Stories and Patrol Logs + Screenshots and Videos (merged)

[mr chris]

[Admiral Lutjens]

Gentlemen,

My name is LCDR Richard Callahan, USN.

I have just been selected to command the brand-spankin' new Balao-class submarine USS Greenling (SS-213).




And we're off San Francisco Bay to start sea trials!

[Admiral Lutjens]

Returning after sea trials! Now off to take it to the Empire!

[Admiral Lutjens]

Quick stop at Midway to replenish and refuel:

[Admiral Lutjens]

Assigned to Area 7 off of Honshu, we had quite the patrol!

Splashed a bunch of aircraft and put some Jap merchants to the bottom!

First, a merchant NW of Wake. First kill on first patrol of the war!:





Issa hit!



Down she goes!

[V-trucker]

I decide to make a new career and I receive the order to patrol East China Sea. While in site with bad visibility by a heavy fog, I watched a mark in the map of a "single ship", then mark of the "same ship", So I decide to hunt it and I started my movements, using sonar to calculate the distance and bearing, then after almost 8 hours, I got the surprise that the ship is a convoy. But at the end, I ended in bad position 'cause needed to do a 180 degrees to attack and I sended the ship to the deep.






It took like 40 mins to sink

[Levyathan89]

I decided to start a new Let's Play series, this time Silent Hunter 4 with the Dark Waters mod. Here's episode 1...

[Levyathan89]

...ans here's the brand new episode 2^^

[Macgregor the Hammer]

There seems to be a lot of discussion about realism in play. I write stories about the captains and boats. This is my latest captain:

Captain Ian MacDonald
USS Thresher Personal Log

June 7, 1942
I was finally promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Promotion in the peacetime Navy was incredibly slow and these oak leaves have been a long time coming. The attack on Pearl has changed everything. Admiral Lockwood gave me the gold oak leaves himself.

I was relieved of my command of the USS Seal, a Salmon class boat. I then walked 2 piers down and relieved John Harrison of command of the USS Thresher, a Tambor class. John was promoted to the admiral’s staff. There were about 12 subs in Pearl and Admiral Lockwood wanted the captains to have dinner with him at the Royal Hawaiian hotel.
At dinner, he lined out the expectations of the submarine fleet. He emphasized now that the US Navy’s surface fleet would be out of commission for some time, we would have to be the ‘tip of the spear’ along with the air arm. The huge win at Midway made for high spirits. We finally felt we had the Nips on their heels. Our primary mission was to strangle raw materials. Warships would fair game too. The admiral wanted aggression with caution. He promised to get the Mark 14 issue solved and to provide us with whatever equipment and materials we needed. Admiral Lockwood was well liked in the sub community. During the light banter during dinner, there were numerous comments about my Scottish brogue. Though I have been in America since I was 12, it’s still rather thick. It caused problems at the Academy. I spoke briefly about my origins. I was born in Crinan, Scotland to a family of Herring fishermen. I moved to Maine when I was 12 and worked on my Uncle’s Cod boat. I attended the Academy and graduated in ‘32. Dinner wound down and now it was back to business.

June 8, 1942
The Thresher had spent a week in refit. The generators and electric motors were overhauled, a periscope mast seal replaced, a sonar transducer replaced and some work on the phone circuit was performed. At 0800, I walked up the gangplank, saluted the flag and asked the OOD for permission to come aboard. Clambering my way down the conning tower hatch I was hit with the smells of fresh paint, diesel fuel and disinfectant. The XO had the bilge flushed with freshwater and Lyster, which was a great idea. A boat can get pretty rank on a patrol. It was a nicer boat than the Seal. I found the XO Mike Ellison, clipboard in hand coming from the forward torpedo. He was the only officer on board except the OOD. I asked him to join me in the wardroom. I dismissed the mess boys to guarantee privacy. The Messboys have a habit of ‘being seen without being seen’ and probably the best source of information on the boat.

I sat down with Lieutenant Ellison for an impromptu chat about my expectations. I found Ellison very open minded and willing. I told him that I am always open to new ideas. We discussed the new crew members and how we needed to get them qualified. I ordered Mike to draft a training syllabus and we would review it together. I needed something better than the standard Navy training. We discussed the post overhaul sea trials. We didn’t really have the time so we would do what we could on our way to Midway, our new home. The crew would be returning from liberty tomorrow.

