Operation Hartmut

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

And screams of Bernard!!!! were heard throughout Norway that night.

I think I'd start kicking puppies at that point.

Bernard found his way onto Prien's boat that day, to quote the book, "Pien in u-47 was nearby in Vaags Fjord when u-49 was sunk. Probing the waterways that evening, he ventured steathily into a tributary, Bygden Fjord, leading to the town of Elvenes, the objective of the main British ground forces. There he saw a heart throbbing sight: 'Three large transports, each of 30,000 tons and three more, slightly smaller, escorted by two cruisers' All eight ships were lying in anchor in the narrow south end of Bygden Fjord, disembarking troops into fishing boats.

Here was the opportunity for Prien to eclispse his triumph at Scapa Flow: sink in a single blow at least 150,000 tons of enemy shipping, including two heavy cruisers, and thwart the British counterattack on Narvik.

..result nil

Prien and his crew were dismayed and outraged. Eight torpedoes had failed against sitting ducks."

As enjoyable as Narvik can be in SH3, its was a living nightmare for all the captains that made it there and watched torpedo after torpedo run astray or hit their targets and then not explode. After he heard from Prien and the next few reports he told Hitler that the u-boat where uselss, they didn't have a weapon in which to fight with anymore and urged them to withdrawl them safely while they had the chance.

[desirableroasted]

In the November issue of Ships Monthly, there is a detailed article about the battle of Narvik, with diagrams and photos of some of the ships.

It's a UK magazine, not sure of its availability elsewhere (though I, obviously, find it here in Denmark).

[Alpha Von Burg]

Originally Posted by the.terrabyte.pirate

April 9, 1940. Operation Hartmut is getting into full swing.

My Type IID has no way of making Narvik or Trondheim in time to enjoy the festivities, but we could reach Oslo if we punch it.

My question is, is it worth it. I'm all for taking an active role, but if there aren't going to be any targets about I'm happy to skip it.

On top of that historically U-13 was ordered to patrol around the Shetlands according to that great tome of all knowledge and wisdom (wikipedia).

Does anyone have any suggestions? Where and when are the allies going to respond?

During the operation, if you do make it to Oslo, all you'll find is an unarmed trawler. And by about 1300, the port would already be secured.
Bergen could be more worth it, but the waters there are very shallow.

I would advise you to simply pick out any escaping vessels around Norway, rather than making for these ports.

Good hunting...

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Tessa

Unless you run into a high value target, anything say aux. cruiser size or higher I wouldn't waste any more eels. Once you get into Narvik or some of the other hot spots the fjords create the perfect bottleneck that big ships can't manuever in. There'll be ample chance to take on more DD's; but best there are BB's and at least 1 flat top that are floating around at various places. Once in the action there's no shortage of targets, the biggest variable is will your torpedoes be all duds (like it was historically where 100% of the torpedoes didn't detonate properly even with impact pistols)

Then there's also the 150,000+ tons of ships that Prien found while he was there that were sitting ducks (literally, they were moored but left completely unguarded) but every torpedo he fired didn't detonate despite an expert captain aiming at a stationary target.

I don't mess with DDs when I'm around convoys. It's just that I was 'sent' there to clear the way for the invasion (somehow I didn't get any patrol orders from the MaGUI mod so I just volunteered the challenge), so any warship I was to get into contact with would be attacked. Alas it didn't work as I hoped it would. Also, I forgot to change the torpedo loadout. So I had mostly Type-1's aboard.

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by Pisces

I don't mess with DDs when I'm around convoys. It's just that I was 'sent' there to clear the way for the invasion (somehow I didn't get any patrol orders from the MaGUI mod so I just volunteered the challenge), so any warship I was to get into contact with would be attacked. Alas it didn't work as I hoped it would. Also, I forgot to change the torpedo loadout. So I had mostly Type-1's aboard.

The DD's became a Turkey shoot once I sunk the Nelson (admittedly from the pic it looks like a top-fuel dragster at max accelerator with the front wheel lifted all the way up (or forecastle in this case) the way it sank); was parked at the edge of the little pennisula to the far right (outside the photo) and sank the Nelson from that spot. I pulled backwards into the fjord and to my right so they all got jammed up as you can see in the photo.



Somehow one managed to elude a near point blank shot (~500m at 45kts) while the other three lit up like a Christmas tree as I plucked them off. Retreated back to my hiding spot to reload and wait for them to leave and their return course when they left Narvik (giving time to transfer the external torpedoes).