Tell us what you are upto in your current campaign

[Leandros]

U-99 - kaleun Paul Fischer - Patrol 11 - AM64 - March 24th 1943 - 07:56

Left Lorient March 18th for AM68. Mission: Test out new anti-escort tactics. Have passed up the South-Western Approaches and the Irish Sea. Most of the weaponry has been expended on upcoming enemy naval vessels. See report to BdU. So far the tactics have been validated.....

Coming up the South-Western Approaches the first we hit upon was this. Not stated in the report to the BdU but listed on the ship sunk list.

These three were our last victims - the last Black Swan still afloat

Here goes:

To be continued - 6 torps left

[Paul Riley]

Having to restart patrol 3 due to a crippling crash I experienced tonight,probably due to saving the game submerged and in close proximity to a sinking ship.
Bugger,never mind,least I wont be making that mistake again!

[Brag]

Just been to BDU and Doenitz told me the budget for my U-boat is GO!

My next stop was the shipyard where they will hammer together my boat. I expect to be ready for sea in about a week or two.

(Yeah, it will be Balz )

[Leandros]

U-99 - kaleun Paul Fischer - Patrol 11 - AM52 - March 26th 1943 - 00:39

Finally out in the open. Was tempted into using 3 torps on a large merchant and a medium cargo. Used the gun to finish them off. Also a third, smaller one following them.

Sunk a lightship with the DG. Not marked on the sunk list. While trekking westwards submerged during daytime was surprised by 3 subhunters. They were obviously lying still as we picked up no sonar signature on them. First we knew we were pinged. Went to max. depth (145 m.) and started squiggling. Lost them after a couple of hours. Some damage on superstructure. Heading south now. 3 torps left.

3 hungry subhunters looking for revenge:

[Grim Nigel]

10:20am 24th December 1940 - We have arrived back home to a heroes welcome at St. Nazaire. Just in time for my crew and I to spend the Christmas with our families.
We have had our tonnage confirmed and I was presented with a promotion and an Iron Cross medal, my crew also earned commendations and medals. This was quite an exhausting patrol and I still hadn't found a convoy. Perhaps the next patrol will yield better results.

End of Patrol 2

Days at sea : 27
Crew Losses : 0
Ships Sunk : 13 Merchants
Aircraft Destroyed : 0
Tonnage Sunk : 66,214 (Confirmed)

[Leandros]

U-99 - kaleun Paul Fischer - Patrol 11 - Lorient - March 29th 1943 - 11:33

Back in base. Caught up with a convoy west of Ireland on the way back. Spent the last 3 torps on 3 escorts.

Final tally - 13 warships:

A nice counter-clockwise trip:

[martin1004]

Just sank a S-class sub in BF 52. Suprisingly it took 2 torpedoes to sink it and it didn't fight back.

[Leandros]

Originally Posted by martin1004

Just sank a S-class sub in BF 52. Suprisingly it took 2 torpedoes to sink it and it didn't fight back.

Same with the Gato-class above. It didn't sink with one torp so surfaced to finish it off with DG. It fired back and killed 2 of the gun crew. A new gun crew finished it.

[Grim Nigel]

Situation update : Patrol 3, Werner Faust of U-707.

18th February 1941

Left St. Nazaire at 1:23pm after a long refit and repair of U-707. Much of its internal equipment had to be replaced due to damage sustained on the previous patrol. Several of the other U-Boat captains commented about how damned lucky we were to get our boat back in one piece. We'd been told that an overall estimate of the hull damage placed it at about 60% of the total structure.

This time, we will be much more cautious of potentially armed merchants, as will the other U-Boat captains we had told our story to.
The grid we have been assigned to is DR23 which is over 5,500km away from our base and will take approximately 300 hours ( 12 days ) to arrive travelling at 1/3.
DR23 is located past Gibraltar and 2,500km west of the Canary Islands. At least the weather should be warmer than the North Atlantic.

10:36am 20th February 1941 - we have left St. Nazaire far behind and are now in open ocean heading Southwest past Spain, Gibraltar is approximately 1000km to our SSE. We should pass far enough away to avoid any task forces lurking in the area. Watch has been instructed to be extra vigilant to our port side when we reach about 500km from Gibraltar.

