Your first sub lost... Tragic Tales.

[CherryHarbey]

don't remember the exact details but it would have included the following
1 a type II
2 over-confidence
3 shallow water

[Sailor Steve]

The first sub I lost was playing Silent Service, so I'm afraid that after twenty-six years I really don't remember.

If you meant the first sub in SH3, well, that was six years ago, so I don't remember that either.

[Missing Name]

Took on a convoy and a good amount of water. Fought off the initial flooding, but the engines were severely damaged. Compressed air failed to get me to the surface, and I watched as I slowly sank below crush depth over the span of two hours...

[Osmium Steele]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

The first sub I lost was playing Silent Service, so I'm afraid that after twenty-six years I really don't remember.

If you meant the first sub in SH3, well, that was six years ago, so I don't remember that either.

+1.

[postalbyke]

Off the east coast of Britain, positioned between the northbound and southbound convoy lanes, I waited for my prey to come to me...
After only a few hours, my hydrophones pick up a southbound convoy, fifteen ships with four escorts. I plot their courses carefully, double checking all the time until I can see the lead ship clearly. Being in a type II, I have only three shots from a stationary position before I have to withdraw, reload, and give chase...
Taking into account the time of day and the weather, I chose the west side of the convoy to attack from, opened the tubes, and let my eels fly!
Unlucky me, I was positioned right at the turning point for the convoy, and the second after my torpedos leave the tubes, the whole CF turns, leaving me out in the dry...
except for one hit! right in the screw for a medium cargo... she slows to a halt, and an escort drives right over me to get to her... while I'm reloading the tubes. Next I know, I'm in the middle of a depth charge pattern.
Fast forward a few hours, both electric motors are OOC, heavy flooding aft, sinking slowly... the escort seems to have lost me, but is loitering in area (I'm supposing for the merchant). My only hope: sink this insolent merchant and wait for the escort to leave!
I blow tanks til I'm at PD, snapshot the merchant, and try to convince the boat to sink as fast as it was a few minutes ago... to no avail.
I spin the periscope to the escort, and he's at full steam, headed right at me.
"The End..."

[XTChrisTX]

Running away from several destroyers in an XXI at Ahead Flank at periscope depth. That was my preferred tactic for a surprisingly long time.

Most embarassing was probably when I surfaced my XXI to take on about five destroyers with the flak guns because I didn't have many torpedoes left.

[Cheese]

About a week ago, ran straight into a corvette near Scapa Flow. Being young and foolish, I tried to engage it with a deck gun. When it got up right next to me, I, for some reason, decided to dive. It of course depth charged me and I forgot to(or couldn't?) pull out of the dive, so my boat was crushed by pressure. Lesson learned, don't get cocky, or dive next to a warship.

[GoDeep]

"I" have been killed more times than I can remember. Especially in the beginning, when I just had SH3 and played it quick and dirty. I learned the hard way that in U-boat warfare, there is no such thing as quick and dirty. Patience is key.

A few of my more memorable deaths from my GWX era:

• Second patrol (December 1939) in a IIA, about 100 miles of the British East coast. I'm running fast below the surface, trying to get a firing position on a merchant ship. Out of nowhere, a destroyer runs right over me, dropping charges. One of them rips open the stern, flooding the engine room. I sink fast to the bottom, which is at 80m. Killed by catastrophic flooding.
• New career, I decide to take a peek during the evacuation of Dunkirk. Lots of juicy targets there. One problem though...the sea is as smooth as glass and I am in 30 metres of water. Not much room to escape. However, my trigger finger gets the better of me and I line up two targets, one troop transport, the other a Southampton class cruiser. I launch four torpedoes, two at each target at about 2700 metres. Three hits, the Southampton comes to a full stop, the transport sinks rapidly. No time to enjoy my success though. As soon as the torpedoes hit, the escorts and destroyers go into overdrive, pinging like mad. Within 10 minutes, 7 destroyers have converged on my location and are pinging me in turn, dropping charges left and right. One after the other, they perform an attack run. I can not dive deep, so I have virtually no time to evade. For 2 hours (game time), I manage to evade the attacks without serious damage, then a destroyer makes a run right over my position. Fuel bunkers ripped open, hydrophone destroyed, periscopes destroyed, aft torpedo room, engine room and aft crew quarters flooded. A promising young Oberleutnant dead.
• Third career, sneaking up on the rear of a convoy, totally missing the auxiliary cruiser in the rear. It opens up with guns blazing, several other ships join in the fun. I manage to dive with serious flooding in the forward torpedo room. I have to keep up my speed and have the repair team working in order to stop the flooding and maintain depth. Unfortunately, I make a lot of noise like that and am depth-charged. More flooding. The boat rapidly sinks now and nothing I can do can to slow it down. At 220 metres or so, the boat implodes. Another young Oberleutnant dead...
• Did I mention planes yet? Trying to shoot it out on the surface? No? Well...I'd better not...

[JazzJR]

Originally Posted by GoDeep

• Did I mention planes yet? Trying to shoot it out on the surface? No? Well...I'd better not...

Oh that was a fun before GWX also these little Patrolboats, which now kill your whole crew and destroy the boat.

[Sharkbait24]

I didn't lose my ship, but I came very close. I was on approach to a large convoy with a light escort, at night. I managed to get in between the columns and started blasting off torpedoes left and right. What I didn't expect was them to start zigzagging. I looked at my map and it showed one of the merchants dangerously close. I sprinted up to the bridge (we were at Decks Awash) only to find a medium tanker bearing down, seemingly unaware of us and just following his zigzag. My precious U-67 was subsequently keelhauled by the tanker, and we sank to 150m before recovering.

