Introduction
 

Hello everyone. I'm Branden, better known as Kapitanleutnant Rapp. I've been playing SHIII for awhile now. I don't have any interesting battle shanties yet. This is more of an introduction to the community. I'm sure after playing long enough I will have some soon. I'd say my most interesting occurence would be becoming tonage leader with a 10,000tn kill 2 hours after war had been declared by Britain, France, India, New Zealand, etc. Take care, fellow Kalun's and happy hunting.

Welcome aboard http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...es/welcome.gif

Oberleutnant zur See Bert von Zollern here in U-10, a Type II boat. Bert is a brother of the recently deceased Kurt von Zollern (unlucky last career).
So far three patrols, two of them in peace-times.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8440/21133037.th.jpg

The first "real" war patrol was overshadowed by incredibly bad weather and a totally incompetent sonar man. He didn't hear ANYTHING until it was right on top of the boat. :88)

Once I replaced him (after my fuel began to slowly run out) 5 ships were detected in short order, the first two were Irish (Neutrals), the third and fourth were a small freighter escorted by a small warship, too risky.

Then, shortly before nightfall, a lone big british freighter was detected. Calculated speed, course and went to work once it was night.

Launched a salvoe of two T2 with contact triggers, both hit! Yes!!!!

The freighter burnt and slowed down, but.... it did not sink.... :o

Followed the ship for hours until it stopped zig-zagging, then launched another shot.

The T1 (influence triggered) was a dud! Damn!

One more T2 was launched, back to contact trigger this time and...

Another dud!

One final torpedo was left... The T2 was launched and everyone waited...

And it missed by 3 feet! :damn:

Here the report (yes it was edited manually, I like to roleplay):
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7194/18179374.th.jpg

I had so much fun and excitement and did NOT even sink a ship.... GWX is really cool! I cursed the whole way home.... :rotfl2:

edit: I fired the incompetent sonar man :stare:

-------------------------------

Next patrol.

The bad luck does not leave the von Zollern brothers. After arriving at AN54 and patrolling the area U-10 had to dive multiple times because of destroyer patrols. Despite those difficulties Kaleun von Zollern managed to sneak the boat into the british harbor there. But sadly there was only one british submarine and a tiny coastal ship in the harbor, hardly targets valuable enough to risk an attack. The course was changed to south, along the eastern coast of England. Several hours before the lack of fuel urged von Zollern to return to Kiel 2 british freighters were discovered! A salvo of 2 torpedoes was launched at the bigger one. One torpedo decided to explode too early. The freighter started to zig-zag and so the second torpedo missed.

Then the third torpedo was launched,this time at the smaller freighter. But shortly before it hit the target, the small freighter also started to zig-zag, obviously they had been warned by radio about a U-Boat in the area.

No sinking. Fuel was too low to continue the hunt so course was set for Kiel.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7...age01fo.th.jpg

Despite (or because of?) the fact that no enemy ship has been sunk yet, this career is the best I ever played, simply because it feels so realistic. Good work from the GWX guys.

Another patrol (this time with 4 T1's and 1 T2 due to bad expereinces in the last patrol.... and an improved sub battery!) and finally the curse was broken. U-10 under command of Bert Von Zollern managed to sink two British merchants. After patrolling the area south/east of Scapa Flow without any contact the U boat took course to Inverness to check out the harbour there. Nothing. Nice city and castle there, though. :DL

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/2...5919625.th.jpg

U10 headed east, slowly running out of fuel. Then a daily routine dive was made in the bay of Inverness and the sonarman reported a contact! :ping: (in the east of the AN17 area fwiw)

An attack course was plotted, the speed and course of the enemy ship were taken, later followed by a Visual ID to make sure no neutrals were harmed. Fired 2 Torpedo T1's the first with contact trigger the second a bit deeper with influence trigger. Both hit and exploded!

The enemy ship sunk but Bert could not stay to watch, as an enemy warship was detected by the incredible sonarman. U-10 dived and sneaked away.

