(Story) The wondrous tales of Erik Jaeger

[vegeta020]

[Short Intro]
Hi, my (user)name is vegeta020, and I am a complete newbie in sub simulations. I have embarked on a personal challenge to try and survive in Silent Hunter III with almost no knowledge about the game at the moment i have started.
The idea is that I am allowed to learn as i play, by reading on the forums and watching youtube videos (I have enough time to browse on my cell anyway, even with high time compressions). I know all of you remember days when you were just starting to play the game, and this might be a good throwback to those days. For me it's a good way to keep track of my first adventures as a sub commader. Because, if I know anything for sure it's the fact that when I finish this playthrough i won't be the same anymore!

I've named my character Erik Jaeger, and he is basically me - he doesn't know what the hell he is doing with his submarine
I am playing with GWX and SH3 Commander.
I am playing on FULL REALISTIC, with just god's eye turned on and action camera turned on.
Please, also note that English is not my domestic language (I am Croatian) so this is kind of a practice for me


[Actual Story]
My name is Erik. Leutnant Z. S. Erik Jaeger. Today is 1. September 1939. and I have a bad feeling. Yesterday we heard about the attack in Gleiwitz and we all can feel the war brewing. It's only a matter of day now.
But nobody will ruin this day for me. Today I take command of U-401 - my first submarine command (Feel free to toss around the potential sub names).
As we wave goodbye to our families we leave Kiel behind in the evening and go straight for Denmark. I would rather evade messing with Kiel kanal this time as my navigation skills are pretty bad at this point and I don't want to get marooned on the shore.

When we entered the North Sea we got the first message. The Army is mobilizing and attacking Poland. I couldn't help but feel the chills. We also got messages regarding which ships we should and should not attack. Our mission stated that we should just patrol the sector BF17 and get back after 24 hours of patrol. It should be easy enough.
Or so I thought, as soon came another message that we were declared war by British and that we should sink their warships without waiting to be fired upon first. It got very confusing really fast as tons of messages were flying around. We were first ordered to shoot at British ships, then not to shoot so we wouldn't humiliate them by sinking their capital ships.
Then there was a mixed bag of messages concerning French involvement in the war and I couldn't help but feel that Reich doesn't want to get in the war with France.
I got really nervous and got Otto Sollig - my radioman to start playing something cheerful on the gramophone to relax the crew and prepare them for anything that might wait for us.
At that moment i was getting around north part of Great Britain and started my descent south toward the sector we are supposed to patrol.
And then I heard the information that ship has been sighted to the east. I plotted the intercept course (Newbie players here's how to do it: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...=88961&page=10 ) and soon enough i was close to my target, but behind.
I missed in my calculations and got at the spot at the same moment as my target. I looked through my periscope and sighted that the ship is Norwegian. Neutral target, so i gave it a pass.

But soon enough I was rewarded with a second target. This one I have intercepted right and lined up for the shot, 500 meters from the rail. Then i got into the problems, because my calculations were saying that the bearing was completely wrong and my torpedo would swerve almost 45° to the left after it was fired. So then i consulted the official manuals some more (newbie players, here's how to manually use TDC: ).
You cannot imagine the panic at the moment when i should've fired the damn thing. I have checked my calculations almost four times, it took me almost 2 hours (IRL) to get all the info. I've spent 10 minutes comparing the ship to the manual to identify it. It was a lone British Coastal Freighter - SS Adm. Nelson - 1870 tons.
I've lined my shot and fired 2 torpedos. First one hit the ship in the middle and I've seen the beam of light in the night searching for me, but the second one hit right in the engineering room and with the loud bang the ship exploded. My first 2 torpedos shot. My first sinking. On full manual. I was out of myself and went to sleep.
Next morning we resumed our patrol and we were a few miles away of the sector we were supposed to patrol, when we the sensors picked up another ship. I have plotted the intercept course and we were on our way. I wanted to get there real soon so i ordered maximum speed. We've intercepted the bastard. British flag. Medium Cargo ship. I've lined up the shot again.
3-2-1. Torpedo in the water. Suspense was rising. And then i've hit him directly beneath the smokestack. But the bastard didn't go down.
I yelled around. "Surface the boat! Bearing 270! Flank speed! The sea was so stormy that i was shocked that we could man the cannon. But. It was not loaded. Hans in the dock forgot to include shells. Well darn it. MAN THE AA CANNON! (also protip for newbies. In GWX, the cannon is not loaded by default, you have to pick the ammo type and it will load)
My crew watched me as we kept up with our prey shooting 200 AP bullets through its hull until finally it gave up and went down to the bottom.
That is another one under the belt - SS Lookout - 5103 tons.
...

[FINAL WORDS]
This patrol was looking good so far, but it was just the start. I accept critique and will continue this ASAP, I just have to sleep now, as I am really tired.