My first real contact and first real sinking!

So I finally got through all the headaches/sorting out/troubleshooting of my mod problems, then I finally got a new career started which I was going to attempt to do well at and I am proud to say that I have sunk my first ship in career I know most probably dont care but I am so excited I thought I would share (mainly because I did the interception right and on my own with very little error)

So U-19 was ordered to patrol AN81 in August of 1939 from Kiel. Im using the first boat cant remember the type, but I head out of the canal and that way, as I get out of German waters, I dont see a single thing or hear for that matter on hydros so I get to AN81 and go under and start doing a patrol pattern, I then pick up a merchant at long distance that is closing so I turn north and find out he is closing even quicker and get a general idea of his bearing, I surface to find out hes plenty far out and he is heading SE which was perfect because I was northerly of his heading, so I figured out his speed was slow and do intercept work and come up with where I was going to be, so I get on a 90 degree angle about 1km out of his course and just wait at periscope depth, sure enough, he comes into view and I start making sure my tubes are ALL open, juust incase I need to fire another. So as he comes into a good range, around 2km(Did I mention it was perfectly clear weather? Somebody was on my side today) I have my W.O. give me targeting data (yes Im on very low realism but Im still excited about it ) and set tubes 1 and 2 for fast speed and tube 3 for slow. I then set my periscope on tube three and turn it to about 15 degrees off port and wait (that is where my 0 gyro was) as soon as the Cargo's stack crosses my crosshairs, I push fire. I didnt want to use event cam and ruin the anticipation (besides it was night, not like I could see much anyways) I watch slowly as the watch slowly creeps toward the red dial, and riight as it did. . . KABOOM I watch a fireball erupt from right under the smoke stack. As I keep watching (in which point I had turned already to keep my 0 gyro for my other eels, I notice that she slowed to a dead stop. making this easy, beeing its night and early in the war I may just finish her with a deck gun

But again sorry for the useless post. but I got excited

[krashkart]

Right on!

Don't feel bad... my first AAR ended up in General Topics because I was so excited.


Grats on your first success. May many more be coming your way.

Oooh another contact! time to set up in position brb gotta take a quick reference look

Second contact report. On my way to go find my second merchant contact, my watch officers spot a destroyer group (3 in a single column) steaming south right into my path, so I figure bag a destroyer, I was 3km out and fired all 3 up front and turned tail and ran north at 2knots and silent running. Long story short, my damn W/O didnt calculate the depth the torps needed to be for me and I forgot to. so they ran not 3 feet right under the first destroyers keel.. now I gotta get out safe. I have one torp left oh boy.

[JokerOfFate]

Cool!
My first kill was horrable I hit the ship dove to 25m crashed into the ship as it was sinking (Karma on the spot), I was upset about losing the career but overjoyed about getting a kill

Now,BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!

Oh I was, and it wasnt pretty. the post below explains it. but I tried to get out of the area quietly. and something happenend either I hit ground and it damaged me to surface or somethign but the destroyers hit me and came after me . long story short, I was at the bottom of about 30 M deep water, with no propulsion at all. I survived one depth charge run and another killed me. depressing Well Hats off to the british navy for killing me. However if I HAD ()set my torpedoes to the right depth, it could be a different story now. Mistake learned from

[papa_smurf]

Its always a good feeling when you get your first kill. Heres to a successful career

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by USNSRCaseySmith

...So U-19 was ordered to patrol AN81 in August of 1939 from Kiel. Im using the first boat cant remember the type, but I head out of the canal and that way, as I get out of German waters, I dont see a single thing or hear for that matter on hydros so I get to AN81 and go under and start doing a patrol pattern, I then pick up a merchant at long distance that is closing so I turn north and find out he is closing even quicker and get a general idea of his bearing,...

Ehm, you do realise that the war hasn't started yet, right! It didn't start until september 3rd 1939. Nevertheless, congratulations on getting the steel on target.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by Pisces

Ehm, you do realise that the war hasn't started yet, right! It didn't start until september 3rd 1939. Nevertheless, congratulations on getting the steel on target.

WW2 started on September 1st, with German and Slovakian attack on Poland. On September 3rd France and Great Britain (plus colonies) declare war upon Germany, thus honouring military alliance with Poland. On September 17th Russia attacks Poland (thus honouring treaty with Germany) - which finally decides the fall of Poland a month later.

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

WW2 started on September 1st, with German attack on Poland. On September 3rd France and Great Britain (plus colonies) declare war upon Germany, thus honouring military alliance with Poland. September 17th Russians attack Poland (thus honouring treaty with Germany) - which finally decides the fall of Poland a month later.

My apologies, you are right. I was thinking of him going into the north sea. There he wouldn't have much trouble until the 3rd.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by Pisces

My apologies, you are right. I was thinking of him going into the north sea. There he wouldn't have much trouble until the 3rd.

No problem. Just corrected wrong info. As a Pole I'm sensitive to such details. People like to forget where and when it started. For Russians "WW2 started on June 22nd 1941", for Americans it started on Pearl Harbour, for British/French on September 3rd... (also Americans like to forget that they didn't declare war on Axis or Germany - it's Germany that declared war on the US). Details are important in history.

Yet the americans still eventually helped win the war

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

No problem. Just corrected wrong info. As a Pole I'm sensitive to such details. People like to forget where and when it started. For Russians "WW2 started on June 22nd 1941", for Americans it started on Pearl Harbour, for British/French on September 3rd... (also Americans like to forget that they didn't declare war on Axis or Germany - it's Germany that declared war on the US). Details are important in history.

[JokerOfFate]

So what happens if I sink a ship before the war and end the patrol after it started is it a neutral or allied unit?

Well I had recieved orders from BDU that all merchants were fair game. but yeah those destroyers tore me up. I had no where to go and not enough crew to do anything repair wise, so I got stuck 30 m deep on the bottom with no propulsion and a few crew members dead. I wish you could launch crew members out of the torpedoe tube like in U 571

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by JokerOfFate

So what happens if I sink a ship before the war and end the patrol after it started is it a neutral or allied unit?

For one thing, if you a attack a ship from a nation with which Germany is not currently at war, that nation will consider you an enemy for the following 24 hours and other vessels from that nation, if armed, will attack you without further provocation for the duration of your day-long "private war" with them.

This is true no matter what in-game date you're playing, not just in August 1939. So if you attack a US ship prior to December 11 1941, the US will consider itself at war with you - not with Germany, but with you personally - for the next 24 hours.

As far as nations changing their allegiance or status before you finish a patrol... I think you are going to gain or lose renown according to what the nation's status was at the time you sank one of their ships, not how things stand with them once you finally return to base. I'm not entirely sure about that, so maybe someone who is can give a definitive answer. It's possible that for "scoring" purposes things are tallied up only when the patrol is finished, but my gut feeling is that if you sink a US ship on Dec 1 1941 and return to base on Dec 14, it's still going to count as a neutral beacuse it was neutral at the time you attacked it.