July 1942

USS Stingray SS-186
Salmon



After our third patrol I got transferred to the Stingray

in late May I left s-27 at the dock and walked right down to my new boat


Leaving my crew behind well knowing they where headed for the East coast so the old
Boat could Commence her final service as a training boat
Allot of the crew Have Been transferred too numerous new fleet boats ,
so they are in good hands


Me and my new crew left Brisbane on the 20th of June and headed for Truk where we sank four ships totaling 11654 tons

The rest of the patrol proved uneventful and we returned to Brisbane on July the 24th

April 11/12 1943.

TMO 100 realism. no external cam. No map contacts.

Departed Brisbane April 6. Dropped off an Australian coastwatcher on Bougainville on April 10. Heading for assigned area SE of Palau in the Palau-Rabaul shipping lanes.

Evening of April 11 2300 SJ contact at 6 NM 50 NM NE of Manus Island . Although en route to my area, sent contact report and decided to attack. Reply from command said to target escorts. Dark evening so closed in on surface on the minesweeper type escorting 4 merchants. Fired 3 torpedoes from 2800 yards. Two prematurely exploded 50 yards from target. Alerting target but it was too late, the third hit but no explosion. DUD! Turned to starboard to speed away saw a perfect setup on a SEITO MARU (5151 tons) tanker. Escort fired star shells but seemed to not know where was exactly, but was turning towards direction in which torpedo came from. Target had slowed speed and was zigging also fired deck gun and machine guns in my direction. Fired 3 torpedoes from bow and turned away dodging. Two prematurely exploded but one hit. Tanker must have been loaded with fuel as a massive explosion followed by large secondary explosions with large fireball erupted. SEITO MARU sunk 0019 12 April 1943 0 53 N 146 49 E.

Sped away on surface escort pursued but eventually turned away. Proceeded on to assigned patrol area.

1300 while on surface SJ made contact at 7 NM. Overcast skies medium fog approached on surface at GQ. At 1000 yards a freighter could be made out in fog and we were directly in his path. Ordered hard port rudder to get off his track and dive. At periscope depth identified a KASIGASAN MARU freighter. Fired one torpedo from stern tube. Torpedo impacted, ship broke in two and sunk. Surfaced continued on to patrol area.

April 14 1943, still en route to patrol area.

TMO w custom mods/ Traffic.

April 15 1943

Patrolling SE on the Palau-Rabaul shipping lanes. Overcast with moderate to heavy seas and light fog. Beginning 0800 heavy air activity in area. Expecting possible convoy did best to stay on surface and cover likely routes. At 0900 after diving again sound detected heavy, fast props at long range. Closed at high submerged speed before SJ sweep. Surfaced made S?J contact at 0940 7 NM.

Low visibility made it difficult to spot targets but at 5.5 NM was able to make out the flat deck of a large carrier. Soon was able to see a CA or CL and 2-3 DD. Racing ahead at best speed was able to dive and close at high speed on the Task Force making 18-20 knots.

At 1011 was 1500 yards from a Hiyo Class CV, a Naka Class CL, three unknown DD;s. Course 150 19 knots. Fired 6 torpedoes at the CV at 10 second intervals for a nice spread. Three torpedoes detonated prematurely. Three hit, both failed to explode. Duds. Took a couple close depth charges on first run but heavy seas helped hide from the DD's. Unable to regain contact after surfacing.

April 27 April 1943

0500 Off southern entrance to Palau Anchorage . 20 NM east of Peleliu. SJ contact at 9000 yds. Sound cant pick it up even with engines stopped. Dark night no visual. Dive to periscope depth and GQ.

Soon a Kamikaze Class Destroyer is in visual and suddenly audible on sonar. Terrible setup would waste a torpedo and give position away.

Now deep, running silent getting depth charged because of course the magic destroyer picks us up even though was at 350 ft when he passed over. Inept crew members lol

Great Harmony is now fishbait
 

Off the southern coast of Mindanao patrolling in USS Gudgeon (SS-211).
Ran into a TF with a Yamato.
Took a beating (52%) but we got the bad-boy.

Going....
https://i.ibb.co/2WnrKC7/SH4-Img-202...-24-38-346.png

.....Going....
https://i.ibb.co/mSSGT9h/SH4-Img-202...-24-56-117.png

.....Gone
https://i.ibb.co/d2NpHNF/SH4-Img-202...-25-05-346.png
:Kaleun_Salute:

KaleunMarco,
Did you finish her off with the deck gun ??? :haha:

Nice job !!!

Good job


Rumor of Your Victory , has spread around the Allied forces

Perhaps a medal og Honor is waiting at port

no, we surfaced to watch her go down.

Nice job. How many torpedoes did it take? I revamped the Yamato for TMO recently,. Takes a lot of punishment to sink it. I put ten torpedoes into it, stopped it but was out of fish and unable to complete the job.

