airplanes

[Gargamel]

Tessa, How are they armed? did you hit him on the surface or submerged? Would their guns cause an Uboat much problems?

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

Early war (39- early 41). do the aircraft run at night? In particular, swordfish? Just got buzzed by some at dusk, and I'm running their back course at speed, trying to find the carrier. Also, what is their range (In game) from a carrier.

Jim, took yoru suggestion and opened the editor... apparently I just missed the Ark Royal crossing my path, unescorted it seems, by a couple days, but right now she's back in harbor.

Aircraft don't start attacking at night until 43'ish, you're safe at night until radar gets more refined and becomes standard on all ASW vehicles. Granted you usually encounter a B-17 or B-24 which nail you with saturation bombing instead of the precision strikes you get in the daytime. In the meantime you've got until sundown (general rule of thumb the sun is halfway down the horizon) that they will press the attack.

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

Tessa, How are they armed? did you hit him on the surface or submerged? Would their guns cause an Uboat much problems?

They are armed, though in my case by the time i got into firing postion the weather had drastically changed. Visibility was poor so there was a good chance I wasn't detected at all; in the other few experiences with flat tops they do shoot back like an armed merchant ship. Since the ship was depleted of planes it wasn't able to launch more attacks on me in the morning; which I imagine would contribute to the carrier's ability to detect where you are and move accordingly.

Their guns aren't a major threat to your boat (relative to the other surface warships), flat tops can travel fast but have poor maneuverability. Long shots are easily done since they can't stop; the hull is pretty much a large rectangular shape which maneuvers horribly. It can't turn fast enough like even a BB to avoid incoming eels. Carrier's themselves are a very weak target, without their planes they don't pose much of threat.

Here's a cap of one of the really nasty sorte's:



3 planes came as a squadron and my gunner nailed all 3 before they got close enough to even drop their bombs. If you look next to the event window you'll see the smoke plume from another downed plane.

By the time the last planes attacked it was getting dark and there was a drastic change in weather. It went from sunny to heavy rain that night, I wasn't able to catch up to the flat top and get into position until later the next morning. As I was travelling at flank most of the night to get ahead of it enough to get a good shot the weather got worse. Several times had to rely on my SO to make sure we were still on the right parrallel course with visibilty at times being only 1500m or so.

I fired the shot from the surface, with the bad weather and poor visibility there's a good chance he wasn't able to detect me, besides the planes the previous day it never fired another shot at me.

When I did finally get into position I sat there lying in wait for it to pass by perpendicular to me to get a perfect 90 shot, and if it missed I still had time to fire another eel at it before having to chase it down again. It was only a little over 1000m when I fired (with the visibility I can only assume he didn't detect me. If I hadn't have know there was a flat top there I wouldn't have been able to spot it with such poor visibility) my 2 torpedo salvo. One went wide and the other was right on the money, it blew up like a tanker full of aviation fuel.



Watching her go down was spectacular.

[Gerald]

Nice Pic,

[VONHARRIS]

@Tessa
Nice shooting against our nemesis : PLANES

Congratulations on sinking the carrier.

The BdU will have a Knights cross for you!

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by VONHARRIS

@Tessa
Nice shooting against our nemesis : PLANES

Congratulations on sinking the carrier.

The BdU will have a Knights cross for you!

The flak gunner that shot those planes down is now my 1WO. Shooting down 27 planes (in highly realistic GWX, not the vanilla version) during his time as the flak gunner has yet to be matched. Besides possessing natural talent on the AA gun he was always next to the officers/senior NCO's learning how to do the other trades on a ship. After about a year he was finally salty enough that I recommended him for command of his own boat and promoted him.

Definitely came home as the conquering hero after sinking a flat top. 1st night back treated the entire crew to a nice meal at one of the best restaurants in town, and of course let them have anything they wanted to drink. After such a great patrol it was the perfect way to release all that pent up energy and pride we took in sinking the most annoying type of warship there is. For a 5-star restaurant we raised quite a rucuss, though getting top shelf liquor and beer led to the crew enjoying their meal and drinks in a way they have never been accustomed too; compared to the usual bar they were extremely well behaved by their standards.

