So then I shot him...

[Foghladh_mhara]

Well he was obviously incompetent. My Watch Officer that is. It was for the good of the crew.

I was on patrol in BE37 May '41 and sitting submerged at a depth of 25 metres at 1xTC. Engines stopped and my best petty officer at the hydrophone. I was in the process of scrubbing the cooker (my actual cooker) when the shout went out. Merchant closing, medium speed, long range. The bearings didnt change very much so I figure he's heading pretty much straight at me. I surfaced the boat and set depth for 7 metres, decks awash. My First Officer was on the bridge since he was Watch qualified and had 2 petty officers with him one of whom was also watch qualified. Weather conditions were good and it was daytime. No rain, no fog, visibility moderate so I figured I'd see his smokestack and get an idea of his course and speed before carrying out a submerged attack.

Happy that the boat was in safe hands I turned up the speakers and went back to scraping my dinner off the cooker. I kinda got carried away with my cleaning so didn't really check too often, just the occasional sweep of the horizon, when all of a sudden I heard the distinctive sound of a shell whistling overhead.

I ran in from the kitchen and scanned the horizon. Sure enough there was a large merchant with the Red Ensign about 4000 m away letting loose another round at my boat!! There was no 'Ship spotted' call. In fact even after they had fired the second shell there was no reaction. I called the deck gun crew to quarters and targeted the merchant. My IWO then helpfully alerted me to the impending danger and shouted 'ship spotted!'

No **** Sherlock!!!

I smacked him one before realising the gun crew weren't engaging. I tried a combination of targeting commands and tried to aim myself but no joy. Eventually I had to order surface to bring the deck above water level before they would move. The target was zigzagging at this point and I had no speed estimate so I decided to slug it out on the surface. I won but took 2 hits damaging my starboard diesels. Gun battles go against my cowardly nature. If it isn't a trawler and unarmed I tend not to use my deck gun but this guy caught me on the hop.

Needless to say I brought the crew up on deck and covered up my lack of vigilence by shooting the First Officer in the foot.

I'm confused on 2 counts though. How did my First Officer with watch qualifications and 6 patrols behind him and the entire bridge crew not see a merchant in perfect visibility at 4000m? And why would the gun crew not fire? From distant memories of gun battles they would fire from decks awash in the past.

Bloody hell, you just met another captain with an incompetent WO my friend. I guess I will have to shoot him in the foot as well.

June 6, 1933.

-Patrol 15.

Adler Grosmann heads on his 15th patrol toward grids of AM 30 & 32. In the morning, just reached of grid AM 30, it was a little bit foggy and no rain. I head up to the conning tower and watch around. I see a fellow crew watchman pointing a little bit starboard...So I turn it's way... after searching for quite a while...I decide to go back in the boat. (Shell whistling) I head up to the conningtower again and looked at my damage U-boat but see no ship. 3 Minutes later straight from the bow, I see a GIANT ship heading straight for me, I knew there was no where to go. MY WO did NOT report a ******* battleship heading for me. On that day...I got sunk by the ramming of a battleship.

[Blacklight]

Was his name.. Bernard by any chance ?

[sunvalleyslim]

Obviously bernard is on that boat................off with his foot.............

[Grayson02sept1980]

those WOs seem to be common!

I have the same problem with mine but he is a very well trained Machinist and TorpedoOfficer (whatever the correct English term is )

And so I cannot put him into tube1 and shoot him at the merchent he just didn't see

Did I mention it was a Liberty Ship in GWX2 armed with almost as many guns as a hedghog has pins?

[Brag]

Foot-shooters of the Atlantic, unite!
One dark & foggy night, the hull of my boat was scraping against a tanker when the idot WO said ship spotted and kept repeating it every once in a while.

[Konovalov]

The only eyes that you can trust are your own. Certainly not your WO who is Bernard personified.

[Elmer Kosterman]

I know how you guys feel. I was chasing a lone cargo ship off the east coast of Britain on one of my first patrols right after the war started. It was dark, raining, windy, and foggy, so I was often up on the bridge to help the watch crew, but I wasn't up there all the time.
Then, I happened to be walking throught he command room, when I saw the Chief Engineer hovering tensely over the men manning the bow planes. That's odd. I asked the Watch Officer for a contact report, and he answered all non chalant, "Nearest contact bearing 003°, range 100 meters." He might as well have shouted "Iceberg, right ahead!" I rushed up to the bridge and order a turn just in time to avoid running into the C-2, big as a house. Without the element of surprise, my last two torpedos missed. If only I could've thrown that officer overboard...

[Subject]

Speaking of realism?

Rubini made a "Stay alert Crew-fix" mod, which was a lifesaver in GWX 1.03. If the blindness and dumbness of the crew hasn't been helped in v2, I'll go find that mod immidiatly. Thanks for the heads up

I haven't observed that behaviour myself yet in GWX 2.0 though - only on first patrol to the States in 42 - but if I do, then...

[T.Von Hogan]

I don't think Tommies Wo's are any better than ours lol....march 29th 1940 on our 4th mission heading to BE-61 passing thru BE22 at night in foul weather with poor visability.

'Ship spotted short range' i hear as a destroyer passes me within 500 meters in the opposite direction. I ordered the sub to dive and heard the starshell go off just as we were slipping under the waves.

[Faamecanic]

Originally Posted by sunvalleyslim

Obviously bernard is on that boat................off with his foot.............

I frequently use "Bernard(s)" (note plural as there seems to be no shortage of him) to clean out my torpedo tubes. I stuff him in, slam the hatch, open the door... FWOOOSH....away he goes

[NealT]

You are being kind. ME? I would not have aimed for the foot!

[Foghladh_mhara]

Ok so its not just my boat then. I had wondered if having the boat at decks awash somehow affected the watch crews visible range but I guess not. So I was right to shoot him

[DrMilton]

Why spend the bullet? Just order crash dive before he gets back in.

[Sailor Steve]

Or replicate the scene in Braveheart:
"Heinz, what's that?"
"Where, Herr Kaleun?"
"Right down there, in the water. You have to lean out a little to see it."
"I still don't see anything, Herr Kaleun."
"Just lean out a little further."
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