First GWX patrol is in the books!

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Thanks to the GWX team for a mod well worth waiting for!

I just finished my first patrol with GWX and it's really amazing!

I left port in '39 with orders to patrol BE31. "What the hell!", I thought and I took off at ahead full for the English Channel. I usually avoid it like the plague but I just couldn't resist.

Just as I was entering the channel, I get the radio message that the war has begun with Brittain. Great timing. So I am slinking along, trying to be as covert as possible and as I near Dover, my sonarman starts having a stroke and reporting warship contacts in just about every direction. The little u-boat symbol looked like a spider crawling through the channel with sonar contact bearing lines everywhere! I'm pretty sure they didn't have my location locked down, but I think they knew I was there. I set my depth to 2o meters, speed 2 knots and creep along with about 10 meters under the keel.

Everything was going along fine, and the majority of the warship contacts were off to the northeast and I was opening range, when all hell breaks loose! I thought I hit a mine, KA-BLAAM! I have flooding in the forward compartments. Then the sonarman reports a warship contact, short range. Now he tells me...

I dispatch the damage control team to stop the flooding and while they're working on that, I notice that I am at all stop. I didn't ORDER all stop. I should still be doing 2 knots...except for apparently the explosion and/or the extra weight of the water in the bow has caused my Type VII to take a mud sample on the bottom of the channel.


So I order all stop...and wait until the guys get the flooding under control, while the little %$@!# on the surface circles, pinging and dropping charges (thankfully not quite close enough to finish me off but still close enough to keep my undivided attention).


So finally, with the flooding under control, I order back slow and pull my bow out of the mud and I try to creep away. Nothing doing...another round of charges, this time more damage, nothing too severe, and no flooding. I managed to keep it out of the dirt this time and now I'm pissed!


I make my way to PD and on the way up I get tubes 1 & 5 ready to go, since he's fairly close and I don't know where he's going to be when the scope breaks the surface.

When the scope cleared, I was in luck...there he was, a Hunt destroyer about 580 meters right of the bow and I'm looking pretty much dead at his port side. Fire tube 1 and order depth 25 meters. I am one lucky son of a gun...torpedo impact and she's going down. I crept away with batteries at 25% and the whole dang British fleet bearing down on me.

After I had opened range from the kill, I came back up to PD and looked back in that direction. The view was incredible as 6 warships were conducting a search, with spotlights and star shells. I couldn't resist using the external camera to go in and take a look at the action...they were depth charging the hell out of that little piece of the channel...2 destroyers would sit dead in the water listening, while the others would make their run.

As I made my way through the channel, I passed up 3 or 4 "opportunities" in the form of single merchants, but there was just too much warship traffic nearby and I didn't want to push my luck.

I finally made it through the channel and was rewarded with 1 medium and 1 large merchant in my patrol grid. It took most of my fish to sink these two, I had some "dud" issues. The crew was really tired, to the point I was having to decide between loading torpedoes or manning the engine room.

I decided to head home and return to fight another day.

GWX is awesome. Thanks again!

[peterloo]

It's lucky for you to escape that hell... Don't attempt it next time. You won't be that lucky next time

GWX is really fun and realistic. Enjoy it

[VIICDriver]

Very nice. I just saved my first patrol about halfway through it. I also am ordered to BE31 except I took the northern route around the British Isles. Coming around the top I also got one medium and 1 large. The large was worth about 12 tons!

Am making my way through AM52 southbound and have been harrassed by Hurricane fighter/bombers the entire trip. I caught a decent enough hit to cause some damage and leave a black smudge all the way around the boat. Am running at 64xTC and am having some issue with planes actually getting rounds off at me before it kicks back to 1xTC. Luckily none of those early rounds have been hits. The Hurricanes are damn persistent as well. I can submerge for about an hour, pop back up and in 5 minutes they are back on me! Well hopefully before long I'll be out of aircraft range enroute to the patrol grid.

