Arctic Laufbahn

Kapitanleutnant Uli Eckertfinally retired from active service after 14 patrols with 350 000 tons of allied ships sunk. Now he's training fresh crews, providing them with best tactical knowledge available, which brought him fame and allowed to come back home safely.

Oblerleutnant z.S. Paul Nehman is his finest student. After nearly year of hard training he got the command of U-354 assigned to Bergen. BdU thinks that carefully selected and trained crew for this mission and equipped in latest technology type VIIC/2 boat should be a great addition to 11 U-flotille and provide solid results in sinking arctic convoys to Russia.

...

11 Juni 1942
18:00

Dead calm sea and the sky full of stars... this can't mean anything good. "Maneuver stations, ahead small." Besides it was beautiful in this peaceful fjord with mountains growing out of the water and dimmed lights of the harbor behind our bow, it was freezing. It was just a beginning. Before we reached full sea, took our last landmark fix for the rest of the patrol, our hull was shining like a glass. Thin layer of ice was already covering our deck. "Yeah, we've got the hardest job as usual...".

We performed a test dive to 100m, wow that VIIC is so responsive underwater! On the next day morning we had an opportunity to test our flakzwillings. Some lost Swordfish jumped on us from the sun but never even managed to came closer. Gut gemacht menschen! Maybe this patrol is not going to be that bad? After all we are one of the best equipped boats with FuMo-28 radar, active sonar, decoys and much more reliable VIIC type boat. Bigger conn tower provides space for two MGs and better protection against the bad weather. Just still wondering why the hell are we carrying that 88. I can't imagine firing it in those seas... need to drop it with next visit in Bergen... if we make it.



...

Yeah, just took my new career. This time no chit-chat, just hardcore. Jumped to 1942 to try some new toys and VIIC and more challenging DDs. Most importantly I'm going to navigate manually, no cheating, try to behave as realistic as possible (like reload externals only at stop, calm sea, can't dive etc). I've edited my crew manually. It is 40 people, 95% without any experience, everyone has its trained qualifications. Sailors don't count, they are just marked for more realism, just not to put a guy after loading torps, on the bridge and order him to hold heavy binoculars for next 4h. There are 2 watches, 2 machinery and 2 zentralle groups, one torp group. Every Leutnant has only one skill. I want be adding new skills, also medals are gonna be awarded very conservatively - realistic. Crew is going to gain experience mainly with patrols. Also watch crew wars leather jackets when not in stormy conditions. I hope it's better than standing in plain shirts in -20°.

PS Forgot to change funker to medic.