Lucky finding
 

U-27, on 3rd patrol, captain ordered to dive a while,
- "Warship! closing!"
- "Let me hear... (damn that not sound like destroyers)"
New course 90, Surface the boat, ahead flank!!!"
- "Ship spotted Sir!"
- "What??, 1, no, 2.... :o :o :o BOTH OR NOTHING!! MAINTAIN COURSE!!!"
.....
- "We are ready Captain..."
- "Hood now on 20 degress, speed 17 knots, distance 2200, angle 90
Fire!!, Nelson 350 degress, distance 1600 Fire!!

HMS Nelson to the bottom:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Nelsonsunk.jpg

(2 torpedoes hit Hms Nelson sinking it, only 1 HMS Hood crippling it):
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ippledHood.jpg

HMS Hood was hit by 4 torpedoes before sink.
They had no escorts.
Manual targeting.
Very Happy return :sunny:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...979/Return.jpg

Nice, Nicolas:up:

Here is a small U-48's War Journal.

Difficult: 94% (WO help)
Mod:
-GWX 2.1
-Mission Orders
Sh3 Commander:
-Malfunctions and Sabotage.
-Randomise U-boat crush depth.
-Realistic crew:


U-Boat: U-48 VIIb
Leave port 29/03/1940
01/04/1940.
23:50 Message:
From: BdU
To: All North Atlantic U-boats
UNTERNEHMEN WESERÜBUNG: All U-boats in Northern Atlantic are to move to Norwegian coast in support of Axis capital ships and transports.
Order implemented immediately, full speed ahead towards Norwegian coast.

04/03/1940.GR AF38.Good visibility.Calm seas.
12:53 German Convoy sighted. 3 Destroyers, 1 Troop transporter.

04/04/1940.PQ AF85.Good visibility.Calm sea.
09:37. SS Torvange coast freighter sunk 1869 BRT with Deck gun.
18:05. SS Lone Jack Küstenfrachter sunk 1869 BRT with Deck gun.

09/04/1940.
11:50. Message:
From: BdU
To: All North Atlantic U-boats
UNTERNEHMEN WESERÜBUNG: U-boats in vicinity of Narvik are to establish defence of that port.
We are near, flank speed ordered towards Narvik.

09/04/1940.Narvik waters.Medium visibility.Medium seas.
01:38. We have reached Narvik waters. Move to deep water to intercept.
02:38. Task Force sighted at 6500m consisting of 10 Destroyers, nationality unknown. Go to periscope depth and move away. Convoy moves at top speed towards our position.
02:40. We probably can´t escape out of sonar range or sight of the destroyer. Aft torpedo ready.
02:41. Task Force clearly identified as German. Resurface.

09/04/1940.Narvik waters.Medium visibility.Medium seas.
12.34 Task Force sighted at 9500m consisting of 5 destroyers, nationality unknown. Intercept course not possible, attack aborted.

10/04/1940.Narvik waters.Medium visibility.Medium seas.
15:10. Task Force sighted at 9300m consisting of 5 destroyers, nationality unknown.
15:15. Targets identified as English. Poor attack angle, attack aborted.

13/04/1940.Narvik waters.Medium visibility.Heavy seas.
01:35 Task Force sighted at 5400m consisting of 9 destroyers and a bigger warship, nationality unknown. Convoy moves at top speed towards our position. Go to periscope depth and plot interception course.
01:42 Bigger warship identified as HMS Nelson, range 1800m. A safe interception course is impossible so a 4 torpedo salvo is prepared.
01:43 Enemies find us and open fire. Hits taken to tower with attack periscope, observation periscope, antenna and aa-gun destroyed. Tubes flooded. 4 Torpedoes fired blind. Order crash dive to 220m and evasion course.
01:44 2 torpedoes detonate too early.
01:45 1 torpedo hit and 1 torpedo missed target.
01:47 At 140m with bolts bursting. Order top speed and 130m depth. Hull highly damaged through hits to the tower.
01:48 Reach 135 m with multiple bolts bursting. Emergency blow ordered.
01:51 Reach safe depth at 110 m, slow speed. Destroyer approaching, order evasion course. Depth charged.
01:53 Battleship torpedoed with less efficency, still running at high speed.
01:55 Depth charge hit. Slight flooding, small damage. Bolts bursting. Emergency blow on and top speed.
01:57 Reach safe depth at 95 m. Slow speed. Damage repaired. Flooding stopped. Destroyer is approaching. Order evasion course. Depth charged.
01:58 Destroyers attacking tirelessly, evade with difficulty.
02:10 Probably only 3 Destroyers hunting us. Enemy sonar does not find us often. Destroyers probably bad equipped.
02:34 Destroyers out of range.
04:00 Resurface (Puh) and return to home base.

