U-52 5th patrol log, HMS Nelson sunk... and what?

[Abd_von_Mumit]

U-52 came back to Wilhelmshaven early April '40 from a very short disaster-patrol for repairs and after a week headed back to sea, this time to patrol Norwegian shore, as the operation "Wesserubung" had just started. The patrol occured to be full of interesting events... but I'll not uncover the finish.

I started writing logs ("captain book" or a "boat book"), just for fun (as the in game log is not enough for me) and for remembering some useful info (weather changes, dates, events). Below you'll find the 5th patrol log, quite messy, but it's written while playing, without pausing the game, so the more happens in game, the more messy the log.


U-52, Oberleutnant zur See Herbert Mann, 2nd Flotilla, Wilhelmshaven
Patrol 5
Patrol grid: AN 29

April 09 '40, 2147
Weather: partial, none, moderate, 4, 0.

April 12 '40, 0200, AN 2985
Depth tests - 230 m, still ok. 233 m - leaks and damage, emergency surfaced.
0241 Tests repeated - 200 m, no problems.
0313 Weather: clear, none, moderate, 0, 4.

April 13 '40, AN 2417
Weather: clear, none, moderate, 11, 8.

April 14 '40, 2223, AF 5949
On intercepting position of large enemy task force (plotted with 2 received radio reports).
2302 Battleship and unknown number of smaller warships (at least 4 destroyers). Battleship identified as a Nelson Class. Prep. solutions.
2304 Launched 4 bow electric torpedoes, depth 12.5 m., spread angle 1.5, magnetic trigger. Diving.
2305 3 hits, she's sinking. 1 missed/malfunctioned.
2314 DC'd heavily. Was able to deal with damage:
- flak gun (destroyed),
- stern torpedo room,
- electric engines room,
- diesel engines room,
- stern quarters.
2318 Depth 171 m, no flooding, silent run, 1 knt, noone wounded.
2319 Maintaining depth.
2320 Batteries - 80%, comp. air. 85%, no leaks.
2323 Depth charges are being dropped astern, blasts more quiet.

CTD (after hitting F2)

Depth charge counter stopped at 44 with some new DC's falling down.

I'm too tired to be angry, though.

[Jonathan]

I just recently had to stay on the bottom for voer 5 hours of in-game time as I was DCed to hell. After they stop falling, I ccalled for a surface to refill ait tanks. The bastard DD was sitting about 8km outside of our visual range and came back in for another attack. I had to order crash depth AGAIN....

I, and the resto fthe U-51 feel your pain.

[Abd_von_Mumit]

A year ago (IRL) I was trying to evade tons of DD's and patrol craft in Der Kanal for almost 20 hours. Every hour they were more numerous. At the end hydrophone destroyed, both periscopes destroyed, no batteries, no oxygen, no compressed air, got sunk on sunrise. That was HELL.

[T.Von Hogan]

We hope we don't receive a message from BDU regarding U-52 , when i go for a single large hit such as the Nelson i prefer to run away at 6 knots and no deeper than 15 meters and i got a rear tube set for 2 meters on impact. If i didn't dillydally around watching to see the results i usually got at least 1 forward eel ready before those pesky escorts get to where they think i'm at. Then i go silent and dare them to come within 700 meters:rotfl:

[Abd_von_Mumit]

You won't get one, because Crash To Desktop means dissapearing of every boat and crew record, so BdU doesn't even know they ever had a U-Boot of that number. :rotfl:

Of course I'll retry to sink the BB, I hope I won't get a CTD again.

[Jonathan]

Whenever I am forced to sit on the bottom and wait out the DC, I wonder how long the DD wil lstay on top and when they will think that I am sunk. I wonder if their crew is like "We have dropped 5000 depth charges on them by now...either they are dead or have grown gills."

[Graf Paper]

Interesting and exciting patrol you had going there. It's a real pity about the CTD but I suppose you could say that a "higher power" saved you from a worse fate at the hands of those escorts. Destiny is a malleable thing in the Twilight Zone.


(Now that reminds me of that really cool TZ episode where the u-boat captain is forced to live the same night over and over as a passenger aboard the liner he sank.)

I generally do my utmost to avoid setting still, trying to "wait it out" and hope the escorts lose interest. I use every evasive move I can to throw the escort off and get into his baffles, open the gap more, and then turn away from his path to put as much distance as possible between us and widen the circle. As the escort begins turning and I come out of his baffles, I'll order an "all stop" and then coast on the momentum I have from dashing away at flank speed. I'll give the order to resume silent engine speed once I've drifted back down to 1kt, but I won't make 2kts until there's at least 3,000 meters between me and the escorts. Once you reach 6-7km distance, you can usually just surface the boat and run like hell! Bad weather that reduces visibility will also work to your advantage by allowing you to surface sooner and thereby getting out of the ASDIC detection cone. Keeping your depth around 7 meters while surfaced will leave just your conning tower above water and still allow you to run the diesels, but don't do that in rough seas. This is called running with "decks awash" and has the two main advantages of making your already small silhouette even smaller and thus harder to spot from the enemy's decks as well as reducing your dive time dramatically which is extremely useful for avoiding enemy aircraft and avoiding crash dives in shallower waters which always seemed to end up with my bow getting dented before I could pull out and level off my depth.

Good luck nailing the Nelson on your redux of patrol 5, Abd_von_Mumit!
My patrol for Operation Wesserubung off the coast of Norway at grid AF59 was very boring. I suppose the foul weather kept the Nelson's task force away. I actually saw a German naval artillery barge go down because of the rough seas.