Task Force: 0 U-338: 2!

[kylania]

So I switched to La Spezia tonite for a change of pace. Swapped out my old IXC for a brand spanking new VIIC. It's now Feb '42.

I'm on my way to my patrol grid when the lookouts call "Warship spotted!" I rush to the bridge and sure enough, I've stumbled upon a fast moving Task Force coming up from behind me. Three Hunt I/III destroyers, two Dido Light Cruisers and a Fiji Light Cruiser.

Baby bottom smooth water, not a cloud in sight. I drop to periscope depth, set a rought intercept course and wait till they get closer.

I finally take a peek through the periscope once my sonarman says they are around 300 or so bearing. Almost a perfect shot, but they are still 4km away. I risk speeding up a bit to close the distance while still being in range. At 2km I let four eels go. Aimed at the Fiji which is overlapping with both Didos, so I set a 10 degree spread.

First eel nails the Fiji in the stern, just ahead of the props. Second eel smack in it's bow. Too bad there wasn't bad weather, that might have helped flooding. Fiji's on fire now, but the other two apparently missed. Starboard side Hunt III turns and starts trying to find me, but seems to be moving aimlessly. BOOM! Third eel actually did hit!! Nailed the far Dido in it's engineering compartment, dead in the water!! Another Hunt III joins the chase for me.

After a few minutes it seems clear the destroyers haven't a clue where I am. Heard some screws near overhead, but not a single depth charge. Up to periscope from 60m while reloading. I see the Hunt 1200m behind me... ooh it's a Happy Day indeed! Launch a homing torpedo from the stern tube at him and turn away.

Few minutes later I hear the boom.. nailed the Hunt in the props, it slowly glides to a stop. The other Hunt can be seen rejoining the rest of the Task Force about 15km distant, leaving their two friends to my loving care.

Steamer eel to the backbone of the Hunt breaks it in two and down she goes. Now I turn into the Dido that's been waiting patiently. I need to wait another 30 minutes since all I have ready are homing torpedos. Finally two steamers are up and ready, fire one aiming for the rear ammo. Hit, but no explosion, just fire. Wait a while and aim the last steamer at the fuel compartment. BIIG explosion, but she's still afloat, but the stern is riding low.

About 1 hour later she finally falls into the sea, stern first. 1050 tons for the Hunt and 5900 tons for the Dido. My first two Warship kills!! YAY!

[spork542]

I once had a kill on a Southampton when I was aiming for a Nelson.

[Jimbuna]

So I switched to La Spezia tonite for a change of pace. Swapped out my old IXC for a brand spanking new VIIC. It's now Feb '42.

I'm on my way to my patrol grid when the lookouts call "Warship spotted!" I rush to the bridge and sure enough, I've stumbled upon a fast moving Task Force coming up from behind me. Three Hunt I/III destroyers, two Dido Light Cruisers and a Fiji Light Cruiser.

Baby bottom smooth water, not a cloud in sight. I drop to periscope depth, set a rought intercept course and wait till they get closer.

I finally take a peek through the periscope once my sonarman says they are around 300 or so bearing. Almost a perfect shot, but they are still 4km away. I risk speeding up a bit to close the distance while still being in range. At 2km I let four eels go. Aimed at the Fiji which is overlapping with both Didos, so I set a 10 degree spread.

First eel nails the Fiji in the stern, just ahead of the props. Second eel smack in it's bow. Too bad there wasn't bad weather, that might have helped flooding. Fiji's on fire now, but the other two apparently missed. Starboard side Hunt III turns and starts trying to find me, but seems to be moving aimlessly. BOOM! Third eel actually did hit!! Nailed the far Dido in it's engineering compartment, dead in the water!! Another Hunt III joins the chase for me.

After a few minutes it seems clear the destroyers haven't a clue where I am. Heard some screws near overhead, but not a single depth charge. Up to periscope from 60m while reloading. I see the Hunt 1200m behind me... ooh it's a Happy Day indeed! Launch a homing torpedo from the stern tube at him and turn away.

Few minutes later I hear the boom.. nailed the Hunt in the props, it slowly glides to a stop. The other Hunt can be seen rejoining the rest of the Task Force about 15km distant, leaving their two friends to my loving care.

