The story of U-198 (In-game)

ryanglavin · 05-23-10, 08:12 AM

On-line blog.

Todays date: June 28th, 2015. Today, I am at my Grandfathers funeral, and I have a secret that I need the world to hear.

5 years ago, this day, I was visiting my grandfather in Argentina. He always said he was of European ancestry, but never

told me of what. The second day I was there, while I was exploring the attic in my grandfathers house in Argentina, I found a dust

covered diary, who knew it would hold an amazing secret?

Erich Drost, War diary.

July 24th, 1943

Left Lorient on July 21st, 1943. Donitz was giving me the hint that we would pull

into port at Penang. I had a feeling it was the last time I was going to see

beautiful Europe. I cried.

August 4th, 1943

Had a run-in with destroyer in grid squares FE. No serious damage, but morale

was shaken; we were under for 20 hours.

August 5th, 1943

To bring up our spirits, we found a Granville type Freighter in the same area

as the destroyer was. Clear weather, single stern torpedo under the engine

room. Broke its back.

August 6th, 1943

We finally get the message from Donitz that tells us to go to Penang.

That impending feeling is there again... I might as well write down that I'll

never see my family in Germany again.

My Grandfather then called me down the stairs for Lunch. I took a sticky note

and used it as a bookmark in the diary. I wondered if grandfather had any

idea what it is.

ryanglavin · 05-23-10, 09:22 AM

When I reached the bottom floor, I clearly remember smelling meat and potatoes, my grandfathers favorite.

He always said he made it to remind him of what my grandmother used to make, and she sadly passed away a couple months ago.

While were we eating, I showed him the diary that I found in the attic.

He slowly got a devilish grin on his face, as if he was remembering something very dear to him.

All he told me is that its a good read and I should continue reading it.

After dinner that night, I picked up where I left off:

August 21st,1943 1943
Large merchant sighted. Moved into position, and send 2 torpedoes into her as a salvo.

One under ammo bunker in fore, minimal damage, 1 straight in command deck Sunk in 4 minutes.

August 22nd, 1943
Sighted Liberty Cargo. Heading west, zigzagging to general direction of Freetown in Gr 93.

Took 3 torpedoes in different spots to sink her. Americans must've build these new ships good!

Medium Cargo detected heading west in same region as Liberty Cargo.

Hit under fuel bunker, listed heavily and slowed down to 3 knots.

She saw my ship and opened fire at around 1k yards while I was underwater. No damage other then that I was seen.

As I was hauling around for a follow up, a convoy comes from the West, probably heading for Madagascar.

Switching my target to the convoy, I find a modern tanker tanker hiding in inside flank.

Fired single torpedo from 5K yards, and hits in fore fuel bunker. Slows to 5 knots and lists heavily in fore.

Too far off, for a follow up shot on either ship, I let both the cripples run away.

I eventually made up my mind as I went for the modern tanker, and put her down at 5k yards.

She went down elegantly. Once again, no escort to bother me.

Started hauling westward for the medium cargo. Still listing heavily and at 3 kts, I put it
down with 2 torpedoes at midnight. Hitler said those ships weren't built well, Küss mein Arsch!

Count for the day: 8 torpedoes for 3 ships and 17k tons.

August 23rd, 1943
1 Empire type Freighter spotted, in same area as the 3 ships last night. Hit her with a shot under command deck.

Sunk, slowly but surely. Pulled out of Freetown area for fear of ASW forces and headed in mozambik-kanal.

August 25th, 1943.

Cloudy, overcast. Sighted and hit modern tanker with 1 torpedo. Heavy list fore and not moving.

Sunk by flooding 3 hours later.

47K tons with 10 torpedoes left. I decide to head up into arabian sea as fuel permits,and then east into penang.

September 5th 1943. Jumped by 2 fighters in cloudy weather. No warning from radar.

Heavy damage to fuel tanks and aft quarters. 2 crewmen wounded, the radioman seriously.

doctor fixed the less wounded one up and he returned to do emergency repairs with the rest of us.

The doctor stops the radiomans bleeding, and pulls out a piece of wood 5 inches long right next to his heart!

