Stories and Patrol Logs + Screenshots and Videos (merged)

[Bane]

Thanks! I fired a couple at the lead escort as it crossed behind me, but they missed too deep for some reason. I didn't have the fuel reserves to be messing around so I decided to continue on my way.

I submitted them to the unedited contest. Thanks for the heads up.

[Armistead]

Some sun shots with sky env.

[Admiral8Q]

Run away!!!! Run run!!!!!!!!

[Freebird]

Wow, it's mid Apr '45 and I'm trolling for singles or TF action, primarily relying on my DUAL 5.25" deck guns for the singles and ignoring merchant convoys.

Radar contact confirmed a 6 ship merchant convoy with absolutely no DDs escorting them. Well, I just GOTTA go after THESE guys!

Got in position for a torpedo run and sent 2 at each of the biggest targets(Large Modern Composite Freighters). I had done several speed checks and good solutions but, just before I fired, the convoy slowed down. As luck would have it, they even changed course right as I fired. I used Mk16s and had major doubts I had been detected but they looked like they were running.

I was pretty pi$$ed and surfaced the boat amidst considerable gunfire coming in as we broached. I began to take it back down and stopped myself. Screw it, we're going after them!

4 of the 6 were armed and decided to fight. Bad choice. The two unarmed merchants began to run but, it was too late. The first 4 went down swinging and we chased down the last 2 sending them on a one way trip to the bottom.

The entire encounter took 20min.

Gary

[TarJak]

What is SubsimMachFest? It is our very own short film festival! Welcome to the second Annual Subsim Machinima Short Video Festival. Contenders for the awards will be posted on http://au.youtube.com/user/SubsimMachFest I'm looking for the best 7 minute machinima videos containing a submarine that you can create.

Being Subsim we need a theme for our vid fest and of course it is submarines. It doesn't matter if you don't use a sub sim to make your vid but in the 7 minutes you have to include at least one submarine whether it is simulated or otherwise.

So all you budding machinima makers, crank up your skills for a chance to win one of the following awards:

1. Best of the Fest
2. Best Comedy
3. Best Drama
4. Best Director
5. Best Cinematography
6. Peoples choice

The rules for entries are simple:

1. All entries must be received by 5pm AEST (Sydney, Australia) on 30 April 2010. Any entries received after this time will not be considered.
2. All entries must be less than 7 mins long and must contain a submarine, simulated or otherwise. Other than that I don’t care what games or tools you used to create your entry.
3. All entries should have ending credits which include the following text or voiceover: "Dive into the Web's #1 Submarine and Naval Resource: SUBSIM.com"
4. Entries can be mailed on digital media or made available to me to download. To notify me of your entry by PM or e-mail. PM me to obtain my e-mail address.
5. Individuals may submit as many entries as they wish
6. All entries being considered for an award will be posted by me on the SubsimMachFest youtube channel.
7. All entries must be your own work although using material from other sources is allowed as long as it is properly credited. I have no interest in holding the rights to the videos other than the right to post them on the SubsimMachFest site.
8. All content must comply with the posting rules for Subsim, so no porn, racial or political vilification or abuse of any sort will be considered valid.
9. This is my film festival and I am the judge so if you have any complaints about my judging talk to the hand cos it’s mine and the entries have to please me.
10. As the judge I cannot enter the competition in any way shape or form.

Post here if you are interested in taking part or know someone who would be. Any questions post ‘em here also.

[ichso]

Oh no, I guess Bernard is cooking his favorite meal again ...


And a nice view in Darwin harbor May '42:

[SteveUK]

Sometimes this game visually blows you away

[AngryFace]

Hello everyone, new skipper reporting, fresh off training boat
Had some trials with SH2 and SH3 before but it never got fun. Decided to look at SH5 but I'll leave that silent. So, SH4 it is. After few patrols on Easy in vanilla 1.4 I decided to spice things up and got myself TMO + RSRDC. Revised TDC and memorized Dick O'Kane's method. Plus some torpedo tutorial in sub school. Went hardcore at High this time, all checked but map markers (I like to think my XO takes care of that, but now I see it's a bit too accurate to be true) and external camera for views.

