Tell us what you are upto in your current campaign

[jreid666]

There are some minefields round the heligoland area. I got caught with that once aswel. As for the cat on board, bad omen, and a female on board, even worse!!!! Good reading

James

[Radian]

I'm ending my 25th patrol. It's mid Dec 43. I plan to back in port for Christmas.

I have but one fish left in a forward tube.

What do you know.... Radio contact large convoy just west of me heading for me.

Part of me says...You have one torpedo, this is going to be a well escorted convoy. Do you want the risk or just sail on and find a solo strageler to sink on the way to port.... Or do you risk it?

They gave me torpedoes to use on enemy shipping... I turn west and tell my crew we are going in!

My sound man tells me of 7 escorts and a warship in the middle of the convoy? What could be in the middle? I proceed with caution.

When in position I raise my scope ever so little and there it is... A Bogue class escort carrier!

Ah the frustration... Only one torpedo. Must make it count. Target for hull impact at 6m depth just behind the bow area..

Fish away now crash dive! We're going to have LOTS of company in a few minutes.

My reward? "She's going down!" Yes one fish the last fish bags me a 15k ton escort carrier and I slink off out of the midst of the convoy to head home victorious...

Radian

[Leandros]

U-2502 - XXI - Oberleu z.S. Müller - Nov. 060629 1944 - AN13 - Patrol 7

Left Bergen on the morning of the 3rd.

We came back safely from Patrol 6 by taking a wide northerly detour to avoid air patrols after our major loss of propulsion power - diesel and electric. These constant malfunctions are getting tiresome. If we had met any enemy forces on the return trip we would have had serious problems with defending ourselves. We also brought back a dozen unused torpedoes which is not very popular with the brass.

This patrol has worked out nicely, the boat works fine. Set the course to cross into the Alantic South of the Shetlands. Stopped for a period in the sound to see if any traffic showed up. It did - among them a fat little convoy with three ships.

Continuing westward a report on a large convoy, heading south-west, ticked in. North-East of the approaches to the Hebrides Channel we picked up the radar emissions of its escorts. We submerged and are now awaiting its arrival. The point escort has just passed behind us but he is suspicious, he has been dropping d/c's at the point we went under. He had obviously registered us on his radar. I had a homer ready for him if he discovered us but it seems he is moving on. I shall certainly get use for that homer later. It's a large convoy!

Fred

Below:

1. Fat little convoy of three ships
2. Scoresheet so far

[Leandros]

U-2502 - XXI - Oberleu z.S. Müller - Nov. 09 1944 - Bergen - Patrol 7

Arrived back in Bergen this morning. This was the first satisfactory patrol since the first one and also the only with no malfunctions on the boat. However, we have never had an operational radar. I do not put too much importance on that as we all the time see how radar reveal the presence of the enemy. The only use would be in bad weather or the dark but with the submerged speed and endurance on this boat we may as well operate submerged and use our sonar under such conditions. The schnorkel should only be used in the dark and at a low speed as its wake can be observed by airplanes in daylight and the diesels veil our own sonar, at the same time increasing the enemy's potential to hear us.

The attack on the convoy, it wasn't that big, went quite well even if some time and many torps were used to keep the escorts away. We used all our torps except 1 Zaunkønig for self-defense on the return voyage.

Fred

Below:

Patrol Log

[PolarDeer]

Just after finishing a 40000t patrol with wild forays into CG9x and the Portuguese coast, I tried to reload to discover that the entire save is apparently corrupt since it keeps crashing on my loading attempts.

Oh well, now for another campaign...

[nataraj]

Originally Posted by jreid666

There are some minefields round the heligoland area. I got caught with that once aswel. As for the cat on board, bad omen, and a female on board, even worse!!!!

Ah ! That explains it, of course. Thanks for the information about the minefield, I'd never have guessed - so close to "home". Now that I knew where to look, I found a thread about it, too: seems that I'm not the only one that sailed through these minefields completely unawares ... (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=146889 and http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=148595)

I found the solution to the other puzzle, too: damage without enemy action. Ahem, if we had proper nautical charts on board, I'd have seen at first glance that the Celtic Sea is only between 50 and 100m deep in many places. I guess we probably hit the sea bottom

Helmut

[Missing Name]

Still working on manual attacks. I almost hit a ship on this patrol!

because I was submerged and running flank. damn schooners.

