[LMD]

Originally Posted by ZMC

I'm looking forward to hearing about some of your war patrol stories using LRT and No Collision Damage mod.

Well ZMC, here is my story - I had my 4th patrol. It was just about the Christmas Eve and I got a brand-new type VIIB U-boat from the BDU as a gift for my previous renown So I decided to go to the Atlantic ocean for the big fishes The patrol started fine and everything was good. Seems like the british also have no war plans on the Christmas 'cos I haven't met any Tommies ship while I was crossing the eastern and the northern coasts of the British islands. Well my crew was absolutely happy with that. Today the captain with the cook prepared special celebratory dinner - eggs, bavarian sausages and drop off the perch for everybody who will not stand in the combat station during next 4 hours. Others will get their beer after they have their free time to have some rest. Well as I said everything was fine, everybody was joking, singing "It's a long way to Tiporery(sorry if i'm wrong I think u understand what the song I mean )...well seems like there was no war with dammed Tommies and the crew could have some peace and quiet today.
But as it always happens this peaceful atmosphere was interrupted by the watch crew words "I see numerous ships smokes on the horizon, herr Kaleun". Argh, I was ready to kill my watch officer. He has a bad habit - to ruin holidays for others. He did it on my birthday party (that day we managed to survive in a 2-hours depth charges attack) and he made it today again, when everybody celebrates the Christmas. But from the other side he makes his job and I must admire he is good submariner. Well, the party is over guys...we have some work to do. Hope Tommies do not expecting us and they are already drunk I looked at my watch - it was 22-32. The night was dark enough to try the surface attack on the convoy. Besides there were only 2 old destroyers as my watch officer reported to me. Well it's time to get some "fresh meat" for my "hungry" guys. I had no problem to get inside the convoy. I chose the Granville-type Freighter as my first target. 1 torpedo should be enough for this ship - 3,2,1...torpedo in the water. In less than 30 sec it has hit the ship. For that time my U-boat was almost under the water (I always dive after the surface attack to the periscope depth trying to avoid the search lights). Usually enemy ships turn on their search lights as they hear and see the torpedo blast. But not this time. Hmmm, that is strange:hmm: Maybe they don't have them. Only destroyers turn them on. But they were too far from that place where I was. Yes they start approaching the place where I hit the first target but I thought I would be able to make 1 more surface attack and dive before they reach me. So I blowed the ballast and headed to my next victim - it was the medium cargo. My way to the medium cargo past near the first victim - the freighter haven't sunk yet but it stopped so I decided to finish him a little bit later when the convoy will leave him alone. Well I was preparing my tubes 2 and 3 to fire the medium cargo but suddenly when I was about 200 meters passing near the freighter it has blown up and start sinking. I think the water reached the freighter's boilers and they blew up. But the biggest problem was that half of my U-boat was damaged by the explosion wave. It was horrible - my engines were damaged and needed to be repaired during next 8-16 hours and the destroyers approaching. Of course I can still swim at ahead flank but my damaged engines managed to give me only 2 knots. That's was not enough to escape from the destroyers. My electric engines were damaged too . But I decided to dive and repair my boat in a safety of the depth(I was so naive). I set the depth to 25 meters 'cos I didn't know the status of my hull integrity. Is it damaged, at what depth my U-boat will start to crash and other basic questions which is everybody of u asking yourselves after being hit by the depth charge or gun fire. So did I. I didn't want to risk much and I was right 'cos when my boat reached the point of 25 meters it didn't stop and continue to dive. My chief engineer blew the ballast immediately. It's better to surrender than being killed by the pressure. Well it's hard to dispute with him Thanks got we were not deep enough and our U-boat saw the night sky again in a couple of minutes. Seems like the damages were more serious than I thought before.
I turned on the manage crew screen but only the hydrophone had the status "Unrepairable". So what's wrong, why I can't hold the current depth...maybe it's 'cos of damaged compressor or smth else?:hmm: But there is no time to think, it's time to act. Those destroyers can get me any minute and I can do only 2 knots on the surface. All of my team are repairing the boat but they will repair engines only in the morning. Will I manage to survive till that time? I said "Man the deck gun" and set it to hold fire. The destroyers haven't find me yet and I don't want to help them with this. I only use return fire if they start firing first. Besides my deck is damaged too and I don't know if it will fire at all .
Well, next 30-40 minutes I was sneaking inside the convoy hiding from the destroyers. I wish u saw that.:rotfl: But I was lucky and those guys didn't find me. Must be rookies which have graduated from the British naval academy yesterday . And thanks God that there were no search lights on the merchants. If it wasn't an early period of war I would be dead that's for sure. But not today
So why did I write this story ZMC? Without your mod my crew would repair all the staff in about 2-3 minutes and I would escape without any problems. But when u see that your U-boat will be repaired during next 8-16 hours and u can only sit and wait hoping that u are lucky enough and enemy destroyers wouldn't get u during this time...well man this is a huge step to realism and I would like to thank u for the new impressions which your mod brought to me. Really that was the first time when I feel myself so helpless. Of course I had damages from the enemy destroyers before this mod but if I was lucky enough my crew always managed to repair all that damages in a couple of minutes, if not...well it was the start for a new career With this mod everything is different. And I really like it.
P.S. There is one little lie in my story - it was not the Christmas time, it was only the 17 of December 1939. But I added 1 week specially to make my story more interesting and 'cos I like The New Year and Christmas holidays . Hope u enjoy my story. Sorry for the mistakes if any.