I have no regular report as I didn't thought about it in time, but I have few highlights I'd like to share

So, started out in Asiatic Fleet out of Manila, Sugar boat it is. Like to start from the bottom. I was sent to this gulf north of Manila, spoted a TF there. Closed in on 90 degrees intercept course, went deep and silent. I watched the sonar visualisation of escort DD pass some 4000 yards behind me, first of two columns just 1000 yards ahead, the next another 1000 yards ahead. Periscope depth, let's have a peek.
Identified a small flattop, two heavy battlecruisers, about 4 light, 2 merchs and 4 DDs of escort in standard box formation.

Checked the book, so the heavy battlecruisers are the highest tonnage. Decide to get the one running second in closer column, I set up a DOK solution, running at 12 knots the T... (forgot the exact name) BC got hit by 3 Mark's 10 below second gun, under the boiler and in the aft. First hit - BOOM! ammunition storage, BOOM! engine compartement. At this point it was going down in pretty flames, a dozen lifeboats overboard and the third torp hit. KABOOOM! all those lifeboats got ignited in the explosion. Pretty!

I watched as it limps to the right (can never remember, starboard, or port...) and drops to the bottom. Escort decided it's quite normal to a ship to blow up like this and never bothered with me droping to the test depth.
And at this point I got hit by Japan Intelligence and my Win7 showed me a bluescreen.

Too bad, had a save just before calculating the solution, better safe then sorry. All went down exacly the same (3 torps, 3 exlplosions). But this time, instead of watching the sights I looked upon the other battlecruiser - Maya it was I belive. Running second from last in further column it was almost entering my 10 degrees target bearing. Remembering that with DOK range doesn't matter and everyone seemed oblivious of me sitting in the same spot all along (just changing depth without propulsion) I let the last fish go right in the same spot under the second turret. KABOOM! It goes down and secondary explosions catch all the lifeboats again. I'll put screenshots when I dig them up .

Went deep, turned away from their heading and slipped away with two biggest ships I ever sunk in my first 'realistic' patrol with manual targeting. Encouraging!
Also - sugar boats - favorite ever. When you eventually get lucky it's just beautiful to see how this little, slow and underpowered cigars can kill almost anything.

If you want I'll share more, just tell me what you think

Captain Angryface, signing off

[Nikeleye]

My first post here, wanted to share my first patrol on my return to SHIV after a long while. I'm running 100% Realism with TMO 1.9 & RSRDC (and other aesthetic tart-ups).

USS Seal (SS-183)
Salmon class
17 June, 1942
1st Patrol

We leave home port in Fremantle with orders to perform choke point operations along the archipelago on the northern rim of the Celebes Sea. I've had previous experience here when I first started SHIV and couldn't hit the broadside of a Shokaku with an acoustic-guided nuke - suffice to say that career didn't go well, between the nefarious DDs and Japanese air cover, while i'd never been sunk I did hate the place. And getting there!

My first white-knuckle moment was passing through the accessway of the Lombok Strait, still neutral territory at this time but I intensely dislike traversing straits, I'd timed it wrong and it was a clear seas dawn passage too, hell for the lone submariner. Luckily though, no contacts until i'm just clear of the strait, and I pickup a long-range radar contact heading right up my propellors, it's now 0600 June 26. I start getting his course and a speed reading as I turn to nearly 90° AoB and flank up to within a few thousand yards from his track. Using Vector Analysis (my favoured tecnique) I set him up for two slow-running Mk14s. Periscope Depth! He passes right in front, I recognise him as a medium freighter of some kind, and as his first mast and then stack cross the wire - Fire One! Fire Two! About a minute later "Shes going down, sir!". Yes, my first kill in USS Seal. Turns out to be a Taihosan Maru, 1800t freighter. She was only going 8 knots so hardly a big challenge but i've broken the first-kill mark!



