the mark. During the explosions, we heard the sounds of a cargo ship breaking up, we'd sunk her - U-99's second kill! Wondering what had happened to the second ship we'd hit, the crew waited out attack after attack. Nearly 2 hours later, the Frigates were further and further wide of the mark, and the depth charges fell astern. We waited a little more, until the propellor sounds had receded a little, then risked periscope depth.

The convoy was heading away from us now, and was nearly 10km ahead of us. U-99 broke the surface, revved the diesels flat out, and overtook the convoy - which had changed course following our first attack. As the night grew darker, we took sightings from the bridge as we went to confirm the convoy's new course. The crew reloaded the torpedoes into the tubes, and made ready for our second attack.

We moved into attack position, again just below periscope depth, justt off to the convoy's starboard beam. We'd face the oncoming ships to minimize our sound reflection, and turn just in time to shoot. This time though, the frigate defending our side of the convoy was more alert, and swung towards our position - we'd been spotted, before even getting a shot off! We started moving slowly deeper reaching 30 or 40 metres down, but soon the propellor sounds came closer, and 4 depth charges entered the water - FLANK SPEED!!!

Then I came to a snap decision, and decided to bring the boat back to periscope depth as the frigate passed over the top of us, and started heading astern - she would take a minute to turn around and prepare for another run, and we might be able to get a shot off....! Sure enough, the periscope broke the surface, I checked behind, and the frigate had only just started turning. As I swung it around, we were right in amongst the convoy, a large cargo ship, and an empire class freighter were nearly dead ahead, less than 1km away!

Taking no chances, we quickly fired all 4 torpedoes, 2 at each of the lumbering ships, and then, hearing the frigate closing once more, crash dived, and changed course sharply. As the explosions rocked the boat, the periscope was damaged, and the deck guns put out of commission, but the hull held - at least for now. We heard 1, 2, 3.....4 hits - all our torpedoes had hit! 4 more charges tore the ocean, and reminded us of the peril we'd put ourselves in by making that second attack as we descended, taking advantage of the disturbances to move quickly at full speed.

Again, the cat and mouse game begun, as 3 frigates begun the hunt. U-99 went silent, to 50 revolutions per minute, and way down to 200m depth, ignoring the Chief's warnings that the boat couldn't take the pressure. We heard both freighters break up on the surface, confirming our 2nd and 3rd kills - big ones this time, the tonnage was racking up! The hunters were better this time, the charges came closer and became louder. Once again using the noise to cover our noise, we went to top speed, and changed course abruptly again, again and again - but after another 2 or 3 hours, the depth charges once again fell astern, and the soundman reported the ships moving away - we had survived our audacious attack!

As morning broke, U-99 came back up to periscope depth, saw the convoy receding astern. Having nearly exhausted our torpedoes, and been lucky twice, U-99 turned for home.

Just then, the soundman picked up a lone merchant, on the same heading as the main convoy, but nearly 12km behind. The periscope confirmed it - the same merchant that we'd hit in our first attack, but not sunk. The ship was listing badly, and perhaps only making 2 knots, the convoy had left it behind!

We only had our stern tube loaded, and day was getting lighter, so we had to stay submerged, moving ahead of the limping ship, and across it's course, so as to present our rear to the target. We fired, from only 400m away, and the torpedo streaked across the water, bubbles streaming. The merchant's captain was powerless to react, and the torpedo struck home, sending her straight to the bottom - our 4th sinking, just as the sun was coming up.

Now we really did have to head home - we had only 2 torpedoes remaing in reserve. There was a chance the escorts might have heard, and turn around to come after us again, so U-99 made her escape on the surface, at maximum revolutions. After a few hours we slowed a little - the hunters had left us! :) We took advantage of the downtime to perform repairs on the periscope, sustained in the daring attack of the previous night.

Just as the crew was relaxing, and beginning to get some rest after a solid 36 hours on duty, the tired bridge lookouts spotted another merchant ship halfway across the Bay of Biscay, a healthy, lone, large 10,000 tonner, with no escort! Tubes reloaded, we made sure of the ship's course, submerged, and waited for her to draw closer.

Sure enough, at the calculated time, we popped the periscope through the water, and there she was, just about to move ahead of us. The chief took his measurements - there was a large margin of error this time - the huge ship was only 800m away, and we fired both remaing torpedoes. Both hit! And the ship slipped under the surface in less than 20 minutes.

The 2 day voyage back to St Nazaire passed without event, although the crew did reload the torpedoes out from the top deck and down into the tubes, just in case. We made port on the 14th of November - just over a week since we'd left, and 35,200 tonnes more to our credit!

######

Top marks to SH3, and especially the GWX team, it's been a long time since I've become so immersed in a game as to write a mini story about it!

[Lt.Fillipidis]

U-Boat 109 U-Boat Class:IXB

Oct.2 1944 13:48
Grid: BE38. Heading back to Lorient after a "sucessful" but shipless patrol.
The Sonarman was sent in the crew quarters to rest.
Suddenly the a sharp-eye watchman yells "Schiff gesichtet!"
It was a Black Swan Frigate.
"What the heck is a Frigate doing in the middle of the ocean..?
There must be a convoy around!" - I thought.

