Adventures of a newb on full realism!

astromattical · 01-19-14, 10:26 PM

Picking up where we left off, in pursuit of an unknown cargo ship off of Scapa Flow. We spent hours and hours surfaced in the rough seas to maximize our speed in order to close the distance between U-52 and the cargo vessel. It was rough on the crew, but it paid off in the end. Eventually, we started getting close enough to get a glimpse of the flag...

We continued at ahead full, continuing to close the distance. No signs of other ships in the area, so we continued surfaced without concern though with watchful eyes in all directions. Eventually we made a positive identification - Great Britain! We immediately took a few shots with our deck gun in hopes of slowing it down to close the range and make for an easy firing solution.

A few hits slowed it down to around 4kts, and we thus quickly closed in for the kill.

We opened tube 1 and revised our firing solution now that we were in a good position. Closing the distance certainly made for a much easier time dealing with the rough seas (will this storm pass already?!?!). Sadly, even with the close distance, I still had to use three torpedoes, with a successful impact on the third.

We passed by to watch what we couldn't have begun to imagine as we set out on our patrol. Our very first contact turned out to be an unescorted cargo ship from GB, and we managed to sink it!

We rotated the crew out for some much needed rest. We continued on our patrol towards our assigned grid of AM19 after sending in the report of our successful attack. While our technique I'm sure will likely get us killed in the future, we learned a lot and will revise our attack methods (open to advice!). By far the most difficult part is getting close enough and making a positive identification.

Tonnage_Ace · 01-19-14, 10:36 PM

Good job man

three torpedos for that poor little steamer is a little much but you'll get lots of practice once you start hitting those convoys in BE

I'm still in my little type IIA coastal boat, creeping along Scapa Flow's western coast, good hunting grounds for single ships and the odd convoy

I'm in March 1940

astromattical · 01-19-14, 10:42 PM

Thanks Tonnage. One was more than enough, but the first two missed so it had to be three.

One great thing about SH3 besides the simulation itself is the amount of history I am reading up on. Very fascinating!

Aktungbby · 01-20-14, 01:26 AM

Welcome aboard ASTROMATTICAL!

just a thought though: anything under 3000 tons, not shooting back at you, is strictly deck gun fodder; save the eels for big stuff and one eel crips are finished off with the deck gun too. "One ship one eel"- Kretschmer; primarily think of yourself as a submersible gunboat with torpedo augmentation and watch your tonnage go way up! No 10000 reichsmark eels for 1900 tons kaleun! The war must pay for itself!

astromattical · 01-20-14, 04:17 AM

That makes perfect sense - I hope those torps don't come out of my paycheck! I promise it won't happen again! (little do you know that it just happened again...and I missed...shhh)

01-20-14, 01:26 AM	#4
Aktungbby Gefallen Engel U-666 Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: On a tilted, overheated, overpopulated spinning mudball on Collision course with Andromeda Galaxy Posts: 30,016 Downloads: 24 Uploads: 0	the cost of war Welcome aboard ASTROMATTICAL!just a thought though: anything under 3000 tons, not shooting back at you, is strictly deck gun fodder; save the eels for big stuff and one eel crips are finished off with the deck gun too. "One ship one eel"- Kretschmer; primarily think of yourself as a submersible gunboat with torpedo augmentation and watch your tonnage go way up! No 10000 reichsmark eels for 1900 tons kaleun! The war must pay for itself! __________________ "Only two things are infinite; The Universe and human squirrelyness?!! Last edited by Aktungbby; 01-20-14 at 01:42 AM.

01-19-14, 10:26 PM	#1
astromattical Swabbie Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 6 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Picking up where we left off, in pursuit of an unknown cargo ship off of Scapa Flow. We spent hours and hours surfaced in the rough seas to maximize our speed in order to close the distance between U-52 and the cargo vessel. It was rough on the crew, but it paid off in the end. Eventually, we started getting close enough to get a glimpse of the flag... We continued at ahead full, continuing to close the distance. No signs of other ships in the area, so we continued surfaced without concern though with watchful eyes in all directions. Eventually we made a positive identification - Great Britain! We immediately took a few shots with our deck gun in hopes of slowing it down to close the range and make for an easy firing solution. A few hits slowed it down to around 4kts, and we thus quickly closed in for the kill. We opened tube 1 and revised our firing solution now that we were in a good position. Closing the distance certainly made for a much easier time dealing with the rough seas (will this storm pass already?!?!). Sadly, even with the close distance, I still had to use three torpedoes, with a successful impact on the third. We passed by to watch what we couldn't have begun to imagine as we set out on our patrol. Our very first contact turned out to be an unescorted cargo ship from GB, and we managed to sink it! We rotated the crew out for some much needed rest. We continued on our patrol towards our assigned grid of AM19 after sending in the report of our successful attack. While our technique I'm sure will likely get us killed in the future, we learned a lot and will revise our attack methods (open to advice!). By far the most difficult part is getting close enough and making a positive identification.

01-19-14, 10:36 PM	#2
Tonnage_Ace XO Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Vancouver Posts: 411 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Good job man three torpedos for that poor little steamer is a little much but you'll get lots of practice once you start hitting those convoys in BE I'm still in my little type IIA coastal boat, creeping along Scapa Flow's western coast, good hunting grounds for single ships and the odd convoy I'm in March 1940

01-19-14, 10:42 PM	#3
astromattical Swabbie Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 6 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	Thanks Tonnage. One was more than enough, but the first two missed so it had to be three. One great thing about SH3 besides the simulation itself is the amount of history I am reading up on. Very fascinating!

01-20-14, 04:17 AM	#5
astromattical Swabbie Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 6 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	That makes perfect sense - I hope those torps don't come out of my paycheck! I promise it won't happen again! (little do you know that it just happened again...and I missed...shhh)