Steamer eel to the backbone of the Hunt breaks it in two and down she goes. Now I turn into the Dido that's been waiting patiently. I need to wait another 30 minutes since all I have ready are homing torpedos. Finally two steamers are up and ready, fire one aiming for the rear ammo. Hit, but no explosion, just fire. Wait a while and aim the last steamer at the fuel compartment. BIIG explosion, but she's still afloat, but the stern is riding low.

About 1 hour later she finally falls into the sea, stern first. 1050 tons for the Hunt and 5900 tons for the Dido. My first two Warship kills!! YAY!

Great read and congrats kylania :up: ...I've never tried the Med...always preferred the Atlantic...would you recommend a change? :hmm: ...what's the traffic like?...I use GW :rock:

[soma]

I recently switched to the Med also (playing GW 1.1). I find there are not so much convoys (only encountered one), more single ship contacts, especially between Tobruk and Alexandria. In feb 1942, I encountered a Task Force , consisting of 3 BB's a Dido and several DD's near Alexandria within striking range. They dissapeared when they came within 20 km of the port though.....:cry:

[HunterICX]

:shifty: I can only remember how it feels when an Revenge Battleship hits me with 21 knts on my conning tower......my SO was too tired (forgot to switch him) and I lost sound contact so I popped up the scope but it was to dark so...I lowered and went back into the commander room and Just when I wanted to go to the crew management I heard screws...and a hard CLOING!! !BANG!!!

Holy (BLEEP), I press the free cam and there it was...the revenge battleship...turning his lights on , I'll bet he heard something...but that was really embarrasing :oops:

[CybaGirl]

Great reading and thanks for sharing everyone :).

Im still to encounter a task force, battleship, aircraft carrier in this game :hmm: .

I have played it all the way through once and I am now playing it again after a six month break as I single again YIPPEE and I can do what I want, when I want. Which means I can play SH3 till early hours of the morning and I wont get into trouble from anyone :rock: .

Anyway hopefully soon I will be lucky enough to come across a task force like all of you :D

[LZ_Baker]

There are task forces all over the Med. On my first patrol in Dec 41 I must have come across 6 or 7, 2 of which were Itallian fleets (Running GW) The Med seems to be full of warships but not alot of merchants. For my second patrol I raided the base on Malta and I just finnished raiding Tobruk on my third patrol.

[CybaGirl]

OK thanks for that I will make a note of it along side all my other SH3 notes :).

Im still in 1940 atm and I am not playing with GW just my own selected mods.

Going to play with GW after I play this one all the way through :)..

[Cpt.Thorne]

NYGM med is also one tough challenge with angry allied fleet action and the merchant convoy routes are altered to have trafic in different places too not only in the SHIII vanilla 1 convoy route. No 3 week passages in empty seas in the Med. Lots of shoot and hide action. Highly recommend the med to be played to get some different feel to SHIII especially with NYGM or GW.

[andy_311]

Must try the Med some time but it's hard for me I love my IXD2

[Jimbuna]

Must try the Med some time but it's hard for me I love my IXD2

Hmm...been wondering...would it be possible to purchase a IXD2 sub after the transfer? :hmm:

[soma]

dont you get to keep your sub after transfer? I just transfered from the 29th to the 7th, still got my crew and trusty 7c :)

[Cpt.Thorne]

yes you get to keep it but IXD will be a suicide boat with those Hurricanes hunting you down all the time and tight water areas to avoid wabo attacks

[kylania]

Yup, this was with GW 1.1a. When I transferred I manually picked a new VIIC boat, but believe I would have been able to keep my IXC. Personally I just wanted the smaller sexier boat! :)

I ran into the remains of this Task Force again the next day!! Once again they were closing into my position, so it was a matter of just not moving and I was in perfect firing position.

Unfortunately all I had left were three homing torpedos and a elec. :( I fired a homing at the Dido and Fiji left.. one never hit, the other one ended up following the Fiji for like 3 minutes till I finally got close enough to hit. Dead in the water but no flooding. I hit it again in the bow ammo, no explosion, and that caused some forward flooding. Another homing missed entirely! By now I was out of torpedos, but she wouldn't sink!

I surfaced, decks awash 5km behind her and started Deck Gunning her. Blew off the rear turrets, both stacks, the bridge.. yet STILL no sinking. :( I was afraid to close on the sides lest I get gunned down, so after a day of waiting I just left and called it a patrol.

Haven't seen any planes yet though.