24/04/1940.Medium visibility.
Reach home base. Lucky day.
Hull: 39%
3793 BRT sunk (Very bad)
One Warship missed. :down:
U-48 goes to the scrapyard.

One unsuccessful patrol from U-48.:D

Greetings Rango

Not very original but I was bored (can you tell?)
 

'You are looking very gay this morning, Captain.'
'Come again?'
'I said you are looking very gay this morning, Captain. You know, cheerful.'
'Have you been listening to the Tipperary Song again, Wupperkrotsch?'
'No Sir, it was a gig by the Seekadett Choir, a great tribute to the Luftwaffe: Goering's guys are gay, hurray!'
'Right...'


Oberleutnant Von Braque felt himself increasingly troubled by all the forties' vernacular. He just kept having the uncomfortable feeling that, in fifty odd years, it would all sound very silly indeed.


'Get out of my sight, 1.WO and get the Oberbootsmann up here, I need a word with him about the Flakgun, the knobs could do with a rough polishing, there is rust all over them.'
'Willy's in the head, Sir, but I'll get him to report to you after he dumped his brick, Sir.'
'Oh for Heaven's sake, get down and be quick about it, you idiot!'
'Yes Sir, very good Sir.'


Willy came up through the hatch, stiffly saluting as he reported for duty.
'Ah Oberbootsmann, have you seen the Flakgun? I want that thing to shine again, get some seamen on it right away!'
'Yes Sir, I'm on it, Sir.'
'Oh and Willy, the spray has gotten to my tobacco, it's soaking wet. You don't happen to have any decent shag on you, do you?'
'Indeed I do Sir, allow me to fill your pipe.'
'Right...'


Von Braque gave his Oberbootsmann a disturbed glance and decided he would tolerate no more. He went down into the control room and got on the boat's internal speaker:
'This is the Captain, I have had it up to here with all this innuendo. If I catch anyone using any more crap double-entendres they will find themselves greasing up the sterntube with their toothbrush for a month!'

Sharing the unique moments :)
 

Well this forum is fullfiled with usefull info bout the game technically, but I feel a lack of threads here for ppl who simply would like to share the most interesting parts of their patrols :rock: . Sticky thread would do just fine :up:

As for me, my war is over too early. But I still concider myself lucky to stay alive after surfacing and waving the white flag :lol:
I confess honestly I was too greedy/aggressive in my latest career and that probably led me to early end hehe..

That night I should have left that small convoy alone, escorted by 4 J&K class destroyers which was sailing to SW ~150km away from Aberdeen :nope: I knew that was too risky to engage it due to shallow waters of about 50-60 meters only. But I just could not watch it passing by like that so easily :lol: . I picked the bigest ships, launched two torps at large merchant, one at medium cargo (aimed at second mast for bigger chance to sink it) and my fourth torp was ment to be for Granville type frighter. Large merchant was nicely hit and sank instantly (btw it appeared to be neutral :roll: ), medium cargo avoided the explosion by turning and lowering the angle. Granville got hit too, but I was unable to confirm its loss. At that time I got bigger problems with DD coming from 170 degrees, distance ~1200m straight at me, and that was a begining of the very end unfvortunately. Fired torp from tube 5 at fast speed, but DD made a slight turn to the left and my torp went just beside him.. Well from that moment I was surely on DD's palm, he folowed the torps wake pinging and got a lock on me. Switched off the silent runing, started to load torps 1 and 5. As I was in perispoe depth I ordered the new depth of 40 meters, and course 180 around away from convoy. When he got close enough I ordered ahead flank, it was shaky turn while depth charges blew around but my boat was fine so far. I was heading east on ahead flank to deeper waters and changing depth trying to fool DD on his charges depth set.. I was avoiding making larger maneuvers to save power and maintain bigger speed. Anyway after couple of bomb shake waves, he got my balls in his hands :lol: My boat received heavy damages. Flooding in all compartments, middle section of the boat even got red. Blew balast and prayed to reach the surface.. The last moment I remember is.. me on the bridge waving some white rag and my watch crew blinded by DD's search lights.. :o

