First Patrol of '44

[bigboywooly]

Hi all

Well just thought I would write about my first patrol in '44

Left Bergen 3pm on the 8th Jan 44 in my 1XB and set sail for grid BF34
Not long after entering open water "radar detected"
3 red lines on screen so switched off radar and continued on my way
Ship spotted - small tanker then another and another and some more - bonus -loadsa tankers and c2s and only 3 escorts , all at front
Continued to overhaul convoy PD using snorkel around 5km away
Sound contact merchant moving away - other side of me running parallel with the other convoy
This one with around 40 merchants

:hmm: which one ?

warship closing
Swing around periscope and alter course - fired off a type V and crash dived

Explosion - V and w destroyer sunk

Sonar man is reeling off merchant sounds non stop so go back to periscope depth

another destroyer closing - this time from the other convoy so alter course and loose a type V from the stern and crash dive again and alter course away from convoy

Explosion - Hunt I destroyer sunk

PD again yet another destroyer closing, this time from ahead ?

Loose of another type V and crash again

Impact - another Hunt 1 gone

At last sonar reports a warship contact, closing
ummm and another
nooooo and another

Dive to 200 mtr release decoys and alter course again

Depth charges in water

Alter course again, and again

release more decoys,240 mtr

decided to take a look up top



Oh cr*p

Well all I can do is alter couse and ship out decoys

Battery down to 25% Oxygen not much better and no further away from the 6 of them

Well another look up top

oh well at least made it to the 9th of Jan - just

Another hour of dc and crew on floor gasping for air

Blow ballast

Didnt even make it to the surface fully before being blown to pieces

Sigh who said the AI was useless?

Watched them hunting in a pack even down to reversing back when I altered course allowing another to run in and DC me

Back to the happy times for a bit me thinks

[Ducimus]

Left Bergen 3pm on the 8th Jan 44 in my 1XB and set sail for grid BF34
Not long after entering open water "radar detected"
3 red lines on screen so switched off radar and continued on my way

The bold part, is acutally your thrid mistake.

Your first mistake was to travel on the surface, in late war, in broad daylight, being WELL within the allied air umbrella.

Your second mistake was broadcasting/advertising your position with the use of active radar. By the time you shut off your radar, they already had an idea of your location.

Your third mistake was not recongizing your radar warning recieiver. Those 3 red lines were radar signls from enemy ships, who in all likelyhood, have you on radar. Depending on the lost contact time, if its 30.. any allied ship or plane within 30 mins travel time, will be making a beeline to your position. You should have dived immediatly.


Late war is a totally different game, and in 44, you'll be submerged 90% of the time. In biscay bay youd be lucky to get 2 hours of uninterrputed surface travel before a plane showed up. Play mid to late war for awhile, and the stuff you can get away with in the earlier war is just mind boggeling amazing!

[STEED]

Welcome to the world of I done all I can do before

Good story.

[Ducimus]

Oh ya, sorry if my last post sounds like a critique, my only intention was to point out stuff in hopes you woudlnt give up on 44 just yet :p

[andy_311]

You had no Air strikes against you? after my first hit all hell breaks throught DD's go ballistic and then univited guest like the RAF or Costal command not to mentionthe USN or USAAf it's all dive and pd all the time try that in an IXD2.

[Keelbuster]

Yea - Ducimus is givin you the right feedback. The first rule of evasion is not to get detected in the first place. After yer detected, it's all damage control. But I know what it's like to get gang-beaten by a group of escorts. My current career (U-45, convoy bandit) took it's first real DCing in 23 patrols (May 1943).

I had attacked a line of ships in a convoy, and foolishly waited around for a prime target to advance in my LOS for the last shot. I took the shot, but wasted time that would normally be used to clear the datum. I was cocky. I've waded into 3 years worth of convoys and wreaked havoc without ever being DCed properly. Well, this time, 5 escorts converged from all sides. It was _perfectly_ clear weather, about midday. By the time i was turning to exit, they had me in asdic.

I doubled back at PD and dodged a charging armed trawler. It missed. It's friend took a turn and I flanked under a disabled small tanker and blew a decoy. That screwed them up a bit. I came out the back side of the tanker with the sound of rapid pings from multiple receivers rattling the boat. They had me. The three other escorts (2 other armed trawlers and 1 hunt class) circled me and began taking turns beating me about the head and ears.

Pings were coming so fast that they were overlapping and I could no longer tell how many pursuers I had. I dove to 60m and began my evasion. Worst - the hydrophone was useless because the load/save bug had fixed all the dials in the boat to straight up. I was pissed. I had to use that cheap 'track nearest warship' function. At 60m I used the observation scope to watch keels pass over me and drop DCs, evading as they came. It went on for about an hour. I would flank, then decoy, go deeper, then flank, then silent. When they had passed, I would go back to 60m so I could see them. I had one really close call - a line of DCs landed almost parallel to the boat, with the last one damaging the forward deck and rattling us up pretty good. By the end of it I was at 130m, which was as deep as I was willing to go. I was running silent, and could hear pings, but they didn't have me locked, for some weird reason. Maybe I was deep enough...

