The Black May Patrol

[mookiemookie]

As luck would have it, my sailing orders are to leave Lorient in my Type IXC on April 30, 1943 and head to Freetown.

Yes, that's right, the game is throwing me into Black May. And not only throwing me into Black May, but I'm also in the boat that's got the least chance of surviving it.

So I leave base in trusty ol' U-519, knowing what I know, thinking that this patrol will most likely be my last. I try to play historically, so when I'm attacked by a Wellington in the Bay of Biscay, I follow Onkel Karl's "Fight Back" order and do precisely that. I shoot him down, but not before taking some minor damage to the boat.

A couple days later I come across a three ship convoy, escorted by a single Tribal class. By now, everyone's got radar so I have to take a long shot at the fat large merchant in the lead of the convoy. Luckily one of two torpedoes hit and he goes down by the bow. The storm covering my escape means that the poor Tribal class has no chance of finding me skating away at 100 meters. Ha ha!

As I make my way down the Spanish coast, I'm only a week into May and already starting to get flooded with radio messages to BdU from various boats that all share the same basic message: "Attacked by destroyers. Damaged. Flooding." It's not good for morale.

I'll keep this thread updated with screenshots if I can remember to take them!

[nikbear]

Blimey Best of luck

[mookiemookie]

Date: The early evening of May 7th, 1943. Location: Grid CF83

Ship spotted!




A couple of freighters identified as a small merchant and a Granville type freighter. Since they're unescorted and it's dark, I order tanks flooded and make a decks awashed approach. It should be small, but easy pickings. U-519 is not too proud to take the low hanging fruit.




Mother Nature, however, has other plans.



Verdammt!

The watch crew loses them in the squall. The night is soon too dark to see anything past a couple hundred meters. Luckily my funker has picked them up on radar. We continue our approach.

When we get about 600 to 700 meters away, the looming shapes of the two hapless merchants just barely appear through the UZO. Having tubes 3 and 4 loaded with the new FaT torpedoes and not wanting to waste them on such small targets, I order tube one fired at the lead merchant and tube two fired at the second. I order periscope depth, not wanting to face the wrath of the armed merchants spotlights and deck guns.

After a few ticks of the stopwatch, a dull roar is heard, soon followed by a second. Two hits!



The Granville freighter continues making headway and our underwater speed is too slow to get in position for a coup de grace. The small merchant, however, has drifted to a stop. Not ideally what I was hoping for, but perhaps she'll flood enough to sink. The thought of surfacing and finishing her with gunfire passes through my head briefly, but no. The rather large guns that all of the merchants are sporting nowadays cures me of that thought quickly. We circle the listing ship for a half hour to 45 minutes with no change in her condition. Her spotlights allow for the use of the periscope. I take a look at her.

Grudingly I order tube 5 opened. I hate wasting another torpedo on a glorified dinghy, but it's an easy target.

Rohr funf...Los!



The torpedo hits. However, the ship doesn't react. No more listing. No fires. No nothing.

We circle around the ship for another half hour to 45 minutes. Nothing!. Cursing my luck, I fling my cap across the Zentrale. The thought of wasting a third torpedo on this damned speck of a ship is out of the question. I order the navigator to return to our original course to Freetown. I hope that our luck will return there.

[nikbear]

Oh,I think I would have left it a bit longer And I have found that with those small merchants its best to stick an eel under the funnel,they go boom really well then ,keep posting the reports

[Synthfg]

Yes an under the hull shot is best for the small ones
Still best of luck and good hunting

My last trip to Freetown Summer 42,




Kaleun Scared them out of the Water

[mr chris]

Best of luck there. I hope you are one of the lucky few to see yourself through the black month of may.
Good hunting

[Kubryk]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

As I make my way down the Spanish coast, I'm only a week into May and already starting to get flooded with radio messages to BdU from various boats that all share the same basic message: "Attacked by destroyers. Damaged. Flooding."

Wow, how is this possible? Is it a feature from GWX, a standalone mod or is it just you roleplaying?