I decided to approach, emerged at first and then submerged.
"Un"fortunatelly, the Frigate spotted me from distance and turned to get me.
From my experience on previous patrols, i knew the ship aint gonna zig zag soon on its way to me, so i fired the first torpedo to it.

"Rohr eins, LOS!"
After a minute or so:
"Torpedo treffen!"
It was a direct hit that damaged the ship and by the time i was in range of its guns,
the bow was below waterline. It slowly went down.

Other escort ships came to the area. I submerged in the meantime.
For the next ship, it was a destroyer, i followed a similar tactic.
I was watching it with the attack periscope and before it even came close to start its circle around the shipwreck, i brought it down with one TIII Electric propulsion
torpedo. That blew the ship sky high!

For the 3th ship, if i recall right it was a Hunt III Destroyer, i decided not to fire a bow torpedo but go a bit further and fire a stern torpedo.
Since i wasnt sure on my aim i fired an acoustic homing torpedo.
It hit its target and it went down.

"Now" I said, "There must be a couple escorts left and then its me and the convoy!"
I emerged and sailed on, ahead flank.
A couple of gametime hours later, the watchman yelled:
"Schiff gesichtet!"
It was a Nelson Battleship!
"Task Force!" I thought.
I sailed on a parallel, with them, pattern for quite a bit, so i can make it ahead of them and intercept all possible ships there.

After a bit i found out that there were no more escorts and 3 battleships were sailing into line formation.
King George V Battleship, Revenge Battleship, Nelson Battleship.

I managed to get a bit ahead of the ships so i turned, heading to them and wait
for the right moment.
I had 1 Acoustic Homing and 3 Electric Propulsion torpedoes in, so i thought,
to get all three of them, to fire the homing torpedo to the King George V battleship
to destroy its engines, 2 TIII torpedoes to the Revenge Battleship and the last one of the bow tubes to the Nelson Battleship.

"Torpedo treffen!" The first torpedo hit its target and, as expected, it blew off its propellers.
"Torpedo treffen!" The second torpedo, as if by miracle, was enough to blow the Revenge Battleship sky high!
"Torpedo treffen!" The fourth torpedo hit the Nelson Battleship on its bow so minimal damage was done.
I turned the uboat around and decided to finish off the damaged King George V Battleship and then pursuit the last battleship remaining.
And so i did. King George V went down to meet his ancestors while the Nelson Battleship had moved quite a bit further.

Suddenly, aircraft came in the show to play their part.
I was concerned that they wont leave me alone soon and ill lose the ship
so i said ill take my chances.
By that time only 2 of the 4 tubes were loaded so i fired the torpedoes and commanded to crash dive.
All the crew was in the boat and only the top of the tower was out of the water when i recieved a devastating direct hit by a Spitfire, which blew off my AA guns
and completelly destroyed the conning tower!

I had flooding in 4 compartments. 2 of them were flooding fast!
The uboat was sinking!

170 Meters!
180 Meters!
190 Meters!
200 Meters!
210 Meters!

The engines were set to full speed and my boat was strugling to stop going down!
Slowly but steadily, it was going down...
But the meters stopped at 213.
The repair crew had done well. The boat was slowly going up!

170 Meters.
130 Meters.
80 Meters.

I managed to bring back the boat from hell and bring it to 15meters depth.
The attack periscope was destroyed so the uboat was actually blind underwater.
Since i had 2 more torpedoes on the bow, i decided to try and aim using the map and the hydrophone.

The Battleship was still zigzagging so i made a loop to the left, then to the right and i synchronized the uboat to the battleship for maximum accuracy.

"Rohr eins, LOS! Rohr zwei, LOS!"
I fired the remaining 2 torpedoes.
One of them hit its target, probably near the engines cause it slowed down.
"Now its my chance!" i thought and turned 180degrees the uboat.
Using again the hydrophone, i fired off 2 stern torpedoes.
"Torpedo treffen!" i heard it twice...
Thats its. The ship was going down.
After so many hours of pursuing, fighting and repairing, i managed to bring down the whole task force, including the escort ships.

When i made it back home, promotions and medals were waitting for the torpedo
and repair men!


PS There might be some inaccuracies in, cause this event occured
on my first campaign, a couple months ago. :D

[Jimbuna]

Rivetting stuff http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/thumbsup.gif

[U-84]

January 6th 1942, location...off the west coast of north africa...0100 hours. Type IXC, heading south towards capetown. It's the darkest night Herr Kerleun Otto Jahde has experienced. That all of us here in this fine vessel have experienced. When out of the dark a tribal destroyer hidden in the dark nights fog fires several shells, hitting our new IXC sub. They knew we were here! damn those new allied radar and sonar devices. But our fine captain Otto was quick, and immediately ordered a dive, and a fire solution, a quick revenge fireoff at this destroyer before diving to the deep. Herr Kurt Knappe was our expert fire solution weapons officer. Though with very little info to set such a solution, there wasn't much of a chance to fire off a accurate torp. But he did he and I heard Otto order flood tube 1...LOS and immediately after that our IXC at flank speed dove..to 175 meters. Suddenly we hear a explosion on the hydrophones...I remember the crew cheering, and being hushed by our 1WO. we stayed there for 30 minutes before deciding that either this tribal destroyer really did sink or not. We arose to periscope depth and Otto looked through the periscope and indeed there was a tribal destroyer at a stand still. Otto ordered it's position radioed and off we sailed to save our torps for some merchies. Later on we received a radio message from our luftwaffe boys saying that one of their patrols sighted and sunk a standstill destroyer. :up:

