XXI Elektrobrick

[Choronzon]

Greetings all,

I started a GWX 2.0 career in mid '44 to check out the XXI. I must say this is a nice boat with great submerged speed and handles nicely too except for a fatal flaw: it sinks like a brick at low speeds.

North of Scapa Flow, I ran into a convoy coming straight for me so I set myself up in attack position and took out an ore carrier and a large tanker before the escorts starting wetting themselves.

With 1000+ meters below my keel, I'd ordered a depth of 100 meters and silent run while I start to egress through the rear of the convoy at 1 knot. The escorts are falling further behind and I've made good my escape...until the crew starts crying about approaching critical depth and the gauge is hovering around the 160 meter mark.

Ok, fair enough, I must have slipped and accidently went a little deeper. Maintain depth and continue my escape. Nope, not happening. I'm still drifting deeper. Increase speed to 2 knots (the escorts are still close, so I don't want to attract their attention). Nope, still dropping and closing in on 300 meters now. I'm impressed with the depth capabilities of this boat, but I'm also getting close to needing a change of underwear.

Increase to 3 knots...damn, the escorts found me and I'm still dropping. Give it a quick boost to 5 knots, deploy a bold, and I start to rise a little but now the escorts are really getting excited, so back down to 2 knots. I've lost the little bit I gained and then some...getting close to 350 meters now and taking some hull damage. I'm entertaining notions of jettisoning the crew to lighten the load or surfacing at flank speed and running like Hell.

360 meters, more hull damage, change of underwear and still sinking...

I made it to 370 meters before the boat crumpled like so much aluminum foil. Pretty impressive depth, I must say, but a nasty way to die. Is it normal for the XXI to plummet at low speeds? I've never experienced this with the VII or IX boats.

Chor