As I cruise past the wreck of the Taihosan, we're heading right up the Makassan Strait to reach our patrol area. Some captains may have chosen the route which goes east and then north-west back into the Celebes Sea, where its pretty much free from air cover, however i'm predicting a long patrol so want to conserve fuel where I can. Unfortunately, right on the darkening evening of June 28 i'm proven wrong - two big Jap bombers within an hour! The first missed horrendously on his first dive, it must be the tiring night sky I thought, and opened up with the 2x20mm. Managed to get a few hits before he got way too close for comfort on his 3rd attack run - CRASH DIVE! I do like the Salmons reasonable dive time, got decks awash in about 30-40 seconds and totally under in about the same again. The bomber gives it up and heads home shortly afterwards. As I resurface and try to make progress, one of his colleagues shows up - not this time mate, "New depth one-five-zero, aye sir!"

I finish traversing the strait at about 12:00 June 29 and behold, radar contact! As I ready to dive again my operator tells me it's a single surface contact, moving slow - brilliant! Up on deck to see if I can spot him out there... ah. Heavy, heavy fog, pouring with rain.. visibility is very low indeed. Still, I persevere and set-up three stern fast-runners (pays to be safe with the Mk14s early on!) right on his 9.5kt track. Periscope Depth! I watch his approach on sonar, he's going slow and straight, awesome... coming up on the aiming bearing now, Up Scope! But he's nowhere to be seen. I spend too long trying to look through the fog and when I get back to my map sonar indicates he's passing the firing line. Fire One, Two, Three! All miss by what I guesstimate to be 15 yards or so, damned luck. "Yes sir, surface the boat. Yes sir, Ahead Flank." I'll get him one way or another. I get the deck-gun manned and fire off on his sonar bearing at the rough range - direct hit! The shell lights up the foggy sky with a silhouette of a tanker - oh yes. His AA guns attempt to pepper me in return but 15 good HE rounds from the 4" later and he's on his way to the bottom, a true pain to sink but at least the torpedoes weren't wasted in vein - Buzyun Maru, 5000t.



Now we're free of those darn straits, beautifully open Celebes Sea on all sides and two kills under my belt - and i'm not even on station yet! I move around the air cover rings where possible towards the northern end, and as I reach mid-way there I get a radar contact, medium mover, long range. Coming right for me - superb. Periscope Depth and set-up what I hope to be my first Dick O'Kane 90° attack. 2000yd from his track, measure him at an even 12 knots, and set up three slow-running fish. As he gets within visual range I get all excited - another tanker, this one's hefty. I have a flick through the recog book and she's a deep-running 10000t'er. Beautiful, all three fish set to 15ft depth. As she passes my aiming bearing I fire off my fish at her fore and aft masts and the engine room at the rear... three direct hits, a little astern of where i'd aimed but for my first Dick O'Kane i'm well chuffed - she's soon sinking to the bottom.



Maybe I can finally get on station now? I set my course for some back-and-fro chokepoint ops, and settle down for a long 72 hours there. I go back and forth along the chokepoint at ahead slow, hoping for some outta luck merchant to sail through but, alas, not today. My 72 hours on station are up and I radio in to SubPac. Ah, great... now go to the northwestern end of the archipelago and do more chokepointing for 92 hours. I start to groan but as I inspect the map to plot my course I notice this has a gaping, deep strait coming from the Sulu Sea in it. I use a little tact and maneuvre into a good position on the side of the strait facing inwards and just wait for some prey... Ah look, radar says here comes some now! Another dawn merchant, July 6. She's coming directly south at 10kt, I set-up her track and realise I can't intercept in time without her getting a visual - another clear day and calm seas! Right, ahead flank. I pull 17 knots which seems all the Seal can give until i'm 5nm in front of this guy, flip around onto a textbook John P Cromwell 45° line of attack and submerge. The sea's a little rougher now so in the swells my radar just goes above the surface - let's hope for unobservant Japanese watchmen! The merchant is a medium, maybe a composite... my deck crew tell me it's an "Akita Maru", a 4000t deep-running cargo hauler. Two fish set for fast-running down the 10° lead angle at a healthy 20ft depth. Los! Wait, that's not right is it? Fire! There we go. They track pretty well but due to the choppy waves I cant tell if they hit where I marked, but she's taken both. I wait for the death message... and wait... and wait... several long minutes pass, she's ground to a halt but no signs of anything else. Hm, right, I go a little deeper and set my track to go past her bow and set-up a zero gyro shot from my stern tubes but right as im passing her I get the "She's going down, sir!" Finally. Periscope Depth, Ahead Full! As my scope breaks the waves no more than 20 seconds after the message she's disappeared. Just a pool of fuel on fire. Damn, missed the sinking - oh well, a kill's a kill, and this one takes me over the 15000t mark. For my first patrol i'm delighted.