He says radioman will live, but can't return to duty.

Barely seaworthy.

Heading straight to penang on remaining fuel.

September 13th. Made it to Penang.

Dockyards say the sub was only seaworthy to 20 meters.

Thank God, another patrol I survived.

I write to my wife, and I doubt I will ever see her again though.

The Enigma · 05-23-10, 09:28 AM

Looking forward to see your next post.
Please do keep us updated.

ryanglavin · 05-23-10, 11:31 AM

I finally looked up at the digital clock next to my bed.

It showed 1 AM. I was reading for 6 hours straight!

I finally put the book down on the bedstand and fell into deep sleep.

I swear, that right before I put my head down, I saw my grandfather peeking into the room.

I remember waking up somewhere around 9 A.M.

I nearly forgot my grandfather and I were going to see Iguazu Falls!

I come running down the steps, and I see my grandfather making toast and watching the morning news. We ate for 30 minutes, while I was telling him all about the diary. He smiled, and nodded, but never asked any questions. It seems that he was smiling whenever a ship sunk...

Iguazu Falls, as I remember it, was amazing. I had a great time, and grandfather just felt at ease being in the boat that was taking us to the falls.

The next time I picked up the diary was late at night, probably 9 O'clock.

The whole page was filled with rants. If I recall, they read as this:

Oct 5th, 1943

Donitz was telling my crew and I to ship out by the 13th. We won't even be remotely seaworthy by then. The fuel tank was still punctured in random places, we would only be able to fill 75% of the tank.

The rust buildup on the bow of the sub is so immense that only torpedo tube 1 can open, and that takes at least 30 seconds to get fully open.

The japanese's quality of food is awful, we'd rather have saurkraut all day then this stuff.

Japanese Merchant ships that have little scratches take priority over my ship in the dry docks... its took 15 days to even get us into the dry dock list. The repairs took 3 hours and was with horrible, 3rd grade steel.

And worst of all, We lost our watch officer to that damn XIV over on the other dock. We got a limited knowledge Flak Gunner office, Oberfanrich.

If we even come back from the next patrol, I'll be amazed.

(for sake of following the story, I'll play as if my fuel is down to 75% and my hull integrity is 50%)

TheLutefisk · 05-23-10, 08:24 PM

Keep e'm coming

ryanglavin · 05-23-10, 08:47 PM

I will have to continue tomorrow, ship is at sea right now, and I got school tomorrow. Sorry for the delay!

ryanglavin · 05-25-10, 08:46 PM

Noticing the time was late, I started thumbing through the next log.

Oct. 13th, 1943.
Finally set sail, at 16:00 hours. Day didn't feel right, once again.

Just hoping we'll make it through another patrol.

Oct 20th, 1943.
After countless plane scares, I finally found a Liberty Cargo, sailing alone, Just south of India.

Its directions and cargo is of no concern for me. Hit with 2 torpedoes, 1 fore and 1 aft.

Hit it at 12:00 hours. Slowly flooded and stopped at 12:30. Finally sunk at 16:00.

Nov 3rd, 1943.
After 2 weeks of fruitless endeavors, we found ourselves in the Arabian Sea.

We got 2 Large Tankers that day. Going line in line at about 21:00 local time.

1 torpedo hit the ship under its keel, and broke its back. About 21:10.

Second ship was hit with 1 torpedo under bow Fuel storage. Started flooding heavy bow, and slowed to 4 kts.
1st follow up torpedo was a dud, aimed straight amidships. Second torpedo hit amidships. sank at 23:30 hours.

I finally put down the book at that time, seeing it was 9:30. I wouldn't want my grandfather to wait the next day, so I went to bed at this time. Unknown to me, tomorrow would be life-changing for me.

ryanglavin · 05-26-10, 05:23 PM

The next day, my grandfather and I visited a submarine warfare museum. How fitting. We got in free, as my grandfather used to be a curator for it
We were walking around for a damn long time, until he hit a World War 2 tanker section.

Strange enough, as we were in Argentina. Anyways, I was checking out some of the exhibits.

One of those exhibits was all about one U-boat commander, Erich Drost of U-198, 80 thousand ton patrol in the far east.

