Who else is holding up the honour of the U-Boats?

[Capt_quin]

U-47,sailing home to kiel,had a nasty run in with british DDs,but i made it! winds and waves calm,all seems good...for now.

[Robert Fulton]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

John Lennon.....yellow submarine....awaiting orders.

"Full speed ahead, Mr. Parker, full speed ahead".

[Chisum]

Where can I download a yellow submarine ?

:p

[crazypantoufle]

Lieutnant Commander Crazypantoufle, U4 (UVIIctype), July 1942, North Atlantic.
Just finished my first run on a convoy coming from Halifax. Reloading my tubes for a second attack. If you cross the convoy route, please be my guest, the escort is playing with mermaids deep under the sea.

[Brag]

From J.S. Balz
Acting Ops officer BDU

To all U-Boats:
Be more agressive!


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[waits]

Guten Tag fellow Kaleuns,

Leutnant Schuhart and U-8 is clearing Kiel for a shakedown cruise on 1. August 1939.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Brag

From J.S. Balz
Acting Ops officer BDU

To all U-Boats:
Be more agressive!


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Ya cheeky bugga!!

[Weiss Pinguin]

U-42 was lost with all hands at port due to, err, faulty welding by dockyard workers.

I swear, I am never going to advance past 1939 at this rate.

[kiwikapitan]

Originally Posted by Task Force

U 45 reporting in.

a little over 700,000 tons. Its august 21 1941. Were hanging on.

Heh you sure you got enough tonnage there mate? What you going for the Knight's Cross and Platinum. :p

Hell maybe I suck at this game. I've never managed to crack 50,000 tons yet in a single war patrol!

But despite that I still love it to bits.

100th post!

[Chisum]

U-101: Sunk 21 Feb, 1941 east of England, 50 miles North of Scilly Island, by depth charges from the British CT Class L.
45 dead (all hands lost).




BUT by her emblema, Anubis did his job very well and has made eternal life to all the crew.



U-101 be back soon for another patrol.

[kiwikapitan]

Originally Posted by Chisum

U-101: Sunk 21 Feb, 1941 east of England, 50 miles North of Scilly Island, by depth charges from the British CT Class L.
45 dead (all hands lost).




BUT by her emblema, Anubis did his job very well and has made eternal life to all the crew.



U-101 be back soon for another patrol.

Ooh creepy a ghost sub. :hmm:

[Chisum]

[Gezoes]

VIIB U-47, under the command of kaleun Hans Scheisse, sailed with the Grey Wolves 3.0 Oktober 10th 1939. Patrolled AN41, sank two small coastal freigthers off NE Scotland, sank a medium cargo at Hartlepool. Held fire on a fishing boat :p

Lightly depthcharged by two barely trained barges. Good weather. Waiting for nightfall off Hartlepool.

Also, Matrosobergefreiter Reinhald Balz (must be family ) mentioned something about an extra 1500 reclown after training!? Must be a Bernard somewhere too, I'm sure I saw blank training papers float by

Bah, we have 500 reclown already! Set sail! :rotfl:

[RoaldLarsen]

Oblt. Quirin Quast, commanding the Type VIIC U-212 of the 11th Flotilla has just returned to base in Bergen on March 11, 1943 after having completed an 18 day patrol. U-212 claims 25kT sunk on this, its 4th war patrol, but Oblt. Quast considers the patrol a mixed success.

Quast managed to penetrate two convoys and sink ships in each, but he also needed 4 torpedoes to finish off a 7kT cargo ship that was dead in the water, and twice missed a badly damaged Flower class corvette. Quast blames a combination of bad weather and lack of proper crew training, but says he must accept some blame for bad judgement too. Perhaps he has too high expectations for himself. On his previous patrol he bagged 40kT of merchant shipping and the Somers Class destroyer USS Balch.

U-212 left Bergen on February 21 under fair skies and a quickening breeze with orders to join Gruppe Wotan operating in AM1 and AM4 against eastbound convoys approaching the north end of the Irish Sea. Before Quast had reached his designated patrol area of AM41, another boat operating further west reported a large convoy heading ESE at 9kts in AL3768. Quast was in a perfect postion to intercept, except that the interception would occur at midday. By this point the weather had deteriorated into a full gale and there was dense cloud cover. Quast decided to make an immediate attack, since the high seas would hide his periscope and torpedo tracks. Submerging his boat just south of the convoy's track, he penetrated between the lead and starboard escorts and came to periscope depth inside the convoy, between the second and third columns. The high seas made it difficult to see the whole convoy, and very difficult to estimate ranges with the stadimeter. Quast selected two 7kT merchants as targets. He fired one salvo of two type IIIs and then a Salvo of type Is. After firing he followed 11th Flotilla doctrine by immediately turning to match course with the convoy and diving. Two detonations were heard, followed much later by another and by the sound of a ship breaking up. At least two escorts began a search for the attacker, but Quast carefully avoided them.

