Tell us what you are upto in your current campaign

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Immelman

Good job Enjoy the early days while you can, because before you know it they'll be gone and DDs will be chasing you and not the other way around.

Oh yeah, I am making hay while the sun shines.

Why so dead set at nailing the 2nd DD since he was so far away and not threat to you, why not save the eel for a merchie?

See point #1 above, lol. Also I was having such great luck and had already bagged my fair share of merchants at that point and still had eels to spare, including a loaded aft tube in case I missed.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Finished what might be my best patrol ever so far... started a new career last week and began our second patrol with the 2nd out of Willy on Aug 26 1939, assigned to BF19. Got news that we were at war with GB just as we were approaching the NW Irish coast.

Made way to our patrol grid taking out several lone merchants on the way, getting one good torpedo shot off on each and then finishing them off with the deck gun. Did fire two eels at the first large merchant we encountered, but only one did any damage so it was the deck gun crew to the rescue again.

Took some damage when we snuck up on a small freighter in the dark and put one torpedo into her - had the crew prepared to begin firing with the deck gun but only got 3-4 shots off before the "merchant" was firing back at us. We dove immediately and then began coming around into position for another torpedo attack from p-depth, but it turned out not to be necessary as she was already going down by the time we got her back in our sights.

Arrived in grid BF19 and completed our patrol there and then began patrolling outward into adjacent grids with continued success. Had excellent weather throughout which allowed for use of both magnetic fuses on the eels and our guns when necessary. However use of the gun to finish off a couple merchants in broad daylight may have resulted in our first warship encounter - we sighted a lone destroyer headed in our general direction in grid BF13 and had to dive as he was soon headed right for us with guns blazing.

I turned and headed away from him on his same general course with the periscope up while getting ready to ram a stern shot down his throat. We'd taken a little damage on the surface from the long range fire, but once we dove and it was obvious we were turning tail and trying to run away at p-depth, sure enough he came straight on for us at full speed, making no effort to zigzag at all. He caught up quickly enough and we fired from about 500m. Saw him try to turn away from the eel after it was in the water but it was running too fast and set for magnetic and he could not get the entire ship out of its path in time, so BOOM and that was all she wrote.

Sighted another destroyer coming through BF19 in broad daylight and calm seas, making a beeline straight north which would take her past us well to our east... she took no notice of us at all after we dove and headed north and east running silent but at full ahead trying to see if we could intercept. Since she was making around 14 knots and easily outstripping us in moving north I finally turned in eastward and hoped we could get just barely within range to shoot from p-depth as she came past still heading due north.

Set another fuse for magnetic and watching her approach I really despaired of getting off a decent shot from within normal attack range but finally ordered "los" from over 4000m distance - then began turning us around and preparing to run and set up a stern shot if she detected us and gave chase. Much to my surprise I heard the call of "torpedo impact" a couple minutes later and raising the 'scope again saw that we had a clean hit and she went down without further effort on our part.

After a few more days of good hunting in the lower Western Approaches we were down to one stern torpedo to play with so turned NW for the trip around Ireland and Scotland and home. Managed to sink a couple more merchants on the way home using the last eel and then just the deck gun, running up to them on the surface at night and then opening fire before they suspected any mischief. None were armed. Since we stayed well outside the reach of the Tommies' air cover and submerged upon sighting any ship at all in daylight while still rounding the British Isles we had no more run-ins with armed opponents of any kind.

Picked up our last enemy merchant off the coast of Norway as she was heading from there towards England... attacked and finished her with the deck gun and then it was nothing but neutrals and friendlies until we reached Willy again.

45 days at sea, 11 merchants and 2 destroyers sunk for a little over 50,000 GRT.

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

[Paul Riley]

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

Well I'll try to take out a couple extra ships with just the flak gun next time, howzat?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Well I'll try to take out a couple extra ships with just the flak gun next time, howzat?