[gi_dan2987]

Originally Posted by nataraj

if we had proper nautical charts on board, I'd have seen at first glance that the Celtic Sea is only between 50 and 100m deep in many places. I guess we probably hit the sea bottom

You can also ping for depth by going to your nav officer and clicking the icon that looks like a U-boat hull with a line under it and an arrow pointing down. Add the number you get from your Nav Officer to your current depth, and that's the depth to the bottom! Now you can ride just above, or if you have GWX2.1 bottom fix (I don't think there's one for GWX3) you can rest right on the bottom without taking damage.

[Leandros]

U-2502 - XXI - Oberleu z.S. Müller - Nov. 231041 1944 - Bergen Approaches - Patrol 8

We left Bergen this morning for patrol area BC33. The boat has been properly checked out - all systems go. I have taken onboard 7 homing torpedoes for self-defence. Plan to get undetected to the patrol area and use everything on one large convoy, no small fish.

The war is going bad. In october we lost 12 boats for 1.700 tons shipping sunk.

Fred

Below:

1. Vorpostenboot escorted us out to the North Sea
2. A Type XXIII left Bergen at the same time.

[Admiral Halsey]

Admiral Scheer, Septemper 3rd, 1939. We left Wilhelmshaven at midnight on the first and are currently heading towards the entrance of St George's Channel to conduct raids on British shipping. We spotted a tramp steamer on the 2nd but it was Norwegian and didn't attack though Bernard thought we should. Will update if anything happens.


Admiral Scheer, Septemper 4th, 1939. Sunk a small Polish freighter in grid AN 47. We are continuing towards the entrance of St George's Channel and will continue to update as events require.

[Leandros]

Originally Posted by Admiral Halsey

Admiral Scheer, Septemper 3rd, 1939. We left Wilhelmshaven at midnight on the first and are currently heading towards the entrance of St George's Channel to conduct raids on British shipping. We spotted a tramp steamer on the 2nd but it was Norwegian and didn't attack though Bernard thought we should. Will update if anything happens.


Admiral Scheer, Septemper 4th, 1939. Sunk a small Polish freighter in grid AN 47. We are continuing towards the entrance of St George's Channel and will continue to update as events require.

Cool, Admiral - some pictures?

Fred

[Taifun206]

allright...
my second campaign has startet again 100%

we are now in the atlantic north west of england in the deep zone
my crew didnt saw so far the enemy
we are high motivated with the currently best brand new u-boat the viic and got our own rules at sea
we will never use the funk communication and only surface at night

me and my crew still ask us why so many country´s declartion of war against our beautiful country...
all what we currently do is to be very carefully waiting and of course listen to music
watch this

>> <<

[Leandros]

My last couple of patrols have been marred by a strange sort of CTD's. Every time a homing torpedo hits a Flower class the game CTD's. On the last occasions I have saved just before impact, started anew after the CTD - the same happens every time. It does not happen when other vessel types are hit or other torpedo types are used on the Flower class.

I'm in February '45 with a Type XXI now. This is really irritating.

Fred

Correction - now it CTD's with all torps hitting a Flower corvette.

[Leandros]

U-2502 - XXI - Oberleu z.S. Müller - May 071400 1945 - Bergen U-boat base

We were about to leave Bergen this morning when we were ordered to cancel the patrol. The war is over.

We left Bergen on May 5th for Patrol 13 but had to abort as both the diesel and E-engines acted up. We got only about half speed out of the boat.

The last months of the war for me has centered around the use of the new homing torpedoes. Correctly used they are amazing. I am sure the Allies shall benefit much from this technology. On Patrol 12 we left with 12 of these on board. The QM's have been much more lenient on supplying these lately. Probably because the war has been going so badly. Six have been issued as a minimum on the last missions and I have been able to scrounge a few more myself.

We sunk 9 of the 12 warships on Patrol 12 with homers. Three of them went astray, one for technical reasons, it went under the target, did not detonate and disappeared. The two others missed because we launched it under less than ideal conditions. If one fires two with short separation in time it is important that targets are clearly separate or else both can hook up to the same target. The third was diverted by a merchant not far from the target.

After a homer has been fired it can be smart to show oneself in one way or other, to lure the target over the initial torpedo track.

As I have hinted here earlier the proper tactics should be pairs or more of U-boats with one specially designated as escort destroyer. This one should operate on some distance from the convoy to lure the escorts away (so the homers do not go for the merchants) and destroy them there. The field should then be (more) open for the other U-boats in the flock. The ideal position to start such an attack would be in the rear of the convoy.

As can be seen from the personnel file there has been several aborted missions due to technical problems - mainly with the engines. This has also occured in the middle of some missions, once very seriously.

Fred

Below:

1. Captain's personnel file

[Rammstein0991]

Nice read.