The story goes later as follows:
Summary
Oberleutnant z. S. Contact and U-48 surrendered to the Allies on 17NOV39. Contact was sent to a POW camp in Scotland where he spent the rest of the war. After the war Contact served for a few years in the Bundesmarine and retired in March 1970. He died on 9 September 1972 in Kiel.

I really hope some of u enjoyed reading my story as I enjoyed writing it.. :up:

Good Luck and Good Hunting! :arrgh!:

Contact, moved your post here as requested.


RDP

Gibraltar is Hell
 

Hey

Im dead.:nope: :nope: :nope: It happened in gibraltar, sept 1940 . We crosssed the strait surfaced at night until its half, when spotted a small merchant. We opened gunfire and sunk it. 2 PT boats arrived and gave me light damage. The rest of the trip we spend underwater. Warships suddenly appeared from everyside and we escaped fine though.

The boat is a type VIIB in its secomd patrol (GWX 2.1). Left Lorient and sunk 40000GRT from a convoy close to spain. Then refueled at Thalia (milk cow at spain) and proceeded to the Mediterranean sea.

(Back to the point ) 25 km east from the strait, everything seemed to be fine when sonarman detected warships (DDs) coming from west and east. soon they were pinging at me. Not hard to evade the first time. When the uboat was at a probably safe distance, I ordered PD to take a look at a misterious contact who seemed to be a merchant (unknown) and then to sink it. To deserve so many escorts, a merchant had to be huge. Or many.

Pings restarted. We couldnt dive under 100m and battery was at 50%. DC from everyside falled over the boat, and for a long time I evaded without difficulty. But then, a corvette came from starboard. I could have escaped by ordering flank speed, but prefered to wait. If they were passing not over us, but slightly ahead of us, it would be better to be keep the position -- and stealth. But I couldnt distinguish exactly where was the noise coming from. I hesitated. :damn: When the slow hydrophone's pointer showed that she passed over the uboat, it was too late. two explosions made the bow start to flood heavily in two compartments pushing the uboat to the deep.

Compressed air blew the water out from the ballast tanks and engines were set to back emergency. Slowly at first, and then fastly, we returned to the shallow. The leaking was controled at 60m.

Another warship coming. Of course, loud noise coming from U-35, easy to hear. 60% floding in the bow and 30% in the bow quarters, the situation would be controlled if we had time. But Time was not what we had. The destroyer passed over the boat splashing depth charges over our heads once again. Moved by instinct, I ordered ahead flank:rotfl: , and this act sealed my destiny.

Now counting with the power from the engines, the water flooding in the bow compartments finally found a way to do what she was supposed to do: take u-35 to its final rest.

The boat lost control and sunk imediately, VERY fast. When the depth charges started to explode, we were far below.... dead.

Now, since I play dead is dead, this premature death on the second patrol, and on 1940, makes you freeze and feel like after watching a movie ends prematurely. A battle is made of choices. And I 'd choosed the wrong ones. Its not fair, its not easy. This is war.


