U-Boot stories

[ahaseurus2000]

My last patrol:
Left port on 15 Feb 1942. A couple of times in the Heavy Fog a destroyer popped out of nowhere, and at 1024x time I could barely react! Crash dive to 110 meters, run silent and slow, they quickly lost me and went away.
Anyway, off the SW coast of Ireland all these Sutherlands appeared out of nowhere and began straffing me, at least 10 at a time!! I got crew on both flak guns (double barrelled) and had a shootout for twenty minutes, three crew wounded including my flak petty officer in exchange for three planes shot down. Then more appeared with bombs... Crash Dive!
I should have saved game after that, cause I got depth-charged trying to outrun a tribal destroyer...

But that shootout was so cool

[S Rafty]

Originally Posted by Kresge

Laughing Swordfish's U-46 story has inspired me to start a blog now that I have time to return to SHIII. For now it is more of a log of my in-game patrols, but I recently began blogging to brush up on my writing skills; long since diminished after college and working in a hardware store. I hope, with time, to rise to the level of LaughingSwordfish!


I hope you enjoy the adventures of Jurgen Trompetespieler:
http://trompetespieler.blogspot.com/

Amen...Same thing. After college and the McDs lol. My mind..rotted! Will never finish my novel. lol!

[Kriegsmarinesalior1942]

I leave the Sub pen at brest at 2300 hours heading for the Grand Banks. The boat is running well at 2/3 when the bridge crew spots a V and W destroyer berring down on us . I order Crashdive and hear the Xos shout of Alarm of the closing of hatches. Yet i am a dumkoff! i have dove with only 15 meters under my kiel. the crew braces for impact as our VIIC hits the bottom destroying tubes 3,4. I curse loudly and cut the engines. soon we have flooding through the bow compartments. Yet we can not fix the problum because of the now lurking v&w pack above us. We creep along at ahead slow for 1 hour before losing the brits thank god for decoys!. We surface and make repairs. We head north at ahead flank when we spot a c3 operating alone. we surface and manover around the freighter firing our 88' at her keel. We finally send her to the bottom when the sound of aircraft reach our ears. there is no time to dive and we are to shallow to even think of it. The gunners man there stations and continuosly pump out 20 cm shells aluminating the night with there muzzle flashes. we score one hit and a smoldering B-24 lets of a hiss of steam as its super heated metal hit the atlantic but i suffered the fate of many captans and was destroyed by the 2nd flight of 24's in the next 5 min.

[Lafferty]

Wow this is intresting thanks for posting.

[Andrewsdad]

Here is one for the books !

I am off the Dutch coast in a Type IID when aircraft are spotted. A sharp-eyed lookout identifies them as He-111's headed to bomb England. A hour later more aircraft. Spitfires !!! Crash dive and hope they didn't see us....

Now at the north end of the Channel. Lookout spies a destroyer heading straight toward us at 5000 meters. Down we go and the hunt is on !!!

Speed set to one knot. Silent Routine. This DD is pretty good as depth charges are close and I can't seem to get out of the circle she is making around us.

Sound detects a second destroyer. Now we are really in the soup !! As one listens the other pings and makes runs on us. However they are just a little astern and we may just escape. Then the sound of distant explosions on the hydrophone. What is that? Well I take a sneak peak with the camera and sure enough, the Luftwaffe has arrived and level bombers are dropping on the Englanders. Their AA is firing furiously as they circle around. I am not sure if the distraction will allow me to increase speed so I stay slow and quiet and continue to creep away.

The bombers are gone and the two destroyers continue to hunt. They are still very close and I am not yet safe.

About fifteen minutes later the sounds of surface detonations again !! Another look and I hear the unmistakable sounds of Stuka sirens !!! In moments the Ju87's have hit both destroyers and they are flaming wrecks !!! The mainmast one one falls overboard as the second ship sinks bow first. In five minutes the second destroyer is gone and I am safe.

We sent a case of schnapps to the Luftwaffe !!!

