'Reality'- Tonnage Totals in WWII

[PappyCain]

Otto Kretschmer
44 ships, 262,203 tons

Wolfgang Lüth
46 merchant ships, for 225,204 tons

Erich Topp
34 merchant ships with 197,233 tons

Heinrich Liebe
34 merchant ships for 187,267 tons

Viktor Schütze
35 merchant ships for 180,073 tons

Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock
24 merchant ships for 170,237 tons

Karl-Friedrich Merten
27 merchant ships for 170,151 tons

Herbert Schultze
26 merchant ships for 169,709 tons

Günther Prien
30 merchant ships for 162,768 tons

Georg Lassen
26 ships for 156,082 tons


I am seeing 100 and 200 thousand tons posted in a single 'patrol' ..

[Brag]

Though, not many, there have been some huge tonnage patrols. Otto Kretchmer's is one. I think it was over 200,000 tons.

One of the factors in this game is that a kaleun even when killed does not lose the experience learned.

In my case, I got killed a bunch of times while playing stock. Once GWX arrived, I had to re-start the Balz career three times, So, even in 1940, Balz is a super experienced submariner. Even with the new difficulties of GWX 2.1, he still gets high tonnages per patrol.

[Letum]

The arm chair Klauen is more experienced, takes more risks and is more aggressive.

That explains it in part.


Although I have never got over a 50k patrol (VIIC only).

[Brag]

Originally Posted by Letum

The arm chair Klauen is more experienced, takes more risks and is more aggressive.

That explains it in part.


Although I have never got over a 50k patrol (VIIC only).

Yuppers

[GoldenRivet]

realism settings has a lot to do with it.

I promise you if i shut off manual targeting, I would be returning to port with 200K+ every time. even in 1944 - 1945

with my current realism setting at 100% my results vary, one patrol could earn me 8K tons, another could earn me 50K while another still might earn only one kill.

Part of the problem is that SH3 counts warship tonnage the same as merchant tonnage which is entirely inaccurate in my opinion. Warships were typically measured in displacement tonnage of which there are a number of variables (Light, Full Load, Normal, Maximum and several others depending on the nation of registry) or deadweight tonnage, a measure of the actual weight of the ship but also generally including a number of variables.

A Gross Registered Ton (GRT) as it applied to merchant ships was actually a measure of interior volume of the potential revenue earning spaces within the hull and not a weight or displacement measurement at all.

Sometimes, other rules may be applied to tankers which are by definition, mostly empty space.

Combining displacement with GRT is comparing apples to hamburgers, a warship cannot have a gross registered tonnage since she has no potential revenue spaces and displacement is meaningless to a merchant since it would be mostly dependent on the weight of the cargo carried.

The USN lumped the two values together for scoring Pacific kills though, hence USS Archerfish tops the single patrol high-score list with her one kill, the aircraft carrier Shinano but comes in only 25th in total tonnage sunk. SH4 reflects this USN policy correctly.

As far as I can tell, the Germans counted warships seperately from merchants for credit and awards. It would have been nice if SH3 had done the same.

[GoldenRivet]

agreed

and as i have said before.... its staggering to look at the number of U-boats that went out, and never fired a single shot before being sunk.

[meduza]

I'd say Brag's right: we are getting too experienced and too good .
The RL kaleuns did not had a chance to complete as many patrols as we do. For example, Otto Kretschmer sunk 266000 tons in 16 patrols, which is about 16000 per patrol. When I started to play, this tonnage would be quite a success. Now, after completing God knows how many careers, I'm not satisfied if I come home with less than 75000.

BTW, the most successful patrol was the one of the Gunther Hessler, when he sunk 86000 tons, commanding Type IXB U-107 in spring '41.

[Redwine]

Originally Posted by PappyCain

I am seeing 100 and 200 thousand tons posted in a single 'patrol' ..

Many factors... automatic aiming, reload times, torpedo failures, ships too weak to have hollywood effects... no risk to die.... in real life those who want to survive the war must to have much more caution.