Tell us what you are upto in your current campaign

[Arael]

April 10th, 15:32 hours, same place. A squadron of 5 British destroyers went screaming by this morning, heading towards Narvik. Not wanting to die, I held my fire. About 5 hours later the same 5 destroyers came back through, heading towards the North Sea. While heading through, one ran aground, so now U-11 is getting into position to torpedo the stupid thing so I can surface the boat without getting shot.

[frau kaleun]

U-51
2 U-Flotilla Saltzwedel
KptltzS Kurt Dennert, Commander

Patrol 9

September 19, 1940, 20:33
Departed: Wilhelmshaven
Mission Orders: Patrol grid DJ18

October 1, 1940, 18:00
Grid AM 73
Ship sunk: Q Ship HMS Prunella (Small Freighter), 1593 tons
Crew/lost: 72/67

October 4, 1940, 13:02
Grid BE 39
Ship sunk: HMS Queen Elizabeth, 28000 tons

October 4, 1940, 13:14
Grid BE 39
Ship sunk: MV British Merit (Medium Tanker), 9756 tons
Cargo: Aviation Fuel
Crew/lost: 39/28

October 4, 1940, 20:05
Grid BE 39
Ship sunk: SS Port Hunter (Ore Carrier), 6364 tons
Cargo: Coal
Crew/lost: 82/9

October 5, 1940, 01:59
Grid BE 39
Ship sunk: SS Menin Ridge (Tramp Steamer), 1825 tons
Cargo: Trucks
Crew/lost: 20/13

November 8, 1940, 06:26
Grid BE 48
Ship sunk: SS Port Caroline (Ore Carrier), 6983 tons
Cargo: IronOre
Crew/lost: 81/22

November 15, 1940, 14:33
Returned: Lorient
Crew losses: 0
Ships sunk: 6
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Patrol tonnage: 54521 tons

Awards: Kapitänleutnant Kurt Dennert, Knight’s Cross With Oak Leaves And Swords; Oberleutnant (Ing.) Hans Woiwode, Knight’s Cross; Oberfähnrich z. See Peter Hollbach, Bootsmann Arend Zinke, Bootsmann Gerhard Lehmann, Bootsmann Jorg Eppen, Bootsmann Axel Wittenberg, Matrosengefreiter Paul Hansen, and Matrosengefreiter Carl Ganzer, Iron Cross 2nd Class; Oberleutnant z. See Hermann Schneider, Leutnant z. See Johannes Hutterer, Oberfähnrich Ulrich Kaeding, and 34 others, Iron Cross 1st Class

Promotions: Oberfähnrich Ulrich Kaeding, to Leutnant (Ing.); Stabsbootsmann Helmut Bergheim, to Stabsoberbootsmann; Stabsbootsmann Fritz Hamann, to Stabsoberbootsmann; Stabsbootsmann Günter Möller, to Stabsoberbootsmann; Bootsmann Georg Gustke, to Stabsbootsmann; Matrosenobergefreiter Erwin Paschek, to Matrosenhauptgefreiter; Matrosenobergefreiter Hermann Schrutek, to Matrosenhauptgefreiter; Matrosengefreiter Gerhard Wunner, to Matrosenobergefreiter; Matrosengefreiter Ernst Friedrich, to Matrosenobergefreiter

Other Notes: newly promoted Stabsoberbootsmann Günter Möller has been transferred to a position with 22 Flotilla in Neustadt; Matrosenhauptgefreiter Hans Ludwig will be leaving U-51 for additional technical training in expectation of promotion to Unteroffizier; joining us on our next patrol will be Stabsbootsmann Josif Bonitz and Matrosengefreiter karl-Heinz Wrocklage

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Schwieger

now wouldn't that be interesting

"Kaleun dies attempting to keep her type 7!"

I don't know what I'm going to do exactly.

I've done 9 patrols in this career, all in the same boat, although I only count 7 because two of them involved stopovers for resupply in neutral ports. My kaleun's been in command of a frontboot for over a year (I don't know what the average was in the first third of the war, but still) and done really well, IMO, at the current level of realism. I don't have "realistic crew length" selected in Commander but I'm trying to decide whether I should continue this career just to see how far I can get playing at this level, since it's the first career that's lasted this long without me dying or getting cut short due to problems with mod conflicts or me tinkering with stuff. Or whether I should let Kptlt Dennert accept a transfer ashore and start with a new kaleun in the same boat. Or just upgrade my boat... I don't know. But I'd rather upgrade to a VIIC, TBH, and I don't know if/when that will be available in 2 Flotilla.