[Task Force]

GWX feature, you will get mesages like that every once in a while.

Hope you dont get killed.

[mookiemookie]

Date: The early morning of May 12, 1943. Location: Grid DT69, off the coast of the Western Sahara desert

The weather is pleasant and offers a refreshing breeze to the watch of U-519. The crew below goes about its maintenance duties and the smutje is putting breakfast together for the men. Dawn is just breaking over the horizon.

A couple of days ago, we received a radio report of a small convoy. However, we were not in a position to prosecute. The convoy was headed NNE, and I made the decision that we would have to burn too much fuel to catch up. The allied radar would not let us maneuver into a favorable position once we did catch up. No, best to let them come to us.



Suddenly a shout from the conning tower...

"SHIP SPOTTED!"

I scramble up the ladder and peer towards the horizon. Two large freighters were plying their way northwards. I give the orders to trim the boat lower in the water and maneuver us into a firing position. As we approach, the officer of the watch identifies the ships as a large merchant and an ore carrier.



I smile at the prospect of making up for our earlier debacle with the small merchant. The early morning sun rises behind us, and I fear that we will be spotted so I give the order to pull the plug and we head below the waves.

Once below the surface, Georg, my hydrophone man calls out more screws! Heavy ones at that!



They're far enough away that we can deal with those targets later as we continue our submerged approach on the ore carrier and the large merchant. The thought of what torpedo tubes to use enters my mind. We still have those FaT torpedoes loaded in tubes 3 and 4. I make the decision to use them on these targets and deal with the wrath of BdU later. The idea of sinking a 10,000 tonner should outweigh my use of the new convoy killer torpedoes on a single target. I give the order to Hans the Weapons Officer make sure the torpedo lords in the bow look sharp. I'm going to need those tubes reloaded in a hurry and I promise each of the men up there a beer each if the tubes are loaded by the time we make our second attack.

I pop our attack scope up, and upon settling on the final torpedo aiming data, I order one toropedo fired under the stack and another under the rear mast of each ship. The series of whooshes of compressed air and the slight shudder of the boat signals the launch of the torpedoes.

I stare intently at the stopwatch. The ticking is deafening.

A loud explosion is heard throughout the boat. And then another. And another! And one more! Four hits! The crew lets out a cheer that is quickly muffled by the chiefs.

As the sounds of our targets' screws slowly wind down, Georg reports that he hears bulkheads collapsing on both of the ships. It's only a matter of time before both succumb to their fate. We turn south, towards the sounds of our next target. As we do, Georg reports the first of the two ships is going down. It is quickly followed by the second.



No time for celebration, though. We still have work to do. Raising the scope, I see not one but two more ships approaching!



We make a submerged approach. The torpedomen have earned their beer as I hear the Hans cheerfully report all tubes ready to fire. I check the aiming data through the scope and identify another ore carrier and a small passenger/cargo ship. I order tubes one and two fired on the ore carrier as before, and tube three set magnetically on the passenger/cargo ship. They say they've fixed the magnetic detonators on these new torpedoes and I intend to test that out here.



Two of the eels hit! The magnetic pistol actually works! We're still in a favorable position to attack the ore carrier and I don't want to see that big target go by so I quickly order another fired into her to make up for the dud.



The torpedo hits and the ore carrier quickly sinks by the bow. The crew barely has time to launch the life rafts.

Meanwhile, the smaller passenger/cargo ship continues on. She must have strong bulkheads or a well trained crew as the torpedo does not seem to slow her in the least. She cannot stop for the ore carrier's survivors with a U-boat lurking nearby. I understand her master's dilemma and do not fault him.




We wait until the small ship has gone past the horizon before surfacing. Despite the Grossadmiral's order prohibiting aiding survivors, we are not pirates! We edge the boat over to the liferafts and toss the men some jugs of water and some foodstuffs.



We point them to land and when we have done all we can, we head off on a false course until out of sight of the liferafts and then steer back towards Freetown.