[Ancient Mariner]

Had quite a terrible start to a convoy attack last night,In Grid AL i got a report of a large convoy sailing west,being my first patrol after many lost Uboats i went full ahead to catch and shadow it,hopefully i would get some extra help on this oner as it was a large convoy too. I came across it at about 2pm(game time),went to flank speed to get ahead of it to lie in wait(which is my usual tactic),after much effort i got ahead of the merchants.

I order persicope depth,using the hydrophone as my guide positioned my boat to what i thought would be a better firing position when I heard the first "PING",exactly what i didn't want to happen did.

Came under attack at 15:00 by a Flower class.At first i tried to fire off my stern Fish but missed her,so went into crash dive to 40 meters at Flank speed,it was a close encounter she nearly clipped my conning tower but thankfully not!

At this point i decided not to run silently and escape but rather head toward the convoy as fast as i could,I had many succesful missions in prior campaigns like this.

Another 45mins of getting DC's dropped and a few near misses i got within my preffered >1000M of a Troop/Cargo & a Tanker(sorry havent got the detailed info but it's off memory).

Moved to periscope depth,raised the scope got my calculations on both vessels to get hits within 10seconds of each other,fired my 4 frontal tubes and then headed to the depths again.

The time ticked by seeming like hours,the dd's were closing in on my position too,got to my 100m dive and went silent,at this point there were 2hits on the tanker,10 secs later 2 hits on the troop/cargo,was pleased by this as were the crew.

We made our escape good,finished up the order to patrol Grid AK13 and then decided to head to the carribean,along the way i encounter 4 more ships in pairs,torpedoed 3 of them and sent the last down with my deck gun.

Currently docked at a Milk cow headed towards the carribean in search of some easy pickings(directions to where i can find loads of tankers would be appreciated)

In total i sank just over 16K tonnage

[ddiplock]

Nothing too major: U559 operating in the Mediterranean on 1st patrol. Two lone ships sunk thus far, a 10,000 tonne large merchant, and a 1200 tonne tramp steamer.

Encountered a group of two cargo's being escorted by a couple of Frigates. Plotted their course, began moving into a firing position. A short time after the lead frigate crossed my bow, they all changed course and began heading south, this put the lead frigate pretty much on a direct course for me...my attack plan in tatters, I decided to cut the engines and make like a hole in the water and let them slip by.

Lead frigate suddenly opens up with the ASDIC and zeros in on me from about 500mtrs or so. Emergency dive full speed....minor depth charge attack lasted for some 20 minutes. No damaged sustained. Dove down to 140mtrs and they lost track of me, instead throwing their cans in the wrong direction and too shallow.

Slipped away at 1knt, surfaced again 8 hours later to fight another day. :)

I think that's the first time i've had ships change course at the last minute before an attack.....god was i infuriated with their course change!!:arrgh!:

[U796]

Only if you understand french :
http://www.filefront.com/13986649/Journal-de-bord-1-9-sept-1939.doc//

or here :
http://www.mille-sabords.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36353

[TarJak]

TarJak's Funkraum (http://sites.google.com/site/tarjaksfunkraum/) is now open. I'm planning to host some of my detailed patrol logs here for the community to enjoy. I hope you like reading them as much as I enjoy creating them.

http://sites.google.com/site/tarjaksfunkraum/

[Jimbuna]

Looks like spell check is in for a busy time :O:

[don1reed]

29.5.1940U-45 19 days out of Kiel. Sunk Freighter vic. AM 2698 with deck gun for 3600 GRT. Here is copy of Nav Log for an 'Etmal' (days run, noon to noon).Just passed Rockall Bank:
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/9593/adaysrun.th.jpg (http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=adaysrun.jpg)

[Mlody]

3.12.1939 U-45 on route to grid AN13, the idea was to sneak throught Scapa Flow. So I make my way to the eastern approach, at distance of about 4km from ship wrecks in the canal, i was spoted by V&W Destroyer. Damn those things... DD was quite close so i have to submerge, in 17m water. depthcharging destroyed my port propeller, and cause some minor damage to aft sections. fortunately eel from aft tube reached its target. And then AI showed what its made of, 5 DD got stucked on shore trying to get to my position... after getting inside Scapa Flow with lack of more intresting targets I sunk 3 anchored DD and one merchant for 8000GRT

[THE_MASK]

This material looks good and a good price too . http://www.paperlessarchives.com/wwii_german_u-boat_docs.html

[Philipp_Thomsen]

May 16th, 1941.

