[AO1_AW_SW_USN]

I had a similar experience about four days ago, if you care to read a very long post/story.

I was patrolling BF 13 in my U-68 IXC when I received a message from BDU on 24 May, 1941 about providing needed assistance in AD58? with the Bismarck battle group (don't remember the actual AD grid number, but it was 50 something).

I figured that it was too far away so I kept on patrolling my grid for about two hours when I remembered that the Bismarck was attacked in the NE corner of BE53 when I played the "Bismarck" single mission.

So, knowing that I am completely out of my realm of reality by seeing the future, I set a course for BE53.

I arrived in the NE corner of BE53 at around 2200 on the 26 May, 1941. I set a personalized “northwest to southeast zig-zag” search pattern in a 1000 square kilometer area in the shape of a rectangle.

At around 0615 on the morning of 27 May, 1941, BDU sends a general broadcast to all U-boats to assist the Bismarck. He also states that I may encounter British capital warships at approximately 0800 in the NE corner of BE53. I was in the perfect position.

Just like in the single mission, the weather was lousy. Typical overcast skies with winds at 15m per second with medium fog. I decided to then submerge my U-boat and proceed to acquire contact through my hydrophones. At around 0715 I established contact with two fast moving warships about 30km to the northwest. Since I was heading in a north-northwest heading, I was sitting pretty fine. I decided to surface and run the gauntlet in order to close the gap between them and the possible location of the Bismarck.(which I thought was southeast of my position).

I ran on the surface for about 5 minutes at full speed and was about ready to order a dive to periscope depth check the contacts when my WO spotted the first contact. It was a Nelson Class BB, and no doubt that it was the H.M.S. Rodney. I slowed down to 1/3 ahead so the closure rate wasn’t so quick, and then tried to get a rough plot on the course of the two contacts. After spending about 3 minutes it appeared that the now confirmed contacts of the H.M.S. Rodney, and the trailing H.M.S. King George V, was going to pass not 800 km to my starboard bow and they were 8500km from my position heading a course of 137 degrees. I sent a contact report to BDU and submerged to set up my 90 degree shot.

When I got beneath the waves the Sonarman reported two additional contacts to the east of me, heading roughly due south at a fast speed. Since I didn’t have external cameras enabled I had no clue who it was. I didn’t care because I was about ready to attack the two main threats to the Bismarck.

Being a smarter Kaleun, I decided to loadout my IXC with G7e Type II torpedoes all around. My battle order was to fire on the H.M.S. King George V with two bow shots, using the magnetic pistol with a 1.5 degree spread angle. My plan was not to hit a vital areas but to merely slow her down for a stern shot. I measured range and speed and figured that there was a 50 sec gap between both targets, so I had plenty of time to set up for a simultaneous torpedo impact on both BB’s. After setting up tubes 1 and 3, I set up tubes 2 and 4 for H.M.S. Rodney for a 2 degree torpedo spread using impact pistol at 5m running depth.

At the precise time, I fired off tubes 1 and 3 at the King George V. 50 seconds later I fired tubes 2 and 4 at Rodney. The one of the torpedoes fired at King George V malfunctioned a mere 200m from her, the other functioned right underneath her propellers. At the same time, the torpedoes aimed at Rodney made finished their dance of death. The first hit just aft of her smoke stack and the other hit home, right on her fuel bunker. She exploded with such a tremendous force that I had to turn down the volume of the headsets I was wearing while playing the game.

The Rodney went down within a minute and the King George V was slowed down to 3 knots. Perfect! I slammed the telegraph to ahead flank and pulled a 180 degree turn for a stern shot. After setting up a near 90 degree shot, I fired off tubes 5 and 6 with a 0 degree spread set with an impact pistol towards her forward ammunition bunker. At impact, the King George V erupted out of the water and shared the same fate at Rodney. Triumphant, I surfaced at proceeded due south to find Bismarck. I ran at full flank speed, knowing that the two other previous contacts were still out there somewhere to my southeast.

At round 0930 my watch officer reports a contact at about 352 degrees off my port bow. Scanning the horizon I see flashes of gunfire and wonder if there’s another BB task force out there? Even though closer I got the more I knew that the Bismarck was short on time. At around 0915 the WO spots two new contacts. Looking through the UZO, I spoted them…. but they were too far to get a confirmation. From a distance they looked like two Revenge Class BB’s, but the flashes of their guns were too few tell. At around 0935 I looked though the UZO and noticed that one of the British contacts was missing and the Bismarck was still there.

When I was finally in range I confirmed my contact. It was a Fiji class Cruiser. She was DIW (Dead in Water) and the Bismarck was pounding the daylights out of her. Scanning over the Bismarck, I noticed that her entire forward superstructure was blackened by gunfire. Within 10 minutes the Fiji was “Deep-Sixed” and the Bismarck continued on with about a 5-10 degree turn to her port.

I stayed on for a few hours, watching the Bismarck down Swordfish torpedo-bombers coming from a carrier that was somewhere. I didn’t leave the Bismarck’s sight at all, fearing/hoping that another BB or CA attack was imminent. After spending two more hours circling with her I get a message from BDU saying that the Bismarck was sunk and that it was a sad day for the German people… how funny, she’s sailing 1500m right in front of me!

In all, the whole situation was unrealistic because I knew what was going to happen iin the future. But, luck was completely on my side in regards to my position when I established contact with the main British Battlegroup.


I run SH3 patched to v1.4 with IUB v1.02 at 100% realism.