Salute !!
AD

[Brag]

Originally Posted by S Rafty

Amen...Same thing. After college and the McDs lol. My mind..rotted! Will never finish my novel. lol!

Persevere! If you write one page a day, you'll have a novel in a year.

[mcf1]

well I left at December 12 1940 07:59
From Lorient to patrol AM41
on my way there a report came in about a task force moving west at 7kts. it was about 150km NW of my position, so i changed my course and tried to get there as fast as possible,after i got there i was sure that i'll never find it, but iestimated it's course and started patrolling and after a while at 19:45 i heard: merchand, moving slow,bearing 059 long range.then i went to periscope depth and followed the ship.
I wanted to wait until sun fall to surface and get close enough and ofcourse stay undetected,a while later I was at about 1100m from the last row. This is my chance i thought and got to periscope depth. I couldn't see any destroyers nearby(although i knew ther was one my WO detected it) and at ahead flank i tried to place my uboot at perfect position to hit a T3 tanker i aimed for it and 2 c2 cargos next to it and fired i had only one bow torpedo left loaded and i saw the destroyer he was to my right, i cut the engines and turned to face him, i fired and i got him, all lunched torpedoes had hit their targets the T3 and one of the C2 were destroyed at once, so i kept firing torpedoes and struck the biggest ships close to me. Soon i had left only the external reserves and i wanted to sink more tonnage so i surfaced to load them and i started firing the deck gun to destroy what was left(personal experience: when firing at ships like C2 or C3 try to shoot at their cargo they make great explosions and less shels to sink)Soon i had nothing more to shoot, but i wanted to do more damage and i started firing with my 2cm AA gun. it
doesn't do much damage but managed to sink a cripled coastal merchant. Anyway tht was my best hunt ever, I scored over 80000 tonns.

[CNS]

My best patrol so far.....

Left Lorient around september 1940 and plotted a course to the north of Ierland when I got a contact report of a convoy not to far away from my position. Plotted an interceptcourse and headed full steam ahead.

After a short while made visual contact and went to periscope depth. Got into a position on the corner of the convoy to take a look at the escorts. Front escort was a Flower corvette and I let the convoy pass to see the escort in the back which turned out to be a Flower corvette as well. After the convoy is passed I surface the boat and position myself in front of the convoy. I decide to do a daring surface attack on the first Flower as a faily inexperienced CO .....and attack the Flower with my deckgun from a fair distance headon. After a few hits the Flower sinks and the Flower from the rear steams through the convoy to attack me. Because of this he cannot get to me head on and I have a good lock with my deckgun on the side of the second Flower which also sinks after a few hits .

Yes....finally we have a unescorted convoy at our disposal and I steam through the convoy to pick the best targets. Suddenly shell are impacting around the boat and get the message "Das boot ist beschadigd herr Kaleun" . I make a quick sweep with my attack periscope and discover an auxillary cruiser on the far side of the convoy. ALAAAAARM. I go to periscope depth and attack the cruiser with 2 torpedos aiming at the ammo bunkers. Both torpedo's hit their target and the cruiser goes down . I make a second sweep with my attack periscope and make sure there is absolutly no other warship in this convoy. Finally no more warships in this convoy and start attacking pyro ammunition ships, large cargo's and such.

After having uses all my torpedo's and deck gun ammo I report to BdU and I'm beeing orderd to return to base.

Final result
War ships sunk = 3
Tankers sunk = 1
Mechants sunk = 13
Total tonnage = 130000+

Also my first 100k patrol

[Jimbuna]

Welcome aboard Kaleun mcf1

[Ivan Putski]

Just a little run in with a surfaced "S" class sub, my first ever. I wrote a short description of the action at SHIII forums, Sim HQ, I`m providing the link if anyone is interested. Puts

http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthread...82#Post2388182

[sasquatch]

Originally Posted by CNS

My best patrol so far.....

Left Lorient around september 1940 and plotted a course to the north of Ierland when I got a contact report of a convoy not to far away from my position. Plotted an interceptcourse and headed full steam ahead.

