:rock:
Damn you Kaleun!
That was so Hard Rock!

What an exciting patrol!

Sorry for newb question, but how do you determine impact torpedo's depth? I saw in the first patrol you used 0 depth, later on 7?

Thanks.

The impact depth depends on the weather and what ship you have in front of your Fish.
In rough weather you set it to 0 so that when the Torpedo is hiting the enemy who is moving up and down gets hit realy on the straight part of the ship. If he gets hit in the lower reien where the Ships do have the round area which will end in the keel then the Torpedo just drops of without exploding.

If the weather is calm then you can set the depth lower wich will increase the chances that the Torpedo gets spoted to late for any evasion and as the Enemy is calmer in the Water you still will hit the straight part.

For all the seasoned kaleuns, please overlook if i'm not using the right terms but if AgentCoper is asking like this then he might be new to SHIII

Yeah thats pretty much why.

In rough weather the ship rocks up and down. So the draft its presenting constantly changes.

With ships with real low draft, say, 9 - 10 meters its not so crucial. Ill run the depth at 4-5 meters on those in rough seas. But ships with that have a shallower draft, like, 6 meters or less, ill run the torpedo's pretty much on the surface. Its frustrating watching your torpedos run right under your targeted ship, thats why you'd do this.

Ideally you want to hit them below the waterline..... under the keel, but in rough seas its odds are against you. On top of that magnetic pistols are more prone to explode prematurely in rough weather.

My god, i finished patrol 2.

I damn near didnt make it back, and patrol 2, most definatly outdid patrol 1.

Patrol 3, it appears im going to the waters just off of freetown.

Gonna take a day or two break before i run that one though. I need some time in port ;)

This is some enjoyable reading, keep it up! :up:

PD

Thanks, guys

Click here for U-178.

http://www.usafband.com/mp3/Taps.mp3

'Nuff said.

:cry:

Oh god. She's done in. Those rotten air patrols. I've had that exact end before - the crash dive can be your doom if they're right on top of you.

Man...a sorry thing - I was getting hyped about 178. On the other hand, getting it early on is sorta better - it doesn't hurt that much.

Will you re-berth? I'm into the patrol reports w/pics. Great stuff.

Also - I see you have 6 torpedomen and 1 repairman. I would have at least 2 repairmen in addition to a repair officer so that my repair team can be Maximum efficiency - in the situation you were in, apart from your perilous downward momentum, you also had a terminally flooding stern quarters (i think?). A dead compartment = dead boat. But if you have a good repair team you can fight it down to manageable levels. Also, by late in the career (not like they gave you a chance for that), I have all my officers with the repair specialty so that they can auto-fix flooding in their compartments. If you have this setup, you can apply the repair team to your most critical situation. I the face of wicked air cover, repair can be more important than flak. I don't bother with more than 3 torpedo men because speed is never a big deal for me with torpedo reloads (i never have time to reload within an attack).

Anyway, my condolences. will you attempt another personal challenge?

Kb

Well ultimatly it was my own bloody fault.

I had this nagging voice that surfacing was a real bad idea. I should have listend to what my guts were telling me. But.. i just HAD to get into a firing position.

On top of that, i didnt realize the main pump was out of action right away. This cost me precious seconds.

Honestly its amazing i wasn't dead already. I pushed that boat hard.

Acutualy i had TWO officers who were certified in repairs. The One in the Motor room, AND my navigator. My problem was that i panicked. (hence not realing the main pump was out of action right away).... and i totally forgot to assign one of those officers to the damage control team.

When i saw that plane coming in, and took that screenshot, the first thing i thoguht was.. "well, this is it". After that, it was utter confusion. You have to realize all of this happened within the time span of 60 seconds.


At first i thought..

"damage?"

then..

"This isnt serious, no H.I loss, ill stop the boat at 50 meters and get a way from that bloodly plane, or he's REALLY gonna put a hole in me."

Then i thought,
" this doesnt feel right were going down too fast."

I past the 50 meter mark, QUIIIICK.

Then i started looking at the damage and the flooding more closely.

At 70 meters i was realzing theres too much water in the boat, and she was going down quick. I checked the boats angle (to make sure i wasnt about to make my decent even faster), blew ballast and went to flank. At that point i clicked on the damage control team.

Then i realized the motors wouldn't put out more then 3kts.

Then i went about spreading crew about the boat to make sure all compartments had crew in it to respond to damage and flooding.

The flooding didnt stop, thats, when i realize the main pump was out. I then diverted ALL of my attention to that.

By that time it was too late.

edit:
Next thing ill challenge myself with is either:

a.) Make the longest single patrol ever.
b.) soemthing to do with a VIIB or IXB. See how long i can survive the war from beginning to end or something. But i don't see myself keeping a detailed log like i did here.

I know exactly what you mean. Death can come real quick from air attack. I lost a great boat that way - by the time i had surveyed the damage, I was nose down in the depths.

Anyways, if you ever want to post patrol logs, I'll read em.

Kb

That's my favourite patrol grid :D

Like you I found that air patrols were frequent there. One U-Boat commander said it was just as bad as Biscay. It's definately a case of submerged running during the day, and crossing fingers when you have to surface to get into a shooting postion. The nights weren't too bad though.