The tab that night was quite large, not being married and a FreggatenKapitan's salary helped ease the pain of seeing so many Deutcsh Marks dissapear fom my wallet; it was worth every penny, the crew deserved it. After a month at sea a premium cut Fillet Minion meant more the them than any decoration I could have pinned on their chest and was the biggest morale booster I've ever seen. Afterwards crew memeber constantly asked me if repairs had been completed, they were all anxious to get back to sea and do what they do best.

[B.N.R.T.]

Originally Posted by Tessa

The flak gunner that shot those planes down is now my 1WO. Shooting down 27 planes (in highly realistic GWX, not the vanilla version) during his time as the flak gunner has yet to be matched. Besides possessing natural talent on the AA gun he was always next to the officers/senior NCO's learning how to do the other trades on a ship. After about a year he was finally salty enough that I recommended him for command of his own boat and promoted him.

Definitely came home as the conquering hero after sinking a flat top. 1st night back treated the entire crew to a nice meal at one of the best restaurants in town, and of course let them have anything they wanted to drink. After such a great patrol it was the perfect way to release all that pent up energy and pride we took in sinking the most annoying type of warship there is. For a 5-star restaurant we raised quite a rucuss, though getting top shelf liquor and beer led to the crew enjoying their meal and drinks in a way they have never been accustomed too; compared to the usual bar they were extremely well behaved by their standards.

The tab that night was quite large, not being married and a FreggatenKapitan's salary helped ease the pain of seeing so many Deutcsh Marks dissapear fom my wallet; it was worth every penny, the crew deserved it. After a month at sea a premium cut Fillet Minion meant more the them than any decoration I could have pinned on their chest and was the biggest morale booster I've ever seen. Afterwards crew memeber constantly asked me if repairs had been completed, they were all anxious to get back to sea and do what they do best.

Wow! Is that the new UYI* Mod? Sounds like a definite must-have.

*Use Your Imagination

[VONHARRIS]

Tessa

A very nice reward for your crew. They seem to respect you and they also look like good men.

Myself as a Kaleun , skip the restaurant part. My crew prefer Wurst und BEER (Wurst = sausage). Lots of beer!

[Jimbuna]

@Tessa...BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

[WH4K]

Originally Posted by Tessa

Watching a BB sink is cool, watching a flat top sink is devilishly gratifying; especially when this one capsized before it finally went down.

Holy cow. Sounds like I'm in for a treat, once I finally start sinking stuff. So far I've only done a pre-war "shakedown cruise" in a Type II. Seeing as it as still August 1939, I didn't sink anything.

I've played several sub sims over the years. SH III is the first with the very possibility of a sinking ship capsizing, except maybe Aces of the Deep. But it's been a while, and it seems like a lot of work to (maybe) get AOD running under Windows XP.

[krautjacket]

Tessa what mod are you using to make your HUD look like that?

[gazpode_l]

Originally Posted by Gaz360GT

Over the last few patrols I have been wondering whether my career was broken or not as I am in Januery 1941 (started career in August 1939), 11 patrols completed and have only seen axis planes so far

I will have to see if they start to appear as the war progresses.

up until my last patrol I hadnt seen any either. Suggest you consult some history and also bear in mind the locations that you are sailing into. I dont think u can expect to see aircraft if you are a long way from nearest allied land.

In may 1941 I am only just encountering aircraft and then my encounter was fighter bombers. (eg hurricanes).

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by krautjacket

Tessa what mod are you using to make your HUD look like that?

That's the MaGui 3.4, it's easily found on the mod's section. There's also a widescreen version one too (which is what I use now, it is very well done) if you have a 16:9 monitor like most people do these days. The other mod for the character icons is: Das Boot-Besatzung v2.1-Seasnake-68. It's got the main crewmen from the movie and a few in different poses.

[krautjacket]

found the crewman one but wasn't so keen on it, but MaGui 3.4 seems to elude me... Can you link me?

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by krautjacket

found the crewman one but wasn't so keen on it, but MaGui 3.4 seems to elude me... Can you link me?

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166320