I added the air attack that destroyed her in April 45. Counted 21 torpedo hits and 15-25 direct bomb hits plus numerous near misses before it sunk. The one I put representing Musashi in Sibuyan Sea in October 44 took 18 torpedo hits from aircraft and 20-30 bomb hits.

don't remember exactly. less than ten. the last one hit between the stack and superstructure and she blew up like the fourth of July.

not long ago, we tangled with a protected convoy. sank a few merchies, went deep and waited out the escorts.
when the DC calmed down and the escorts thinned out, we came to PD and saw a damaged heavy cruiser. we were out of torpedoes.
so, we opened the range to 8km, surfaced, manned the deck gun and i poured every shell we had left into that sucker. me, personally, manned the gun. she would not sink.
oh well.
we counted our blessings and headed home...grateful that our mission-returns equaled our missions.

USS Snapper - Salmon class

Now based out of Fremantle for the first time, previously Brisbane.

My character's 8th War Patrol, 3rd in the Snapper.

____
Currently Mar 27/43. Made CPT at end of 7th patrol and was ordered into Solomon Sea for the 8th. It's been quiet and dead, the area is largely 'hunted out' since the close of active hostilities on Guadalcanal. Only traffic worth a torpedo was a single small-type freighter we took with aft tubes just off the coast of New Britain. We've also destroyed a large number of junks, smacks, sampans and trawlers - to the point where we have completely exhausted our 4" HE.

I have since been ordered further north and am on patrol along the equator, just at the edge of the Bismarck sea. I'm astride a cross-roads of lanes I had identified and hunted in my previous patrols in this area and am confident even with reduced need for traffic here I can get something. The problem with the Bismarck Sea lanes is that they tend to be nothing but fast TFs. I've never sank so many warships in a career before.

Hoping the next patrol will put us into the South China Sea area and among targets that don't habitually go 13+ knots and shoot back.

USS Stingray
Salmon Class

November 1942

the last 3 patrols was very positive with 8-9 merchants sunk and allot of sampans

from December 1941 and until now i have sunk 131366 tons of enemy shipping

ive had a good year:Kaleun_Applaud:

returned home too fremantle when i got transfered to the USS Trout

A Tambor Class Submarine

Fine looking boat, and now i have 6 tubes wich i intend to put to good use:Kaleun_Salute:


our next orders are to patrol near Manila

we will depart Freemantle on December 22th 1942

Merry Christmas:Kaleun_Cheers:

TMO+ custom mods

USS Drum

Departed Brisbane 6 September 1943. Dropped off supplies east of Wewak on 11 September then proceeded to patrol area in Truk-Rabaul shipping lanes.

Oddly enough from September 13-October 5 had zero enemy contacts in such historically busy shipping lane* Just a few patrol planes and frequently foul weather. On October 29 encountered a surfaced Gato class submarine heading SW, likely returning Brisbane from patrol.

On October 5 at 2200 SJ made contact just north of chokepoint area between Admiralty Islands and New Ireland. Closed in to find a 8 ships, four escort convoy . Sent contact report and closed for night surface attack.

Contact stated tankers are now priority targets. Happened to spot in the middle column a large GENYO MARU tanker 11000+ tons. Starboard flanking escort left position to search. We approached get in close enough to fire on middle column with high speed settings. Calm seas, dark night but a bit of a glow and haze.

Suddenly convoy zigged, star shells fired over us and two shell splashes landed about 300 yards to port. Suspect enemy had radar as visual spotting was not likely. With range still too far for a good shot, changed torpedo to low speed setting. After a shell splash came too close, pulled the plug to periscope depth. Plotting the new speed at 6 1/2 knots with the forward escort pinging and rushing in at just 800 yards. fired four torpedoes at GENYO MARU and two at an AKITA MARU AK as we dove (gotta love the TDC and PK)

As we passed 125 feet torpedo impact of four torpedoes and massive explosion sounds from above As we passed 150 feet dpeth charges exploded ll around but not too close. Then reports of two more torpedoes impacting. Evaded depth charges for five hours. surfaced after dawn. We had sunk the Genyo Maru and the Akita Maru was dead in water and down by stern as apparent torpedo impact had blown her stern off. Finished off with a torpedo and ship sunk.

Caught up with convoy after pursuit until 1300, sunk two more ships. Evaded for another end around. In heavy seas around 0300 on 6 October fired six torpedoes in a spread at middle of convoy from 5,000 yards( heavy seas and escorts preventing from getting any closer) Four torpedoes impacted three targets. RYUNN MARU sunk. Two other unknowns damaged.

While departing area on surface under long range gunfire a near miss caused hull damage.

With fuel down to 30 percent, two bow torpedoes and four aft left, and now some hull damage compromising DRUM's diving ability, five ships sunk and two others damaged(eight ships in convoy originally), decided to head for Brisbane and end the 24 hour + battle.

Arrived Brisbane October 13.

Enjoyed these very much! Any more coming? :D

Glad you enjoyed. Once get back on patrol will share more.

I did an actual war patrol report for a patrol in SH 4 career with USS Drum, formatted off the real war patrol reports of USS Drum read on Historical Naval Ships Associtations website as well as drum228.org have read. Kept a a ships log as well while on patrol used it for the data in the report. Below is the link.

https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/dow...o=file&id=5657