Maybe I'll just play on to see if I can last another year, and then upgrade to a IX then when patrolling off the US coast will be a real possibility.

The only bummer with this last patrol was coming into Lorient, I will have to start from sea I think or else enable Lite Harbor Traffic because sailing all the way up to the subpens made my system stutter and freeze like crazy. I still managed to back the boat into the pen though.

[Arael]

April 13th, 1940. 4:37 local time. After putting three torpedoes into the HMS Warspite and sinking her at 1:47, U-11 has spent the last 3 hours trying to, and finally succeeding, in getting away from the Warspite's numerous escorts. There were quite a few close calls, and more than once I thought we were done, but we're at the surface now and the hull still seems to be in one piece. I have one torpedo left, so I'm probably going to start heading home. Apparently the Warspite sunk bow first, because we can look down from the conning tower and read the ship's name on the stern, only about 10 feet below the water.

Edit: But, it seems, this was only a dream that stuck U-11's captain while he slept. (Freaking game crashed on me before I had a chance to save. My last save was about 12 hours before the Warspite showed up)

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I don't know what I'm going to do exactly.

. . . Or just upgrade my boat... I don't know. But I'd rather upgrade to a VIIC, TBH, and I don't know if/when that will be available in 2 Flotilla.

Maybe I'll just play on to see if I can last another year, and then upgrade to a IX then when patrolling off the US coast will be a real possibility.

Problem: No VIICs available to 2. Flotilla.
They should now be in the process of shifting from VIIBs to the variouse IX classes.

Alternative flotillas are:
Brest: Very close to England's airbases.
Long ride through less than max depths.
Short ride to depth deep enough for a crash dive.
(In this respect, Lorient is the best).

St Nazaire:
Easiest See & Anchor detail. Straight out, without obstacles.
Far from England's airbases.
Longest ride to reach crash dive depths.

The Med:
I think some of 2.Flotilla's VIIBs got transferred there.
(A fate I would rather not face, but to each is own.)

Personal perspective is that you've come this far with the 2. Flotilla (Outstanding job!), might as well get yourself a IXB, and stick with the flotillla that you know, and that is confident in your abilities.
IXB dives almost as fast, and almost as deep, as a VIIB.
It's faster on the surface.
It can stay submerged longer (CO2).
It's a much more stable platform when conducting submerged attacks.
(It holds trim better at periscope depth).
It has 2 stern tubes to deal with larger targets.
It carries 3 more POs than the VIIB.
It's an excellent boat for convoy attacks over long distances.

All that being said, the choice is completely yours.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Snestorm

Problem: No VIICs available to 2. Flotilla.
They should now be in the process of shifting from VIIBs to the variouse IX classes.
<snip>
All that being said, the choice is completely yours.

I just realized that if I switch flotillas I'll have to redo my conning tower emblem. Same dealio if I upgrade out of a VIIB since I don't think there's a Turm Your Way for the IXs yet.

That would fall into the "tinkering with mods" category, a lot of which I want to do between finishing this career and starting a new one. So I may just hang on to U-51 for as long as she stays afloat.

Regarding proximity of the Tommies' airbases, I noticed quite a few things on fire when I cruised into Lorient for the first time, including a couple of sunk/sinking ships near the mouth of the harbor/river plus some things further inland that I didn't identify. I presume this is GWX's way of letting me know the RAF paid us a visit?

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

That would fall into the "tinkering with mods" category, a lot of which I want to do between finishing this career and starting a new one. So I may just hang on to U-51 for as long as she stays afloat.

Don't blame you a bit. You've got GWX. So, with the added refueling capabilities, you may just be able to pull it off. (And, VIIBs are a nice ride). Go for it.

[Schwieger]

Had a couple issues with SH3... so I uninstalled it then reinstalled it. New campaign started in '39 in VIIB, 84% Realism (everything except for manual target acquisition)

First patrol
Left Kiel and headed for the northern coast of England. Met some neutral ships on the way; waved at them and contented myself with the fact that'll soon be able to taste Norwegian tonnage. Rounded the northern coast, and then headed for Loch Ewe. Took out a fishing boat with my AA gun, then spotted two Flower Class Corvettes. Decided to mix things up a little. Went decks awash and trailed them until it got a little darker, then went to ahead full and closed with them. They did not notice my approach. At a range where I knew I would not miss, I fully surfaced the boat and manned the deck gun and took out the main weapon of the first ship. Explosion from this also took out the MGs on the superstructure. I stayed on the far side of this so the other one could not effectively attack me, and pumped rounds into it. I repeated the process for the second corvette. I lost my navigation officer attacking the second one , but it was fun doing something out of the norm lol. Kept heading south-west; avoided a couple of torpedo boats and sank two more merchants in the Atlantic around my patrol grid. Didn't meet any destroyers on this patrol