Pictures mind.....or it didn't happen

[Brag]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

This pitchah belongs in the SH5 Moo thread

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Pictures mind.....or it didn't happen

If I posted a picture of my gunner firing the flak gun at a ship, and then a picture of the same ship sinking, how would you know I didn't just torpedo her first and then use the flak gun to finish her off?

Which I actually did more than once on one patrol in my longest career to date (RIP Herr Oblt Schmidt ) after we ran out of ammo for the deck gun. My gunner got an Iron Cross for his outstanding work on those occasions.)

Oh hey that reminds me, I know in the crew mgmt screen having three POs and/or ratings at the deck gun station is the max and the WO stays on the bridge. But if you're going to give out medals for gun crew performance, in RL the WO would be included in that, right? Because I'm assuming that in RL he did more than just stand on the bridge and watch the show, even if the game sorta makes it look that way.

Which also reminds me, is there any advantage to having a WO with a gunner qual on duty when the guns are manned? Does that affect the efficiency of the gun stations even though the officer himself is not "moved" to that station but remains on the bridge? I use a PO with a gunner qual with two of the other guys who were standing watch and the station always shows 100% efficiency, so I don't really know what effect the WO's quals would have if any.

[Brag]

Interesting patrol, Frau K. Drinks are on you

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Brag

Drinks are on you

They better not be, I just got my dress blues back from the cleaners.

[KL-alfman]

Originally Posted by Brag

This pitchah belongs in the SH5 Moo thread

mooooooo!


@ Fr Kaleun:
very aggressive approach to sink all DDs in range of sight!
impressive!

[Brag]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

They better not be, I just got my dress blues back from the cleaners.

Oh, well. Since you have clean clothes. I'll buy.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

If I posted a picture of my gunner firing the flak gun at a ship, and then a picture of the same ship sinking, how would you know I didn't just torpedo her first and then use the flak gun to finish her off?

Which I actually did more than once on one patrol in my longest career to date (RIP Herr Oblt Schmidt ) after we ran out of ammo for the deck gun. My gunner got an Iron Cross for his outstanding work on those occasions.)

Oh hey that reminds me, I know in the crew mgmt screen having three POs and/or ratings at the deck gun station is the max and the WO stays on the bridge. But if you're going to give out medals for gun crew performance, in RL the WO would be included in that, right? Because I'm assuming that in RL he did more than just stand on the bridge and watch the show, even if the game sorta makes it look that way.

Which also reminds me, is there any advantage to having a WO with a gunner qual on duty when the guns are manned? Does that affect the efficiency of the gun stations even though the officer himself is not "moved" to that station but remains on the bridge? I use a PO with a gunner qual with two of the other guys who were standing watch and the station always shows 100% efficiency, so I don't really know what effect the WO's quals would have if any.

Put three ordinary ratings on the deck gun....now remove them leaving just the one...now place a WO without a gunners qualification in the tower/bridge...now replace him with a suitably qualified WO and look at that green bar....pretty impressive change I think you'll agree

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Put three ordinary ratings on the deck gun....now remove them leaving just the one...now place a WO without a gunners qualification in the tower/bridge...now replace him with a suitably qualified WO and look at that green bar....pretty impressive change I think you'll agree

So having a WO with a gun qual on the bridge vastly improves the efficiency of the deck gun crew even if said crew is only one guy with no gun qual at all? Could you even operate the deck gun with one dude at the station in RL?

[Immelman]

Nope you couldn't even turn it let alone fire it with a single guy. It would take half an hour just to prep the gun for firing with a single guy

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

So having a WO with a gun qual on the bridge vastly improves the efficiency of the deck gun crew even if said crew is only one guy with no gun qual at all? Could you even operate the deck gun with one dude at the station in RL?

Can't honestly say I've tried....let me know

The reason I said leave one guy on the gun is because that is the minimum the game will allow and will certainly show you a very small 'green bar'....efficiency rating to act as a starting point.