[Mauser KAR98K]

Was heading to my patrol sector in BE 65 after creating choas on the way. Then my look out shouted warship spotted. I took a look, and yeppers, DD off the starboard. Periscope depth. Began targeting and tracking and was setting up for a electric torp attack. This was about 1500 local time and dead calm waters with haze. They my Pinghead starts shouting off more warship contacts. WTH! This may not be a good idea...after I already fired the FISH! Then I realized that the DD was doing 21KNTS. OKAY time for the GOD VIEW. I hit the ">" button and started counting all the DD's and Cruisers. I stopped at the Battleship! Problem was, I was submerged and couldn't catch em, even on the surface. I Emeergancy surfaced, realied the contact via radio and went down to visit Davy Jones. I calculated thier course to the Med, so off I go to Spain. Didn't make it. Ran into a bunch C2 and C3's. Then just had to qiute SHIII for awhile. Will restart the patrol tonight, (doing it on Laptop with no mods.) I had good renoun after the patrol, even after failing to do my grid, but damn, I want to bag me a Battleship in the open Atlantic. No Salvaging that thing at 2000 meters.

[GT182]

Nothing like the sight of a Bogue Carrier going down. Sank one on Jan 14, '42 in CG84. The BB Revenge was another pretty sight going down on Nov 18,'42 in BE64. But then again, those were the only 2 times I've seen targets like these. They are a rare sight indeed.

Edit: But there is hell to pay too from their escorts.... be prepaired to stay down and silent for a long long time. ;)

[deamyont]

Just a few minutes ago: its december -39, im in my IXB, west of Ireland, heading south for BE. Clear sky, no wind, no clouds. I get that "Warship" radio message. Its right north of me, heading south. I just turn around, and wait. As nights fall, the taskforce approaches. A J-class is leading a Nelson, a Revenge, two Fiji's, a Southhampton, a C-class and another J right towards me.

The J passes me 200m on the side without noticing me. Im right on the Nelsons course.
As the Nelson gets within 1000m, i fire 2 fast 9m magnetic 2 degree angle fish at the Revenge next to the Nelson, and then 2 11m at the Nelson.

A few moments later all 4 hit right beneath the keel of their targets, Revenge is crippled with its engine blown away, and soon Nelson's too, after a shot from aft. The other aft torp hits a CL, wich sinks imidiately after the hit in the magazine. I submerge to 25, and wait. After an hour or so, Nelson sinks from flooding. The remaining CLs and the DDs just keep running away at 20 knots, leaving the lost BBs and CL, with their 4000 or so crew to drown. (Yeah, right...) After a while i move to periscope depth and sink the crippled Revenge.

So, 2 BBs and a CL sunk, and im alone again. I surface and start loading my external torps. Just as im about done, i get a convoy message. Its moving slow, not more than a 100km away, comming my way. Unbelivible.

Same thing again, i park myself dead ahead of the convoy, and wait. 20 merchants of various sizes escorted by two FFs and a DD. The black swan leading runs past me without detecting me, and the convoy aproaches. As im in the middle of it, i fire 3 torps at the large merchants, just below their keel. One sinks imidiately, one after a while and one is crippled. I sink it with my last loaded torp, then sneak away.

I move on parallel course with the convoy until its getting dark, then again i approach. I have 3 torps front, 1 aft left. Same thing again, sneaks past the escorts undetected and fire at 3 at 3 different merchants, 2 mediums and a small. Small and a medium sinks imidiately, last one is crippled. I sink it with my last torpedo, move to 50m and again i slip away. 110,000 tonnes without even being scratched. Unbelivible.

Seriously, IRL smaller ships wouldnt leave a crippled capital ship and its crew to die, right?...

[Respenus]

I remember going into a port (not Scapa Flow) and found Nelson Class there. It was stationary. I sent over 6 torps alltogether (4 front, she tilted and then 2 aft on the other side so se leved out). She never sank, but she was 1 meter above the sea floor. Strangly the DD next to it exploded when I hit it's fuel tanks :hmm:

[Safe-Keeper]

Found a task force on my first patrol in my new Mediterranean career. Battleships, Light Cruisers, Destroyers. And it was coming right at me. Quite a freaking sight.

Unfortunately, I didn't nail a single ship. And the game crashed (had to do with me saving the game for some obscure reason I don't remember).