U-123 left Wilhelmshaven up north, to Bergen, intending to patrol nearby waters for the arrival of Bismark. At day 17, was attacked by a Hudson MK3 bomber, but instead of diving away (normal procedure), I wanted to try out my new AA guns I just had installed. The bomber was alone, so I thought it would be safe. Got those 3 AA guns manned and before the bomber got a change of getting close, he was downed. At day 19, left for the Denmark strait, passing over scotland. It was a long trip without anything being spotted. The weather started getting very heavy, so I was basically submerged all the time, 25m, and had my ears on the hydrophone. Winds were at 15m/s and the fog so heavy I couldn't see 300m in any direction, so eventual surfacings for air, and back to 25m.

May 24th, 1941.

At quadrant AD52, my sonarman reported a warship propeller sound, travelling alone, at 25km distance. It was at a very fast speed and coming from my left, was going to pass 3km away from me, so I set an intercepting course and went to the surface, and ordered ahead flank, so I wouldn't miss it. When I felt I was almost in the right place, I went back to periscope depth, and asked sonarman for details. The warship was 1.8km from me, and was going to pass right in front of me in a couple of minutes. I took a look at the periscope, but that damn fog wouldn't allow me to see anything. I tried to plot it's path on the map using the hydro, and I got myself as close as I could. I had 3 torpedoes set for 3 meters, high speed, impact pistol. When it was around 450m from me, I could see the shadow in the horizon, beheath the fog. It was a big warship, so I fired 3 fishes, middle, middle-bow, bow. Waited... Managed to get 2 hits, the third was either a dud or missed. The ship cought on fire, was sinking by the bow and losing speed fast. I could only see the flames thru the fog and I got closer to take a peek. It was Norfolk, sitting dead on the water, sinking slowly. I waited for 5 minutes, and when I saw it was really going down (water was over the bow) I got back to my waypoints. I wanted to get in a better position for further attacks. Went for the surface for 3 hours to get 3 new fishes inside, and then went back at 25m. Decided to get away from the strait, into quadrant AK, getting a direct shortcut for supporting the fight in that region, as ordered thru a message from BdU.

May 26th, 1941.

Quadrant AK99, my watch officer reported a shadow in the horizon, coming fast in my direction, head on. I went under, and my sonarman reported 7 warships coming straight to me. Some minutes later I could see Rodney Battleship and Heavy Cruiser Dorsetshire right behind it. The other 5 were destroyers, all around them. I turned left 90º and waited. Rodney and Dorsetshire would pass right in my nose, right a destroyer passing in my stern. They were hot fast, 30kts. At 800m distance, I fired 3 fishes at Rodney, saving 1 for Dorsetshire, that was 500m behind Rodney, and I had my 2 stern fishes set for fast, shalow, impact. The destroyer passed in my stern seconds later, and I fired a fish, it was at 380m, not a chance to miss it. I was dead stop on the water, silently, and before the torpedos got Rodney, I fired my last one at Dorsetshire. Still 7 minutes to a new torpedo reloaded, and I knew I would need it. Rodney got all 3 hits, very near eachother. Two below the turrets and one in the middle. It had severe fire, but no explosions. The smoke went miles high. Dorsetshire was hit in the bow, and got severe flooding. Both Rodney and Dorsetshire reduced their speeds to around 3 kts, while the other destroyers were going crazy after me. Except they're looking in the wrong spot. They were on the other side. After some minutes I got a fish loaded and ready, so I fired at Dorsetshire and went under, since I saw that Rodney was going to sink for sure. As I passed 35m, I heard the explosion, followed by several other explosions. Soon I could hear the "Song of the Sinking Ship." Plotted a course in the opposite direction the destroyers were searching, and went away.

May 27th, 1941.

Quadrant BE16, my watch officer reported a shadow in the horizon, coming fast in my direction, 5 O'Clock. Went to periscope depth and set an interception course. Again, my sonarman reported a heavy warship, alone, around 20kts. The weather was clear, and soon I managed to see thru the periscope. I was in a perfect position for a lateral hit, it was going to pass right in my nose. At 2km, I could see it perfectly. Heavy Cruiser Suffolk. Two fishes on the water, first hit right under the stern turrets and the second hit the stern. After 12 minutes, it was heavly flooded on the left side, and some minutes later the mast touched the water, fell to the left. But it wouldn't sink. After 2 hours, nothing. It was completly on it's side, but still afloat. I went around it and fired a third torpedo from my stern into the middle of its hull. No explosions, but it started to sink more, slowly. I could see two of the three propellers out of water. I followed my way surfaced, and when I was around 6km away I could see it disappearing below the waves.

May 29th, 1941.

Saw a lonely merchant, 7k tons, british flag. I was pissed about Bismark and fired 3 fishes at it, just to cool off (lol). I was almost without fuel, and so I plotted a course back home.

May 30th, 1941.

