The most reckless/foolish thing you have ever done? - Page 3

Capt. Morgan · 07-27-11, 02:33 PM

August 3rd, 1939, on my shake-down cruise, I decide to take U-48 up the Thames Estuary - figure pre-war is the only chance I'll ever get to do this.

I go in submerged and get as far as Canvey Island, then decide to return on the surface just to show the Tommies that the Kriegsmarine goes anywhere it pleases.

Once On the surface I switch to the external camera. I then notice an unusual underwater object, black, round with spikes, and chained to the bottom. Turns out I'd been steaming submerged through a very dense mine field for about an hour.

Depesz · 08-04-11, 04:33 AM

Got this konvoi somwhere. I made my approach and fired at a Black Swan a nice torpedo - miss. Black Swan closed in , threw he's depth charges, and DESTROYED my 4 forward torpedo tubes

forced to withdraw

SubConscious · 08-04-11, 08:59 AM

My first thought was "I got married".

Years ago I was making a run at a convoy and had hit a tanker that was just starting to sink when a destroyer picked me up. My guess is that I had my periscope up too long.

My reaction was to go to flank speed, heading right at the tanker, diving as fast as I could. My plan was to get under the tanker, turn 90 degrees, go silent and kill my engines and drift, hoping that the noise of the tanker breaking up would mask my sound signature.

I had pulled this maneuver once before and it worked. In this situation, I learned that some ships sink faster than others.

Another time I had crippled a cargo ship that was brought to a dead stop. I was about to be mobbed by destroyers, so I managed to get under the cargo ship and stayed there. Those destroyers circled the area for hours, but left just before I ran out of oxygen. I tried this later in the war and not only did they stay there, they brought in friends.

Pisces · 08-05-11, 08:22 AM

Sailing into the bay of Lerwick (Shetland Islands) fully surfaced in broad daylight in a type 2. I didn't 'think' the patroling DD would mind.

Fish In The Water · 08-05-11, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SubConscious

My first thought was "I got married".

Sorry, nobody's figured out how to go back and reload that one...

SubConscious · 08-06-11, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish In The Water

Sorry, nobody's figured out how to go back and reload that one...

You're absolutely right. Once you add the kids mod (x2) and the house mod, there's no rollback option.

Willem VonBoom · 08-06-11, 12:45 PM

I had a rough day yesterday... Early 41' in a VIIB waiting at about 25m for the convoy to run over the top of me... Screen runs by, I come to Peri, pop it up, and the large merchant INSTANTLY sees me. I get the Black Swan with my stern tube, take a little from a DC, go to 160m, and the C&D proceeds to sit above me for more than 12 hours. You see, I have an air compressor leak, and he didn't need sonar to know where I was. So, running out of O2 and batteries, I'm forced to surface and face her with my deck gun. I lost 10 crew members. But, I did make it back to Brest.

Perhaps not foolish, due to the lack of choice in the matter, but definitely reckless. Rough day...

sublynx · 08-06-11, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SubConscious

You're absolutely right. Once you add the kids mod (x2) and the house mod, there's no rollback option.

Well, there's always the "I've had enough of Windows and I'm going to change to Ubuntu" -option, but then one can't play all the games that one could play with Windows and the need to learn what makes that new operating system tick.

Fish In The Water · 08-06-11, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Willem VonBoom

I had a rough day yesterday...

Rough day indeed, but at least you made it back to fight another day.

Walruss · 08-08-11, 09:29 AM

Cruising around in a type IX for the first time, in the warm south Atlantic. Come across a British convoy escorted by 4 flower class corvettes. Anxious to try out my new big gun, and feeling blood thirsty, I snuck up on the rear of the convoy, surfaced about 4,000 meters from the rear escort, and engage.
My first (fluke) shell crashed through his bridge, the second took out his props and the third blew up his rear battery. By this point, the others had turned around and were rushing to get my attention so I dived, dodged their attentions for an hour or so and they gave up.

Feeling cheeky, I circled around and did it again. To the Front escort. Charged straight at him, ahead flank, presenting as narrow a profile as I could and engaging again out to about 4,500 meters or so. Crash dive at 1,000 by which time his poor little boat was literally digging into the water from severe flooding at her fore, and the other two corvettes were REALLY pissed off.

2 hours later, they give up, and I surface to see a lot of debris and a few scattered lifeboats from the last corvette.