[WWII44]

I was fighting a destroyer in my old VIIC sub the U-529. I had jus barly surfaced in order to atempt to get the destroyer to ram us and tear its own bottom out from the raming. she struck the conning tower where I was and the impact threw me over board last thing i remember is the destroyer was droping depth charges. when I came to all that was left of the U-529 was a greasy oilslick and the destroyer was not to far away burning aand abandoned(I asume she blew her self up with her own deapth charges). I flip anover turned life boat and stayed there for two days befor being rescued by the U-106.

[mightymightychatham]

The first sub I lost was a VIIB. After installing the merchant fleet mod, I started a new career on 100% realism. I was in the channel when war was declared and made a spirited fighting withdrawral to the south west, sinking a few merchants and evading the many patrol craft and a couple of proper escorts.

Anyway, drawing about level with Land's End, I thought "phew, I made it!" when my lookout spots a lone freighter steaming for the channel. It's daylight and I'm still well within air cover so I decide to make a submerged attack. She shrugs off the one torpedo I sent her and continues with only a slight list to port.

Well, I'm not following her for hours back into the channel to see if she sinks, so I decide to surface, sink her quickly with the deck gun and continue to my patrol sector. Big mistake.

I surfaced at about 1000m and immediately I'm being fired upon. "But she's not even armed!" I cried and then it dawned on me... A Q-ship! Well, not wanting to chance a dive now that my boat's filling with water at a rate of knots, I manned the deck gun personally (I'm rather good with it if I do say so myself) and actually sunk her first. None of my crew were even injured but the boat was beat up pretty bad, I began repairs and sailed off to my patrol sector.

Days later, returning to Germany, I spotted an Anson off the north coast of Scotland and without thinking ordered a crash dive. The boat imploded at 55m.

Just my luck there was a Q-ship, already in service and out to sea before war was declared. What the hell?

[Luno]

On my first ever career I got bold and decided to sneak into a port. I sunk a fishing boat and a tug with the 20 mm flak gun, but I attracted a destroyer. The water was too shallow to escape.

I'm on my second patrol and I haven't killed myself yet (fingers crossed).

On single missions I tend to be bit more reckless. My goal was to sink one of three capital ships. However, I did something wrong and all four of the torpedoes from my salvo missed. An hour later after the BBs were gone, I spotted a destroyer. I was going to quit anyway, so I engaged with the deck gun. I actually knocked out its main gun and bridge in a few hits. It was on fire and tried to ram me. I evaded it at the last second, but it must have been a mere few feet away. More ships came to assist and three boats came to ram me at once. I evaded one, and nearly another, but it scraped me along the hull, depleting hull integrity (minimal flooding at the time...)

On another single mission I was killed by a vastly reduced crush depth. I think I was only at 20-30 meters or so. It really caught me by surprise (it would be nice if the crew got more nervous as the boat reached the critical depth).

I have to ask though: how do you guys surrender/abandon ship?

[gt_magnus]

Of course I have lost some subs before the one I wrote about, but I don't remember them! Now, suddenly I remember one of the first subs I lost. A bit embarrasing, that one. It was outside Brest in 1941. I got hit by a **** schnellboot!

[Lord_magerius]

I don't remember my first loss in stock SH3 but I do remember my first GWX loss. Very well in fact

I was out near Rockhall banks when I got word of a Task Force heading straight for me. After having weeks of miserable weather, zero visibility and a boat load of dud torpedoes everything went red and I ordered flank speed for an intercept course. Being battered from a convoy attack that went wrong and Bernard manning the hydrophones missing every contact in the known universe I decided to vent my pent up medieval blood rage that had been brewing.

We sat at periscope depth, only coming up for the occasional bit of air and the odd game of life-size guess who (it was usually Hans, though by this point we all looked pretty similar after a month at sea) we picked up contacts directly east of us. Stroking my epic face rug that now clung to my chin like some form of rabid squirrel I took a peak through the periscope.

"one... two... three... four. Yes four of them heading our way. Hubert fetch me my battleaxe and prepare a boarding party"
"Sir, you don't have a battleaxe." he stuttered nervously "nor do we have enough men to board four ships."
"Very well, we'll just have to use the torpedoes instead." I replied, still nursing the creature that was now living on my face. We sat and waited, listening as the sound of the screws grew closer to us and our impending glory.

I risked another look through the periscope, "My God! It's the Nelson, open tubes one, two, three and four."
Slowly she edged towards us, 40,000 tonnes of glory, medals and all the women in Germany. Hmm... All the women in Germany, swooning over my shiny new medals and new found renown.
"Up periscope!" I yelled.
"Sir, the periscope is already up"
"Oh sorry, my mind was elsewhere" I said rather sheepishly. "Make ready to fire."

Just a few more seconds and she's mine. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, sounding like the warships screws we had eagerly anticipated all day.
"Wait for it, wait for it" I started to hesitate, she looked just beyond reach "Fire"

The whooshing of the torpedoes told us that they were all on their way, in less than sixty seconds we would know whether our gambit had paid off. The pounding of my heart grew louder and louder. It really did sound like a warship. Well maybe not a warship but a destroyer closing fast...

Spinning the periscope 90' my heart sank. The last thing I thought as the destroyer went through my face was how much I really liked my beard.