[Arael]

Originally Posted by Schwieger

Had a couple issues with SH3... so I uninstalled it then reinstalled it. New campaign started in '39 in VIIB, 84% Realism (everything except for manual target acquisition)

First patrol
Left Kiel and headed for the northern coast of England. Met some neutral ships on the way; waved at them and contented myself with the fact that'll soon be able to taste Norwegian tonnage. Rounded the northern coast, and then headed for Loch Ewe. Took out a fishing boat with my AA gun, then spotted two Flower Class Corvettes.

I'm thinking you meant Armed Trawlers? Because Flowers weren't around in 1939. They first appeared in early 1940.


U-11 reporting in. The date is April 13th, 1940. The time is 5:21 local time. The Warspite rests on the bottom of a fjord. After putting three eels into the side, the ship went under after roughly 30 minutes. Her escort's response was spirited, but misplaced. I was easily able to sneak away from them and surface. After taking stock of the situation, I've decided to dock at Narvik and take on fuel for the return trip to Wilhelmshaven.

Edit: On the way to Narvik, I ran into the Warspite's escorts in 20 meter deep water. Unfortunately, they noticed me and put down a pretty vicious depth charge barrage. Miraculously, the only damage U-11 sustained was when I bottomed out the thing when diving to escape their notice. During the depth charge bombardment, a tribal type managed to trap itself against a cliff wall. After his friends left, I took a simple shot and put it out of its misery. The rest of the short trip was uneventful, and U-11 docked in Narvik in the early evening to a hero's welcome. A band and a throng of well wishers welcomed the gallant defender of Narvik and his crew. Also welcoming the captain was news from Bdu that not only had he earned the swords for his Knight's Cross, but also of his promotion to Kapitanleutnant.

[Schwieger]

Originally Posted by Arael

I'm thinking you meant Armed Trawlers? Because Flowers weren't around in 1939. They first appeared in early 1940.

Woops thanks for catching that

Haven't had many extended patrols from this date for quite some time

[frau kaleun]

U-51
2 U-Flotilla Saltzwedel
KptltzS Kurt Dennert, Commander

Christmas Day, 1940, the Bay of Biscay.

We departed Lorient for our ninth patrol late in the evening on 21 December, five weeks and a day since putting in at our new base for the first time. Upon our return it had become apparent that we'd taken more damage than we realized from our encounters with the RAF off the coast of Morocco, and as repairs began I secretly cherished the thought that we might still be ashore for the upcoming holidays... but the new facilities at Lorient turned out to be more than up to the task of getting U-51 seaworthy in time to dash whatever hope we had of spending Christmas with anyone else but each other.

After clearing the mouth of the river and all the coastal islands we turned south to take us out of range of the Tommies and their pesky bees; judging by the fires still burning when we arrived there, they'd been even more busy over Brittany than they'd been over our last patrol grid. As the sun rose on the 24th we were at last heading WSW towards the open Atlantic. Our "celebration" of the holiday began with a crash dive at dusk, the result of a pre-arranged false alarm given on my orders. We leveled off at 70 meters in just over 2 minutes and then continued down to 150 meters. All systems are performing up to expectations thus far.

After that we came back up to 40 meters and stayed there long enough for everyone to have a chance to join in the Heiligabend festivities... songs were sung, gifts exchanged (where Hollbach found the space to hide them is anybody's guess) and Smutje provided a meal fit for kings, or at least a u-boat full of hungry sailors who would no doubt prefer to be elsewhere on such an occasion.

We resurfaced just after midnight. The weather, I'm happy to say, has held fair and calm since we left Lorient; at least the men standing first watch today will not be doing it knee-deep in salt water. Our course is still WSW, and we'll continue on it until we've cleared the Iberian peninsula and sailed far enough west to be out of range of the Tommy fliers based in Gibraltar. Then it'll be south towards Madeira and the Canaries, then west again, then south until we reach our station - roughly 1000km north of Cape Verde. We'll be patrolling right in the path of the Sierra Leone convoy routes, so with any luck the hunting will be good.

Frau, I think after reading this post and the way you treat your crew, I'd have to say I like how you run your U-Boat Heck, I may even request for a transfer out of Kaleun of my U-boat over to yours!! Whadya say?? With both our knowledge we'll rid the world of Bernard!! Only problem is, with my stomach, your patrols will be half as long.

