Second war patrol U-201

[Markus Witt]

I’ve just completed the second war patrol with U-201 in my dead is dead career. After arriving in St. Nazaire on the 12th of May 1941 from her first war patrol U-201 spends a few weeks in port for routine shipyard duties and leave period for the crew. During this time she spends some time in drydock to replace a leaking shaft seal. On the 6th of June she is ready to set sail for her second war patrol. She will return to patrol the North Atlantic convoy routes.

During the patrol I kept a war diary in the style of the real KTB outside of the game. I also kept a chart outside the game to plot my progress. I did this by recording all relevant data in the in-game journal and saving it after each playing session. I would normally play from noon-to-noon and save the game after 1 or 2 days. After saving I then copy-pasted the chart and saved it by alt-tabbing out of the game so that I could then update the progress in a copy of a KM gridmap. After that I also copy-pasted the relevant journal pages so that I could then update patrol log and chart outside the game. Whenever I attack a vessel or a convoy I also create an attack plot.

My playing style is 100% “realism” without any map updates. By that I mean a completely empty map, so own position is not shown on the map. That means I basically navigate by dead reckoning. I only occasionally use celestial navigation (done by the navigation officer), only during twilight and if the weather is good. (Since the map updates are disabled no position mark appears after requesting a fix, but there is still the small dark circle. I have set this circle to stay visible for 5 minutes so I have time to record my position.) I have set the max error for celestial fixes to 12000m, about 6.5 nM, which I think is reasonable.

If I haven’t had a position update for some time I role a dice. Good weather requires a 6 for a fix, perfect weather a 5 or a 6. This way you sometimes have no position update for a week and you depend on your own dead reckoning. This sounds more complicated than it is since dead reckoning in this game is highly simplified and easy to do. During this patrol that lasted 26+ days I only took 4 celestial fixes and the maximum deviation from my DR position was 23.2 nM. I had no problems locating reported contacts and finding my way back to St. Nazaire.
Dead reckoning by navigation officer I do not use. In the OptionsFileEditorViewer I set the max error% to 99999 to render it useless.

Personal rules:
1. Dead is dead.
2. Small convoy reports are ignored (usually unescorted, not realistic).
3. Recognition manual is not used. Target data acquired by plotting, ausdampfen and estimation.
4. Use mostly G7e torpedoes (more difficult in game as you need to get closer).
5. No submerged attacks during (deep) darkness as periscopes were pretty useless IRL during dark nights.
6. Never stop while submerged, the boat needs speed to maintain trim and depth.
7. No use of periscopes when speed > 3 knots.
In the next few posts I will share the war diary of this patrol with relevant attack plots and maps. Can’t put them directly in the posts so I have to use attachments. Perhaps some of you find it interesting to read through the log.

[Markus Witt]

Just 2 days after departure I run into a group of destroyers. To avoid them I turn towards the continental shelve with the intention to circle around them. For the rest of the morning I try to avoid various destroyers and airplanes which force me further onto the continental shelve. Finally late in the afternoon I’m clear and return to my course. Late in the evening I run into another destroyer and as I turn away I spot yet another destroyer behind me (or the same one has changed course?). For the next 11 hours this destroyer stays behind me while I travel at flank speed. A few times It disappears from sight but each time I try to return to my course it is there again. At one point I am convinced I’m dealing with the sticky destroyer bug and I come very close to quitting the game. Finally however I am able to shake it off and return to course. Very strange experience, it seemed to follow me but never attacked. In hindsight I think I was dealing with a destroyer that was by chance travelling in the same direction as me at probably 16 knots. With flank speed I was just barely able to outrun it and each time I changed towards my intended course it came back into view. Just a very unlucky coincidence and this destroyers never knew I was there. Attached detailed charts of these encounters.

[Markus Witt]

After the strange destroyer encounter I continue to my patrol area. While patrolling this area I receive a contact report of a convoy nearby and I head for the calculated intercept point.

[Markus Witt]

Perhaps a surface attack would have been possible but it was an unusually bright night. Instead I opted for a twilight submerged attack. The absence of an escort on the PS shoulder made an approach front the front possible and I could easily obtain an ideal firing position. For this patrol I decided to fill out torpedo firing reports for each torpedo for added immersion. Attached the reports for this attack.

[Markus Witt]

After the convoy attack I re-position to a new patrol area. On my way there I unsuccessfully chase after a convoy. While patrolling in my assigned area I receive a contact report of a convoy travelling through my patrol area and I go after it.