Cool isnt it? I still surprise myself to see how imersive can be this game. :hmm:

The good thing is.....you get another chance http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...ies/pirate.gif

It's possible
On september 1940, u-27 (VIIC) spotted a convoy, with 4 escorts, a light cruiser and a submarine.
The chase took 24 hours, and 200 km.
(Total manual targeting, WO only to identify ships)

27-9-40, 1822: First attack u-27 sunk a large cargo firing at a distance of more than 3000 m, fired at a small merchant as well, but the torpedo was a dud. U-27 fired over a frigate but missed; the submarine managed to escape without being detected.
28-9-40, 0100: A succesful second attack on a 7000 tons freighter.
28-9-40, 0620: The third attack was more ambicious, this time focusing on the escorts, 2 of them sunk.
28-9-40, 1621: The final attack took down the remaining 2 escorts, the cruiser and the submarine, leaving at their own luck several merchants.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...8_6328_531.jpg
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h..._62728_937.jpg


Back to base, the sub crashed with the anti submarine net of Lorient taking damage.

Ok, I know I made a seperate post for this but I'm re-posting it here because my thread dies without really hearing any stories in similar detail. I hope maybe I can get detailed stories of this type here.



My hardest fight; ("The Enemy Above")

I'm sure some of you have seen the old movie "The Enemy Below" with Robert Mitchum and Kurt Jurgens. Any who have probably wondered just how exactly the DD captain (Mitchum) knew everything about U-boats and knew exactly what Jurgens' boat was doing for most of the movie.
I am convinced that the captain of the destroyer escort I tangled with a couple days ago was him.....

February 45'
I just recieved a shiny Type XXI that I should have gotten months ago but I didn't know they were flotilla-specific until I transferred from Trondheim to Bergen and was like "oh crap here it is". Understandably I was very excited and after putting the boat through its paces and dodging a bomber raid I set sail for the seas off of Northern Ireland (although my orders were to go somewhere else entirely).

After 5 days of feeling like a porpoise with the constant diving to get away from aircraft I arrive in the patrol area. I never snorkel as the enemy seems to pick that damn thing up on radar more easily than if I just surface the whole friggin boat.
3 more days skulking about underwater, listening I get a warship contact. Then another, and another, and another, and a merchant! It's a convoy headed almost directly for me.

Upon intercepting it became immediately apparent that there had to be around a dozen escorts of various classes, British and Ami. Fortunately I happened to have 8 Zaunkonig acoustics and even a pair of coveted Zaunkonig II's. In keeping with my usual bold but stupid tactics I raise the snorkel and begin revving the diesels to flank for brief periods to get someone's attention. Sure enough the lead escort start making his way toward me, zigzagging. At about 2000 yards, facing him head on, the first "Z" clears the tubes. A few anxious moments pass before a beautiful tower of fire bursts out of the DD accompanied by the explosive symphony of victory. I put "Panzer rollen im Afrika Korps" on the grammophone and repeat the process with each escort in turn as they approach one by one.
"This is almost too easy! Hell, it is too easy!"
I knock off all the escorts save for the ones astern of the convoy before I start attacking the merchantmen. The speedy reload of the torpedoes in the XXI gives me many more chances to attack and my superb speed underwater means no ship is out of my reach. Unfortunately, being light on G7a's because of all the acoustics I only get 4 ships sunk and one damaged, all tankers.

Now the fun begins.....
I decide to quit while I'm ahead as aircraft are showing up now and the last 3 escorts are making for me. I obligingly reuinite two of them with their comrades at the bottom and turn on the third, a Buckley-class escort destroyer (Enemy Below?)
My last, priceless ZII goes straight down his track..... and misses?!?
I jump to the hydrophones and dial in his bearing. Sure enough, his engines are alternating between stopped and fairly slow and the ZK is happily zipping along a straight bearing on its way to nowhere. Then, inexplicably, the escort starts zigzagging towards me at a good clip again. I only have 2 G7a's left and I'm sure to miss as it is getting light and he will probably see the wakes even if they are on a collision course.
Then....a ping! At almost 1200m he's pinging me!
"Well the cat's out of the bag now.. let's see what he thinks of this!"
Ahead flank full right down to 220m. Unlike my fat old type IX this boat makes the depth in seconds. I pick a course almost perpendicular and throttle down to creep away, dropping a BOLD.
I just pick up my book and settle in for a nice stealthy escape when I get a ping again. I don't even look up. Then another solitary ping. Still reading.... Then they start to come regularly, and then more frequently.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
I go to the attack map and the hydro bearing shows he's almost on top of us when the shout of "Wasserbombe!" comes.
I make a hard turn, flank speed and go down to 240, then slow as his bearing line shows him turning the wrong way. I drop a BOLD just in case. But then two incredible things happened. First, we ran smack into his K-gun pattern. A quick check of the slightly raised O-scope ( I know it's not realistic but I can't stand being deep and not knowing where the charges are) shows multiple ashcans only slightly to port of us silently falling. I don't dare rev the engines up to dodge because its not realistic ( as I wouldn't have suspected we were so close) and I'm sure we can survive the hit and escape without alerting the escort.
The second incredible thing was that the escort began turning the other way. And then the charges blew, at exactly my depth. Immediately, the bow tubes became damaged and the compartment started to flood, very bad news because we began to sink and we were already at 240. A few tense moments went by as the water was pumped out but we didn't implode and we got back up to 250. As a reward for my efforts I recieved a congratulatory ping. Many of them in fact.

