I seriously doubt that Lockwood would have allowed one of his boats to just sit somewhere if they "ran out of Gas". Now if a skipper allowed such an event to take place which would be ridiculous, he would not be a skipper after such a blunder. The Bergall was escorted in after sustaining damage as was the Salmon. Even though the Salmon was deemed cost ineffective to repair . We did not want our technology to fall into the hands of the enemy. Scuttling would be ordered before such a thing would happen. Now I have too read and read (Thanks Steve....) to see if any of the fleet boats ran out of gas.....Where do i start?:salute:

I know that U-boats would refuel at sea, and sometimes they'd get an emergency tanker or a tow if they ran out of gas near a friendly port at the end of a mission. I know that one U-boat captain finished his patrol on batteries because he didn't want the embarrassment of needing a tow into base.

Does it matter?
Maybe there has never been a case that a sub ran out of fuel. But that would not mean that no help would have been sent if it had happened. To me it is just logical to help a stranded (and maybe even undamaged) submarine. Besides you have to sent a vessel to get the crew anyway so why not refuelling it?

This used to happen to me alot in the early days when I first got SH4. What I do now is keep a better eye on my fuel level and watch my speed (as mentioned above, Standard is the best for fuel economy). Also, if on a long mission, during day light hours I will travel submerged to save fuel, then run on the surface in the dark and recharge. This of course also helps with staying undetected, but the fuel savings with this method are not huge by any means. All that surfacing and diving is a good way to work on your incoming air raid drills and emergency diving for sudden surface detections.

Actually you even loose fuel by doing this because the batteries have to be recharged by the diesel engines once you are on the surface again.;)

One of my 'tricks' is when your assigned one of those 'patrol this area for x days' I will spend alot of time bobbing around on the surface, batteries fully charged, full stop. Even then a small amount of fuel is used.

To run the ice cream maker I guess, but its alot less fuel than if I spent all that time running too and fro.

Extending range by running submerged is not possible, as mentioned the fuel consumption increases while charging batterys.

As mentioned before look out for when your batteries are 'stuck' at 95% or something. You will continulally try to charge the defective batteries killing your milage.

True, but as your batteries are charging, you are still moving along your planned route. Maybe it's only marginal, but that is why I only use that for long missions.

It sitll uses up more fuel, since you're using the generators both to turn the props and charge the batteries. Thermodynamics and all that : If you use more energy, you use more fuel.

In the end, running submerged costs you fuel. Probably more than running surfaced...

So if I am to understand correctly... best OPS strategy is:

1) Ahead standard offers best fuel mileage and fuel conservation always a consideration.
2) When recharging batteries I might as well run flank speed because the max amount of fuel is used anyway.
3) Ensure you are using standard propulsion when batteries do not need to be recharged.
4) Once you are down to 50% fuel - head for the nearest friendly port.

Do we have a consensus, gentlemen?

I do agree with that consensus... my points were just mine, but I do also stick to those points also. :)

Improvise.:D

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...SAILSUBR14.jpg


"During a search for the sea-going tug Conestoga (AT-54) in May 1921. R-14 (SS-91) ran out of fuel southeast of Hawaii. Sails were made from blankets and mattresses, and the submarine arrived at Hilo on 15 May after 5 days under sail."

Those are generally ok, with certain considerations:
1) The best mileage on fleet boats is around 9.5 knots. Afaik this isn't "Ahead standard" in stock game. In RFB ahead standard is 10 knots.
2)No no and no. The less power you use for other things the faster they charge(in SH4). So ahead slow or similar when charging batteries.
3) :up:
4) That's a good rule of thumb for starters. With experience you'll develop your own rules anyway.

one more:
5) Use the "max range at current speed"-option when in doubt. It's not activated in stock game, but comes with most major mods.

Nice pic and story there NEON :D

Interesting pic indeed Neon Deon.

In 1944 the USS Grenadier also tried to jury rig a sail after severe bomb damage from a Japanese plane, but to no avail. She was scuttled when Japanese surface craft approached.

I don't use the 4th rule. When I get to my patrol area, I take a quick note of how much fuel it took to get me there, so I start heading back to base when I've got a bit more than that much fuel left (I usually use around 10% as the 'fudge factor'). So if I get to my patrol area with 80% of the fuel I started with, I turn for home when I'm down to 30%.

Obviously this changes if your final patrol area is a long ways from your initial patrol area, but I think it's a decent rule of thumb.

Another thing to consider is planned refuelling stops. For example, if you're based at Pearl and you're going to patrol in the East Indies, it might make sense to stop in Darwin (or Tulagi, once it's open) and top up your tanks before you go to the patrol area. You can also stop there on your way home. That can extend your time on station by quite a bit.

Of course, if you're patrolling around the Japanese home islands, there's really nowhere for you to go.

I just want to say thank you for all of your inputs. Y'all have been a great amount of help. Some of y'all asked if I had any damage and the answer is yes but very minor and it was fixed very quickly. I still find it very hard to believe that during the time we spent in WW2 that not one of are boys didn't make it back due to fuel shortage wheather they were damage or not. I read one thread saying something about a US submarine cost somewhere around $7,000,000 back in those days that was a great amount of money and sorry I don't think they would have left them to the sharks if they would have ran out of fuel accidentally. I was only like 65NM from Midway. So what I am getting at I think if you are a certain distance from a friendly base and you run out of fuel due to damage or not due damage you should be able to get a tow no matter if it is realistic or not just like in Silent Hunter 1. That game I play for years until they came out with silent hunter 2. But once again thanx for the help. And next time I will keep a very close eye on my fuel situation.