Have been pleasantly surprised with the damage model thus far. The medium took 2 eels and went down fast. I put 2 into the large and she was probably on the way down but with the aircraft in the area I did not want to hang around and stuck one more fish into her and she went down like a rock.

Running 64XTC makes for a long patrol but will get her finished up tomorrow.

So far so good for me and GWX.

Chuck

[Tronics]

Took a gander in the museum after getting to a halfway point in a patrol.

It's WELL WORTH THE LOAD....

So my only question now is "Where can I find those Gato, Balao and S Class subs ?"

[Camaero]

Originally Posted by Tronics

Took a gander in the museum after getting to a halfway point in a patrol.

It's WELL WORTH THE LOAD....

So my only question now is "Where can I find those Gato, Balao and S Class subs ?"

Thanks for the tip! I wouldn't have thought to check it out.

I am sailing home now on my first patrol. We went through hell and I just hope we make it back ok.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Camaero

Thanks for the tip! I wouldn't have thought to check it out.

I am sailing home now on my first patrol. We went through hell and I just hope we make it back ok.

Try the Carribean area for Gato, Balao......the S class I think you'll work out yourself

[sergbuto]

Originally Posted by GraylingSTS(SS)

Just as I was entering the channel, I get the radio message that the war has begun with Brittain...

Everything was going along fine, and the majority of the warship contacts were off to the northeast and I was opening range, when all hell breaks loose! I thought I hit a mine, KA-BLAAM!...

The war just started and you already hit the mine field? :hmm:

Originally Posted by GraylingSTS(SS)

When the scope cleared, I was in luck...there he was, a Hunt destroyer about 580 meters right of the bow

Hunt in 1939? :hmm: In RL, the first one was comissioned in the end of March in 1940.

[Grell]

Now that is strange eh Sergbuto?


Regards,

Grell

[Biggles]

not even I am so stupid as enter the english channel in GWX.....but I think I'll drop a visit to Dunkirk around 4/6-40 if ye know what I mean

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

@ Serg,

Actually, I said I thought it may have been a mine, because I didn't know of any close aboard sonar contacts, but it turned out to be a destroyer dropping DCs.

As far as the classification, I didn't have time to ID him. The Hunt classification came from after the patrol was over...SHIII Commander called it a Hunt I in the report.

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

CAPTAIN'S LOG

Date and Time
Grid
Occurrences
02 Sep 19390356Patrol 1
U-47, 2nd Flotilla
Left at: September 2, 1939, 03:56
From: Wilhelmshaven
Mission Orders: Patrol grid BE3104 Sep 19391340BF 33Ship sunk! HMS Mendip (Hunt I Class), 1000 tons06 Sep 19390424BF 26Ship sunk! M/V Lynton Grange (Medium Merchant), 4919 tons0926BF 25Ship sunk! S.S. Siam II (Large Merchant), 11749 tons10 Sep 19390952Patrol results
Crew losses: 0
Ships sunk: 3
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonage: 17668 tons

Sorry for the format, just pasted this from the log.

[stabiz]

Very enjoyable read, Grayling.

[bigboywooly]

Yes the damn Hunts were a stock addition
Never thought to check the entry dates for them

[sergbuto]

Originally Posted by GraylingSTS(SS)

Actually, I said I thought it may have been a mine, because I didn't know of any close aboard sonar contacts, but it turned out to be a destroyer dropping DCs.

I see. It was not clear for me when I read it, too fast reading on my side, I guess.

Originally Posted by GraylingSTS(SS)

As far as the classification, I didn't have time to ID him. The Hunt classification came from after the patrol was over...SHIII Commander called it a Hunt I in the report.

If it is Hunt, it certainly needs to be corrected for the campaign in the background of all the talks about historical accuracy.

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Originally Posted by sergbuto

I see. It was not clear for me when I read it, too fast reading on my side, I guess.

If it is Hunt, it certainly needs to be corrected for the campaign in the background of all the talks about historical accuracy.

Well, we never claimed that we wouldn't miss a detail. Thanks for pointing it out. We will fix it at some point.