I had no idea how he knew that he had been turning the wrong way at first but he did or was lucky and now I was back in his path. He passed overhead and I repeated my previous actions but came UP to 200. Once again, I almost run into the K gun pattern but it's far enough away it just shakes us up a bit. The remarkable thing was that two of the half dozen or so, exploded at almost exactly my depth. This was starting to freak me out. My usual experience with any type of escorts is that they are poor shots and habitually set charges way too deep. As if this wasn't bad enough, I was coming off his starboard stern and he was turning to come back around on me hard-a-starboard. Being in his baffles I kept flank and replicated his turn, which would put me outside his "circle" and hopefully allow me to get away. Halfway through the turn I go back to slow ahead as I reason that he may be able to hear me again soon. To my horror, the bearing line steadies on and then begins to move the other way...
"This is IMPOSSIBLE!!!" I yelled aloud. For almost an hour this went on, me barely escaping the blasts of depth charges and surviving hedgehogs by the barest of margins. No matter what I did that cursed bearing line would always close on me.
My boat was ruined, several sections of the pressure hull had been heavily damaged and my starboard electric was destroyed. I despaired. My first patrol in this wonderweapon had been an unmitigated disaster. What kind of U-boat captain can't beat one lousy escort destroyer in an elektroboot?
I had come up to 60m now, fearful of the pressure hull buckling if I went below 100, being so damaged. I went to the O-scope to greet the falling depth charges from his latest run. He was a bit off this time with his aim but as always the depth was spot on. Then I noticed something. The lights for tubes one and four, shining like two wonderful green beacons of salvation...
I blew the tanks, repeatedly. I am of the firm belief that doing so makes you rise faster but really I can't confirm that. At 30m I order periscope depth and increase to 1/3 to help depth-keeping. We came to 15m painstakingly slowly it seemed and as the O-scope finally broke the surface my heart sank. We had missed our shot, the escort had already steamed past our bows.
I know this is long already but this bears some explaining. In months of playing SHIV, the addon and GWX I have never learned to use the target computers. Seriously. This sounds like a problem when you use manual targetting but I found that with a fast torpedo at 1000 yards or less, you need only lead the target one degree for each knot of speed. After getting the hang of it with a lot of misses in shIV I am now a pretty damn good shot if I do say so myself. This is why in 45 I'm using G7a's, because G7e's are too slow and throw off my targetting.
Unfortunately what I needed right now was a good angle-shot, which I remain incapable of. This meant I would have to let the DE run over me again, and circle back to bring him across the bows once more. This in turn meant surviving hedgehogs,depth charges, and worst of all, K-guns. Additionally, the loss of one electric meant I was also, in effect, a big, fat, expensive type VII, but with no stern tube. To top it all off there were horrible little planes buzzing about, dropping bombs.
It seemed that this was to be a terribly disappointing end to a 5-year career, representing such an investiture of time. Sunk by a knackered little escort destroyer, and in an Elektroboot no less!
Nonetheless, I resolved to fight to the end, because this game doesn't let you surrender.
(Almost done I promise)
The escort came at me perpendicular, determined to run over my conning tower as usual, when my first stroke of luck occurred. He came in too close before firing his hogs and they sailed harmlessly over my head. Still, the Buckley has a lot of K-guns and I still felt sure I would meet my end to one of those sideways-depth-charging bastards. But it was not to be. By this point I was convinced there was a little simulated Robert Mitchum on the bridge looming over me and even now he was confidently telling his watch how I was trying to get set up a desperate last chance torpedo attack so set the charges for shallow U-boat rape. And it was here, in an eerie parallel to the movie, that he made his first mistake.
I had already ordered flank ahead for what it was worth with only one prop and the destroyer veered to port to try and get over me again. Doing this brings his stern away from the U-boat and I have sunk a LOT of escorts by doing this, since he effectively removes his stern racks as a concern. Properly executed, this maneuver will put the stern charges 60-80m behind you when they explode. However, the K-guns can still fudge everything up as they are nearly impossible to dodge. The only way to not suffer damage from them is if he sets them too deep or fires them too early. Which is precisely what he did, on both counts. They still damaged the boat but no flooding.
As the Buckley steamed away I couldn't resist muttering, in my best Kurt Jergens impression, "Now American, turn the right way and I'll give you a pretty present."
He did of course, and I already had the two eels set for him. One magnetic and one contact. I make a rule of not using more than one torpedo on an escort of any class but this was a special case.
Slowly the little escort hauled about to come full circle and attack again, bringing him ever closer to the 10 degree mark on my scope where our fates would be decided. The tubes slid open, and his bow crossed the line.
I actually shouted "Torpedo LOS!" and two beautiful white spears of retribution streaked towards our now-doomed tormentor. I imagined the lookouts spotting the wakes and wished that I could see a captain on that bridge, just to see the look on his face. A second before the torpedoes hit I smiled cruelly, "Surprise A$$hole!"
What followed was the most perfect torpedo explosion I have ever seen. The first torpedo, the impact fuse, hit just under the bridge where the captain I created in my mind was standing. The mag hit under the K-guns and the resulting series of explosions actually made the game stutter a bit. Bits of destroyer, people, and great gouts of water filled my view as the Buckley snapped in half and rapidly sank.
It didn't break, it didn't split, it friggin SNAPPED like a toothpick and the two halves bobbed violently from the force. Sorry Ami, U-boats are ALWAYS the hunters. Despite the planes I remained to watch the enemy slip beneath the sea before going down to 40 and setting course for home.
The war ended before I could get my boat repaired but I didn't care. That fight was a wonderful climax to a long and hard-fought career.