7pm, low light. Quadrant BF33, dangerous waters. Was reading a message when I heard someone yelling at the bridge, and followed my a sound of a shell hitting the water nearby the sub. "Are my watch crew playing cards up there?"... Quickly to periscope depth to avoyd the gunfire, and a peek to see whatta hell was it. A destroyer, coming fast right at me. It was around 6km away, so I changed my course at 90º from him and went ahead flank. He wouldn't listen to me coming over 30kts, and I could open a very good distance from the spot where he lost me, till he got his engine slower to commence hydro search. When I noticed it was slowing down thru my periscope, I ordered silent running. Managed to get myself around 1.5km away from the original spot, where it was searching now. I was pretty close to the shore, shallow waters, couldn't do something stupid. It was running in circles and when I thought I had got away with it, an explosion! People screaming everywhere, while the boat shaked. Flood everywhere, both my sonarman and radarman dead. I got everybody to stop the flooding while I was thinking to myself... "Mines...?... Bloody mines..."

I got away from the destroyer, but things weren't looking very good. The only 2 places I didn't had flood was in both torpedo rooms. Most of my equipment was either destroyed or not working. (which is great when you're using LRT mod.:shifty:). I putted every single guy I had to stop the flooding, including an officer with repair skills in charge. Surfaced, and went ahead flank to get home as soon as possible. Only to discover some minutes later, 3 destroyers coming hot at me, one from the left, one from behind, and one from 10 O'clock. I thought "Im screwed..."... I thought about diving, but then I saw a large amount of water filling all compartments, and I checked the battery level, around 10%. If I dived, I couldn't get back to the surface. Depth under keel was 32 meters. It was dusk, and the destroyers hadn't spotted me yet, so I tried to plot a course that would get me away from them. Didnt work... some minutes later, one of them spotted me and started firing. I was done for... I was sure that was the end of my carrer...

But then a miracle happened! (using WAC 4.1 by the way), SEVEN german bombers appeared out of nowhere, and started bombing the destroyers! Starting with the one that was closest to me. The destroyers stopped firing at me, and started worrying about the aircrafts. I was getting away from that mess, slowly, and my smile was getting bigger. :D

The last thing I saw was the planes bombing those destroyers. One had gone down already, the second was in flames and slow, and the third was zig-zagging and firing desperatedly. THANK YOU, AIR SUPPORT! First time that a message to BdU reporting damage actually works. Either that or the planes happened to be nearby and spotted those destroyers. Truth be told, I never saw the amount of aircrafts during a patrol, it was around 50. (good work, Hans).

I was around 220 miles from home, but the flooding was really unstoppable. Specially in the radioroom. I had a big fight going there, the water against the repair group. I had around 6 hours to get to the base, or I would be flooded. I had my engines ahead flank for hours already, but then something cought my attention... I wouldn't have enough fuel to get there going ahead flank, and I couldn't reduce my speed much cos otherwise I wouldn't get there in time before the compartment flooded.

When I thought things couldn't be worst, I went to the bridge only to discover that I was sinking by the bow, due to overweight. My deckgun was already underwater. That made me start sinking even faster. I tried blowing ballast 3 times, but it wouldn't help for more then 2 minutes. ok... turn 180 degrees, and back emergency! Lets go home going backwards. It worked! The bow was still pretty much underwater, but the uboat was floating better, and the speed was better too.

I managed to get back home with my bow already scratching the floor, and the fuel was totally out. I got as close as I could, and beached the uboat. Me and my guys walked the last miles back to base... on foot!

Three compartments fully flooded
No fuel
No torpedos
90% equipment not working
2 bodies to bury.

sucess?

[Obltn Strand]

I started a new career and sailed U-27 out of Wilhelmshaven. My orders were to patrol grid BF 16, south of Ireland. Patrol started 17th August so easy access through canal could be used.

After 20 or so uneventful days radio report was received: Enemy convoy, course east, speed 5kts. My boat boat was located some 70 km ENE of the convoy. Easy job to maneuver front of it and perform a submerged daytime attack. I managed to get middle of the convoy and targeted large & medium tankers. First to go was large tanker. Double shot at 1000m scored two hits as both magnetic pistols exploded. (I use magnetic pistols till Norway campagin.) First exploded under the bow and second hit midship breaking the poor tanker in half. Luck (or skill) wasn't on my side when attacking medium tanker. Two misses at 1200m distance. Luckily it was an overlapping target so one coastal merchant was at least sent to bottom.

I searched suitable target for rear tube when periscope view is filled with destroyer coming right towards me. Scope down, full speed and deeper but it's two late. Destroyer rams to conning tower but damages it only lighty. Split second later comes depth charges which rattle my boat and causes serious damage throughout. Aft torpedo room and radio room are in worst condition. Sonar operator killed, radioman wounded. Boat is taking in lot of water.

Damage control and various section crews are working their butts off to gain control of the flooding. Boat keeps sinking and hits the bottom at 70 meters and stays there. More damage, more flooding.

Frantic effort by the crew were finally paying off. Electric engines fixed, flooding stopped and most of water pumped out. Although boat was still lying at the bottom. At this time destroyer above is kind enough to throw some more complimentary droppings off board. More red in the damage control screen, flooding and three more dead. During repair the destroyer attacked three times but fortunately with lesser accuracy. Sound of asdic ping and detonating depth charges while boat lies crippled at the bottom creates very tense feeling. Are we going to ever surface again?

When boat finally raised for a few meters off the bottom and could maneuver again things got little easier. Getting the destroyer off my tail was a bit harder than usual, my hydrophone was completly destroyed. Destroyer cared to ping and pound me for a whole hour. They say an U boat is blind submerged but what is U boat submerged without sonar?