Only a few hours later in AN17 a second contact was detected, another merchant! Calculated the course and speed of the enemy ship and went to work despite the terrible weather and rough sea. It was pitch black and the enemy had no lights, meaning it was justified to shoot at him. The ship ALMOST managed to drive by unnoticed as it was so dark that von Zollern barely was able to see anything. But a bright cloud in the background at the right moment helped. Again 2 T1's were launched, again one contact triggered and the later influence triggered.

And again 2 hits and two explosions! The ship sank fast and exploded violently.

U-10 waited until the ship was sunk, surfaced and set course to Kiel.

Here the results:
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/9214/74103493.th.jpg

The new sonarman and the leading petty officer of the torpedo department were given the "U-Boot-Kriegsabzeichen" for their excellent work. :salute:

A note: The T1 combo I used seems to be more succesful than anything I tried with the T2s, I think I will use T1s mostly for the next few months... especially now that the BdU discovered the deep runner problem and the Kaleun's can set the Torpedoes accordingly.

Bismark strikes back!
 

As SH3 sees its last sunsets, we harken back to May 27, 1941.
Kaleun Rolfe Hass experienced the thrill of his naval career. He intercepted HMS Rodney and HMS King George V steering 145 degrees at about 0730 on that morning in force 15 conditions. Exact grid location at first contact:
25km west of the intersection formed by BE29, BE37, BE53, and BE61 (or about 1400km (per the game) west of Brest, France.
His Type IX (at GWX 90% degree of difficulty) used all remaining 6 torpedos on board to dispatch these two British battleships. After surfacing, U124 observed gunfire flashes far to the SSE where Bismark, spared interception by the battleships sunken by Hass, was engaged with other Royal Navy units.

Now here's the really mind-blowing part of this story:

Hass then moved SE towards the area where gunflashes had been observed. To his surprize he sighted the silohette of a large warship....Bismark!!
She was dead in the water, her upper works shattered - presumably by 8 inch shellfire. U124 sent its contact report. Soon thereafter BDU sent out its message lamenting the loss of the Bismark. Little would the SH3 designers have known Bismark was still afloat, and deadly!
Hass then decided to stay near the stricken Bismark to see what would become of Germany's flagship. Incredably, two days later a large convoy traveling westerly at 7 knots stumbled upon the our lame battleship Bismark!
Hass then positioned his U124 between Bismark and oncoming escorts.THREE sunken destroyers later and SEVEN shredded merchants approximating 30,000 tons later, Bismark, while motionless in force 13 sea conditions, had survived to fulfill her assignment to attack convoys and sink their ships. Toward the end of this engagement U124 had the incredible experience to witness 15 inch shells slamming into destroyers and merchant ships alike, along with attendant explosions and sinkings.
What an unforgettable experience! What a glorious way to close the book on Silent Hunter III's story!

I'd recommend anyone loving the game to mission in the Atlantic during late May one more time. Save your torpedos, and head for the rendevous described above. If you do, you are in for a very unforgettable experience. But first you must intercept and sink these two British battleships! (worth almost 3000 renoun points I might add....)
Happy Hunting. oblt Rolfe Hass

PS U124 tracked the remanents of the now unescorted convoy for about 36 hours, whereupon the weather abated to force 6. Although no torpedoes remained on board, use of the 105mm deck gun dispatched several tankers and three merchantmen, one of which had been previously damaged by the Bismark!

How far from the Bismark to intercept the British?
 

At least 30km N NW of the Bismark's eastbound course, and at about 07:15 hours on May 27, 1941. See previous information for detailed map data.

The 6th Patrol of Bert von Zollern has ended. Again the luck was with him and U-10 managed to sink 3 british merchants. Special remarks:

-The 2x Torpedo Combo (the first with contact trigger close to the surface, the second using the magnetic trigger at keel depth) is working very good.

-No early detonations this time, no circle runners, no duds. 1x torpedo missed, though :D

-Sank a small Boat (~450 tons) with the 2cm gun of my Type II. I was very surprised about the strength of this gun.

-Thanks to manual vector targeting a mixed (T1/T2) torpedo attack was easily made and was succesful, the torpedos hit at the same time. Made me proud of my target course/speed calculations :know:

-AN84 is a very crowded place, there were several moments when I had 3 enemy vessels around me.