June 9, 1942
I had settled into my state room and walked through the boat. The crew was still in their whites waiting to be called to quarters. Conversation died down when I entered which was no surprise. I asked them if they had a good liberty and if the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was still standing. That got a laugh and relieved some tension. Admiral Lockwood had made the hotel available to submarine crews back from patrol. I dressed in my khakis with a jacket and told Mike to have the crew fall into quarters on the pier.
“Men, we are sailing into harm’s way with the intention of bringing the war to Japan’s doorstep. With most of our surface fleet out of commission; the submarine fleet, along with the air wing, are all that stands in the way of Japan’s expansionism and survival.
As you all know, Japan doesn’t have any natural resources, they’re dependent on their conquests to supply her war machine. We are going to change that!
I expect nothing but the absolute best in your performance of duties! Myself and your division heads will give you the best in leadership. We have an excellent boat! I had Mr. COB buy a brand new straw broom to hoist on our way back in!
We have stores and fish to load. Mr. D’Agostino, line up a battery charge. Mr. Ellison, dismiss the ship’s company and carry on with the plan of the day.

June 10, 1942
Set sail for Midway at 0600. Mild weather and smooth sailing. The crew changed into their ‘patrol uniform’: cut-off dungaree trousers and athletic shoes or sandals. I put on my cut-off wash khaki trousers, khaki shirt with cut-off sleeves and my black Converse high-tops. The shoes along with my grandmother's clan MacDonald scarf are my lucky charms. All submariners are superstitious.

The captain of a sub is a complicated roll. Part father figure, authoritarian and always decisive. My dress let them know I’m one of them; I am a true submariner and not some ‘skimmer pilot’. I made it a point to walk all compartments and talk to the enlisted. I read most of their personnel jackets, but I still make it a point to ask them where they're from, have they been getting their mail, etc. Mike Ellison was the XO on the last patrol and demonstrated his approval of me. He mentioned the Seal and my last patrol in the Aleutians. I sunk 6 merchants and 2 destroyers after the captain took ill. That gave me a considerable amount of credibility. John Harrison sunk 2 merchants on his last patrol. That’s why he was relieved; he didn’t have the aggression Admiral Lockwood was looking for. Before the war, subs were considered scout and recon ships. There are a number of skippers being relieved because they can’t adapt to this new role.

We started running drills. Gas alarm in the forward battery compartment, Flooding in aft torpedo, switch box fire with no lights, crash dive to 200 ft, emergency blow, emergency flank then emergency back, running submerged for 12 hours, loss of phone circuits, battle stations surface action, etc. This went on for 6 days. I wore them out. I believe in the axiom “Bleed in training, sweat in combat!” We pulled into Midway, topped off our fuel and I gave the crew 96 hours on the beach. Unfortunately, not much to do. The base was so new there wasn’t much recreation save a 4 can beer ration. I was given the final orders to be opened after 48 hours at sea. We depart at 0200 on the 20th.

[Sniper297]

Strange glitch I run across sometimes, ships "placed on water" instead of IN the water.



Sometimes I get those, and they ride so high a torpedo set for 10 feet scoots right underneath, have to set for 5 feet to actually hit the bottom. Only happens occasionally, no explanation ever found.

Today I had the opposite. Attacked a task force with 5 BBs, 2 in one column 3 in the other. Being close to a resupply base I took the closest column of 3, expended all torpedoes and sank all three, leaving two undamaged following a light cruiser. Charged off to the resupply base and reloaded torpedoes, losing contact with the remainder of the formation. Plotted an intercept course and regained contact, ran ahead and submerged.

Shifted to outside view, and on inspection found the two remaining BBs - which I never even fired at - running low in the water, decks awash, small fires on the superstructure, making the creaking groaning breakup noises.
Sank both with two torpedoes each. Very weird glitch, that the two ships that were undamaged somehow got severely damaged after I lost contact. Didn't affect the light cruiser.

[Bubblehead1980]

TMO 2.5 100 realism
October 24 1944
Balabac Strait, Philippines
USS Dace (Gato)

Departed on patrol on September 20, patrolling off Palawan in Area D6. A running battle on a large convoy(13 ships, 6 escorts, most with radar) began at 2200 October 15 and ended at 1800 October 17 hugging coast left 6 ships destroyed, torpedoes expended and low on fuel. Since had not be out on patrol that long, headed to Mios Woendi to refuel and rearm. After refueling and rearming, headed back to patrol area at best speed. Entering Balabac Strait during the daytime (forget exact time in game) on October 24, a storm was raging. Fog, rain, clouds, visibility very low, moderate seas. While about midway through the strait, the APR-1 Radar Warning Receiver began detecting many signals. Then radar made contact on a group of ships heading East through the strait. Judging by the formation and plethora of radar signals, as well as the obvious speed the contacts were moving, was obvious we had a task force of some sort, went to GQ.

