Tanker convoy encounter (79 pics, ~2.8 MB!)

[Nopileo]

Greetings.

This is what happened during the rest of the patrol where I first encountered the hedgehog (http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=41192).

Again I'm sorry for the large number of pics, but I hope that the topic will act as an ample 'warning'.

And unfortunately most of the interesting stuff here happened during night, so many of the pictures are very dark. So you should crank up the brightness/gamma, and if that's not enough even use PowerStrip (http://www.entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm) like I do. This allows you to increase and decrease brightness/gamma with keyboard shortcuts from any application/game. A must-have for people with dark monitors like me.

Anyway, on to the story... Any comments are meant for the pictures that follow after/below the comments.


Enroute to the patrol grid after having escaped the mad DD escort:




Waiting at patrol grid BE31. I normally just sit tight to save fuel, and sometimes submerge to listen for contacts:




I'm impressed by the details in SH3. Anyone know what this is? You can see right through to the other side (a lightning managed to sneak into the pic as well):




Here you get a better picture of where that strange compartment is:




Jumping ahead a bit. We've completed the assigned patrol period, and plotted a course into Loch Ewe to look for some action, when we receive a convoy report quite close to our position. It's moving fast, too. Wonder what it can be? A 'cloaked' task force? We turn around to intercept, and shortly after we pick up the first contacts on the hydrophones. Merchants? Moving fast...?!




It's not in the middle of the normal convoy routes either. Note the weather. Quite perfect for a stealthy attack, but I would prefer a little less winds:




It doesn't seem to be too heavily escorted either:




Sneaking past the lead escort, a pesky River DD escort which would later harrass us almost to death:




As soon we pass him we go to snorkel depth and make ourselves ready for the first ships. Everything happened very quickly from this point, since the convoy was moving at 14 knots!




... so the following is just a series of pics of us going completely bananas in the convoy. It turned out that all of the ships were tankers, and only T2s and T3s! As soon as we took out the first two, the rest of them slowed to 4-6 knots though, so this made it easier for us to take them out. We used salvos of two torpedoes on all ships, set to 10,5 meters magnetic detonation. Some torpedoes failed to detonate, but since some ships only needed one hit to go down, all of the salvos were successful:




















I bet these guys are not exactly enjoying themselves right now:






20 minutes later we had sunk 6 tankers:




One more:




Hmm... In our ecstatic state we had completely forgotten about any escorts. Time to go silent:




As we calm down and take a look around for escorts, I notice something at the rear of the convoy. Could it be...? No... Yes it is! A Fiji light cruiser!




We get ready to attack it, when all of a sudden I hear a terrible sound which we have heard earlier in the patrol: The 'CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG' sound of hedgehogs being fired. Oh noo! It's the lead River escort!




- Dive, dive, dive! Ahead flank! Hard to starboard!

- Splashes!




Unbelievable, he missed! Great maneuvering, my precious crew (and the speed of the XXI helps, too!)! You can barely see our sub marker in the middle of the the closest search light beam:




One of the reasons I don't like heavy waves - the conning tower keeps popping up:




Just like the River escort we encountered earlier, this one also follows up the hedgehog with depth charges all around:




He should be more careful not to sink himself (as if I would mind).

Notice the T2 on the upper left on this picture. Just behind it is the Fiji. Our current maneuver puts us in the position of a crazy tactic: I'm planning to go under the T2 and strike the Fiji when we come back up on the other side. This way we may also get away from the escort. Will it work...?




Well too late to reconsider. Here we goooooo!




Real u-boat crew would probably have preferred to not have an exernal camera in this case!




We made it!




Then quickly back up. The Fiji has a draft of 5 meters. Set a salvo of two to 6 meters and shoot from the hip. LOS!




Seen from the Fiji. The T2 we just 'hid' under in the middle, and the River escort on the right. His search lights are directly on us, that little bugger.




Oh no! No detonations! Were we too close? Dive! Hard starboard!




And up comes the conning tower again...




Ok, we're going for a new tactic while he's in the neighborhood. Keep holding hard starboard until we come up on his side, then try impact shots.




Ok, this will have to do. The good thing about LuT's is that they don't have to hit from 90 degrees. LOS!




Yeah!






Ok, time to go deep and make ourselves invisible. That River escort is getting annoying:






Not bad for a half our work. Well done, men!




Explosions some distance away. Seems he lost us.








I just had to take a close-up of this. Notice how both the sky and the sea lights up. Very cool:




Hmm... We still have 4 LuTs left, and all three XI Zauns. Should we go for another run? The ecstatic crew all yell 'JA!!', so that's it.

'Follow that convoy, and get those tubes loaded!'




We spend about 20 minutes catching up with the remaining convoy, while we play cat and mouse with the River escort. The Bold 3 decoys seems to be quite effective, but he's very persistent.

Just as we are in range of two T2's and feel certain we have lost the escort, the sonar calls up. He's been hiding in our wake!




Well as long as we've come this far, we're not letting those tankers get away. One salvo and one single shot takes care of them:








At this time the River is pinging us like a bell, so we decide to spend one of the XI Zaun torpedoes on him.




