I tried to get into Valetta three times now.

I'll stay away now, I want to live :rotfl:

No, really, raiding bases can be very profitable, if you take the necessary precautions. I once followed what I thought was a tanker into Portland. It took me a long time approaching the base under silent running, and tensions are running high. I expected the dreaded red sonar line to come up anytime soon, but none came. I decided to take the chance and enter the harbor, and guess what I found: Two (2) T2 tankers, a C2 cargo ship and a couple of small merchants. NO WARSHIPS, WHATSOEVER. I had a blast taking them all out with my deck gun :). :sunny: Whee! Added a sweet 50k to my tonnage total.

Yes, he has a very distinctive voice. Steve, how did you come by it? Did you meet the actor and tape him?

Of course not. The DBSM was created by some very talented people for SHII, by using the audio files from the movie. I just converted them to .ogg for SHIII.

thanks for the help guys. i have a couple of new questions

1. i found out i couldn't use the flak gun in rough weather. does it mean the only defense against airplanes in rough seas is to dive? is this historically realistic? i would imagine one could still fire it with extreme inaccuracy in real life

2. about the stealth meter. am i detected when it's yellow? i was following a merchant and it started evasive manuevers, yet i don't think the meter ever got to red. how long must the meter be yellow/red before it's a sure thing that i'm detected?

1. Once winds exceed 8-9 kts, you can't use flak guns in game. Don't know about historical info.
2. I don't think you'll get detected until it's been red for a while. I'm not sure about the amount of time, but if it's just red for a few seconds, you'll probably be ok.

1. (The pros can answer this one)
2. When the stealth meter changes color, it does not mean that you have been detected, only that you RISK being detected...

i just managed to sink my first hunt I destroyer :rock:

i was lucky to get behind it, so it couldn't detect me easily. it was night and i was surfaced to keep up with its speed. i fired two torps, the 1st one disappeared way before making impact, so was probably a dud. before the 2nd one made impact i fired a 3rd one just to be sure. well the 2nd torp detonated shortly after and the DD sank!

since i used up 3 torps, i tried using my flak gun on a small merchant. i pumped the full 1000 rounds into it. the ship ejected all sorts of debris and i even pushed its container off the deck, but i couldn't sink it with the flak gun. i've read that it's possible to sink ships with the flak. do i just need a better flak gun or an even smaller target? or was i shooting at the wrong location? i was shooting at the superstructure, because shooting at the waterline produced nothing but ricochet sounds :shifty: i had basically a machine gun as flak, and only AP rounds

The flack gun by itself will not sink ships. Maybe if you had caused other previous damage, it might help bring the ship over the edge. /the flack will sink fishing boats. I tried to sink a tug with to no effect.

[quote=High Voltage]Yes, the only defense is to dive. That should always be choice #1 when faced with airplanes. It's also historically realistic,as usually U-boats wouldn't engage an airplane unless it was spotted too late to get under in time. (It could be hard to spot airplanes as they would drop in out of the clouds, and they could sneak up on you since you couldn't hear their engines over the submarine and ocean wave noise.)

The risks to losing a crewman over the side in rough seas while firing the gun and while reloading, as well as the extreme inaccuracy made it pretty much impossible to use the guns if the seas were choppy enough.

When the Germans first upgraded the AA on their uboats, the Allied answer was to attack with 2 or more planes at once, especially over the Bay of Biscay.

Once the Allies could attack at night with radar which the uboats couldn't detect, the Germans were basically buggered.

Forced below the surface, the uboat captain had to pray the target steamed over the top of him, because otherwise there would be no chance to intercept due to the low underwater speed of the uboat, and limitations of uboat batteries.

hmm i guess the risk of losing a flak gunner overboard is rather high in rough weather. i did run into a couple of planes in my latest patrol. it was really difficult to track them. they appear for only a few seconds. by the time i swang around the flak gun they were already on their way out. they dropped bombs but luckily didn't hit me. it was nothing like the training mission where they just flew slowly in circles waiting for me to shoot them down in 10 minutes. :stare:

this happened to me, in a bad way. i shot 2 torps at a J class DD on my 4th patrol. it was the biggest DD i had seen yet. first torp hit but didn't sink, 2nd one either missed or was a dud. i shot my 3rd fish, but it started turning and evaded the attack. now it was coming straight to me. i had realistic reloads on, and it would be another few minutes before i could shoot again, so i backed up full speed.

the DD was much faster and my men were still reloading. before i knew it the DD was almost on me! i decided to turn too late, and also made the dumb decision to go from reverse to full forward. well... they drove right over my periscope, i was dumped back into a leaking command room :rotfl:

they cut me real bad. and i sank like a stone with red damage to much of the hull. i put a repair team together but they couldn't repair fast enough. soon i hit the bottom and a few seconds later i died due to flooding. :dead:

second death in 4 patrols... good thing this wasn't real. i reloaded and finished the patrol sinking the J class DD and two V&W DDs.

on the flak gun sinking. i managed to sink a trawler with only 100 rounds. no prior damage to it. i tried sinking an armed trawler and couldn't do anything to it after 1000 rounds. bullets just seemingly bounced off. meanwhile it took my hull to 71% with some nasty deck gun shots, but its flak gun shots bounced off my hull too. i think this has something to do with armor levels. armed trawler is the same boat as a trawler, just probably armored. i hope i'll get a deck gun soon (might need a new sub for it), then those trawlers will pay!!!