Due to weather and speed of contacts, visual ID would be impossible. Decided to shoot on radar bearings alone(the 3D TDC and radar mod incorporated in TMO makes this possible) and would use a spread of six Mark 14 torpedoes, providing a decent chance of hits. I chose a firing point as 2500 yards off the task forces projected track. I closed in on the surface since the storm would prevent visual identification and japanese radar, while a concern is not the best at detecting submarines(typically), so chanced it.

At 3000 yards off the track I decided could fire.As I was preparing to fire, checked radar scope. Noticed the lead escort had fallen out of position and was heading directly towards me. Coincidence? Just an escort making a sweep? I then noticed on the TDC the solution was changing and the main body of the formation was moving off to south slightly, ruining the shot. . Yep, their radar had picked me up and the lead escort was coming to check out the contact.

I was hoping to salvage the shot and use the weather to evade the escort and get in close to the main body(which was in a single file battle line, about 1000 meters or so apart). I also noticed the port flank escort was now heading towards me as well. The lead escort was now just 1500 yards away and closing in on me. Their radar had me. I turned toward him for a zero AOB, for a "down the throat" shot, but never been able to do this without seeing the target lol. In the fog and rain I could just make out his signal light on his mast, so used it as a reference and sent bearing via TBT(in the storm, on the bridge) . Since did not know what was shooting out, I had torpedoes set shallow depth already. Radar now had the closing DD at 1000 yards(normally wait for 650-700 yards in a down the throat shot but since he could not see the torpedoes, I fired two torpedoes and ordered a dive. The boat slide under quickly as the DD roared overhead.The "clank" of the one torpedo hitting the steel hull was clearly audible. Not dud as by Oct 44, the issue was fixed, but the torpedoes did not have sufficient time to make their run and arm due to the high closing speeds of my self at 20 knots on surface and the DD at 20+ knots. The DD dropped a nice pattern of depth charges which exploded above us. Balabac is not a deep strait but we were in the middle so had plenty of water to hide, plus with the storm, not exactly ideal sonar conditions. For good measure, we dropped a decoy at 150 feet. Soon we heard a torpedo explosion and a report of a torpedo impact was made.Not sure what we hit, but obviously something in the battle line as the second torpedo missed the DD during the initial shot. What luck.


Three destroyers dropped some charges in the area, a few came close on one run by chance, then the contacts faded off sonar, they had left the area. Surfaced, hoping for a wounded straggler to finish off but scope was clear. Continued on to the patrol area and few days later, found a convoy of six large tankers with 6 escorts heading North up the coast in shallow water. Attacked October 30-31, sinking four of six tankers and one escort(he moved in front of three torpedoes meant for a tanker) . Returned home November 8. Successful patrol full of tense moments.

Definitely a tense moment attacking the TF and also the bad luck to run into them in a bottleneck but during a storm so no visual id possible. Would have been a relatively easy submerged shot under normal conditions. Pretty intense moment with the DD bearing down on surface when range so close.Tried to load a screenshot, but won't work.

Note: This most likely was Nishimura's "Southern Force" en route to Surigao Strait for the battle on Oct 25. This force left Brunei and transited Balabac Strait then Sulu Sea and Bohol Sea towards Surigao Strait and the last battleship v battleship action in history. I added this force to TMO as part of my traffic update. However, this was chance I encountered it as I was simply making my way back to my patrol area from Mios Woendi.

[Macgregor the Hammer]

Good story and well written! Look forward to the next chapter!

MacGregor sends Bravo Zulu!!!

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by Sniper297

Strange glitch I run across sometimes, ships "placed on water" instead of IN the water.



Sometimes I get those, and they ride so high a torpedo set for 10 feet scoots right underneath, have to set for 5 feet to actually hit the bottom. Only happens occasionally, no explanation ever found.

Today I had the opposite. Attacked a task force with 5 BBs, 2 in one column 3 in the other. Being close to a resupply base I took the closest column of 3, expended all torpedoes and sank all three, leaving two undamaged following a light cruiser. Charged off to the resupply base and reloaded torpedoes, losing contact with the remainder of the formation. Plotted an intercept course and regained contact, ran ahead and submerged.