After a short while made visual contact and went to periscope depth. Got into a position on the corner of the convoy to take a look at the escorts. Front escort was a Flower corvette and I let the convoy pass to see the escort in the back which turned out to be a Flower corvette as well. After the convoy is passed I surface the boat and position myself in front of the convoy. I decide to do a daring surface attack on the first Flower as a faily inexperienced CO .....and attack the Flower with my deckgun from a fair distance headon. After a few hits the Flower sinks and the Flower from the rear steams through the convoy to attack me. Because of this he cannot get to me head on and I have a good lock with my deckgun on the side of the second Flower which also sinks after a few hits .

Yes....finally we have a unescorted convoy at our disposal and I steam through the convoy to pick the best targets. Suddenly shell are impacting around the boat and get the message "Das boot ist beschadigd herr Kaleun" . I make a quick sweep with my attack periscope and discover an auxillary cruiser on the far side of the convoy. ALAAAAARM. I go to periscope depth and attack the cruiser with 2 torpedos aiming at the ammo bunkers. Both torpedo's hit their target and the cruiser goes down . I make a second sweep with my attack periscope and make sure there is absolutly no other warship in this convoy. Finally no more warships in this convoy and start attacking pyro ammunition ships, large cargo's and such.

After having uses all my torpedo's and deck gun ammo I report to BdU and I'm beeing orderd to return to base.

Final result
War ships sunk = 3
Tankers sunk = 1
Mechants sunk = 13
Total tonnage = 130000+

Also my first 100k patrol

You were using a Type IX, weren't you?

[BulSoldier]

a story of unfortunate death (like there is fortunate ) ,bit long but if someone is about to read it,be my guest,ill be happy to hear what would you say about it.May find some similarities to das boot characters (or may not in any case it is hasty made story). Gramatic errors are sure to be present since my native language is not english,not at all (i hope to understand some of the strangly written words )





A step too far



Early octomber 1942 , the war in the Atlantik is getting more savage.The tommies are learning.They arent making mystakes anymore,the uboot losses are rising.Aircrafts are making uboots vunarable,day and night. Yet the most successful Kaleun in the Ubootwaffe is sailing out of Lorient.Horst Rummel made himself legend throught the third reich with his successes both with convoy attacks and surface engagements.
But now the tide of the war has changed, yet again.With every step Grossadmiral Doenitz does to give advantage to his ubootflotte the enemy`s creativity counters in a few months.This time the enemy gets the upper hand,and there is no sollution over the enemy aircrafts hunting the boots,neighter to enemy`s ever increasing effectivnes of the escorts.

The boot sets out of the harbor with one third ahead.Slowly cutting waves infront of her bow.U-125 is sent in the carribean, a destination on the edge of her range.First days are clear,no enemies in sight.The boot moves towards her intented patrol area and ever vigilant watch crew has set eyes on the horrizon,looking for targets,both ships or planes.
Kaleun Rummel does regular dives for sound sweeps of the area, but to no success.He is not happy,knowing the enemy can be only 30 miles from his position,may be a massive convoy,yet no way to find it.
After the first clear days comes the severve weather of the Atlantik Ozean in the late autumn.A heavy fog , a strong wind and a waves as tall as the boot itself.The crew in the boot is strugling to be calm,but weather is a force so mighty that noone can strugle with it. Kaleun Rummel goes deep and surfaces only for battery recharge and oxygen refreshment.The weather stays in such a way for a week. Then as suddenly as it has changed into a storm,now it is clear.Wind still is strong, making waves witch hit the boot sending her on one side,then another,yet she can endure this,if there is a ship witch could survive the worst of weather,this is Das U Boot.Several days the weather stays clear and windy.Thats not a problem with her crew,they had endured such a treatment now several patrols,but the total absence of enemy is making them tired.Books and jokes,that`s all they can do,but that is until first few days,a week may be,then what.Everyone knows each other for years now,staying toghter in the boot with months in few occasions.One attack can keep their morale high for days,that is if the boot survives the usual depthcharging.
That’s the worst.Staying in the iron coffin,listening to the enemy,waiting to hear either the PING of the asdik, or the sound of enemies propellers going full ahead, prepearing the depth attack.Then only holding on something hoping the Kaleun made a successful evasive maneuver and evaded the wasserbombs.And then,the terrible blow of the bombs.Sometimes distant, sometime a meter too close, making the boot strugling to keep itslelf pressurized.

A contact !

A foggy day but that is of no matter.The enemy is nearby,if it be only a 2k ton steamer but enemy non the less.Closing surfaced due to the fog Commander Rummel gets us 1000 meters of the contact estimated position since last hearing it.Diving at periscope depth and yes,it is very close to the estimated by the Kaleun.Closing a bit more and yes a visual contact is established by the periscope.Little more than a minute and Rummel gets a firing solution on the ship.Firing with 2 Aals the small ships has no chance of surviving the blast.Nothing can be done now,waiting to hear the blast.Kaleun gives me a glans through the periscope,yes it is a small ship but a target.For a second a though strikes, what about the men in there,in that weather they have little chance,not including that we are in the middle of the ozean in a stormy winter weather.Not our concern,they are the enemy and that’s it.Besides the boot barely holds the neccesery crew to keep her running.Barely gets enough room for all the food.No,no place for picking survivors.This is not a commerce raider,not a surface ship with room to spare,no, this is small pressurized hull with a place barely keeping her crew and that’s it.

A blast rips the hull of the mearchant ship,and a second one,she sinks.A scream of joy by the crew.

Takes deeper chief , are the words of Rummel and after several hours creeping away the boot surfaces and continues her journey towards carribean.

A month at sea ! The crew is dirty as it can get.It is not summer in mid Atlantik,no a winther in nord atlantik. The crew cant go swimming cleaning part of the dirt.No infection yet but the health is not good.Young men are as beardy as old seawolves, but that is how it is in U boot.The Lords of the sea left the harbor as young boys and when return they look as a true grey wulf of the sea,like a viking of the medieval ages.

Carribean, close to heaven in the summer,not now.Stormy and foggy is the weather.One thing now concerns Kaleun more than other,the fuel.Such a long and almost fruitless journey with so much spent fuel,little left for activly seeking targets.He is in a dilema.Should he spent more fuel on the hunt and then goes to the milk cow to refuel for a return journey,or play it safe and set sail to home as soons as the fuel reaches close to critical for trip to home.No, he cant risk the boot,what if the milkcow is destroyed,then a surrender or death of starvation.No he will set sail to home as soon as fuel reaches the limit.

A course to nord est , atlast a long journey home has began.Weeks pass, 46 days at sea and again mid atlantik,with even worse weather and as barren as throughout the patrol.
The crew is in bad shape.The long journey makes them lazy and slow.No much to speak with others.Everyone who wants to speak of anything had spoken already,nothing to talk about.The one thing noone says a word is the course of the war,that is tabu.

Few days later, a contact !

The procedure is the same,this time the weather is not foggy but clear,yet still a moderate waves.Not suitable for a deckgun attack on the signle mearchant,so the Kaleun plots intercept course and goes full ahead.Reaching intented destination and goes down to periscope depth.A contact is established and being tracked.Periscopes down we creep to about a kilometer from the target,perfect angle of attack.Rising periscope, indentifing the ship,calculating distance,speed, and angle of the bow.Firing solution calculated, firing 3 Aals, and a minute later all the three explode.The ships sunk,again those thouths about the drawning sailors.A loss but it is either we or them.Part of the officers are happy to destroy the ships,especially the chief.He loves the machineries,for him they are living breathing souls.To see them sinking, such a good ships.The lords of the sea have no such concerns,they are young thinking about glory and still believing in the fuhrer.The Kaleun, Chief and second watch officer are from the first group.They are from so called the old band.From the beginning of the war sailing in such a boots.They atleast are like a true brotherhood, always together.Noone really knows why Kaleun Rummel is not transferred to the training flottilla.

The sixty third day, we are several hundred kilometers west of Spain. A strike of luck or the baddest report received.
A contact send by a fellow Kaleun in another U BOOT.The convoy is heading directly towards our current position.After more than two months at sea, Horst Rummel doesn’t really want to attack anything,everyone is tired from such a journey.Yet no such wish can be red on the face of herr Kaleun.He decides the duty to attack enemy at every oportunity must be fullfiled.Attack will be initiated.

Several hours and a sound contact is made.A bad luck or a good one, the weather has changed through this few hours.From light fog to a very heavy one.It is dark but Rummel is on high alert.It seems he has a some sort of feeling and by the look on his face,this is not good one.
He decides to make surface attack,though the hydrophone the cource by the convoy is nearly perfect for attack.It seems the front convoy escort has passed them and the boot is somewhere between the front escort and first sideone.The visibility is less than a kilometer.It was a bad luck,it was ! The watch crew cries ALARM ! Kaleun Rummel sees for a second the approaching bow of a ship,too narrow for a meachant,after few more second the falling shells confirm this, a zestroyer.

The crew now is as fresh as it was in the first days after going into sea.The Lords force their way to the bow and she slowly goes down.Luckly no depthcharges are being dropped on the boot..Rummel orders course away of the convoy slowly going deeper and moving silently.A dreadful sound is heard.The ASDIK ! A bombing for hour, everyone is on the edge of his nerves,yet after so much dodging the attacks everytime the destroyer finds them.The bombs began falling closer,yet still managing to evade them.Now moving at full ahead again trying to dodge the attack, explosions are so close that the boot creaks under the force.
Few minutes at silent running and again the ping of the asdik, but it is worse now, a second hunter has joined the hunt.Another wave of wasserbomben and another dodging of the attack,but not without damage.It seems the flak guns has been damaged by close falling depth charges.Herr Kaleun decides to go as deep as he dares, 200 meters, a magic barrer in the uboots. Yet even as deep as that the tommies are too good,they don’t leave them, moving close and bombing becomes more accurate.Now the position in witch Rummel fell is not good at all,being bombed by experienced crews,already token some damage and it seems with no big chances of easy escape.Nomatter what he tries, the her majesty ships keep finding him.

Again wasserbomben, a words witch arent welcome from any mouth,escpecially this of the sonarman,not in this situation.

A explosion echoes throughout the boot, “FLOODING” cries out someone in the bow. Heavy leaks thoughout the front of the boot, everything towards the bow after the central room is being flooded and the crew strugles both to stop the leaks and pump out the water.The explison was close but no critical to the pressure hull, it keeps the boot in one piece.But the situation is not good,at 200 meters the boot is sinking slowly, and another attack is about to be carried.Chief curses, so does the Kaleun, but it does nothing to help the boot.Orders said by Rummel are carried out and all depends now on the crew.

A cold sweat is visible on the forehead of the Kaleun, 210 meters, he never dived so deep.The creaks of the pressure hull are loud enough to scare him,and he is not a man to be scared easily,no matter by the pressure or anything else.A beginning of a prayer is heard,but with no end, the pressure is too strong….

[SilverGhost]

Another small freighter dies, there were no survivors. April, 1940

[Checkmate King 2]

While cruising in our 2nd cruise in the U-53 VIIB towards our patrol grid BE31, I decided to take a gamble to check out a "certain port" in England that has been known by the BdU to have a "certain" capital ship docked there in late summer, early fall, in 1939. While attempting to sneak into the harbor, around 07:30, we were able to avoid the 2-3 boats patrolling the main entrance to the south by hugging the shoreline at periscope depth. I picked out a nice spot to wait until dusk, before I made any attempt to raise my scope to see if any ships were in port.

While getting very close to my "waiting area", I received a report that we were receiving damage. Son-of-a-gun!!!; We ran into a submarine net!!! I immediately stopped the boat and sent the damage control party into action. After fixing the minor damage I received, I tried to reverse out of the net. It was no use. We were stuck!!!!!