While Quast was tracking the escorts' movements on the hydrophones, he detected that one merchant was moving much slower than the convoy. By the time the destroyers had given up the search, the merchant was dead in the water. It was one of the large merchants Quast had targetted. Quast moved in for a shot with the stern tube, thinking this would be an easy kill, but the shot went under the target when a large wave lifted the stricken ship. Sweating mechanics and seamen began reloading the empty tubes. and U-212 took another shot. It bounced off without detonating. A third shot struck home, but the target refused to sink. A fourth shot was required to finish it off.

Quast ordered the boat to surface, in order to recharge batteries, load the two torpedos in external storage and begin a pursuit of the convoy. More than three hours had elapsed since the attack, so the convoy was more than 50km to the east. As night was falling, U-212 regained visual contact with the convoy and began to move around it to the south.

Just as Quast was begining an attack approach on the surface, the lead destroyer began an attack run of its own on U-212. At that distance, it must have been a radar detection. Quast had just enough time to fire a type I FAT before crash diving and evading. The torpedo missed, but so did the attacking destroyer. By the time the escort gave up the hunt it was too close to dawn to overtake the convoy again, so only an approach from the rear could be attempted. The rear guard turned out to be a badly damaged Flower class corvette, though whether the damage was caused by the intense storm or the last of the three detonations in the first attack, Quast could not tell. The corvette was unable to keep up with the convoy, but when Quast tried to pass it, a destroyer escort came roaring back, so the corvette must have had working detection gear.

Quast decided that his only chance of breaking into the convoy would be to take out the corvette first, so he lined up a submerged attack run and fired a torpedo at what he thought was 600m range. The shot missed. By changing postion Quast determined that the range had been closer to 900m, and that the corvette was moving faster than previously estimated. He took another shot and missed with that too. The heavy seas were making accurate targetting of small targets impossible.

With only three fish remaining, Quast decided to give up the attack for the day and manouver for an attack the following evening. He moved out of the corvette's detection range and then surfaced, only to be attacked almost immediately by a radar-equipped aircraft. Quast was amazed that it could fly in such weather. Quast waited until the plane had left the area and checked that no surface ships were audible on the hydrophones. Then he surfaced for another attempt to pass the convoy. But shortly thereafter, another boat in the gruppe reported that a British hunter-killer group was barrelling down the convoy's path towards Quast. He broke off the pursuit and evaded southwards towards his designated patrol grid.

U-212 spent four days in its patrol area without detecting any ships, but was repeatedly subjected to aircraft attack when surfaced to recharge batteries. On the fifth day another boat reported a large convoy approaching the north end of the Rockall Bank. Quast brought U-212 to another perfect attack position in AM1856. This time he penetrated the port side, lined up a troop ship and sank it with his two remaining forward torpedoes. After an uneventful evasion, U-212 made tracks for home.

U-212 was subject to air attack nine times on this patrol. Three times were while transiting to the patrol area, once was while pursuing a convoy after an initial attack, four times were while on patrol, and the final time was while moving to intercept the second convoy. In all but the two pursuit cases, the U-boat was surfaced to charge its batteries. The growing reach of allied air power is becoming quite dangerous. If only there was some way to recharge batteries without having to surface. Quast credits some of his lucky escapes to always running at full speed while recharging.

U-212 is equipped with Alberich, KDB hydrophones, FuMB-1, AFA 33 MAL 800 batteries, and a Bold dispenser, but has no radar or sound-ranging equipment. It mounts an 8.8cm deck gun, a 3.7cm and two 2cm flak guns. It is currently getting a MAN supercharger installed.

The current shortage of trained crew means that U-212 is operating with one fewer senior officer than is usual on a type VII boat. The LI is Oblt. Hugo-Heinz Matthews. Twice-decorated Oblt. Herbert Nazheim is the 1WO. Nazheim had 6 patrols in another boat before joining U-212 as part of its commissioning crew. Nazheim is fully qualified to take command of his own boat, but does not wish to leave U-212 until Quast has had time to train a proper replacement. Right now, U-212 does not even have a qualified 2WO. The job is being shared by Oberfaehnrichs Heinze Kumpfe and Herbert Deckert. Quast believes Kumpfe has proven himself, and he will likely be promoted to Leutnant before the next patrol. A third Oberfaehnrich, Carl-Heinz Gartner, is assisting the LI and acting as Navigator. The third sea watch is led by Oberbootsmann H-H Fink. Other key crew members are Oberfunkmann Heinrich Schreiber and Funkmaat Gunter Luda. August Stania is the chief diesel mechanic and the electrical motor team is lead by Hans-Gunter Unbehau. The shortage of trained crews means four of the other petty officers have no trade qualifications.

[AndyW]

@RoaldLarsen
Excellent AAR

Sort of proves the old rule that the first attack on a convoy is the most promising one.

Cheers,