At night: attacked by Catalina after convoy raid [pics]

[Phylacista]

P04: NOV1941 U-556 was moving from grid CG88 to CG89 when a FT announced a convoy 80km to the east heading SE. I went AK - night falls, calm weather. 3 hours later another contact report. This time 40km NE heading NW - could this be a 2nd convoy? Made a short sprint and did a hdrophone check. NE multiple sound contacts and after some time single merchant to the S.

I decided to go for the multiple contacts. Ahead Flank. At something around midnight made eyeball contact with leading destroyer. Periscope Depth. Aligning course with convoy course: 255 degrees. I planned to let them overhaul me.
Started raising the scope and looking for the shiplanes. Great: A dido small cruiser. Ok there is a DD approx 1000m off. When plotting suddenly: PING!

One short periscope look DD rushing at me. Searchlight.
ALARM! Was at 20 m when he passed me. Hard right. WASSERBOMBEN. Luckily I was shaken but not damaged. Whent deep and made evasive maneuvers. Sonarman goes crazy: At least 2 other DD coming for me. Happily I seem to have shaken the 1st before they are at the spot. No more pinging - still dropping a lot of DCs.

U-556 came away undamaged. At PD I see 3 DD at 0.5 km dropping DC. Increased speed to 1/3 ahead. Of course submerged. When the DD are out of sight: Surface the Boat! Ahead Flank! Course 255! We have to intercept that convoy while it is still dark. Of course we made a contact report for BdU.

Then as we are racing to the convoy at 16.5 kts. Star illuminated night. WO: "Airplane sighted. 270 degrees. Type unknown"
ALARM! Good Man - to spot a plane at night!

Suddenly as the boat is going under we are illuminated from the sky. Rudder hard backboard. Bullets splashing in the water.



-View from the plane-


-you can see the bomb falling at the right side of pic-



Now we are waiting for the bombs to come...

- explosion starboard -


-view from the cat, bombs exploding-


-splash, you can still see where the U-boat went under-


Again U-556 was shaken but took no damage.

On the second attack run...


we were save at 50m:



After 10 min we surfaced again. We have to intercept that convoy. Right now we are going Ahead flank for one hour after the Cat-attack. FlaK ready.
WO and Sonarman are definitely due for a medal.

Sound contact with convoy - plotting interception course. Its still dark outside.

Wish us luck!

[VonHelsching]

Excellent pics!

Good luck, Herr Kaleun!

[Dekessey]

Stupid question:

Did planes REALLY attack subs at night in 1941??

[Phylacista]

Originally Posted by Dekessey

Stupid question:

Did planes REALLY attack subs at night in 1941??

Good question. In this case I thought it was realistic because U-556 came ander attack by DDs. So they radioed for coastal command assistance. The airplane did know where to look and the night is lit up by stars. This justifies an arial patrol - IMHO.

I liked it because it was the moment of highest tension I experienced in SH3 so far.

As for catalinas beeing equipped with searchlight: Not until Jun1942 it seems: http://uboat.net/allies/technical/leigh_light.htm

[CptGrayWolf]

I'm sure planes always attacked at night, the real question is did they have leigh lights in '41...bahhh, doesn't really matter for me.
Still a rockin mod

[CCIP]

Eh, eh - it's a "dynamic campaign" They can have their lights at unexpected times!

Very nice indeed, great to see the good old Leigh Lights mod is still working well.

[Myxale]

Cool!
Those moments repay for every hour of boredom at Patrol! :hmm:

[andy_311]

Love the pics great Iv'e been attacked by PBY's when the weather changer from fine to heavy fog snd rain but if you take a look it still calm but the rain is coming down an you dont see palnes untill the last minute I got some pic somewhere of that attack when I find them will post them

[Manock]

Very Cool!

Is this a mod? I must have it. Where is it at? And this is from someone who doesnt usually run mods.

Are the radar planes later in the war also equipped with searchlights? How about the convoy Avengers? Dont know if Avengers historically had lights or not, but it sounds cool.

This is really great. Great pictures!

Can you tell Im excited about this. Really impressive.

By the way, did covoy Avengers have centrimetric radar? Assumed they did, but have never read anything about it.

Great pics. Did I all ready say that? Whatever. Great Stuff.

Manock

[Phylacista]

Originally Posted by Manock

Is this a mod? I must have it. Where is it at? And this is from someone who doesnt usually run mods.

I cannot tell you if this is a single mod available.
I'm using GW 1.1, NYGM Tonnage War and Extended Unified Campaign. (And some minor modifications that only change sounds and graphics and interface )

Which one includes the searchlight for the cat I can only guess...

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Originally Posted by Phylacista

I cannot tell you if this is a single mod available.
I'm using GW 1.1, NYGM Tonnage War and Extended Unified Campaign. (And some minor modifications that only change sounds and graphics and interface )

Which one includes the searchlight for the cat I can only guess...

Nice post Phylacista... I thought it looked like GW.

About a week ago, I finished reading "Dark Sky Deep Water" by Norman Franks which goes into some things like the Leigh Light in good detail. (great book... first-hand accounts)

I will look into getting its date of appearance corrected to match.
It appears to me that the first SUCCESSFUL attack using the Leigh light was made against the Italian submarine "Luigi Torelli" on June 4, 1942. It survived... considerably damaged.

[CptGrayWolf]

Originally Posted by Manock

Very Cool!

Is this a mod? I must have it. Where is it at? And this is from someone who doesnt usually run mods.

Are the radar planes later in the war also equipped with searchlights? How about the convoy Avengers? Dont know if Avengers historically had lights or not, but it sounds cool.

This is really great. Great pictures!

Can you tell Im excited about this. Really impressive.

By the way, did covoy Avengers have centrimetric radar? Assumed they did, but have never read anything about it.

Great pics. Did I all ready say that? Whatever. Great Stuff.

Manock

Yes, this is a stand alone mod. You can get it at http://u-boot.realsimulation.com/ it is under general section and called Lights.
The author of the mod is CCIP, good job mate!

[Phylacista]

Originally Posted by Kpt. Lehmann

I will look into getting its date of appearance corrected to match.
It appears to me that the first SUCCESSFUL attack using the Leigh light was made against the Italian submarine "Luigi Torelli" on June 4, 1942. It survived... considerably damaged.

If historically accurate or not: I do not mind. I've been attacked by planes seldom enough and would never mind being the victim of a prototype

It was one moment of highest tension in SH3 for me so far. Like a sitting duck on stage: spotlight. Helpless. Great.
I vote for not changing it to its correct date of appearance.

Keep up the great work Kapitän Lehmann

[CRM114]

Wonderful thread, great pics.

[bill clarke]

How did you get the pics from the planes view ?