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

U-51
2 U-Flotilla Saltzwedel
KptltzS Kurt Dennert, Commander

Christmas Day, 1940, the Bay of Biscay.

We departed Lorient for our ninth patrol late in the evening on 21 December, five weeks and a day since putting in at our new base for the first time. Upon our return it had become apparent that we'd taken more damage than we realized from our encounters with the RAF off the coast of Morocco, and as repairs began I secretly cherished the thought that we might still be ashore for the upcoming holidays... but the new facilities at Lorient turned out to be more than up to the task of getting U-51 seaworthy in time to dash whatever hope we had of spending Christmas with anyone else but each other.

After clearing the mouth of the river and all the coastal islands we turned south to take us out of range of the Tommies and their pesky bees; judging by the fires still burning when we arrived there, they'd been even more busy over Brittany than they'd been over our last patrol grid. As the sun rose on the 24th we were at last heading WSW towards the open Atlantic. Our "celebration" of the holiday began with a crash dive at dusk, the result of a pre-arranged false alarm given on my orders. We leveled off at 70 meters in just over 2 minutes and then continued down to 150 meters. All systems are performing up to expectations thus far.

After that we came back up to 40 meters and stayed there long enough for everyone to have a chance to join in the Heiligabend festivities... songs were sung, gifts exchanged (where Hollbach found the space to hide them is anybody's guess) and Smutje provided a meal fit for kings, or at least a u-boat full of hungry sailors who would no doubt prefer to be elsewhere on such an occasion.

We resurfaced just after midnight. The weather, I'm happy to say, has held fair and calm since we left Lorient; at least the men standing first watch today will not be doing it knee-deep in salt water. Our course is still WSW, and we'll continue on it until we've cleared the Iberian peninsula and sailed far enough west to be out of range of the Tommy fliers based in Gibraltar. Then it'll be south towards Madeira and the Canaries, then west again, then south until we reach our station - roughly 1000km north of Cape Verde. We'll be patrolling right in the path of the Sierra Leone convoy routes, so with any luck the hunting will be good.

[Schwieger]

Originally Posted by USNSRCaseySmith

Frau, I think after reading this post and the way you treat your crew, I'd have to say I like how you run your U-Boat Heck, I may even request for a transfer out of Kaleun of my U-boat over to yours!! Whadya say?? With both our knowledge we'll rid the world of Bernard!! Only problem is, with my stomach, your patrols will be half as long.

haha, brings up a post I made in the SH5 forums:

Originally Posted by Schwieger

If they made SH6 a real simulator then it would be nice... especially if you could have like 100+ people to man the subs on multiplayer

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

so we started of as a captain and now we become sonar men, torpedo men gunners etc?
we will all be fighting telling the captain what to do, and there will be like a billion mutinies
however, hundreds of subs and thousands of ships(1 player each) with a real dynamic war like falcon 4.0 would be great

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

Could you imagine it? Submerged and under imminent depth charging:

SONAR: Contact now steady, bearing 1-3-5. Getting louder! He's making his approach!

Captain: Ahead two thirds. Make your depth 1-9-0 meters.

Diving officer: It might be better if we just bottomed the boat.

Captain: 1-9-0 meters.

IWO: No, we need to go silent!

2WO: And turn into the ship's path.

Helmsman: You mean perpendicular to the path. I'm turning now.

Captain: I didn't order that!

2WO: No, I mean into the path, noob!

Chief: Go to flank. We need to get out of the path.

Helmsman: No way. I agree with the IWO. Going silent.

Captain: What? I said two-thirds!

Diving officer: I think we should still bottom the boat.

SONAR: Splashes! Here come the charges!

IWO: Rig for silent!

Chief: No! Ahead flank!

Seaman, 3rd class: surfiss and uze deckgun lolz

Captain: Shut up.

Torpedo room (through voicepipe): We've all been talking it over and think that you should turn to present a smaller target profile.

2WO: Dude, that's what I've been saying!

Torpedo room (again, through voicepipe): No, you were saying something else, spazz.

Captain: Shut up!!! Why aren't we diving?!?!?!

Planesman: Sorry. I was checking Facebook. What's going on now?

*Explosions* *Flooding* *Sinking* *Darkness*

Cook: Captain, wanna try my soup?

ROFL Now THATS funny. I could see them talking about it after

Destroyer Commander: Haha we sunk you!!

Captain: Only because my crew are all idiots Except for the torpedoe men, they had SOMEWHAT of the right idea

Seaman 3rd Class: LOLLLLZZ

[OSU]

That just made my day, or night. Whatever you want to call it.