The amount of tons wasn't the only amazing thing, the exhibit said, but what happened to the 4 ships last ships sunk.

It reported that, on the 4 tankers that he sunk, he killed all of the crewmen, with no survivors.
Nobody had any idea what caused that massacre with a commander that had a clean slate, up until then, at least.

He dissapeared immediately at the end of the war, with his ship and his crew.

My grandfather saw me looking at the exhibit, and he grabbed me my the arm and hissed that this wasn't a good section to visit. We left immediately, and got home in the next 30 minutes. I continued reading the log.

Keel Basa · 06-08-10, 10:56 PM

...WHO WAS TORPEDO?

j/k, great stuff, keep it coming!

Jimbuna · 06-09-10, 09:12 AM

Good reading

Brag · 06-09-10, 03:09 PM

Good reading. Keep them coming-

ryanglavin · 06-09-10, 04:52 PM

Anyone want to take control of this story and add thier own stuff to it? I'll send you the patrol logs and such, I just have no time for this project anymore.

ryanglavin · 10-29-10, 07:24 PM

Oh damn.. I never started this back up. I was having such a good time with it too.

gazpode_l · 01-28-11, 04:39 PM

hey! sad u could not continue

- was shaping up really nicely. well done blogs...

05-23-10, 08:12 AM	#1
ryanglavin Samurai Navy Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Evading that Hunter/Killer Group on my Tail Posts: 584 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	The story of U-198 (In-game) On-line blog. Todays date: June 28th, 2015. Today, I am at my Grandfathers funeral, and I have a secret that I need the world to hear. 5 years ago, this day, I was visiting my grandfather in Argentina. He always said he was of European ancestry, but never told me of what. The second day I was there, while I was exploring the attic in my grandfathers house in Argentina, I found a dust covered diary, who knew it would hold an amazing secret? Erich Drost, War diary. July 24th, 1943 Left Lorient on July 21st, 1943. Donitz was giving me the hint that we would pull into port at Penang. I had a feeling it was the last time I was going to see beautiful Europe. I cried. August 4th, 1943 Had a run-in with destroyer in grid squares FE. No serious damage, but morale was shaken; we were under for 20 hours. August 5th, 1943 To bring up our spirits, we found a Granville type Freighter in the same area as the destroyer was. Clear weather, single stern torpedo under the engine room. Broke its back. August 6th, 1943 We finally get the message from Donitz that tells us to go to Penang. That impending feeling is there again... I might as well write down that I'll never see my family in Germany again. My Grandfather then called me down the stairs for Lunch. I took a sticky note and used it as a bookmark in the diary. I wondered if grandfather had any idea what it is. __________________ Last edited by ryanglavin; 05-23-10 at 09:28 AM.