I set my course back onto the other side of the strait this time and sit-up in fairly rough seas for another long while. I get another radar contact coming in the same path south, I'm well ahead of him this time and head right up a 45° intercept path from my sitting position. I decide on the John Cromwell attack, but figure as I know it worked last time, let's mix it up a bit. I've only got 4 bow fish remaining so I plot a course to swing the boat around and come to a stern 45° angle on him. Two fast-runners at 7.5ft, the target's visual and identified as a Ryuun Maru, a low draft 6500t merchant. They're fish in a barrel on this patrol! Periscope Depth! The sea is playing havoc with my visuals and I play with my depth to find a compromise between visibility and not exposing my conning tower, and despite moving at just half a knot my sonarman loses the contact on bearing 160 (and as its a stern Cromwell i'll be firing at 170°). I all-stop and time compress to see if he picks him up again, no joy. Up scope! Bloody waves mean I can't see a thing, I've got the guys smokestack right on 170 though - I wait the longest 5 seconds ever to see if the waves will show me his hull but they dont - throwing caution to the wind "Firing tube 5 sir!" "Firing tube 6 sir!". Down scope! If he sees me now and slows down or speeds up it could all go down the swanny. I watch the fish approach on his last known visual range on the attack map and they're running hot, straight and true.. how I havent had any duds with the Mk14s yet I don't know. Torpedo Impact, Torpedo Impact! Up with the scope and this time I get to watch my prey fall below, impressively too, as she loses both masts in the explosion and splits in half.



Back to my sitting position on the west side of the strait. Coming up to midnight on July 7. Radar contact! It's rough though, very intermittent. Seems to be coming dead north, slow. I move in for a stern 90° attack (still have 4 stern fish, would rather use them when I can than the bow ones). The night is however... black. And I mean black. As in I-can't-see-my-deck-gun-from-the-tower black. As this ship moves in I get a couple of good radar readings, she's 6.5 - 7 knots and ive got a good 90° track on her. As she gets within 1000y I still can't see her, 500y... still nothing. I can't shoot torpedoes like this! Surface! Battle stations! I use the sonar to track the ship and fire off the 4" on her bearing, I miss the first few shots but it shows her up - just. 40 rounds later and she's taken enough damage to light up, and whaddyaknow - another 10k ton Nippon Maru tanker. Beautiful sight from the deck as the explosions go off, very worthy of a screenshot. Still have 50 gun rounds left too in reserve. Right, back to my spot, still almost 3/4's fuel left at this stage too. I have to submerge to make any progress through this sea though, for the middle of summer it's torrential. Heavy wind, heavy fog and the sea is rocking the boat so much I hit 20ft of depth and then lift almost bow-out of the water. Make your depth one-one-zero. I'm glad this strait has got 800ft of water after all!



I complete the rest of the 90 hour choking without event, and am then ordered by the rear echelon to proceed to the mouth of the Makassar Strait for 72 hours. The weather has calmed down, light fog but very calm seas now. An uneventful three days at Makassar, mostly at 1/3rd electric power at radar depth. We're then instructed to move onto the eastern edge of the Java Sea, and patrol there. With still well over half a tank of fuel left this is looking good as I slowly move back towards the Oceania.