After three hours in silent runing my batteries were quite dead. Aft ones were destroyed by depth charges. Rising to surface was a risky thing as hydrophone and both periscopes were destroyed. Fortunately destroyer was long gone. Surprises keep coming and not in very pleasant manner. Conning tower was destroyed beyond condtion to hold any watch crew. What it really matters at this point radio was out too.

I'm south of Ireland some 4500 km around the British isles from Wilhelmshaven and I can't get watch crew on bridge. Adding to my problems is low fuel level. Before the convoy attack I was burning my last quarter of the stock and fuel tank took hit during depth charge attack. In September -39 my options are slim. Without somekind of watch crew canal is out of option. Supply ship Corrientes is located in Canary islands some 2500km away but taking a bombed out hull to a supply ship is not wise. So around we go.

Without further incidents I manged to get within 50km out of Helgoland and dock there.

[diggercam88]

After a very successful ongoing 1st patrol from Wilhemshaven after sinking 3 merchants (of tolerable size) just south of Portsmouth in very calm sea's I spot another juicy merchant all on its lonesome. I decide that a surface attack with my deck gun at medium range is the best way to down this monster to conserve my fish for the journey ahead. I travel at 5km hr stalking the beast who seems to have yet to notice me. Then comes the call "Crew on deck" and "FIRE AT WILL"...... boom...boom... the fire and hail of destruction spews from the mouth of the deck gun raining hell on all aboard the merchant!! What doesnt seem like 10 minutes of shelling and the helpless merchant is pouring smoke and going to Davy Jones locker very quickly! Ah, I think to myself and crew!! SUCCESS!! And there they were..... dropping from the sky like lions chasing the kill..... air support... now its hard to tell who they were because once that first bird dropped his ordinance and had a near miss on my boat I made the call before they could come back around and cripple us and possibly injure my mighty crew! The call was sounded!!!! "CRASH DIVE" men ran to the boats belly quick as lightining!! Everything was fine the first 15 meters then came a damage report and next was the horrible sound of water spraying from diffrent corridors of the boat..... I thought what is happening??? are they dropping a storm of charges?? More damage reported..... BOOM BOOM .....BOOM.......... WTF????


Long story short...........................DONT EVER CRASH DIVE IN 30 Meters of water......... Its will result in DIVE CRASH.....:damn:

Luckly I was able to get the boat off the bottom of the sea and get us to safety..... Sorry crew

[19Herr_Rapp86]

Hello everyone. I'm Branden, better known as Kapitanleutnant Rapp. I've been playing SHIII for awhile now. I don't have any interesting battle shanties yet. This is more of an introduction to the community. I'm sure after playing long enough I will have some soon. I'd say my most interesting occurence would be becoming tonage leader with a 10,000tn kill 2 hours after war had been declared by Britain, France, India, New Zealand, etc. Take care, fellow Kalun's and happy hunting.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/welcome.gif

[Radio]

Oberleutnant zur See Bert von Zollern here in U-10, a Type II boat. Bert is a brother of the recently deceased Kurt von Zollern (unlucky last career).
So far three patrols, two of them in peace-times.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8440/21133037.th.jpg (http://img692.imageshack.us/i/21133037.jpg/)

The first "real" war patrol was overshadowed by incredibly bad weather and a totally incompetent sonar man. He didn't hear ANYTHING until it was right on top of the boat. :88)

Once I replaced him (after my fuel began to slowly run out) 5 ships were detected in short order, the first two were Irish (Neutrals), the third and fourth were a small freighter escorted by a small warship, too risky.

Then, shortly before nightfall, a lone big british freighter was detected. Calculated speed, course and went to work once it was night.

Launched a salvoe of two T2 with contact triggers, both hit! Yes!!!!

The freighter burnt and slowed down, but.... it did not sink.... :o

Followed the ship for hours until it stopped zig-zagging, then launched another shot.

The T1 (influence triggered) was a dud! Damn!

One more T2 was launched, back to contact trigger this time and...

Another dud!

One final torpedo was left... The T2 was launched and everyone waited...

And it missed by 3 feet! :damn:

Here the report (yes it was edited manually, I like to roleplay):
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7194/18179374.th.jpg (http://img502.imageshack.us/i/18179374.jpg/)

I had so much fun and excitement and did NOT even sink a ship.... GWX is really cool! I cursed the whole way home.... :rotfl2:

edit: I fired the incompetent sonar man :stare:

-------------------------------

Next patrol.

The bad luck does not leave the von Zollern brothers. After arriving at AN54 and patrolling the area U-10 had to dive multiple times because of destroyer patrols. Despite those difficulties Kaleun von Zollern managed to sneak the boat into the british harbor there. But sadly there was only one british submarine and a tiny coastal ship in the harbor, hardly targets valuable enough to risk an attack. The course was changed to south, along the eastern coast of England. Several hours before the lack of fuel urged von Zollern to return to Kiel 2 british freighters were discovered! A salvo of 2 torpedoes was launched at the bigger one. One torpedo decided to explode too early. The freighter started to zig-zag and so the second torpedo missed.