I proceeded to eliminate the final two corvettes in almost the same fashion, and then chew up my entire torpedo load gutting the convoy before I decided I'd had enough fun.

Damage: 1 crewman injured, 1 dead, a small hole in the bridge and some scratched paintwork.

I don't know who taught those brits to shoot. They didn't do a very good job :P

This was GWX as well

Sailor Steve · 08-08-11, 12:26 PM

Level you're playing at? Mods? Sounds awfully gamey to me.

Jimbuna · 08-08-11, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Level you're playing at? Mods? Sounds awfully gamey to me.

Afraid so

SubConscious · 08-08-11, 06:08 PM

Hi Walruss,

If you'd like to try something REALLY risky, try to re-create that effort on a high realism setting. At the lowest settings you can get into gun battles with escorts and survive, or even emerge victorious as you did.

At the higher levels, however, you'd be fish food within minutes, if not earlier. My guess is that you wouldn't try it more than once.

The logic of this is simple: In a sub, you're firing on an unstable platform with very little protection. The gun crew is essentially defenseless. Your deck gun is only a single barreled crew-served weapon.

In contrast, the escorts have a much more stable platform, more often than not they have armor protection, they have multiple weapons with multiple barrels. Add in radar guidance, faster reloading and much, much bigger calibers and what you have is a recipe for disaster for the unwary U-boat Kaleun.

The higher realism setting are much more of a challenge, but if you get into the game, you'll find much greater rewards. Without the option to engage in a gun battle, when taking the time to develop a solution on a rapidly approaching escort is consummate to suicide, you'll find the thrill of switching roles from the hunter to the hunted. You'll have to be crafty and cautious to survive, but will have a much more enjoyable experience all the while.

Give it a whirl. Good luck and happy hunting!

Schwieger · 08-08-11, 06:40 PM

I think this kind of explains itself...

Willem VonBoom · 08-08-11, 06:59 PM

Nope, I think I'm gonna need someone to translate this for me.

07-27-11, 02:33 PM	#31
Capt. Morgan Commander Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Just east of the west coast. Posts: 463 Downloads: 423 Uploads: 0	August 3rd, 1939, on my shake-down cruise, I decide to take U-48 up the Thames Estuary - figure pre-war is the only chance I'll ever get to do this. I go in submerged and get as far as Canvey Island, then decide to return on the surface just to show the Tommies that the Kriegsmarine goes anywhere it pleases. Once On the surface I switch to the external camera. I then notice an unusual underwater object, black, round with spikes, and chained to the bottom. Turns out I'd been steaming submerged through a very dense mine field for about an hour. __________________ There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet. -- Admiral William Halsey

08-04-11, 04:33 AM	#32
Depesz Watch Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Poland Posts: 25 Downloads: 134 Uploads: 0	Got this konvoi somwhere. I made my approach and fired at a Black Swan a nice torpedo - miss. Black Swan closed in , threw he's depth charges, and DESTROYED my 4 forward torpedo tubes forced to withdraw Last edited by Depesz; 08-04-11 at 04:55 AM.

08-04-11, 08:59 AM	#33
SubConscious Frogman Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 309 Downloads: 102 Uploads: 0	My first thought was "I got married". Years ago I was making a run at a convoy and had hit a tanker that was just starting to sink when a destroyer picked me up. My guess is that I had my periscope up too long. My reaction was to go to flank speed, heading right at the tanker, diving as fast as I could. My plan was to get under the tanker, turn 90 degrees, go silent and kill my engines and drift, hoping that the noise of the tanker breaking up would mask my sound signature. I had pulled this maneuver once before and it worked. In this situation, I learned that some ships sink faster than others. Another time I had crippled a cargo ship that was brought to a dead stop. I was about to be mobbed by destroyers, so I managed to get under the cargo ship and stayed there. Those destroyers circled the area for hours, but left just before I ran out of oxygen. I tried this later in the war and not only did they stay there, they brought in friends. __________________ "Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas..." - Emerson

08-05-11, 08:22 AM	#34
Pisces Silent Hunter Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: AN9771 Posts: 4,904 Downloads: 304 Uploads: 0	Sailing into the bay of Lerwick (Shetland Islands) fully surfaced in broad daylight in a type 2. I didn't 'think' the patroling DD would mind. __________________ My site downloads: https://ricojansen.nl/downloads

