NEED HELP AT "BANDAR SERI BAGAWAN"
 

Hello fellow captains. It seems my superiors have sent me on a suicide mission. It's June 1945 and I'm on, what will probably be, my last patrol. I've been sent to photograph enemy ships in the harbor of Bandar Seri Bagawan on Borneo. Why? I have no idea. There's nothing special there-just a tanker, a couple of freighters, and three gunboats. But I digress.
The water is too shallow around the area to get to periscope depth, except for a small patch to the northwest of the harbor about 10 miles distant, and there were two destroyers guarding the entrance to the harbor. In a clever action I sank both of them. :D
The problem is that I can't get to the photographic objective point without being seen and shot at by every ship in the harbor. I've tried going in with decks-awash twice, and on the surface once. All at night. In addition, I haven't been able to take the photos-even though I get to the objective point.
Do I have to do this in daylight? That would be just about impossible without getting hammered by the guns of the merchants and gunboats.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Jeff

My tongue in cheek advice. :)

Pull out to deeper water. Get on the radio and contact the 28th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron or whoever is closest.

Have them send a plane with a camera. By June 1945 there are Allied bases close enough. Maybe they could send a nice long-ranged P-38 with a nose camera like this one. It could get an aerial shot of the whole harbor instead of a fish eye view from a submarine.

http://imageshack.us/a/img803/9673/p38may44.jpg

Mission over that day. And instead of 100 men and a ship at risk to get a photograph, it's just one plane.

Yes, I know this doesn't help your current problem, but some of the in game missions just make no historical sense nor bear much resemblance to reality . :nope:

Transmit "CANTCO" and go hunting!

Maybe, just maybe, you could try it in a storm. The mission itself is fubar but maybe the AI will allow you to get those snapshots in the storm even though the photos themselves will be worthless.

I pulled out my copy of Roscoe's United States Submarine Operations In World War II, and found that not one single US sub photo mission involved a harbor. All thirteen of them were to photograph shorelines and naval assets in the area of islands to be invaded. So the game's version of the mission is bogus.

My advice would be to follow that given above: ignore the order and go sink stuff.

Hi Steve. HaHaHaHa! :D Very good advice, and probably what I'll do. I just hate to "fail" on a mission objective, though. It really does seem almost impossible to complete this mission without severe hull damage, however. Thanks. Jeff

Roscoe's book is a great one. by the way. I bought my copy when I was about 16-years-old.

Maybe, but I'd have to wait around for a storm. That could take a long time. I think I'll just ignore the mission objective. If I were given the mission in real life, they'd have to court-martial me because I wouldn't sacrifice my boat or my crew on such a foolish errand. I could see some purpose to it if there were carriers, battleships, or even heavy cruisers in the harbor-but they're just a few "regular" ships. Not worth the potential sacrifice. Not when the water is too shallow to get to periscope depth. Thanks. Jeff

HaHaHaHa! Aye, aye. I think that's what I'm gonna do. Thanks. Jeff :)

HaHaHaHa! Good one! Thanks. Jeff

That's the logic in the SH4 mission design that slays me. I creep into a shallow harbor past patrolling gunboats. I see the super-battleships Yamato, Musashi, and the carrier Taiho, swinging at anchor in the sun--perfect targets. Instead of creating havoc and punching a huge hole in the IJN battleline, I take pretty portraits and begin the long trip back to base to show my superiors pictures of where the super-battleships Yamato, Musashi, and the carrier Taiho were---two weeks ago.

Never mind the courts-martial. Into the brig, Kaptain Kodak. :rotfl2:

Maybe the designers saw Destination Tokyo a few times too many. :D

"Instead of creating havoc and punching a huge hole in the IJN battleline, I take pretty portraits"

FYI, on the photo recon missions you can't sink ships then take pictures, but it's perfectly acceptable to photograph the designated targets THEN sink same.

As for skipping the primary mission I've found that tonnage is more important than the mission, in fact the renown for mission complete is often 200 to 300 points, about the same as sinking one light cruiser. The programming for career is oversimplified, low renown score for patrol = desk job, high renown = medals, exactly how you get the renown points is irrelevant.

That said, for harbor raiding there's one "cheat" that has always worked for me in shallow water - less than periscope depth. Biggest sub in the game is the Balao class, from the keel to the top of the periscope shears is about 52 feet. You hit the P to go to periscope depth it goes down to 60 feet - if she runs aground at 60 feet, bring her up to 55. Come up to 50 if you need to, the tops of the shears will be visible at very short distances, but if you stay a couple thousand yards away from the closest enemy ship you're unlikely to draw fire.

Obviously that works better with smaller subs, the main reason I stay with Sargo for the whole career is that I can come as high as 50 feet in harbors without being seen. At night 40 feet is even possible, provided the patrol is far away or previously sunk.

Sniper ... YEP

I have so many times photographed ships ... and then sank as many as possible ... oh dear I gave myself away ... oh dear now they know we are coming ... I get tonnage ... it's all good.

That's the way it was back in SH1.

I skipper a Balao sub. I tried exactly what you describe to penetrate Bandar Seri Bagawan harbor.Unfortunately, I could only get down to 40 ft because the surrounding depth was as low as 43 feet in spots and 46 ft generally. Even though it was night with no moon, the ships in the harbor opened-up on me before I reached the position necessary to take photos. I took a beating, and never got to take the pictures for some reason. My hull damage was at 57 after I was forced to engage and sink the ships that were firing on me. It wasn't worth it for a tanker, two freighters, and three gun boats.
Perhaps they discovered and fired on me early because I sank the two destroyers that were guarding the harbor, even though that happened about 5-6 miles away. I don't know. The whole scenario is bogus.

Hmm. From what you say it seems plausible that the game wouldn't let me take photos because I sank the two destroyers that were guarding the harbor before I proceeded in. But, if I hadn't sunk them, I never would have gotten close to the harbor, not considering that I could only dive to 40 ft.
Frustrating.