Then the third torpedo was launched,this time at the smaller freighter. But shortly before it hit the target, the small freighter also started to zig-zag, obviously they had been warned by radio about a U-Boat in the area.

No sinking. Fuel was too low to continue the hunt so course was set for Kiel.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7219/zwischenablage01fo.th.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/i/zwischenablage01fo.jpg/)

Despite (or because of?) the fact that no enemy ship has been sunk yet, this career is the best I ever played, simply because it feels so realistic. Good work from the GWX guys.

[Radio]

Another patrol (this time with 4 T1's and 1 T2 due to bad expereinces in the last patrol.... and an improved sub battery!) and finally the curse was broken. U-10 under command of Bert Von Zollern managed to sink two British merchants. After patrolling the area south/east of Scapa Flow without any contact the U boat took course to Inverness to check out the harbour there. Nothing. Nice city and castle there, though. :DL

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/2685/sh3img2211200915919625.th.jpg (http://img697.imageshack.us/i/sh3img2211200915919625.jpg/)

U10 headed east, slowly running out of fuel. Then a daily routine dive was made in the bay of Inverness and the sonarman reported a contact! :ping: (in the east of the AN17 area fwiw)

An attack course was plotted, the speed and course of the enemy ship were taken, later followed by a Visual ID to make sure no neutrals were harmed. Fired 2 Torpedo T1's the first with contact trigger the second a bit deeper with influence trigger. Both hit and exploded!

The enemy ship sunk but Bert could not stay to watch, as an enemy warship was detected by the incredible sonarman. U-10 dived and sneaked away.

Only a few hours later in AN17 a second contact was detected, another merchant! Calculated the course and speed of the enemy ship and went to work despite the terrible weather and rough sea. It was pitch black and the enemy had no lights, meaning it was justified to shoot at him. The ship ALMOST managed to drive by unnoticed as it was so dark that von Zollern barely was able to see anything. But a bright cloud in the background at the right moment helped. Again 2 T1's were launched, again one contact triggered and the later influence triggered.

And again 2 hits and two explosions! The ship sank fast and exploded violently.

U-10 waited until the ship was sunk, surfaced and set course to Kiel.

Here the results:
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/9214/74103493.th.jpg (http://img205.imageshack.us/i/74103493.jpg/)

The new sonarman and the leading petty officer of the torpedo department were given the "U-Boot-Kriegsabzeichen" for their excellent work. :salute:

A note: The T1 combo I used seems to be more succesful than anything I tried with the T2s, I think I will use T1s mostly for the next few months... especially now that the BdU discovered the deep runner problem and the Kaleun's can set the Torpedoes accordingly.

[timwatson]

As SH3 sees its last sunsets, we harken back to May 27, 1941.
Kaleun Rolfe Hass experienced the thrill of his naval career. He intercepted HMS Rodney and HMS King George V steering 145 degrees at about 0730 on that morning in force 15 conditions. Exact grid location at first contact:
25km west of the intersection formed by BE29, BE37, BE53, and BE61 (or about 1400km (per the game) west of Brest, France.
His Type IX (at GWX 90% degree of difficulty) used all remaining 6 torpedos on board to dispatch these two British battleships. After surfacing, U124 observed gunfire flashes far to the SSE where Bismark, spared interception by the battleships sunken by Hass, was engaged with other Royal Navy units.

Now here's the really mind-blowing part of this story:

Hass then moved SE towards the area where gunflashes had been observed. To his surprize he sighted the silohette of a large warship....Bismark!!
She was dead in the water, her upper works shattered - presumably by 8 inch shellfire. U124 sent its contact report. Soon thereafter BDU sent out its message lamenting the loss of the Bismark. Little would the SH3 designers have known Bismark was still afloat, and deadly!
Hass then decided to stay near the stricken Bismark to see what would become of Germany's flagship. Incredably, two days later a large convoy traveling westerly at 7 knots stumbled upon the our lame battleship Bismark!
Hass then positioned his U124 between Bismark and oncoming escorts.THREE sunken destroyers later and SEVEN shredded merchants approximating 30,000 tons later, Bismark, while motionless in force 13 sea conditions, had survived to fulfill her assignment to attack convoys and sink their ships. Toward the end of this engagement U124 had the incredible experience to witness 15 inch shells slamming into destroyers and merchant ships alike, along with attendant explosions and sinkings.
What an unforgettable experience! What a glorious way to close the book on Silent Hunter III's story!

I'd recommend anyone loving the game to mission in the Atlantic during late May one more time. Save your torpedos, and head for the rendevous described above. If you do, you are in for a very unforgettable experience. But first you must intercept and sink these two British battleships! (worth almost 3000 renoun points I might add....)
Happy Hunting. oblt Rolfe Hass

PS U124 tracked the remanents of the now unescorted convoy for about 36 hours, whereupon the weather abated to force 6. Although no torpedoes remained on board, use of the 105mm deck gun dispatched several tankers and three merchantmen, one of which had been previously damaged by the Bismark!

[timwatson]

At least 30km N NW of the Bismark's eastbound course, and at about 07:15 hours on May 27, 1941. See previous information for detailed map data.