We make ourselves very visible to get him to chase us, and turn to face him:




We fire the XI, but never hear signs of it again. Before we can say 'cheese doodles' the River escort is all over us with another hedgehog - and this time he is more successful (see our conning tower above water again, and we haven't even gotten the periscope all the way down yet):



'Dive, dive diiiive!'




One or two of the hogs hit us, but cause only minor damage:




And the now so familiar aftermath of depth charges don't hit:






Ok, that's it. Let's sneak away and go home.








After running on time compression for about an hour game time, we surface. As soon as we do, the radio man reports radar signals! What the...?




He's been following us! In our wake outside the range of the hydrophones! AGAIN! Never in our careers have we encountered a more persistant bugger. He's left his convoy completely behind! Not like there's much left of it, but still...

'Snorkel depth! 180 degrees turn to face him!'




This time the Zaun hit home:




But again - persistant bugger!




He went down shortly after this. As you can see, one of the aft depth charge guys is already 'deleted':




The trip home was uneventful, other than spending the last Zaun on a patrolling DD that came a bit too close for comfort (directly at us at 35 knots!). But as you can see the weather didn't exactly get any better...






...until we got just outside the port of Bergen, when it started to clear up (even though Bergen is famous for having most days of rain per year in Norway).




And just like magic the skies were clear a few minutes later, like someone knew we were coming...




Greeted by the nurses and the band...






Although this guy was more busy saluting...




...this guy.






Home to harvest the fruits of our labour:




That's it. Hope you enjoyed it. At least I did! This was the most exciting patrol I've had with SH3, and I'm still amazed of all the new things I experience, even after playing for a few months.

This was also the first patrol I did without the stealth meter, and I'm not going back to it. It made everything so much more interesting!

And one last thing: I must admit that I sometimes reload a game when things go wrong, but on this patrol I didn't have to reload one single time! This made this trip extra special for me.


Regards,

Nopileo

[Farside]

the 'strange compartments' are the bays for the bow diveplanes


good find mate, 95,000+ tonnes? wow

[Nopileo]

Originally Posted by Farside

the 'strange compartments' are the bays for the bow diveplanes

Ah of course! Thanks. Come to think of it, they are normally extended as well, even when surfaced. I've often wondered when watching the boat plow through the water, why these were not located lower on the hull, to help keep the bow above water in bad weather.

So they actually fold in and out... Cool...

[Ula Jolly]

Wooowah! My TOTAL is 110,000 now! Excellent commanding! And wonderful pictures/story!
Care to tell what mods you use?

[Nopileo]

Originally Posted by Ula Jolly

Wooowah! My TOTAL is 110,000 now! Excellent commanding! And wonderful pictures/story!
Care to tell what mods you use?

Takk! Yeah it's not bad for a sub with no deck gun. On some of the patrols with a VIIB/C and a good deck gun I could manage well more than that. But that wasn't very realistic anyway... Come to think if it, neither is this one. No one would take all those chances I did here in real life!

Ok the mods. Here they are:

Improved convoys
Milk Cow mod
Military mod ('Hollywood')
AIL Particles
AIL Sky
AIL Wakes
Moon mod
Neu UZOPeriView
Convoy Map
Flag mod
Recognition Manual
New sounds
Torpedo Recognition mod
Transparente Konsole
Tree mod
Water mod
Wolfie's U-Mark mod
Swastikas mod
Jungman's SensorPak
Harbour Traffic 1.44
Landscape mod
Irishred's Radiolog (not much to hear in 1944 though)
Camera mod

And I use SH3 Commander, which includes various skins for merchants and more, as well as SetKeys and Wolfie's TweekPak so I don't have to manually select torpedo load-out for each patrol.

[Ula Jolly]

Kjære Gud, er du norsk!?

Wowah, that was a LOT of modifications.

[Duli]

Hows that that you T2 tanker weighs only 7.770 tons?? Mine is around 10.500. Also T3 in my game are somewhere around 11.600 tons, not 10.500.

[baxter]

Very enjoyable pictures and story!

[Nopileo]

Originally Posted by Duli

Hows that that you T2 tanker weighs only 7.770 tons?? Mine is around 10.500. Also T3 in my game are somewhere around 11.600 tons, not 10.500.

Well I use SH3 Commander, which randomizes the tonnage of all ships for each patrol. Apparently I shouldn't have used it on this one...

[Duli]

O, I see.

[Kresge]

Nice! I've had the external camera turned off for quite some time, though I think you made me want to turn it back on! One of the best parts of SH3's immersion is the world around you.

[WolfyBrandon]

Good job Nopileo,

I was playing last night and was after a convoy that was sighted pretty far from my location but could'nt find them, so I went back to my patol area and managed to get a few hits

Now you see her,

Now you don't

Yummy,

Only thing that came through my patrol area that I know of so I took her out with the deck gun



Found her on the way home but she managed to slip away, game wouldnt let me use my deck gun cause of stormy seas... and my torps ran just behind her Still havent got the hang of night shots, anyway it was getting late so I just headed home

Nopileo check your PM's,
Wolfy

[Salvadoreno]

what mods are u using?

[Ula Jolly]

Originally Posted by Salvadoreno

what mods are u using?

Scroll up.

[The Mad Asshatter]

Which of those mods is responsible for the convoy route overlay on the nav map? I want!