05-23-10, 09:22 AM	#2
ryanglavin Samurai Navy Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Evading that Hunter/Killer Group on my Tail Posts: 584 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	When I reached the bottom floor, I clearly remember smelling meat and potatoes, my grandfathers favorite. He always said he made it to remind him of what my grandmother used to make, and she sadly passed away a couple months ago. While were we eating, I showed him the diary that I found in the attic. He slowly got a devilish grin on his face, as if he was remembering something very dear to him. All he told me is that its a good read and I should continue reading it. After dinner that night, I picked up where I left off: August 21st,1943 1943 Large merchant sighted. Moved into position, and send 2 torpedoes into her as a salvo. One under ammo bunker in fore, minimal damage, 1 straight in command deck Sunk in 4 minutes. August 22nd, 1943 Sighted Liberty Cargo. Heading west, zigzagging to general direction of Freetown in Gr 93. Took 3 torpedoes in different spots to sink her. Americans must've build these new ships good! Medium Cargo detected heading west in same region as Liberty Cargo. Hit under fuel bunker, listed heavily and slowed down to 3 knots. She saw my ship and opened fire at around 1k yards while I was underwater. No damage other then that I was seen. As I was hauling around for a follow up, a convoy comes from the West, probably heading for Madagascar. Switching my target to the convoy, I find a modern tanker tanker hiding in inside flank. Fired single torpedo from 5K yards, and hits in fore fuel bunker. Slows to 5 knots and lists heavily in fore. Too far off, for a follow up shot on either ship, I let both the cripples run away. I eventually made up my mind as I went for the modern tanker, and put her down at 5k yards. She went down elegantly. Once again, no escort to bother me. Started hauling westward for the medium cargo. Still listing heavily and at 3 kts, I put it down with 2 torpedoes at midnight. Hitler said those ships weren't built well, Küss mein Arsch! Count for the day: 8 torpedoes for 3 ships and 17k tons. August 23rd, 1943 1 Empire type Freighter spotted, in same area as the 3 ships last night. Hit her with a shot under command deck. Sunk, slowly but surely. Pulled out of Freetown area for fear of ASW forces and headed in mozambik-kanal. August 25th, 1943. Cloudy, overcast. Sighted and hit modern tanker with 1 torpedo. Heavy list fore and not moving. Sunk by flooding 3 hours later. 47K tons with 10 torpedoes left. I decide to head up into arabian sea as fuel permits,and then east into penang. September 5th 1943. Jumped by 2 fighters in cloudy weather. No warning from radar. Heavy damage to fuel tanks and aft quarters. 2 crewmen wounded, the radioman seriously. doctor fixed the less wounded one up and he returned to do emergency repairs with the rest of us. The doctor stops the radiomans bleeding, and pulls out a piece of wood 5 inches long right next to his heart! He says radioman will live, but can't return to duty. Barely seaworthy. Heading straight to penang on remaining fuel. September 13th. Made it to Penang. Dockyards say the sub was only seaworthy to 20 meters. Thank God, another patrol I survived. I write to my wife, and I doubt I will ever see her again though. __________________ Last edited by ryanglavin; 05-23-10 at 09:42 AM.

05-23-10, 09:28 AM	#3
The Enigma Seer of visions Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Under the surface Posts: 2,315 Downloads: 31 Uploads: 0	Looking forward to see your next post. Please do keep us updated. __________________

05-23-10, 11:31 AM	#4
ryanglavin Samurai Navy Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Evading that Hunter/Killer Group on my Tail Posts: 584 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	I finally looked up at the digital clock next to my bed. It showed 1 AM. I was reading for 6 hours straight! I finally put the book down on the bedstand and fell into deep sleep. I swear, that right before I put my head down, I saw my grandfather peeking into the room. I remember waking up somewhere around 9 A.M. I nearly forgot my grandfather and I were going to see Iguazu Falls! I come running down the steps, and I see my grandfather making toast and watching the morning news. We ate for 30 minutes, while I was telling him all about the diary. He smiled, and nodded, but never asked any questions. It seems that he was smiling whenever a ship sunk... Iguazu Falls, as I remember it, was amazing. I had a great time, and grandfather just felt at ease being in the boat that was taking us to the falls. The next time I picked up the diary was late at night, probably 9 O'clock. The whole page was filled with rants. If I recall, they read as this: Oct 5th, 1943 Donitz was telling my crew and I to ship out by the 13th. We won't even be remotely seaworthy by then. The fuel tank was still punctured in random places, we would only be able to fill 75% of the tank. The rust buildup on the bow of the sub is so immense that only torpedo tube 1 can open, and that takes at least 30 seconds to get fully open. The japanese's quality of food is awful, we'd rather have saurkraut all day then this stuff. Japanese Merchant ships that have little scratches take priority over my ship in the dry docks... its took 15 days to even get us into the dry dock list. The repairs took 3 hours and was with horrible, 3rd grade steel. And worst of all, We lost our watch officer to that damn XIV over on the other dock. We got a limited knowledge Flak Gunner office, Oberfanrich. If we even come back from the next patrol, I'll be amazed. (for sake of following the story, I'll play as if my fuel is down to 75% and my hull integrity is 50%) __________________ Last edited by ryanglavin; 05-23-10 at 12:40 PM.