My joy is tempered by the funker who hands me a newly decoded radio message. U-89 reports that she's been attacked by aircraft and is flooding and unable to dive. The same with U-456 and U-753. I also hear that 250,000 German and Italians have surrendered. The war in North Africa has been lost.

We continue on to Freetown.

[nikbear]

Well done to the crew of U-519 Best of luck for the rest of your Patrol

[mookiemookie]

Date: The early morning of May 16th, 1943. Location: Grid ET11 off the coast of Africa.

We continue our trip to Freetown. The mood on the boat is cautiously optimistic. So far, the four leaf clover on our conning tower has brought us luck. Four ships sunk for 39,000 tons. A fine bag.

The radio crackles to life. There's a report of a convoy from another U-boat. According to the sighting report, the convoy is headed almost directly for us.



We make a minor course correction and are on the way. When the Biscay Cross starts chirping it's warning at us, we know we've come upon our prey. I order the boat down to 100 meters and set the engine speed for 100 RPMs. We will let them come to us.

The first warship is picked up by Georg. He can hear distant screws of the convoy behind it. We're in perfect position. I order silent running.



My thought is to become a hole in the water until the lead escort passes overhead. Then, once we're in his baffles, we come back up to periscope depth right in the center columns of the convoy. Erwin, my number 2, smiles at the cleverness of the plan. He's been with me for six patrols now, and the thought of having to relinquish him to commander training after this patrol is a bittersweet thought.

But no time to worry about that now. The entire boat is silent as we hear the "swish swish swish" of the escort's propellers overhead. I don't need Georg to tell me that he's now behind us. I order periscope depth. The diving officer and the planesmen carry out the order and bring us up. So far there's no indication that any of the escorts are aware of our presence.



My plan is working perfectly. I pop the attack scope briefly and select our targets. I spot another fat ore carrier! Mein Gott, there won't be any minerals left in Africa at the rate the Tommies are shipping it out. I select a large cargo for our second two bow torpedoes and, as targets of opportunity, a couple of small merchants for our two aft torpedoes. The aiming data is fed into the TDC and it's torpedoes los!

Four his are heard after a brief interval. It seems our bow torpedoes have found their marks. Another explosion signals one of our aft eels has hit. I briefly take one last look to assess the damage and see the large cargo and ore carrier listing and burning, respectively. The convoy is obviously aware of our presence now, so no sense in being quiet about it. I order a crash dive to 160 meters. As we head to the basement Georg reports that two ships are going down.



We can't celebrate just yet, though. I'm sure the Tommies will be sending some ashcans in retaliation. We make it down to 160 meters and quietly wait. We can plainly hear screws searching overhead. A couple pings, but nothing more. I order us on a southernly course, putting the convoy directly abaft us. As we slink away, the escorts screws fade. I look at Erwin with a look of surprise and smile. Did we really give them the slip? We put 17,000 tons of Tommy shipping on the ocean floor and don't even get one depth charge in return? I order periscope depth and we spend the rest of the day submerged. We surface that night to load the last of our external torpedoes.

The next day brings glassy seas and fair weather. We report our successes to BdU, who would be pleased to receive our report of 55,800 tons sunk so far amidst the SOS's of sinking boats. U-519 presses on, convinced that our four leaf clover will continue to bring us luck.

[nikbear]

Looks like May won't be totally black after all Keep up the good work!

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by nikbear

Looks like May won't be totally black after all Keep up the good work!

I know. I'm very very surprised at how well this patrol is going. Of course there's always the Bay of Biscay to run on the way back home. I won't breathe a sigh of relief until I'm pulling into the slip.

Does anyone know if SH3 models the 10 cm radar? Historically spring/summer '43 is about the time when the Allies start using it, and the Metox isn't supposed to pick it up. Is this modeled in the game?

[Jimbuna]

Fascinating reading Mookie....SINK EM ALL!!

[nikbear]

I'm not totally sure,but I assume that the enemy has all historically correct Radar whistles and bells with which to ruin your day,take care MM,this is giving me some encouragement for the future of my U-boat crews,perhaps there is life after 1942