Here the patrol report:
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/2...lage01c.th.jpg

Now I feel it is time for a Type VII, but Doenitz didn't have one for von Zollern, so the next patrol will be in a Type II again. :shifty::DL

edit: Sh3Commander decided to retire Bert von Zollern. I started a new campaign and now U-50, a type VII boat is under Herbert Schnörch's control. I quickly made the emblem for U-50myself as it wasn't included in GWX
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/4687/u50.th.jpg

Sank two big merchants on the first patrol = 15000 tons. Schnörch's Boat almost managed to sink an auxilliary cruiser, but was forced to dive as a DD attacked it.

response to "Radio's" Type IIA mission story
 

If you are ready to see Donitz assign you a Type VII, there is a way to safely aquire the renoun points needed: Scapa Flow.

S. F. 's southern and eastern approaches are tough to negociate. Howerver, as Prien and Donitz knew, it's western approach was feasible. By proceeding around the north end of the Scapa Flow island at 1/3 speed to conserve your Type II's fuel reserves, you can reach the Flow's western approaches safely.

Once this approach has been broached, a 33,000 ton dry dock lies at anchor, awaiting just one eel to send your eligiblity for a Type VII soaring.
I'd be happy to share further details about how to both find this target, and deal with local defences. Best of luck to your forthcoming mission!

oblt Rolfe Hass (22,000 net renown in 9 missions)

kaleun Rolfe Hass looking for a compatriot kaleun
 

While casting about in the hopes of finding a subsim kaleun to correspond with, I looked at this link. No direct relationship with SH3 GWX? But I noticed you are now into the GWX world, which has been great for me.

For example: "The Bismark Strikes Back" story (see below) was created out of that mod.

Could you do me the favor of a response?

oblt Rolfe Hass (alias Tim Watson)

28 May 1940

U-27 is patrolling off the coast of France during the evacuation of Dunkirk. Convoys of 5 warships are sailing west and northwest every few hours, far too dangerous to attack in shallow water (< 40 m.), but occasionally we hear a solo ship. So we hover in the vicinity, hoping to get a chance at one of these lone ships. On our last patrol, off Norway, we only sank one ship and we're determined to do better this time out.

We think we're safely out of the way of one of these little flotillas, when they suddenly turn and runs straight at us, with warships passing close by on both sides. One even comes within 300 m. without detecting us, but twenty minutes later a DD starts pinging us and makes a DC run. Damage to the tower, flooding, and we find ourselves mired on the sea floor and still under attack. We had to blow our tanks, despite the nearby enemy, to get some water under the keel and start moving again and, after 45 minutes of weaving and dodging, managed to shake the destroyer and get away at periscope depth. We sail out to sea, fix the periscopes, shrug off the destroyed radio antenna (meh, who wanted to talk to BdU, anyway?), and head back in - this time intending to be even more careful about how close we got to the traffic.

We're in a good position, listening to a solo ship approach from about 10km off, when the hydrophone operator suddenly reports a destroyer coming straight at us at high speed, from an entirely different direction. Up periscope - yes, there he is, but it's raining katze und huende and he's not visible until about 400 m. away; too close to attack with a torpedo, even if I had time to gather target data. So back to dodging and weaving - except before long, this guy has been joined by four of his ugliest buddies. I've never heard pinging like that! We manage to last half an hour, but eventually we're half flooded, sitting on the bottom with dead radio men, just waiting for the end. It comes soon enough.

Given the low visibility, maybe I should have taken my chances surfacing and running after the first pass, but I thought I would only have the one destroyer to deal with and I'd already pulled off an escape like that and figured I could again. Forty-nine dead crewmen, no tonnage sunk. :down:

It seemed pretty mysterious that this DD was making beeline for my position when I was submerged at slow speed, but during the attack I noticed a gray sunken ship icpn about 3km away on the attack map; maybe they were responding to one of my colleagues and came across me by accident?

i would have flanked it and fired stern tubes set to magnetic under his keel. works sometimes...