[Markus Witt]

It turns out this convoy was completely unescorted. Game randomly determines the number of escorts and there is a small chance that no escorts are generated. During the attack I was unaware of this and during the escape I suspected it but was not 100% sure. Initially I attacked this convoy a second time, a daylight submerged attack, and I could confirm there were no escorts. Later I decided to continue with the save from after the first attack as the second attack was too easy. I kept the first attack and accepted it as a gift from the tonnage gods for being a good boy.

[Markus Witt]

After the attack I re-position again to a new patrol area. During the transit there we smoke pot on the horizon. I mean spot smoke on the horizon.

[Markus Witt]

For the first time this career I have discovered a convoy myself. As I have no initial data on this convoy I have to find it myself. Initially I am able to determine convoy course and speed pretty quickly but then things become confused. In hindsight I believe that the vessels I saw in line were along a diagonal within the convoy which threw me off. The first course change in my plot probably never happened. Instead it was likely on a steady more westerly course. This would explain why it kept disappearing from sight. If this is the case then the convoy must have travelled at about 6.5 knots instead of 5.5 knots. To add to the confusion, later observations on an escort with steady bearing seemed to confirm a speed of 5.5 knots. But this speed was calculated based on a wrongly assumed convoy course. When I finally moved into an attack position the convoy made a large course alteration adding even more confusion. However I was quickly able to determine this new course by observing individual vessels AOB and I moved into an attack position. During this time I still assumed convoy speed was 5.5 knots and did not bother to check. At this point I was pretty knackered as the playing session was dragging on for about 5 hours and I was a bit fed up with it. Just get in there and shoot! After firing I was rather bearish on my chances for success but as it turned out the first torpedo struck the intended vessel midships. As the target speed was set to 5.5 knots this adds even more to the confusion as this speed seems to have been wrong. Perhaps the convoy changed speed after altering course? Perhaps the vessels in the inside columns reduced speed to allow the outer columns to stay in position. Not sure how that works in the game. Anyway I might have been very lucky to hit it. In the end the vessel I hit didn’t sink so I left this attack empty handed. But still this was probably the most interesting convoy attack I’ve had. Even now I’m not sure what exactly happened, but I kinda like that, a bit of mystery. And the fact that I hit a vessel, although perhaps lucky, is still satisfying.

[Markus Witt]

After the convoy attack we continue towards our new patrol area. While there we encounter and attack a lone fast passenger/freighter. After completing the assigned patrol time I decide to head towards Rockal Bank. On the way there we are attacked by an airplane and I decide to move in the opposite direction. The next day more aircraft appear and we are receive minor damage in an attack.

[Markus Witt]

As we move deeper into the Atlantic, away from airplanes, we receive a contact report of an enemy taskforce close by heading directly for us.

[Markus Witt]

Approach to the taskforce was too cautious and I ended up firing from extreme range with little hope of success. Task force course was a bit more northerly than I expected and I mistimed my turn into the task force. As a result I ended up further away than intended. Firing was probably hopeless but as football great Johan Cruyff once said: If you don’t shoot you don’t score. At least the long range meant that the escorts were searching far behind me. As Johan Cruyff once said: Every disadvantage has an advantage. Not long after moving away from the task force we receive a contact report of a convoy and head to intercept it.

[Markus Witt]

After the attack we reload tube V with the final torpedo and I intend to attack again but the night is too short and I have to postpone the attack. After making contact again with the convoy I position myself ahead of it and intend to stalk it from there until nightfall for another surface attack. But here I make a big mistake and allow the convoy to approach me too closely and I am detected by the escorts. In the ensuing attack I received damage from artillery fire as I crash dive which causes me to lose control of the boat. While unable to control our depth at slow speeds we are then depth charged for several hours. Luckily we received no further damage and we are able to regain full control of the boat and manage to escape.

[Markus Witt]

With the boat no longer in optimal fighting condition I decide to abandon the patrol and return home. We were very lucky to survive the attack. After various successful surface attacks I became too complacent and let my guard down. A good lesson for the future, one slip up can end things very quickly in this game. As we enter the Gulf of Biscay we encounter various destroyers, another indication that this area is becoming increasingly dangerous. We are able to evade the destroyers and arrive safely in St. Nazaire.

[Markus Witt]

Final assessments and route chart of the entire patrol.

[Markus Witt]

Playing in this manner is very slow and time consuming. At times it is even tedious, having to update logs and charts outside the game. Also during attacks updating position and creating attack plots takes time. A few playing sessions got out of hand and dragged on well past midnight. As it is not advisable to save when near enemy vessels you are kinda forced to continue when you start an attack and you sometimes get pretty fed up with the whole thing. In that regard this is not a fun game.
I mean not fun-fun, no instant gratification. But I find it strangely satisfying when conducting a successful attack and when completing a patrol and reading back through the log and looking at the maps.