On my first patrol there I made the mistake of chasing down a merchant in broad daylight on the surface. He was unarmed and I thought I'd use the deck gun. It never occured to me he would radio for help, or that the help would arrive before I got close enough to open fire. Four aircraft appeared and made my life interesting. I learned to be more cautious after that. :D

On another patrol there my watch spotted aircraft and I was in two minds whether to fight or dive. I decided to crash dive and the resulting bombs destroyed all of my flak guns. This was when I'd just reached the area! So I spent my patrol there with no flak guns at all. It made my mind up though, crash dive was the only option for the remainder of that foray.

At least the water there is deep. My last patrol grid in a new career was CA73 just off Norfolk. I popped my periscope up to see if I could see a sound contact. An aircaft spotted my periscope and headed straight for me. Go deep fast you might think, but not in 28m of water! Instead I blew ballast and waited agonising seconds for the boat to surface so I could man flak guns. My men managed to shoot it down (and got some well deserved medals back in port).

For all the hassle though I still love the Caribbean. Lots of tankers and lots of excitement. I hope dying didn't put you off it :)

I died in the south atlantic, not the caribbean. ;)

Your talking to Mr. Paukenschlag here! :up:

Ooops :oops:

I should have gone to bed (it's 5:30am for god's sakes!). It's better than rambling nonsense while half-asleep :D

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! :o I will avenge U-178 if it's the last thing I do. Well I'll try at least. :shifty:

:cry:

Salute Sailors!
Such a sad day! You started so strong and then...

:(


PS. I don't understand why did you hesitate, Ok panic - i give you that, but "Ich verlange ordentliche Meldung" is one of the first thing i holler.
As fot those logs, they were great even it the final outcome of your Boot was a sad one! I really would like to see more of you in that department!
:hmm:

For starters i underestimated the distance the plane was too me. I should have stayed on the surface and manned the flak guns. So that was mistake number 1.


Mistake number 2 is i underestimated the severity of the damage after the that goose laid his eggs.

When the bombs hit, the first thing i did was check the damage report.
My thoughts were thus (al of which flashed through my head in about a second):

1. "Pressure hull not damaged, whew! What luck!"

2. "Crap, conning tower is smashed, ill bet my periscopes and RWR are out Ill have to cut short my patrol dammit!"

3. " We're flooding. I dont see how, he didnt get my pressure hull. Oh well, nothing we havent handled before. It always looks worse then it really is. Planes always do this to me, although this time it looks like we caught it good. Cant be that bad, pressure hull is 99%, he barely scratched me"

4. "I need to get under at least 30 meters before he comes back or ill catch those too."

5. "Ill stop that boat at 50 instead of 70 meters where there pressure isnt so bad and deal with this flooding"

6. "Wow the flak and deck gun is destroyed. He hit me harder then i thought"

7. Why isnt this flooding stopping, hey were going down kinda fast.

8. "50 meters, boat not responding. Schite, am i gonna have to blow ballast, that will be a first. Ill try flank speed and raise depth first. If i surface im done for."

9. "3 kts at flank speed, now at 70 meters, boat not responding.. Schite, blow tanks NOW"

10. "whats the problem with those damn repairs?"

11. " boat still dropping fast, coming on 100 meters, blow tanks again!"

12 " repairs? whats the problem?!, oh crap main pump damaged"

13. BLOW tanks again! My god were dropping like a rock. Focus on that dam pump, MAYBE we can save it but i doubt it, its too far gone.

14. 220 meters.. CRAP! Dammit Its no good, ive lost the boat.

15. Watch depth gauge and wait for the ineveitable.


Such were my thoughts.

:(
Sorry man, i've had such hopes for your Boot.

And as for your Logs. Well it eas stated in one U-Boot Book, that writing log is one form of novelwriting for some Kaleuns!
If my patrols were that rich, i would write for sure!
The logs i write are dry, cuz there's notthing happening!


:doh:

Look at the bright side, if your trying to survive the war, its probably better :P In reality, with a few exceptions, generally speaking, the most action packed and famous boats didn't live very long.

It seems SH3, is very much like real life in this regard.

Of my prior careers.

U-128:
In a fantastic engagement, sank 1 battleship and 1 light cruiser in a night surface attack in early 1941, and by shear luck, a missed torpedo intended for said battleship, hit a SECOND one behind the first, slowing him down for annother appraoch, and i sunk THAT one too.

This boat, as i recall, was sunk by aircraft.

U-189:

This one hurt the most. My longest surviving Uboat and it looked like i might acutally survive the war. Captain walker and his destroyer group did a number on me when leaving biscay.


U-333:
In an uncanny simiularity to the actual U-333, this boat was also rammed by a destroyer and depth charged. I made it back to port with only 27% hull integrety. I thought i had a real lucky boat this time.

This boat was ultimatly destroyed by aircraft in what was arguably the most dramatic deaths ive ever had. I was caught on the surface at daybreak just as i was about to dive for the day. The bomb hit starboard side where the diesal rooms were. Engines destroyed. entire bridge watch was killed. Couldnt manuever, and the boat was sinking slowly by stern. I could do nothing stand there on the bridge and wait for him to circle around for his second run.

I've never been caught by that HK group. One time, late war, in Biscay I heard fast screws and set an intercept course. When I popped the scope I didn't see any tall masts. To my horror, there were only five black swans (i think) in a column formation, moving very fast in a wide arc. Luckily they were turning away from me. I disengaged silently, and shuddered thinking about what would have happened if they had detected me. Certain death, I suppose. That must have been one BAD trip for U-189.

Kb