U-50 under Kapt. Wilhelm Neckel sets out on 1st patrol
 

U-50 under command of Kapt. Wilhelm Neckel takes to the sea for the first time.The date is 2nd Jan 1940 and they have been assigned to BF44,quite a lucrative spot judging by U-48's earlier experiences out in that sector.
They departed at 02:00 on a clear night with moderate wind speed.Plans were made for a quick trip through the channel but that rush of blood was promptly aborted in favour of the longer but safer trip between the Shetlands,then going in through the 'back door'.

May good fortune be on their side!

:salute:

Hope you brought along lots of ammo for the deck gun!

Steve

Good Hunting. :salute:

@Maillemaker,
Deck gun has been tested extensively before we set out,make no mistake,and we have plenty of ammo for the job.And we dont plan to return until every shell has been expended! :up:

@Sergei,
Cheers mate,we are eager for action...its been a long time (approx 1 month of real time!) :arrgh!:

Was U49 already spoken for?

Good hunting.

hello Mate!
 

Don`t spare some eeles,so strike hard and fast :up:

I allow Commander to pick the number randomly for me,and (for some reason) I was offered U-50...so be it :yep:

@snestorm
@vendor

Thanks for the kind wishes :up:

Seems my campaign has been plagued with ill luck so far,1 UBoat sunk,1 missing,for just over 100.000 GRT,and its only Jan 1940! It is far better than reloading an old game though if things go wrong,keeps the realism factor up then :yep:

Debating about getting my U27 underway for patrol 4 this weekend. She's got 58.000 GRT so far, which I consider to be good for a VII(A) (11 Torpedoes).

I plan on keeping her until one of the last IXBs is historicaly available.
IXBs are my favorite, so I plan on making a try for war's end in one.
And, it'll be historicaly accurate to retire the VII(A) to a schoolboat role, if we survive.

My next grid will be BF44 in mid februar 1940, so I'm seriousely considering "der kanal".
It's a probability on the outbound leg, and a possability on the return.
One must consider BDU's time and fuel expectations.

IXs are a good solid platform,s##tloads of fuel,plenty of firepower and AA defences,the only drawback and its a serious one is the bloody dive times!,not good if operating in areas with allied air cover nearby.
I still like the VIIs,all versions of them at that :sunny:
And I have still yet to experience the XXI,maybe one day she will be mine,and I expect it will be love at first sight.

btw,you have to work hard to...
 

get your dream come true (XXI), and not go to some relaxing grid as DB/DN/DC.....so move on sailor. :cool:

U-50 approaches the Shetlands in her maiden patrol
 

Just passing through the Shetlands right about now and the weather is holding up.Will submerge as we pass through (a delay of a day or so) the 'Shetland Gap?' and regain our course into BF44 once on the other side as we may pick up some contacts in that area.
Once we enter our assigned grid I plan to patrol on a north south corridor hoping to intercept shipping inbound for France,then after about a week or so will move off into BF14-BF16 (an old haunt) and again patrol a N/S corridor across the so called 'western approaches'.
This could be a long patrol,we wont be heading home until all torpedoes are expended and the tip of the deck gun has melted shut!

Ahh it feels good to be back at sea again :yeah:

So we expected...
 

large tonnage in this mission so you can give som pay-back time, or huge present to as.......:yep:

U-50 claims first victim passing through the Shetlands
 

3rd Jan 1940

Last night I ordered to submerge to 25m as we passed through the area between the Shetlands,and moments after diving we picked up a merchant sound contact heading away from us,seemingly heading west.I swung the boat around in the relative direction and ordered a high speed surface ready for the hunt! The time was about 0:600 when we surfaced and it was still dark and the sea was calm,perfect for an attack!.I predicted from the strength of the contact we may expect visual contact well within the hour.After 30 mins of chasing and a sound check on the 15 min mark we made visual contact on the ship.Turned out to be a measly coastal freighter (GB),heading 240 degrees at a slow 5 kts.There was only one thing we could do here,prepare the deck gun and let her have it!
I ordered to hold fire until we were about 300-400m from her then to pound her waterline,I didnt want to destroy the poor bugger,just to sink her.We closed keeping our silhouette nice and tight and after startling the vessel opened fire.The frightened vessel trained its search light on us and we were bathed in a ghostly white light mixed with the orange and red plumes rising from the already seriously damaged vessel.After 3 or 4 rds the search light hung limp clearly evident that we had killed those who were operating it.I ordered to keep pounding the waterline,we couldnt hang around too long here,they may have sent an SOS signal.20 rds later and she sank on even keel for just under 2.000 GRT,hardly worth it,but we cant just allow ships to slip through simply because we are trying to be too conservative with the ammo.
I then sent a quick radio report back to base notifying them of our sinking then returned to 25m and continued our submerged transit through the Shetlands.
We are off to a good start already :up:

NOTE- pity I still cant take screenshots for some reason,either there is a problem with the high res fix I use or I am still hitting the wrong bloody key! would have loved to have taken a quick snap as we were bathed in the white light pounding the merchant.