U-1 takes to the North Sea
 

Day 1.. seagulls... mein gott do I hate seagulls...:shifty: the shrill cry of seagulls filled my ears all day as we left Wilhemshaven... I thought I'd finally dimmed them to a distant echo, when I went below to review our orders... but then Bernard called me back up on deck after I'd retired to my quarters, claiming to have seen a contact... it was just seagull droppings on the UDZ lens:nope:

Day 3... Radio picks up a stray transmission from a ship... we close to investigate and it's a Polish coastal merchant... so I give the orders::lurk:
She rests in peace in 95 murky, turbulent meters of cold inky water... my crew is content... we've drawn first blood

Day 5... we have reached AN16 and begun to patrol...alternating running on and under the water...but it's quiet...too quiet.:-? No merchant traffic that Hanz can hear, no aircraft...just open water. Thankfully, no seagulls..wait...nevermind, here they come again...:nope:

Day 6... we pick up an intercept alerting us to a merchant southbound... we investigate and are unable to make contact. Turning during mid-afternoon to clear our baffles, sonar lets out a shrill cry "WARSHIP! CLOSING MEDIUM SPEED! SHORT RANGE!" I scramble to the scope and see... a C-class destroyer heading directly for us, is less than 2000m away and AOB is less than 5 degrees! Navigation reports the bottom is only 40 meters below us...!:huh:

I order a pair of torpedoes fired, set at 8m depth and 10m depth, magnetic pistol...and then submerge, cut speed to 1 kt, rig for silent running, and keep heading directly in what I think is his direction, to keep our aspect low.

:x despite running true, no joy on either torpedo... damn magnetic pistols!!! A traitor WILL suffer for this...

:o Which leaves my crew with the terror of a pissed off DD at point blank range....thankfully, he overestimated our range when we fired and charged right past us while we pretended to be a hole in the water...and we were just quiet enough that his distracted miscreant crew missed us...

:oops: we slunk away, alive, but royally embarassed!

Day 7: We try to breach Scapa Flow from the east...but a trio of destroyers (including our friend from yesterday) encircle us :huh:

Several tense hours later, we abandon the approach...they're just too well covered from this direction. We narrowly avoid an armed trawler by running at high speed on the surface for several minutes...

Day 8: Running north from the Eastern Scapa Flow approach, we come across a merchant making medium speed...we close, and find a Small Merchant running lazily by herself. We destroy the target with contemptuous ease.

Day 9: We're down to our last torpedo and the crew is stressed from hour upon hour of operating in Britain's littoral waters. We get a sonar contact...another merchant heading south. Closing with her, we see a C2 Cargo Carrier under British colors:arrgh!: ... She goes down to a single T1 torpedo in her engine room.

Day 11: Sidling into range of Wilhemshaven...the crew is festive and relaxed...it's been a good, if not spectacular patrol... as for me, I'm glad we got out of our scrapes in one piece and took a few trophies from the Tommies.... and then I hear it... my bane... seagulls..:nope: Mein gott I hate seagulls...

Thanks for the story. :up:

And yes, all U-boat capitans should have been issued shotguns... :D

Good story. :up:

I can sympathise, running into Loch Ewe on silent, pop up the scope to check out the surrounding area and bam, seagulls start circling...and sure enough, minutes later, Armed Trawlers join them.

Damn winged Britischer spies!!

http://www.ijnhonline.org/volume5_nu...lson_apr06.htm

;)

Very good story. :up: Please write us more about the patrols of U-1. :yep:

My first war patrol in a type II was of comparable performance in my current career

seaguls are werry danger to submarines, accualy no 1 enemy, their **** hawe strong acid that can make a holl on your ship, and if u dont see it, in critical moment when you need to dive your boat starts to leak and you cant dive untill you repare that, and DD is closing. but seaguls are good if you trained tham, you can send a message to bdu without breaking a radio silence or you can use him for reacon from the air. this mod u can download from www.lol.com :rotfl: :ping:

why do people hate seagulls they put me on fish more than any other bird :cool:

Unlike you, I am playing vanilla SH3 :smug:

:rotfl: :rotfl:

LOL if it isn't obvious I was stricken by a sudden "Film Noir" muse... ;)

May you write many a tale well into your old age.

Very nice story, keep writing! :D

Fine story, Kaleun.

Great story. I love the North Sea area from 1939 through the end of 1940. I have over 30 patrols there in both the IIA/D boats. One my last was just at the bottom of AN 14 where I sank something & was about to get pounced on mightly by those pesky Brits in their speedy-quick little Trawlers & DD's. I thought I would head for the ship I had just sunk & sit down on the bottom by it. I navigated via the hydraphones & when I thought I was about in the right place I just settled down.

Then, just for grinns, I thought I would see where I really was so I pressed the comma key for an outside look and ...whoa...there I was sitting right next to a big ol mine that was secured to the bottom by a cable. It was Just a few feet to the side of my sub...

I am about to move out of the North Sea area now as its February 1941, but it really has been a great training area. full of excitement with plenty of 10-15 day patrols. On some I expended my torpedos in 4-5 days...

It has been a blast!

Sounds like it very nearly was a literal blast!!! I'll keep an eye out for those...and try not to repeat my mistake from my first Type VII patrol...running into a sub net at 4 knots:o :oops:

Another thing you might want to consider while in that area also...

when you hear a DD just keep out of his way.. always keep a tail/nose pointed in his direction. With that shallow water they hold all the cards. Your best bet is to just avoid them unless they come right across your path at 500m or less.
set torps to 1m for best results if you do have to shoot one.

Best to avoid though if at all possible...

What the last Kaleun said.