08-08-11, 09:29 AM	#40
Walruss Soundman Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 144 Downloads: 126 Uploads: 0	Cruising around in a type IX for the first time, in the warm south Atlantic. Come across a British convoy escorted by 4 flower class corvettes. Anxious to try out my new big gun, and feeling blood thirsty, I snuck up on the rear of the convoy, surfaced about 4,000 meters from the rear escort, and engage. My first (fluke) shell crashed through his bridge, the second took out his props and the third blew up his rear battery. By this point, the others had turned around and were rushing to get my attention so I dived, dodged their attentions for an hour or so and they gave up. Feeling cheeky, I circled around and did it again. To the Front escort. Charged straight at him, ahead flank, presenting as narrow a profile as I could and engaging again out to about 4,500 meters or so. Crash dive at 1,000 by which time his poor little boat was literally digging into the water from severe flooding at her fore, and the other two corvettes were REALLY pissed off. 2 hours later, they give up, and I surface to see a lot of debris and a few scattered lifeboats from the last corvette. I proceeded to eliminate the final two corvettes in almost the same fashion, and then chew up my entire torpedo load gutting the convoy before I decided I'd had enough fun. Damage: 1 crewman injured, 1 dead, a small hole in the bridge and some scratched paintwork. I don't know who taught those brits to shoot. They didn't do a very good job :P This was GWX as well __________________ Lt. Z. S . Werner Krautsch Assigned: U-66 (IXc), 2nd Flot. 1. JAN 1941 Date: JAN 41 Patrols Completed: 0 Warships:0 Subs:0 Merchants: 0 Status: AT SEA

08-06-11, 12:45 PM	#37
Willem VonBoom Seaman Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 36 Downloads: 17 Uploads: 0	I had a rough day yesterday... Early 41' in a VIIB waiting at about 25m for the convoy to run over the top of me... Screen runs by, I come to Peri, pop it up, and the large merchant INSTANTLY sees me. I get the Black Swan with my stern tube, take a little from a DC, go to 160m, and the C&D proceeds to sit above me for more than 12 hours. You see, I have an air compressor leak, and he didn't need sonar to know where I was. So, running out of O2 and batteries, I'm forced to surface and face her with my deck gun. I lost 10 crew members. But, I did make it back to Brest. Perhaps not foolish, due to the lack of choice in the matter, but definitely reckless. Rough day...

08-08-11, 12:26 PM	#41
Sailor Steve Eternal Patrol Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: High in the mountains of Utah Posts: 50,369 Downloads: 745 Uploads: 249	Level you're playing at? Mods? Sounds awfully gamey to me. __________________ “Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo

08-08-11, 06:08 PM	#43
SubConscious Frogman Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 309 Downloads: 102 Uploads: 0	Hi Walruss, If you'd like to try something REALLY risky, try to re-create that effort on a high realism setting. At the lowest settings you can get into gun battles with escorts and survive, or even emerge victorious as you did. At the higher levels, however, you'd be fish food within minutes, if not earlier. My guess is that you wouldn't try it more than once. The logic of this is simple: In a sub, you're firing on an unstable platform with very little protection. The gun crew is essentially defenseless. Your deck gun is only a single barreled crew-served weapon. In contrast, the escorts have a much more stable platform, more often than not they have armor protection, they have multiple weapons with multiple barrels. Add in radar guidance, faster reloading and much, much bigger calibers and what you have is a recipe for disaster for the unwary U-boat Kaleun. The higher realism setting are much more of a challenge, but if you get into the game, you'll find much greater rewards. Without the option to engage in a gun battle, when taking the time to develop a solution on a rapidly approaching escort is consummate to suicide, you'll find the thrill of switching roles from the hunter to the hunted. You'll have to be crafty and cautious to survive, but will have a much more enjoyable experience all the while. Give it a whirl. Good luck and happy hunting! __________________ "Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas..." - Emerson

08-08-11, 06:40 PM	#44
Schwieger Commodore Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: U-142 Posts: 624 Downloads: 62 Uploads: 0	I think this kind of explains itself... __________________ Support U-Boot_HAHD: Install Dropbox Click Here & Increase The Teams Dropbox space and get 2.25GB of free online Storage space for yourself.

08-08-11, 06:59 PM	#45
Willem VonBoom Seaman Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 36 Downloads: 17 Uploads: 0	Nope, I think I'm gonna need someone to translate this for me.