05-23-10, 08:47 PM	#6
ryanglavin Samurai Navy Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Evading that Hunter/Killer Group on my Tail Posts: 584 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	I will have to continue tomorrow, ship is at sea right now, and I got school tomorrow. Sorry for the delay! __________________

05-23-10, 08:24 PM	#5
TheLutefisk Watch Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Norway Posts: 21 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	Keep e'm coming

05-25-10, 08:46 PM	#7
ryanglavin Samurai Navy Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Evading that Hunter/Killer Group on my Tail Posts: 584 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	Noticing the time was late, I started thumbing through the next log. Oct. 13th, 1943. Finally set sail, at 16:00 hours. Day didn't feel right, once again. Just hoping we'll make it through another patrol. Oct 20th, 1943. After countless plane scares, I finally found a Liberty Cargo, sailing alone, Just south of India. Its directions and cargo is of no concern for me. Hit with 2 torpedoes, 1 fore and 1 aft. Hit it at 12:00 hours. Slowly flooded and stopped at 12:30. Finally sunk at 16:00. Nov 3rd, 1943. After 2 weeks of fruitless endeavors, we found ourselves in the Arabian Sea. We got 2 Large Tankers that day. Going line in line at about 21:00 local time. 1 torpedo hit the ship under its keel, and broke its back. About 21:10. Second ship was hit with 1 torpedo under bow Fuel storage. Started flooding heavy bow, and slowed to 4 kts. 1st follow up torpedo was a dud, aimed straight amidships. Second torpedo hit amidships. sank at 23:30 hours. I finally put down the book at that time, seeing it was 9:30. I wouldn't want my grandfather to wait the next day, so I went to bed at this time. Unknown to me, tomorrow would be life-changing for me. __________________

05-26-10, 05:23 PM	#8
ryanglavin Samurai Navy Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Evading that Hunter/Killer Group on my Tail Posts: 584 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	The next day, my grandfather and I visited a submarine warfare museum. How fitting. We got in free, as my grandfather used to be a curator for it We were walking around for a damn long time, until he hit a World War 2 tanker section. Strange enough, as we were in Argentina. Anyways, I was checking out some of the exhibits. One of those exhibits was all about one U-boat commander, Erich Drost of U-198, 80 thousand ton patrol in the far east. The amount of tons wasn't the only amazing thing, the exhibit said, but what happened to the 4 ships last ships sunk. It reported that, on the 4 tankers that he sunk, he killed all of the crewmen, with no survivors. Nobody had any idea what caused that massacre with a commander that had a clean slate, up until then, at least. He dissapeared immediately at the end of the war, with his ship and his crew. My grandfather saw me looking at the exhibit, and he grabbed me my the arm and hissed that this wasn't a good section to visit. We left immediately, and got home in the next 30 minutes. I continued reading the log. __________________

06-08-10, 10:56 PM	#9
Keel Basa Seaman Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Octopus' garden Posts: 36 Downloads: 48 Uploads: 0	BUT... ...WHO WAS TORPEDO? j/k, great stuff, keep it coming!

06-09-10, 09:12 AM	#10
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 190,584 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	Good reading __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!!

06-09-10, 03:09 PM	#11
Brag Navy Seal Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Docked on a Russian pond Posts: 7,072 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	Good reading. Keep them coming- __________________ Espionage, adventure, suspense, are just a click away Click here to look inside Brag's book: Amazon.com: Kingmaker: Alexey Braguine: Books Order Kingmaker here: http://www.subsim.com/store.html For Tactics visit:http://www.freewebs.com/kielman/

06-09-10, 04:52 PM	#12
ryanglavin Samurai Navy Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Evading that Hunter/Killer Group on my Tail Posts: 584 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	Anyone want to take control of this story and add thier own stuff to it? I'll send you the patrol logs and such, I just have no time for this project anymore. __________________

10-29-10, 07:24 PM	#13
ryanglavin Samurai Navy Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Evading that Hunter/Killer Group on my Tail Posts: 584 Downloads: 35 Uploads: 0	Oh damn.. I never started this back up. I was having such a good time with it too. __________________

01-28-11, 04:39 PM	#14
gazpode_l 中国水兵 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Chelmsford, Essex Posts: 280 Downloads: 50 Uploads: 0	hey! sad u could not continue - was shaping up really nicely. well done blogs...