Ok finally, I would just like to say thanks GWX team for making this experience possible. When I was young I never dreamed someone would make such a realistic and historically faithful game, or mod w/e you prefer.

Excellent report, Lance. Congratulations! :D

Great to see you enjoying the GWXperience James http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...s/thumbsup.gif

The first patrol of U-99, Type VIIb.

October 1940.

My orders were to head South from St. Naziere and patrol a grid square in the DT region off the coast of Africa. Weather was rough almost all the way down past Spain, but calmed down as we passed through the Canary Islands. We made a special close approach to Tenerife, to glimpse the palm trees on the beaches, and were dive-bombed by local sea gulls!

Still no contacts as we made our way down to the assigned grid square, and patrolled for our 24 hour period. Still no contacts were made, so we turned for home, planning to spend some time patrolling around the Canaries again hoping to pick up some merchant vessels known to pass that way.

On the way back up North, we make a contact - a merchant vessel heading Southwards! An intercept course is laid out, and we maneuver into position and lay in wait, checking on the hydrophones as the target closes in.... Unfortunately though, just as the weapons officer is working out his targetting solution, I spot a Portugese flag on the cargo ship - a neutral, damn! Course homeward resumed.

Nothing is happening at the Canary Islands either, we patrol for a couple of days, but no contacts are made. After moving off and heading Northwards though, we make another hydrophone contact on a regular submerged hydrophone check. The contact proves a little elusive, but eventually we maneuver into position, ahead of one medium, and one very large juicy tanker. Unfortunately though, the fluttering Stars and Stripes of America denote the target as neutral at this early stage in the war - shame, it would have made an easy kill. Course homeward resumed.

