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:

I'm sure I remember a post on another thread where someone recounted a patrol where they were going to rendezvous with a German tanker for refueling at sea (not in some friendly or neutral port). While patrolling the appropriate area in anticipation of the supply ship, they sighted a tanker coming into range that appeared to be flying the red British ensign, and sank it. Then continued to cruise around looking for that German tanker they were supposed to be meeting, which really ought to have been around there somewhere... only to realize that it wasn't a Union Jack they'd seen up in the corner of that "British" tanker's flag but the, er, swastika of a German flag. On a German tanker. That was waiting to refuel them. Oopsie!

Am I imagining things or did I really read that? Can't remember who posted it.

I have never left my gun crew on duty by accident and had them start firing on a friendly, but I have ordered the guns manned, finished off a big-a$$ merchant, gone back to the nav map with a grand feeling of accomplishment, then returned to the bridge several hours later to find my WO keeping watch alone in the tower in a vicious storm while the rest of the lads are still dutifully manning the gun, to which they are now hanging on for dear life because they're spending three minutes out of every four underwater.

Still my favorite, from my first few forays into plotting a course on the nav map: not realizing that a coastline that looks like a relatively straight line at one magnification will actually turn out to have lots of little jagged bits that jut out into the water once you zoom in close enough to see them. And then plotting a course along said coastline at minimal magnification that does not take into account all those little jagged bits, which become even easier to see when you are running aground on one at full ahead.

Also: painstakingly navigating my boat all the way back up into the pen from which I started my patrol, even turning her around and backing her in, and then sitting there waiting for the game to say "Mission Complete" or some such, then moving the boat back out and into the pen, trying to "hit the magic spot" that will tell the game that, like MacArthur, I have returned. Then getting frustrated and wondering WHY WON'T THIS STUPID GAME ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I HAVE DOCKED MY BOAT, WTF?

All because I've forgotten that there is no "magic spot" and I need to hit Esc to end the patrol. :88)

You're imagining things. :O:

I remember reading it too, and not so long ago, but I also can't remember who it was.

Yep, I remember that story. I damn near laughed myself to death. :DL

Here it is for anyone who missed it
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...64&postcount=5

Location: Ireland....say no more :O:

I have made many mistakes but worst series of mistakes was..

1st patrol out of Kiel before the war had even started.
Asked Nav to plot course through Kiel canal
Set ahead standard
go to kitchen to make cup of tea
return to find that because I had not told the Nav to follow the plotted course the boat had just ran straight out until it hit the land opposite
boat damaged beyond repair and I died despite being a stone's throw from the shore.

like to think I survived to be shot for gross mis-conduct

:rotfl2::rock:

They don't shoot you for that kind of thing, though. There are always uses for a captain of your talents. Garbage scows need kaleuns too. :D

1. Forgot to move the watch officer from the forward bunks to the tower.

2. Tried to sink a torpedo boat with the deck gun.

3. Forgot to set the torpedo crew to load automatically, discovered the error when trying to sink a freighter and found all my tubes to be empty thus requiring a 180 to use one of the stern tubes.

Done that more times than I care to admit http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...lies/wacko.gif

That watch officer is the laziest man on the boat, pretty soon, kicking him out of his bunk every time you surface is one of the things you do without realising you are doing it.

I was starting my second patrol from Kiel. In free cam mode, moving around admiring my new emblem while my boat's slowly moving forward at 4/5 knots. Suddenly I press "p" (didn't really know what it did back then). Before I know it I get screeching noises from my boat and my crew trying to raise hell with damage reports all around. :o

Ohhh so it dives to periscope depth with "p"? Lesson learnt at the cost of 45 lives.