[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by CPTLTJASON

2/20/1939 Mediterranean Sea 19th day at sea

Schiff 35 entered the North Sea and 3 days later made for the Straits of Dover, transited the English Channel, and finally entered the North Atlantic. Schiff 35 retained her disguise as the Hamfels and on February 11th she crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. Schiff 35 was ordered to patrol the Gulf of Valencia. Her orders were most clear, she was to stop a ship and announce that she will be boarded. The boarding party commander is to present the ship as “Boarding ship 30” if the vessel is carrying contraband for the enemy she is to be scuttled. The following day Schiff 35’s crew got out the scaffolding and paint brushes and removed all DDG Hansa colors from the funnel and was painted black. On February 13th a liner came into view closing to 1700m this vessel was flying no flag so by lamp Hartmann signaled “stop ship and prepare to be boarded”. The boarding party under L.z.S Schmidt went aboard and discovered that the mystery ship was a Spanish Republican ship and she was carrying supplies provided by the Soviets. The 60 man crew was ordered to abandon ship and the demolition officer Oblt.z.S Wolff set charges in the engine room, boiler room, and in the holds at 07:20 the ship goes up and 6 minutes later sinks over the stern. She was the Campillo 8,002 grt. Hartmann moved on to the Gulf of Valencia and on the morning of the 15th Hartman and his officers had a conference. He planned to mine the Port of Valencia with 30 mines. With a map captured from the Campillo they were to lay the mines in 2 separate areas. This was carried out successfully the same night. On the 16th again at night another vessel flying no flag was again boarded and sunk it was the freighter Vicente 4,883 grt. From Odessa to Barcelona 40 were taken prisoner. The following day the radio room reported 4 ships had struck mines 3 confirmed sunk. In the evening a further 6 were sunk totaling 40,237 grt. The total tonnage sunk is now 62,018 grt. Hartmann plans to head further south for a while and make a sudden reappearance in a location yet to the determined.

Hmmm... I think that ocean liner has seen better days. Great screenshots. Always loved the explosion/fire effects or Silent Hunter 5. And I like your choice to roleplay as an auxiliary cruiser. The amount of work that went into maintaining secrecy, disguising the ships, repainting in fake neutral colors, putting up artificial funnels etc is really fascinating.