Contact made, off the West coast of Spain - a small merchant moving North at high speed! Running at flank speed for 12 hours, we manage to move ahead of the ship and take up attack position. The ship does not appear, and just as I'm thinking of giving up, I hear it on the hydrophones - it has slowed down and is running behind schedule, pah! As the merchant comes nearer, it's positively identified as British - at last! A hostile target! Weapons officer comes up with his solution, we wait for the prime moment, and fire 2 torpedoes! One is a dud, but the second hits, sending the rear of the small vessel into flames. As the ship drifts to a halt, a third torpedo is launched, putting a gaping hole amidships, and she goes down. Only 2,500 tonnes, but it is my, and U-99's first ever kill!

The journey back to St. Nazaire is uneventful and slow, it's touch and go on fuel and we can't risk running at anything more than standard speed.

Eventually we make it back, are welcomed by a German escort ship, and steer a course into the harbour, avoiding the nets and mines, coming to rest in the massive concrete sub-pen inch perfectly - slap bang in the middle of a bay, coming to a halt with no bent metal, excellent!

Unfortunately, it seems my camera was ruined by the seawater - none of the shots I took during the patrol came out - my screenshots don't seem to have materialised :(

Never mind, U-99 survived her first patrol, and didn't come home totally empty handed! :)

Oh Joy at Konigsberg!
 

It's Christmas day, the girlfriend has cooked a wonderful dinner, we doze, I wake up and check out sub sim - Oh joy! - the inestimable GWX team have left us all a wonderful cracker in the shape of GWX 3 ...

I rip out my old installation download and install the new mod and begin my career anew.

I decide to try a new flotilla - the 7/13th. It's 1st August 1939 and I take command of a shiny new Type VIIB. I'm given order to patrol a nearby grid - most of which is inside the natural lagoon formed by the coastline. Ah well there's no war on so I decide to shake down the crew - we set off hapily ... before long 2 steamers approach us - I order flank speed and battle stations - just for the show! - the 2 merchants sail boldly towards me and as I pass between them with 500m clearance either side I see they are sporting British flags. I taste the blood on my lips but I resist the temptation to send them to the bottom, just training the guns on them as we pass.

We sail on and I wonder what we can do - it's quite shallow in the lagoon. On the nav map I spot 3 groups of target ships - surely this is what we're meant to do with our shake down!. Once more to battle stations - we run attacks ,coming in hard, guns blazing, pumping fish into the fat metal hulls (all bearing British ensigns I notice) - as night falls 6 blazing hulks slide into the sea - we turn proudly homewards- my novice crew have performed superbly. But hang on we still need to complete 24 hours on patrol...

I decide to take us outside the lagoon and run along the coast awhile - we approach moored friendly ships by the entrance - everyone is stood down,relaxed and we wave as we are bout to pass between them. Suddenly all hell breaks loose we are under fire! we turn from the merchants but something behind us (a moored destroyer) pumps round after heavy round into us. We wither under the crossfire - men are dying - I order a crash dive - we slam into the bottom at 34m flank speed, reverse thrust, blow ballast - damage control re doing their manly best - but all too soon we are crushed and die ...

You see - stock SH3 decided we were renegades for firing on the targetships and we were sent to the bottom by our own side with the loss of 400 renown :D

Well, the war hadn't started yet. I imagine thats why Tommy is so mad at you. Also, you crash dived on the coastal shallows... your crew probably would've murdered you...

Surely not the point!
 

A Very Super Market wrote
"Well, the war hadn't started yet. I imagine thats why Tommy is so mad at you. Also, you crash dived on the coastal shallows... your crew probably would've murdered you..."

The point was that these were our own "TARGET SHIPS" ie. for practicing firing on - clearly marked as such on the nav map. "Target ships" should be neutral and fireable upon whatever the war state - the Kriegsmarine (and everyone else )definately practiced on target ships before the outbreak of hostilities.

Had to crash or we would have instantly died on the surface - was our only chance - we lost that time.:)