U-51 Kapitänleutnant Hans Felix Hartmann

[CPTLTJASON]

2/20/1939 Mediterranean Sea 19th day at sea

Schiff 35 entered the North Sea and 3 days later made for the Straits of Dover, transited the English Channel, and finally entered the North Atlantic. Schiff 35 retained her disguise as the Hamfels and on February 11th she crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. Schiff 35 was ordered to patrol the Gulf of Valencia. Her orders were most clear, she was to stop a ship and announce that she will be boarded. The boarding party commander is to present the ship as “Boarding ship 30” if the vessel is carrying contraband for the enemy she is to be scuttled. The following day Schiff 35’s crew got out the scaffolding and paint brushes and removed all DDG Hansa colors from the funnel and was painted black. On February 13th a liner came into view closing to 1700m this vessel was flying no flag so by lamp Hartmann signaled “stop ship and prepare to be boarded”. The boarding party under L.z.S Schmidt went aboard and discovered that the mystery ship was a Spanish Republican ship and she was carrying supplies provided by the Soviets. The 60 man crew was ordered to abandon ship and the demolition officer Oblt.z.S Wolff set charges in the engine room, boiler room, and in the holds at 07:20 the ship goes up and 6 minutes later sinks over the stern. She was the Campillo 8,002 grt. Hartmann moved on to the Gulf of Valencia and on the morning of the 15th Hartman and his officers had a conference. He planned to mine the Port of Valencia with 30 mines. With a map captured from the Campillo they were to lay the mines in 2 separate areas. This was carried out successfully the same night. On the 16th again at night another vessel flying no flag was again boarded and sunk it was the freighter Vicente 4,883 grt. From Odessa to Barcelona 40 were taken prisoner. The following day the radio room reported 4 ships had struck mines 3 confirmed sunk. In the evening a further 6 were sunk totaling 40,237 grt. The total tonnage sunk is now 62,018 grt. Hartmann plans to head further south for a while and make a sudden reappearance in a location yet to the determined.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by CPTLTJASON

2/20/1939 Mediterranean Sea 19th day at sea

Schiff 35 entered the North Sea and 3 days later made for the Straits of Dover, transited the English Channel, and finally entered the North Atlantic. Schiff 35 retained her disguise as the Hamfels and on February 11th she crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. Schiff 35 was ordered to patrol the Gulf of Valencia. Her orders were most clear, she was to stop a ship and announce that she will be boarded. The boarding party commander is to present the ship as “Boarding ship 30” if the vessel is carrying contraband for the enemy she is to be scuttled. The following day Schiff 35’s crew got out the scaffolding and paint brushes and removed all DDG Hansa colors from the funnel and was painted black. On February 13th a liner came into view closing to 1700m this vessel was flying no flag so by lamp Hartmann signaled “stop ship and prepare to be boarded”. The boarding party under L.z.S Schmidt went aboard and discovered that the mystery ship was a Spanish Republican ship and she was carrying supplies provided by the Soviets. The 60 man crew was ordered to abandon ship and the demolition officer Oblt.z.S Wolff set charges in the engine room, boiler room, and in the holds at 07:20 the ship goes up and 6 minutes later sinks over the stern. She was the Campillo 8,002 grt. Hartmann moved on to the Gulf of Valencia and on the morning of the 15th Hartman and his officers had a conference. He planned to mine the Port of Valencia with 30 mines. With a map captured from the Campillo they were to lay the mines in 2 separate areas. This was carried out successfully the same night. On the 16th again at night another vessel flying no flag was again boarded and sunk it was the freighter Vicente 4,883 grt. From Odessa to Barcelona 40 were taken prisoner. The following day the radio room reported 4 ships had struck mines 3 confirmed sunk. In the evening a further 6 were sunk totaling 40,237 grt. The total tonnage sunk is now 62,018 grt. Hartmann plans to head further south for a while and make a sudden reappearance in a location yet to the determined.

Hmmm... I think that ocean liner has seen better days. Great screenshots. Always loved the explosion/fire effects or Silent Hunter 5. And I like your choice to roleplay as an auxiliary cruiser. The amount of work that went into maintaining secrecy, disguising the ships, repainting in fake neutral colors, putting up artificial funnels etc is really fascinating.

[CPTLTJASON]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

Hmmm... I think that ocean liner has seen better days. Great screenshots. Always loved the explosion/fire effects or Silent Hunter 5. And I like your choice to roleplay as an auxiliary cruiser. The amount of work that went into maintaining secrecy, disguising the ships, repainting in fake neutral colors, putting up artificial funnels etc is really fascinating.