Shifted to outside view, and on inspection found the two remaining BBs - which I never even fired at - running low in the water, decks awash, small fires on the superstructure, making the creaking groaning breakup noises.
Sank both with two torpedoes each. Very weird glitch, that the two ships that were undamaged somehow got severely damaged after I lost contact. Didn't affect the light cruiser.

Encountered this as well on last patrol. Running TMO. Had a convoy running coast of Palawan in October 44 and after my initial attack and end around, when I reestablished contact, noticed some ships lagging behind and eventually stationary. When got close enough to look, they were on the water, not in it. Prop was out of water or not all the way in.

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Encountered this as well on last patrol. Running TMO. Had a convoy running coast of Palawan in October 44 and after my initial attack and end around, when I reestablished contact, noticed some ships lagging behind and eventually stationary. When got close enough to look, they were on the water, not in it. Prop was out of water or not all the way in.

You will find that if you attack an enemy force and there are allied air resources within range, they will come attack them also. If yo don't leave the area right away, and they are fairly close you will be able to hear their AA guns and see the flak bursts. Fun to watch. However, be prepared to then go down there and rescue the allied pilots. Watch for the pink clouds that mark their life rafts. You won't get renown for picking them up, but still it is the decent thing to do.

[Bubblehead1980]

TMO + my traffic updates, later war depth charge mod for ijn and others.


April 30 1945. Kurile Islands, Sea Okhotsk

9th War Patrol of USS Dace(started in Fremantle in January 1944).

Located a 3 ship 8 escort convoy heading south along coast of various islands after departing Matsuwa anchorage. Made a daylight periscope approach. Slipped inside(barely) the starboard screening vessel undetected, Set up on a 14000 ton Nokura Maru tanker and closed just 1500 yards before firing. Fired four Mark 16's at tanker, 2 Mark 14's at the leading freighter. Patrol aircraft flew in and spotted me during torpedo run, dropped depth charges(first sign as to being detected was the explosions) , which missed the boat. The ships were alerted, slowed down and made hard turns, but two Mark 16's hit the tanker, which went up in flames. One Mark 14 found the leading freighter. Went "deep" to 450 ft, flank speed turned west toward deep water, dropped decoys.

Initially lost the escorts but one persistent escort(possibly the otori, external cam off so not sure) stayed on me, decoys did not fool him for long. Eventually two others joined and seemed to have me in the "circle" (of death) . I took the Dace(Gato class) to 550 feet, pushing it for this class of sub. After decoys, seemed to lose them again. Then two suddenly made high speed runs in on me. Multiples charges went off, not close, all above. Then BAM the last one in that pattern, very close right near conning tower. Lights went out, boat shaking heavily. Charge was close enough to cause hull damage to conning tower and control room, flooding in both, bulkhead damage in both. Sonar stack 90 percent damage, TDC damage, pumps damaged, pretty much everything in conning tower and control room was damaged in some way.Worse yet, the flooding was serious, we were now sinking, had to speed up to keep from sinking as we were already near the suspected crush depth.


Naturally, this speed along with securing from silent running so damage control can operate at maximum efficiency broadcast our position. Escorts stayed on us, decoys helped but we took more damage but managed to stay around 370 feet while trying to conduct emergency repairs and pump water. Lost the escorts 4 times but they'd hear us burning along at high speed to keep from sinking. Decoys again helped confuse them, but we took more damage, fortunately nothing too serious.

Finally, the conning tower flooding was stopped and slowly pumped out. The control room took much longer, at one point since had to slow speed to conserve battery power and evade an escort, we sunk to 561 feet before able to regain control. Eventually enough water was pumped could maintain safe depth without excessive speed but just as did, a lone escort came roaring in pinging, had been listening apparently. Dropped 8 close depth charges, damaged forward batteries (total battery was already down to 31 percent after the evasion etc) . Dropped some decoys and made a high speed turn then went silent and to 515 feet. Escort finally lost me but continued searching for hours.

Finally we came to the surface around dusk(2300, short arctic nights) . Attempted to raise periscope, nothing happened. Check damage screen, both periscope heads destroyed. Sound check showed all clear, went to radar depth, SJ radar antenna destroyed as well. SD functional as it detected a distant night patrol plane. We waited it out, then surfaced with just 18 percent battery left and a heavily damaged boat.


With key equipment smashed, we turned for pearl harbor and arrived May 8 1945, VE Day. Next patrol begins May 20 1945, Area 10( Sea of Japan), going to be a rough one.