Right as we re-enter the Makassar Strait however I pick-up a radar contact. I set a Vector Analysis approach for two shots from the stern tubes however once the ship passes by, a good 8000 yards away, I see the fish would miss by a mile - too much margin of error that far. My deck crew identifty the ship as another Buzyun Maru, that 5k ton tanker I had to deck-gun down at the start of the patrol. I decide to take this seemingly unarmed freighter with my remaining deck gun rounds and surface, intercepting it and plinking it from 4000yds. I eventually run out of ammo and the ship still isn't down after tailing it for many minutes. I flank upto his rear and rake the decks with AA before a quick-running zero gyro bow torpedo from 200yds. Nice hole in his centre and he bites the dust.



I reach my patrol zone and complete the task uneventfully, and decide at the end of that mission to head for home in Fremantle. I plot my course and set off for the small inlet a ways east of the Lombok Strait to get through to home. Without interruption we make port at Fremantle, and are flying many broomsticks as we sunk 8 merchant ships for a total patrol tonnage of 42,334. I'm chuffed to bits! And apparently, so is the president (although it says 2 war patrols, its definately just been on one - odd!)



Thanks for reading, any feedback appreciated!

Nikeleye.
a.k.a
Lt. Cmdr. J. Calvert
CO, USS Seal (SS-183)

[Admiral8Q]

Here's an adventure...

Incoming!


So man, I was like, do you think the Americans are really a threat? And she was like how can you think that?


Then, all of a sudden...
BOOM!




So I watched and I watched, then this, WOW!!!:

And he sank and he did, into the endless sea. All because of a submarine, commanded by me.

[BillBam]

Just wonder what the process is for taking screen shots? I tried "print screen" then pasting into Photoshop and Paint but all I get is a black page.

[Armistead]

I'm remapped, but I think the keys are Control-F11 at the same time. To get rid of all the icons, activate your numpad and hit delete when you want to clear all the dials, ect..You can find your shots in your SH4 dir.

[BillBam]

Originally Posted by Armistead

I'm remapped, but I think the keys are Control-F11 at the same time. To get rid of all the icons, activate your numpad and hit delete when you want to clear all the dials, ect..You can find your shots in your SH4 dir.

Awesome that did the trick!

[Shearwater]

[Freebird]

Nikeleye, nice writeup & nice pix!


I was patrolling off the So. tip of Japan and got radar contact on a TF with 6 DDs escorting!
Quick check of the free camera confirmed a Hiryu CV front row center. I'll take my chances with the escorts!

Mind you, the seas were rough, visibility extremely low due to rain. Took a run ahead to get in position for the ambush and.....what's this! Three of the DDs make a beeline for me from quite a ways out! I had heard the Japs aquired radar by late war and I'm only running 1.5 w/RSRD...no MegaMods(yet!).

They HAD to have picked me up on radar(don't recall the exact distance). So, into evasion mode I go while still trying to remain in position for a shot when the TF comes by. I had help from the weather and plenty of prior experience in this situation! It took quite awhile doing the hoochie-koo with the DDs, waiting for the big iron.

So, keeping an eye on the sound contact lines I waited....and up we came from 300' to about 50' to get the scope over the waves just in time to get a solution and fire 3 fish....effectively eliminating a medium tanker between us and the flattop! DAMN!

It was a real b*tch trying to see anything and an occasional silhouette was the only thing I was getting while trying to confirm the target. The Hiryu was making his way well past 0' relative while I tried setting up a solution. Mostly guesswork went into it and I fired 2 fish and 1 trailing with a nice lead spread for insurance.

The Mk16s are fast and got long legs but after a considerable wait, it seemed like they had missed. A moment later, torpedo impact! And another!! Surely they must've gone through the formation and taken out something else?!? Nope, a minute later, the event camera popped open and I got to see the CV take a roll and down she went!

Kinda lucky, or educated guesses pulling off a blind shot? I'll take it either way!

Gary