They lost me. I escaped. Now I'm going past Reykavik on my way back to Bergen. But it was a close one. I had dispensed the rum ration and was getting ready for the cold & dark (and Ducimus - I haven't made my mil yet! - 9.9 or so). This is only 43. I think the escorts can really give you hell, at least if you end up facing a pack of em.

Kb

[bigboywooly]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

The bold part, is acutally your thrid mistake.

Your first mistake was to travel on the surface, in late war, in broad daylight, being WELL within the allied air umbrella.

Your second mistake was broadcasting/advertising your position with the use of active radar. By the time you shut off your radar, they already had an idea of your location.

Your third mistake was not recongizing your radar warning recieiver. Those 3 red lines were radar signls from enemy ships, who in all likelyhood, have you on radar. Depending on the lost contact time, if its 30.. any allied ship or plane within 30 mins travel time, will be making a beeline to your position. You should have dived immediatly.


Late war is a totally different game, and in 44, you'll be submerged 90% of the time. In biscay bay youd be lucky to get 2 hours of uninterrputed surface travel before a plane showed up. Play mid to late war for awhile, and the stuff you can get away with in the earlier war is just mind boggeling amazing!

Well you live and learn ( well the crew didnt )

I did dive just didnt put that in. went to Snorkel depth and used that

I did alter course after switching off radar to try and out flank convoy till came across second one

All critism accepted no doubt you guys have done 44 but for me it was a first and a bit of an eye opener lol

And no didnt have any air contact at all

[bigboywooly]

Originally Posted by Keelbuster

I flanked under a disabled small tanker and blew a decoy. That screwed them up a bit.
Kb

Funny you should say that as my last patrol in 43 i sat under a disabled tanker to escape 3 DD

They found me and circled the Tanker dropping DC till THEY blew it up but I managed to lose them after an hour or so

That should have opened my eyes to what was ahead

[Keelbuster]

Yea - I've never found hiding in one spot any good in the long run. They find you. I guess they were ready to cut through that tanker in order to get to you. I like passing through convoy lanes, and under disabled ships in order to break the course of my pursuers. Actually, it's good i didn't spend much time under that small tanker because she was actually sinking. A few minutes later she plunged to the bottom.

Kb

[andy_311]

I would love to know how to do that go under a ship never got the knack to do it or screwed it up. would love some pointers.
Oh bigboywooly thanks for the Iowa BB.

[bigboywooly]

Originally Posted by andy_311

I would love to know how to do that go under a ship never got the knack to do it or screwed it up. would love some pointers.
Oh bigboywooly thanks for the Iowa BB.

No problem

http://www.subsim.com/phpBB_archive1...ffaead0b847d62

Thats the archive link to all the mods that were in the sticky that somehow vanished in case you want anything else
As for getting under a ship well depends on what level of realism am playing
If I have outside cam on usually line it up and try to stop at right time - sometimes takes a bit of to and fro
Or if you not too deep you can use periscope looking up as long as you in general area but that a lot more difficult and not recommended if being chased
It has worked for me in the past - I usually wait till convoy has moved on then move away from ship and finish her off this time I had made the mistake of turning away from convoy to evade dd so was stuck in the open when they found me
They just worked their way back towards convoy and found me hiding lol still with all the noise of ship breaking up gave me a bit of a head start to get away - eventually

No such luck in 44 tho

[Ducimus]

Escorts in 44 have much better detection gear. Not to mention Hedge hogs, i am dreafully feaful of those blasted things!

It kinda goes back to not being spotted to begin with. For example with torpedo attacks (ALL of which are submerged), i tend to shoot my fish, then go to 1/3rd and start clawing my way down to the depths while the torpedo's are still enroute to the target to give me a head start. I dont look, i dont loiter, i just GO. I personnally think a crash dive is too risky because its like ringing the dinnerbell., so you need extra time to get deep. Kinda sucks cause you can't see your handywork, but thats just how it goes.

[HEMISENT]

Late 43 is when things really start to get interesting. Most of my careers are started 9/43. The game really can get intense in the later war years.

Hang in there and you'll get it right sooner or later.

[HunterICX]

still in ,39 Easy times but good to have some practice in setting up the torps and stuff.

Nice story thought. At least you went down and took some enemy's with ya

[U-Dog]

So you kept the IXB all the way to '44 eh? Was thinking about trying to see how long I could keep a type IXB alive. Was their in particular reason you went with that type for this career?

Really enjoyed the story and all the evasion tips,
S!