Thank you sir! glad you're enjoying the series Yes it was a lot of work.

[CPTLTJASON]

10/9/1939 EH 2427 Central Atlantic 101st day at sea

Ship 35 has been proceeding slowly along the shipping routes in search of more targets. Hartmann plans to remain in the Central Atlantic until November 1st. The tanker Ermland is expected to depart Kiel on October 11th and we will meet her at Point Andalusia in December. On October 7th , several changes have been made to Ship 35 Hartmann decided to change the disguise to a Greek freighter for this the following changes were made,
-4 Single post derricks taken down (2 between the funnel and bridge and 2 deck house aft)
-Peeling paint was not touched up as Greek freighters are not maintained well. the white line will remain, and since Greece is neutral, 6 Greek flags were painted on the hull, 3 on each side.
-The word “Greece” was painted 4 times on the hull 2 on each side
Ship 35 is now the Greek freighter ZEUS 8,800 grt (AMMZ). If we are Questioned when going from S to N we will be loaded with Misc. cargo from Karachi to Piraeus when going from N to S we will be in ballast from Piraeus to Durban. Today at 23:38 the port lookout on the Bridge OStrm Witterhold spotted a smoke column bearing 039T range 11.400m this was confirmed by the lookouts on the crosstrees who should have sighted it earlier nevertheless battle stations were called and soon Ship 35 closed the range at 23:56 the ship decamouflaged and opened fire on the ships which turned out to be a two stack liner, tanker, and small cargo ship. 181 HE 5.9 inch shells sent all three ships to the bottom. Hartmann ordered the motor launch and 4 lifeboats to rescue the survivors. A total of 204 were picked up from the 3 ships only the master of the tanker survived. All prisoners were searched and then sent to the prisoner hold and Hold No.6 the wounded were treated in the ship’s hospital. We now have a total of 536. Ship 35 is now seriously overcrowded so the next ship that is sighted will have to be taken intact. Proceeding NNW speed 12 knots.
All ships departed in convoy from Southampton, England to Singapore All ships were British,
-CRUSADER 17,957 grt loaded with stores for the army and misc. cargo. Ship belonged to the Ellerman Line
-ULISES 10,028 grt loaded with 11,900 tons of gasoline. Tanker belonged to the British Tanker Co.
-WACOSTA 2,192 grt loaded with aircraft engines and propellers. Freighter belonged to the Smith Shipping Co.
So far Ship 35 has sunk 7 ships for 51,847 grt




[IMG]

[CPTLTJASON]

10/12/1939 DR 2814 Central Atlantic 103rd day at sea.

Ship 35’s search for a suitable ship to take prize came to an end. At 22:25 Lookouts on the bridge sighted navigation lights bearing 257°T range 3300m Hartmann turned Ship 35 around, decamouflaged, and fired a warning shot with the 3.7 cm the liner, a Portuguese, stopped and switched on its mast lights. A boarding party under L.z.S Schmidt boarded the ship and discovered that she had in fact been sold to the Hugh Shipping Co. Ltd, Southampton and that the transfer of ownership had taken place in Rio and was now sailing under control of the British company. The liner was travelling in Ballast from Rio to Clydebank for conversion into a troopship. Hartmann took the liner prize putting Oblt.z.S.d.R Burkhard von Muller in command he was given a crew of 2 officers, 8 petty officers, and 30 ratings. During the next 5 hours the prisoners except Captains, engineering officers, and radio personnel were transferred to the Meridian 9,988 grt (DMNL). The liner was renamed Marsburg and commissioned into the Kriegsmarine as a supply ship. She has room for about 800. Food and supplies were later transferred. The Marsburg is instructed to proceed to DF 70 via the Green Route and wait there until Ship 35 returns. Both ships parted ways at dawn.

[CPTLTJASON]

Preview:
3/13/1938 38th day at sea Baltic Sea Training Square A

Schiff 35 underway during trials. I’ve been planning a very detailed and complex operation for Schiff 35 it’s a mishmash of the cruises of the Wolf, Möwe, Atlantis, and Pinguin. I’ll go into more detail in the next post.

[CPTLTJASON]

https://www.facebook.com/HKSchiff35

Started a facebook page dedicated to Schiff 35 here I will post behind the scenes content as well as the logbook, charts, plans for minelaying, etc. Of course I will be posting here as well