10:40am 21st February 1941 - Received a single ship contact report at a position 38km NW of the boat, travelling south at medium speed. Visual identification showed it to be an unarmed British Coastal Freighter which was promptly sent to the bottom by our Deck Gun crew. At 12:26pm the target was split in half by a small internal explosion, 2 minutes later it had gone to the bottom. 32 8.8 shells were expended in this sinking.

21st February 1941 @ 12:26pm
Coastal Freighter sinking awaiting confirmation from BDU...

The Gun Crew in Action
Alois Mulbach, Arno Popp, Joachim Locke.

2:50pm 23rd February 1941 - We were passing 400km NNW of Madeira when we received a contact report of a Large Convoy located 180km NW of our position. The Convoy was travelling at 7 knots in a Northeasterly direction so it shouldn't be too difficult to intercept. Calculations showed we could arrive at a point ahead of the convoy in 6-8 hours. Lets hope this time the convoy doesn't change course. A lot can happen in 6 hours.

Received a report update at 9:25pm, the convoy was still on course and travelling at 7 knots. We have only a matter of a couple of hours and we'll be in position to begin our approach from ahead of the convoy.
The positions and numbers of escorts will determine our approach strategy.

10:18pm 23rd February 1941 - In position and at Periscope Depth, awaiting hydrophone contact with Convoy group.

10:36pm 23rd February 1941 - Hydrophone contact acquired with lead escort in expected position. Will await arrival of the rest of the convoy and determine its composition and escort positions before deciding on approach and attack method.

11:47pm 23rd February 1941 - Hydrophone tracking showed the convoy had changed course to a NNE direction. A single Black Swan Class escort was observed through the periscope at a distance of approximately 6km. I decided to risk surfacing to race Northward 20km into a new intercept position. The night was very dark and provided us cover to surface, but we wont know for sure if we have been spotted yet.

12:33am 24th February 1941 - At new position, convoy re-acquired via hydrophone. As the convoy approached within 4km, we went to silent running and crept along at 1 knot. We slowly worked our way in between the 2nd and 3rd rows as the convoy advanced.
We fired 2 G7e's at a Large Merchant, 2 G7a's at a Tanker and a G7e from the aft tube at a Small Merchant.

1:46am 24th February 1941 - As soon as all torpedo's were launched, we went flank speed to a depth of 130 metres, once we had reached our depth we returned to silent running at 1 knot. We managed to pass underneath the convoy and remained deep, none of the escorts even came close to finding us and we continued unchallenged until the escorts were safely out of hydrophone range. We surfaced at 6:00am and reloaded all tubes, the external reserves are now being transferred inside the boat. We heard 4 hits but only one ship was heard to sink, we will have to await confirmation for the results of this event.

24th February 1941 @ 1:40am
Large Merchant sinking awaiting confirmation from BDU...

[Sailor Steve]

Good report - and a nice period-looking b&w photo to boot!

[Vipper]

OMG, im after my first capital ship! It is in neutral convoy and it is Nelson class Battleship. I did attacked it at night and wasted my first salvo of torpedoes cause bad positioning and merchants on the way (it did hit some merchs and made convoy zig zag) , now i reloaded torpedoes and will position myself better. I do attack it some 300-400 meters using salvo, going for sure...

[frau kaleun]

IIRC the torps need at least 300 meters to arm themselves. Fire from too close in and they won't be armed even if they make impact. So don't get so close that even a perfectly set-up shot goes to waste!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Good report - and a nice period-looking b&w photo to boot!

I know, it looks sorta like a photo was taken by someone on the u-boat.

Haben sie ein gast an bord, Leandros?

[Leandros]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

Iaben sie ein gast an bord, Leandros?

Lieber Fräulein, Ich habe viele Gaste an bord....warum fragen sie, bitte....?.....

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

IIRC the torps need at least 300 meters to arm themselves. Fire from too close in and they won't be armed even if they make impact. So don't get so close that even a perfectly set-up shot goes to waste!

300 meters...your quite correct. The one exeption being the Falke which requires 400 metres of travel distance.