[Radio]

The 6th Patrol of Bert von Zollern has ended. Again the luck was with him and U-10 managed to sink 3 british merchants. Special remarks:

-The 2x Torpedo Combo (the first with contact trigger close to the surface, the second using the magnetic trigger at keel depth) is working very good.

-No early detonations this time, no circle runners, no duds. 1x torpedo missed, though :D

-Sank a small Boat (~450 tons) with the 2cm gun of my Type II. I was very surprised about the strength of this gun.

-Thanks to manual vector targeting a mixed (T1/T2) torpedo attack was easily made and was succesful, the torpedos hit at the same time. Made me proud of my target course/speed calculations :know:

-AN84 is a very crowded place, there were several moments when I had 3 enemy vessels around me.

Here the patrol report:
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/2107/zwischenablage01c.th.jpg (http://img690.imageshack.us/i/zwischenablage01c.jpg/)

Now I feel it is time for a Type VII, but Doenitz didn't have one for von Zollern, so the next patrol will be in a Type II again. :shifty::DL

edit: Sh3Commander decided to retire Bert von Zollern. I started a new campaign and now U-50, a type VII boat is under Herbert Schnörch's control. I quickly made the emblem for U-50myself as it wasn't included in GWX
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/4687/u50.th.jpg (http://img697.imageshack.us/i/u50.jpg/)

Sank two big merchants on the first patrol = 15000 tons. Schnörch's Boat almost managed to sink an auxilliary cruiser, but was forced to dive as a DD attacked it.

[timwatson]

If you are ready to see Donitz assign you a Type VII, there is a way to safely aquire the renoun points needed: Scapa Flow.

S. F. 's southern and eastern approaches are tough to negociate. Howerver, as Prien and Donitz knew, it's western approach was feasible. By proceeding around the north end of the Scapa Flow island at 1/3 speed to conserve your Type II's fuel reserves, you can reach the Flow's western approaches safely.

Once this approach has been broached, a 33,000 ton dry dock lies at anchor, awaiting just one eel to send your eligiblity for a Type VII soaring.
I'd be happy to share further details about how to both find this target, and deal with local defences. Best of luck to your forthcoming mission!

oblt Rolfe Hass (22,000 net renown in 9 missions)

[timwatson]

Hi guys!

After being "busy" learning the new intrincacies of GWX, got around to posting a new installment of The Outsider and the mad patrol of the U-551 under the command of the mysterious Helmut Hagel.

Here is the link:
http://www.freewebs.com/kielman/u551.htm

Hope you'll enjoy it. :lol:

While casting about in the hopes of finding a subsim kaleun to correspond with, I looked at this link. No direct relationship with SH3 GWX? But I noticed you are now into the GWX world, which has been great for me.

For example: "The Bismark Strikes Back" story (see below) was created out of that mod.

Could you do me the favor of a response?

oblt Rolfe Hass (alias Tim Watson)

[Coyote88]

28 May 1940

U-27 is patrolling off the coast of France during the evacuation of Dunkirk. Convoys of 5 warships are sailing west and northwest every few hours, far too dangerous to attack in shallow water (< 40 m.), but occasionally we hear a solo ship. So we hover in the vicinity, hoping to get a chance at one of these lone ships. On our last patrol, off Norway, we only sank one ship and we're determined to do better this time out.

We think we're safely out of the way of one of these little flotillas, when they suddenly turn and runs straight at us, with warships passing close by on both sides. One even comes within 300 m. without detecting us, but twenty minutes later a DD starts pinging us and makes a DC run. Damage to the tower, flooding, and we find ourselves mired on the sea floor and still under attack. We had to blow our tanks, despite the nearby enemy, to get some water under the keel and start moving again and, after 45 minutes of weaving and dodging, managed to shake the destroyer and get away at periscope depth. We sail out to sea, fix the periscopes, shrug off the destroyed radio antenna (meh, who wanted to talk to BdU, anyway?), and head back in - this time intending to be even more careful about how close we got to the traffic.

We're in a good position, listening to a solo ship approach from about 10km off, when the hydrophone operator suddenly reports a destroyer coming straight at us at high speed, from an entirely different direction. Up periscope - yes, there he is, but it's raining katze und huende and he's not visible until about 400 m. away; too close to attack with a torpedo, even if I had time to gather target data. So back to dodging and weaving - except before long, this guy has been joined by four of his ugliest buddies. I've never heard pinging like that! We manage to last half an hour, but eventually we're half flooded, sitting on the bottom with dead radio men, just waiting for the end. It comes soon enough.

Given the low visibility, maybe I should have taken my chances surfacing and running after the first pass, but I thought I would only have the one destroyer to deal with and I'd already pulled off an escape like that and figured I could again. Forty-nine dead crewmen, no tonnage sunk. :down:

It seemed pretty mysterious that this DD was making beeline for my position when I was submerged at slow speed, but during the attack I noticed a gray sunken ship icpn about 3km away on the attack map; maybe they were responding to one of my colleagues and came across me by accident?

[psykopatsak]

i would have flanked it and fired stern tubes set to magnetic under his keel. works sometimes...