After Action Reports

[Trygvasson]

Have been looking around for some, but it seems there are no After Action Reports on this site. There should be. Here's my very first Grey Wolves(100%) mission, I hope to see some contributions, perhaps with screenshots and storyline.

September 1st, 1939: I get out of Wilhelmshafen in the middle of the night, with orders to patrol a square piece of ocean to the west of Britain. Obviously, war is coming soon. Since nobody told me not to, I decide to use the Channel to get to where I'm going. When I'm off the coast of Holland, hostilities against Poland begin, and I figure a good place to start the war would be in a harbour! Timing my approach to arrive after sunset, I cruise submerged towards Dover. At a standoff distance of about 2km I lie quite still with half the conning tower above water, until the time of the British ultimatum has run out, and Britain declares war. Rigging for silent running, I sneak my way into the harbour, full stop. The waves are mere ripples caressing the underside of my scope, like a mermaid trying to seduce me to go up, up. I spot several cargos and destroyers in the main harbour. A look at the western harbour, and a troop ship and a light cruiser sets my heart aflutter. Scope down. Easy, easy, navigating underwater. The lights of the harbour entrance gives me and underwater flash of the pier, 5 meters to starboard as I enter the western harbour. My hands are visibly shaking as I maneuver the sub in position. Scope up, up some more - and a destroyer FILLS my sights with its broadside, at an angle on bow some 75 degrees starboard. DOWN SCOPE. Shtshtshtttttt! I have to take out that destroyer before I can get a decent shot on the cruiser or the troop ship, she's moored right where I want to be. I back up until I can see the pier wall 2 meters from my rudder, in the intermittent flashes of the lighthouse. I don't dare to scope up long enough to identify, but I know my bearing is smack in the middle of the destroyer, and the distance SHOULD be 350 m. Setting my eel to run at 1,5 meters, fast. I wince at the sound of the torpedo door opening, and LOS! After fifteen interminable seconds, I hear a loud bang. A loud bang, not a boom. Was I too close to arm? Was the angle too sharp? I bury my face in my hands for a split second, and my thoughts start racing as the inevitable PING starts bouncing off my hull. My u-boot is facing into the harbour, with no room to maneuver and nothing but mud under the keel. Any sane man would try to get the hell out of Dover. I head for the cul-de-sac of the harbour, slithering right along the pier wall. The search lights of the destroyer flash by across the surface. The pings of the destroyer go fainter, as he looks for me at the harbour entrance. I decide to worry about him later. Three more minutes at silent running, and I'm in a position to up scope and check my dead reckoning of where the cruiser is at. There she is, bearing 182, search lights sweeping, but making no steam yet. No time to waste, I open tube V and fire off my eel at 2 meters depth. BOOM. Finally, a good hit, and DAMN, what a rush! Multiple pings now, a quick look and I see three pairs of destroyer searchlights by the harbour entrance, about 1km from my position. Blocking my only escape route. Getting out seems impossible. I decide to stay put for a while, and since I'm still undiscovered, I decide to reload my rear tube, to see if I can finish off that cruiser. Ten minutes go by in realtime, and my pulse refuses to drop. A few minutes before my rear tube has reloaded, I decide to up scope before sending off another eel. This is madness! I'm pushing my luck too much, they're bound to catch up with me eventually. As my scope breaks water, I hear a loud BOOM, and the scope fills with an orange fireball. Scared witless, I down scope and check for damage. Was I hit? Did the cruiser just fire a shell at the pier wall right next to me? Gott in Himmel, what happened?!?

"She's going down, Sir!"

And I realize the cruiser just blew up. A 10,000 ton cruiser, one torpedo, two hours and thirty-two minutes after the opening of hostilities. And I didn't have to fire that second torpedo, meaning that as far as the destroyers know, I could be way out of the harbour by now. I edge my way closer to the harbour entrance. The destroyers have widened their search pattern, it seems. It's 02:42, I have 90% oxygen reserves, 90% battery power, and 95% compressed air. All my tubes are loaded, and I'm still inside Dover harbour.

But with only 3 hours of night left, a window of escape, and a cruiser already in the bag, I decide to get out while I can still do so safely. Once again, I take advantage of the guidance of the lighthouses and sneak my way out along the harbour wall. I'm betting they'd be hard put to detect me by ASDIC when I'm in the 'corner' of the pier wall and the sea bottom. Right or wrong, I make good my escape, and after an hour on silent running, I scope up and see the destroyers 2 clicks behind me, still running in circles. A sweep of the horizon reveals a couple of patrol craft in the vincinity, but dodging them is child's play after what I just went through. Two hours before sunset, I surface 3km west of the Pas de Calais, and get no visual contacts. Flank speed to the west.

The hardest thing to do was to quit while I was ahead.

[GT182]

LOL, AARs are here but you have to look around for them. Even on past pages you'll find them. Most don't call them AARs though. Sounds like you flew the B17 or combat sims at one time or another.

[Dowly]

Yes, there are AAR´s. But the names are something like "U-46´s story" or "U-111 at sea again". Tho, I havent seen any in a while.

[DanCanovas]

nevertheless, great story mate.

[stabiz]

Yes, well written!

[Trygvasson]

Originally Posted by GT182

LOL, AARs are here but you have to look around for them. Even on past pages you'll find them. Most don't call them AARs though. Sounds like you flew the B17 or combat sims at one time or another.

Well, I've done my bit of flying, but mostly Bf109 on the IL-2 platform. And I've read my granddad's AARs from his time in a Spit IX. But the AAR art I've seen in forums I've seen mostly in the Hearts of Iron forums. Ranging from single-page posts to huge things, 100+ pages, great storylines, and over 200 000 page views! I'm sure there are lots of people in this forum wanting to tell others about some very special encounter or career. And the rest of us will just gobble it up.

[Biggles]

Great story mate! I was thinking of doing the same some time, seems I have to make up a new plan