I remember getting a message from the BdU saying that it's ok to sink neutrals in the North Sea if they are armed. I think it was still in '39. Little did I know that it was the "immersion thing". A day later, lo and behold, I met a Dutch ship, sitting quietly, 0 speed, lotsa guns. Sent it down with a pretty hit. After I came home from what woul;d have been a nice patrol I noticed I got a huge renown hit. And ship's been counted as a neutral. Freakin' Adolf got me screwed again.
I consider it a noob mistake, and the lesson learned is: forget the BdU messages, do your stuff.

First time I played the game, I was at St Nazaire and set for all ahead full, only to crash into the sea wall and promptly sunk:damn:

When I was new to SH 3 I took my first Type VIIB out of Wilhelmshaven. About 200km out of port I wanted to try to crash dive to determine how long it would take to submerge.... well.... the waters around there aren't that deep... (I actually managed to hit the bottom of the sea at least once every patrol for my first three or four patrols:damn: )

Ditto here.

I now prevent that mistake by physically rotating my body to the orientation of the target ship and wiggling the hand closest to my sub.

Sound stupid? It is, but it is less stupid than firing a full salvo at a nice fat battleship or aircraft carrier and seeing all the torpedoes head well aft...

It would be nice if we could order the Navigator to read out depth under keel at regular intervals in the same way we can order the sonar man to read out bearings.

mine is acting cool and staying under a ship while it sank, it took me to the UNDERWORLD (the place under the ocean) i was flooding and i could not have surfaced if i wanted to.

In certain areas (around well-known and well-charted coastal areas) the actual depths were, well, known. The problem is that a submerged submarine has no way of knowing exactly where it is, and the only way to test the depth is to use the echelot, or depth-sounder. This was a form of active sonar, and anybody listening in the area could hear it. If the water was shoaling (getting shallower) they would have no way of knowing but by guessing. On the other hand, scraping the bottom wasn't usually problematic as long as there weren't too many large rocks.

It was the end of an early war successful mission sailing back through the gap between Shetland and Orkney and the weather turned calm then it was deck gun heaven! The pattern was "Schiffe gesichtet!", "Wahrsinniger fahrt voraus", TC x32 till close, "Feuer frei"

Anyway, the tonnage was racking up fast and I was loving it. Lots of shiny medals for the crew.

The last ship I spotted on that patrol I prosecuted in the same way. Only to hear "Das boot is beschadicht Herr Kaleun!"

WTF?!?!?

I raced to the bridge only to see a DD bearing down on me guns ablaze.

ALARM!!!!!

ping ping ping....

Boom boom boom

:dead:

Stare at death screen in disbelief. Make mental note not to race towards unidentified ships at flank on high TC assuming them to be merchants.

I love ramming my own escort leaving Wilhelmshaven:salute:

I did this but not intentionally, I believe that those sailors on board were not happy at all to see me running into them at 10 knots!!! Luckily, no damage for anybody.

Another thing I did was the following: try to torpedo an Elco. I did this three times in three patrols, wasting a total of 5 torpedoes. Only one of those torpedoes hit, and at least I had the gratifying scene of a mangificent flying Elco Torpedoboat.

("Engage STOL Rockets!!!" "Aye Aye, sir!" ZOOOM :rock:)

Mental note to self: it's a waste of time to torpedo Elcos.

In exasperation I attacked once one of those with the cannon: I left it burning and shooting at me, showing an unsuspected degree of resilience (what were they made of, 50 cm steel plates?), however in the meantime al my crew using the cannon was severely wounded or dying.

Note to self n° 2: By all means leave those Elcos alone under all circumstances.

Sinking a hospital ship (this ended my shoot first, check flag later policy). On the bright side I learned enough to avoid accidentally sinking a German ship last night, that I was targeting because I saw some red on the flag when I first spotted it.

Thinking that the destroyers in the convoy wouldn't notice me if I surfaced and came up behind the convoy at flank, just because it was very dark.:dead:

Running into the bottom (oooohhh...that's what the lighter blue on the map means).

Hitting a small freighter with one torpedo (not a bad idea). Surfacing to use my deck gun when it doesn't sink after 30+ minutes (not a bad idea). Deciding to go 1v1 with it when it starts to open fire on me (my gun is bigger right?) (bad idea). I guess those merchants must have been some old WWI vets or something, because U-108 is at the bottom now. :dead:

Not firing your eels as quickly as possible and then crash diving when spotted by the destroyers. I used to try and hang around the surface and popup somewhere else. (bad idea) :dead::dead::dead::dead::dead:

A nice thread to reopen! :DL

I think the one that gets us all is definately leaving port for the first couple of times:

"Ahead Standard"

Map Room, start plotting, external view to watch the band and any other ships in port to size them up... :salute:

We'll turn soon..., any moment..., why is the Nav not following the course... aaaargh shiiiiiiiiiiii...! (No, it's not Silent Hunter 12)

"We're taking damage, Sir"

Nav, Reports, Return to plotted course!

"Returning to plotted course"

Which by now also takes you through another obsticle :damn:

Thank goodness for SH3Commander's start patrol at sea! :yeah:

My most common mistake is not checking my spread angle on salvo shots.

Enroute to Blecher for refueling and rearming I came across a tramp steamer. I manned the guns and quickly sank the steamer and continues my course to Bleucher. Unfortunately I forgot to unman the guns, and as we approached Bleacher my gun crew opened highly effective fire setting Blecher on fire.

Fortunately the fire did not prevent me from resupply and I beat feet away as fast as I could.

On a similar note while heading for the North Atlantic, sonar detected a ship and I decided to attack on the surface as it was night and early in the war. I manned the guns and made my aproach at about 3000 meters the gun crew began firing, quickly setting the ship on fire. In the light of the fire I could just make out the German Flag. I immediately returned to course, brough the gun crew below decks and sped away at flank spped and I apparently made it beyond the range necessat to get credit/blame for sinking -- if it had indeed sunk.:smug: