I've joined the 100K Patrol Club!

[predavolk]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Next target....the six zeros club

Well, thanks to GLORIOUS Florida (see other thread), I sank 21 ships (9 tankers, 11 freighters, and 1 destroyer) for a total of 124K tons! I'm now, at patrol #15, standing in the six zeros club too. Total tonnage = 1,061,141 tonnes. Boy, was switching to a Type IX ever worth it!

[antikristuseke]

Welcome to the club

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by predavolk

Well, thanks to GLORIOUS Florida (see other thread), I sank 21 ships (9 tankers, 11 freighters, and 1 destroyer) for a total of 124K tons! I'm now, at patrol #15, standing in the six zeros club too. Total tonnage = 1,061,141 tonnes. Boy, was switching to a Type IX ever worth it!

I meant in a single patrol

[Brag]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

I meant in a single patrol

Jimbunaaaa! Even with your wolfies and your smileys you can't do that!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Brag

Jimbunaaaa! Even with your wolfies and your smileys you can't do that!

Everyone can dream

[predavolk]

Yet another 100K patrol. Wow- 1942 is my kind of year! Talk about the 2nd Happy Times indeed!!! Although the air cover is starting to get a little too heated for my tastes.

[sunvalleyslim]

Congrats Predavolk, Greatness comes early but one must learn to survive ones ultimate fate...................greatness comes with survival in the end.......end the war alive and I will salute Kaleun............Great Hunting and Remember Honor the Fatherland

[predavolk]

Oh, absolutely. I'm really pleased to be racking up these big scores now, but I don't expect them to last forever. I'm rather dreading the later years of the war, and may end up switching boats to a VII-41, then a XXI when it's available. At least, that's my plan. For the moment though, I plan on smashing and grabbing as much tonnage and renown as I can while the gettings good. Because as I commented in my Florida thread, it's already getting nasty in the air. I made it back from this patrol with only 35% hull integrity!

And for anyone else who is in, or who joins the club, I'd love to hear about your 100K patrols. I always enjoy learning from the best!

[SmokinTep]

Congrats...................now can you do it again?

[Jimbuna]

LOL :rotfl:

[Stealth Hunter]

Herr Kaleun,

Congrats to you and to your crew on joining the 100K club. You're now among our ranks. Will order some cognac when we return to port for you. Best of luck until then!

-Kptlt. Lothar Albrecht von Siegfried, U-90

[BasilY]

Just achieve my career high of 137,000 tonages, GWX2.1 72% realism, IXB. But I pay for it with my life along with my 56 crew members. Got too greedy, spend my second to last torp on a ore carier (hit but not sunk). With only 1 torp left, 4 DD on my tail, and only 25 feets of water from surface, my type IX has zero chance of chance of escape.

Patrol Summary:
1. Bermuda Raid - 2 torp for a southlampton. deckgun large troop ship in harbor.
2. Patrol off Miami for 10 days, total to 88k
3. Sunk the Atlantic City Day trip Cruise liner (ceremic) total to 100k
Last radio message: "L Convoy SE Of NY, Don't attack in shallow wa..."

I heard of a website where 100k patrols are being submitted, Where is it?



Date and Time
Grid
Occurrences
22 Apr 1943 1935 Patrol 17
U-65, 1st Flotilla
Left at: April 22, 1943, 19:35
From: Brest
Mission Orders: Patrol grid ED91 25 Apr 1943 1434 BF 14 Ship sunk! Whale Factory Ship, 12017 tons 26 Apr 1943 2150 BE 62 Ship sunk! Granville-type Freighter, 4707 tons 16 May 1943 1004 DD 18 Ship sunk! Tacoma class, 1430 tons 1028 DD 18 Ship sunk! HMS Southampton (Southampton class), 10725 tons 1214 DD 18 Ship sunk! S.S. Scalona (Large Troop Ship), 12760 tons 22 May 1943 1708 DM 23 Ship sunk! Whale Factory Ship, 12018 tons 24 May 1943 1015 DM 26 Ship sunk! Schooner, 17 tons 1944 DM 26 Ship sunk! Whale Factory Ship, 12019 tons 26 May 1943 0439 DB 98 Ship sunk! M/V Ranier (Modern Tanker), 8833 tons 28 May 1943 0230 DB 91 Ship sunk! Coastal Freighter, 1869 tons 29 May 1943 0620 DB 67 Ship sunk! Intermediate Tanker, 3490 tons 30 May 1943 0451 DB 67 Ship sunk! M/V Quemado Lake (Modern Tanker), 8787 tons 07 Jun 1943 1657 CA 27 Ship sunk! S.S. Albert E. Watts (Ceramic-type Ocean Liner), 15611 tons 08 Jun 1943 0522 CA 28 Ship sunk! USS Mason (Evarts class), 1192 tons 0541 CA 28 Ship sunk! HMS Mignonette (Flower class), 950 tons 0553 CA 28 Ship sunk! River class, 1250 tons 0608 CA 28 Ship sunk! M/V Fort Clatsop (Modern Tanker), 8788 tons 0619 CA 28 Ship sunk! M/V French Creek (Modern Tanker), 8790 tons 0634 CA 28 Ship sunk! M/V Tolovana (Large Tanker), 10598 tons 0701 CA 28 Ship sunk! River class, 1250 tons 0723 Patrol results
Crew losses: 56 dead
Ships sunk: 20
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonnage: 137101 tons

[Silver_Silence]

Getting 100k ton patrol in late war is definitely much more challenging. When I start my career in 1939, my regular routine starting with raiding Southend at east coast English. The port has 2 large transport (24k x2), a modern tank (10k) and a medium cargo carrying tanks (5k) At the beginning of the war, all they have are a couple of asw trawler and torpedo boats. The net is nearly useless as defense as long as one can get around them. I nap 60k ton that way. Then I head to dover. There is a southhampton light cruiser sitting close to an openning by a dock - easy kill for another (10k). Now I have 70k with a few torp left and still full ammo for my deck gun. The remaining 30k is not that difficult to get. But then I find that it is much more difficult to do as the war progress.

[predavolk]

Well, my last patrol again fell short of the 100K mark. That's the bad news. The good news is that my new XXI is awesome! I mean, wow. This thing is the real deal.

I won't go into all of the details, but I set out to patrol AM 49, riding the Hebrides Straight (sp?). I took on multiple single or twin solo-ships before reaching my patrol grid, touring it for 24, and returning to AM 53. I get plenty of solo-ship action, but all the convoys I run into are simply too big for me to take on. Even with 6 homing torps on board (cashed in my renown), I can't take on 7+ escorts. I wouldn't even want to take 5 or 6 in case I miss. I also passed on a small carrier because it had 6+ escorts. Not worth it.

So I'm almost out of torps, thinking about Lock Ewe or another raid. But I decide discretion is the better part of valor and sail out into the Atlantic so I can make a clean save (don't you all just LOVE the save game bug? ). But, as fortune would have it, I run into a small convoy of 10 merchants escorted by three escorts! A fourth turns up, but my now 5 homing torps (used one to finish a damaged, but fleeing medium merchant) make short work of them. I'm glad I had an extra because one homing torp went after a nearby merchant instead of the targeted destroyer! Once they're demolished, I have the convoy at my mercy. Sadly, the biggest ship is a medium tanker, followed by a small passenger cruiser and a medium merchant. I have three torpedoes left. I hit the first two, but my magnetic torp fails on the merchant ship (this is '44, that shouldn't happen!). Sadly, I also don't get credit for the medium tanker, despite watching it blow up and sink in front of me. That also happened with a large cargo ship that I hit, and watched sink, earlier. Rather frustrating. Another frustration is that convoys are everywhere! This means that as I'm finishing up this convoy, another one is running right towards me, with its gaggle of escorts. Thankfully the beautiful underwater speed of the XXI gets me the hell out of Dodge. So a total of 2.5 weeks, 70K tons. If this keeps up, I might not crack 100K per patrol, but I should be able to keep up the same overall tonnage!

My usual tips:

1- Decoys work kinda well, but you have to lay them well in advance of your opponent, and leave a "screen" of them spread out so that a slight deviance of course by the pursuer won't open up a clear view of your boat. I also use them when "dogfighting" up close with escorts as a way to throw off their aim, or sometimes, to get them to stop dead in the water. BOOM!

2- Homing torps are SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET. My new operating procedures are to take on lone merchants and/or convoys with 5 or fewer escorts.

3- The snorkel is useful primarily as a means of high-speed underwater dashes during pursuit. As a recharging tool, it remains much more dangerous than actually surfacing your boat. Airplanes are drawn to it like a magnet, and you don't get to see them coming. Once, I detected the plane coming in even though I was submerged with scopes down. I don't know why, but I did dive deeper and evade!

4- Have I said how great the XXI is? This boat, in numbers, is a war winner. Two of them could rip a convoy apart, no problem. Especially with a few homing torpedos to take out the escorts. A wolfpack of XXIs in the mid-atlantic would cut the UK off, no problem.

5- Having not been around the UK since early 1940 in my VIIB, I'm happy to take any suggestions for good hunting spots.

So that's it for now. Like I said, I'm happy to take any good UK hunting suggestions. Also, are there mines along the West coast? I'm avoiding the East coast of the UK because I seem to recall it being heavily mined after 1941.

[PappyCain]

100K in one patrol! Jeezum. I am slugging it out to get the above. I thought 273K was a best in historical career total.
Seems like the most patrols before capture or death was 16. Most were under 10. I am at 9 on the above.

http://www.uboat.net/men/aces/top.htm