While trying an emergency reverse, our stern starting to raise, since the bow was hooked to the net. I stopped all engines before the stern broke the surface. Next, I lowered the depth of the boat to as close as I could get to the harbor floor without hitting bottom. I then tried an emergency reverse again and I started to receive more bow damage. I had the repair crew fixing what they could. The noise from trying to get out of the net was getting louder and louder!!!! The boat started to move!!! Finally, we were free from the net but what about the patrol boats? .....Had they heard us?

Nothing!!!! The enemy still does not know we are here!!!! Boy, were we lucky!!!

Was I invincible or foolish? Only time would tell!!!

Since we had not been detected yet, I decided to run parallel to the net and try to find an opening. Lucky for us, we found the end of it less than 100 feet to the west. I continued to press on. We preceded north until we were close to one of the sea walls. I decided to raise my scope, for a quick 360 degree look, to see what was around, and then lowered it. The harbor looks almost deserted!!!! There were 1-2 small ships!!! Where are the big ones!!! I decided to do another quick look. While, scanning the harbor, I saw the same small ships I had seen the first time.........but wait what was that!!!! I spotted the mast and superstructure of a capital ship barely visible due to a dock structure blocking it. I dropped the scope and went in closer for a better look.

There she is!!!!! The HMS Hood still moored in her berth!!!!

I was able to position my U-boat so I could get a bow shot and still have the proper distance for the torpedoes to run. We fired 4 eels and registered 3 hits all in the same location. The Hood started to sink right away. With her resting on the bottom of the harbor sea floor, at her berth, the sea water didn't even touch her decks. After seeing her radar still rotating , I attempted fire another torpedo however, it just bounced off the hull. I decided I was really pushing my luck; time to get out of here!!!
We were successful in exiting the harbor, the same way we came in. Lucky for us, I had remembered to mark the location of the submarine net and its opening on the map and proceeded to exit the area.

About 20 -30 minutes after clearing the nets, I decided to raise the scope to see what the patrol boats were doing. Panic over took my face as I saw an ASW trawler less then 300 feet away and closing right on top off me (hydrophones had picked up nothing). I yelled out for ahead flank, hard to port. The trawler came right over me and dropped 3-4 DC’s. Wham!!! Wham!!! Wham!!! Next, I receive the dreaded news, “Sir we are taking on damage!” I did a quick check on the damage screen; all 4 bow tubes destroyed!!!!

For over an hour we tried to shake off repeated attacks from the trawler with a small PT type torpedo boat covering him. The trawler is slowly ripping my U-boat apart with numerous successful DC attacks in shallow water. Things are getting more and more critical my the minute as our carbon dioxide level is getting high. I need to do something. Do I attempt to surface and try to out run him or do I try to put an eel in him from aft; my single remaining working torpedo tube?

After raising the scope again, I saw that the trawler was all by himself. The PT type boat was not too far away however, I saw the PT boat must have gone to get his sister; there were two of them now heading back in my direction.

I quickly flooded the aft tube as I had gained a lock on the trawler. The seconds are going by as hours!!! I hold out on firing as long as I dare, while trying to put some distance between us. Finally, 425, 450, 460, 470, FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


It wasn’t long before we heard an explosion!!!! The trawler was hit!!!! Within a minute she started to sink stern first. Lucky for us…..the PT boats don’t know where we’re at!!! Maybe we’ll be able to sneak out of here!!!!!

We made it out of the area and back to port with no more excitement.

We were very lucky!!!! The dock workers will be very busy fixing the U-53; We arrived back at home port with our hull integrity at a 52.32% !

From getting untangled from a submarine net to penetrating an enemy harbor in daylight and sinking a big capital ship; It will be a patrol I"ll never forget!!!

[hammer-princess]

All of these stories sound very interesting! I will definitely get stuck in with SHIII and get some of meh own stories to share! (I hope...)