AK 39 - Easy BB pickings

[Einzelganger]

G’dday all


I’ve picked up SHIII a few months ago and have been looking around this forum since. But, up until now I did not feel I really had something to add in such a great group of people.Until now that is.

I’ve read many posts about passenger liners and BB’s but apart from a Nelson in Loch Ewe in the early days of my career I had never seen anything larger than perhaps a Fiji in open seas. To be honest I felt like one of those people who were probably never going to meet these ships on the Atlantic. But that would change…

I’m currently in my 30th patrol and this happened to me on my 28th patrol.

The beginning of June 1943, Allied aircover is becoming more challenging and even the odd DD can now give me a fair run for my money. U-96 had received orders to sail to AK 02 which seemd a bloody long way for my VIIC but orders are orders.

A failed tracking of a hydrophone contact had led me to enter AK 39 from the East. During 1 of my standard hydrophone checks we picked up another contact and after the standard runs on the surface and rechecking of the hydrophones my IWO had a visual contact.

It seemed a normal sized merchant convoy but among those merchants I saw some shapes which I had not seen on open seas before, and apparently there were no DD’s present to protect this convoy. Curious, I decided to bring the boat in position for a possible attack to see what I had come across.

It was then that I could not believe our luck. Through my scope I identified a Revenge / King George V & Nelson BB together with a Illustrious and Bogue CV. And, just as the merchants they were plodding along with 6-7 knots Suddenly, I found myself thanking my lucky stars for the lousy weather which had prevented me from attacking a convoy a few days earlier. I still had a full load of torpedoes !

The convoy’s 1st line started with several small merchants. The 2nd with T3’s and the 3rd line with Troop transports and the Bogue CV in front of them. The 4th line was were my attention
was with a T2 upfront, the BB’s in a straight line right behind her. The 5th line was made up of again T3’s and a Auxiliary cruiser behind. The remaing 2 lines were filled with C2 and small merchants. With no escorts being seen I felt like a fox in a chickenfarm.

I stalked this convoy for the entire day, attacking it 4 times in total. The best defense that was put up were a number of Avenger bombers who disappeared after 15 minutes and didn’t seem too good in targeting, dropping their few bombs left and right between the convoy lines.

In my 1st attack I sunk the Bogue and Illustrious CV’s. During the 2nd attack the Nelson & Revenge BB were shown the way to a watery grave. In my 3rd attack the King George V met her end along with an unlucky Troop transport and the Auxliary cruiser.

During the 4th attack I expended my last torpedoes in the remaining Troop transports ( I always have a thing about sinking those after finding them in a convoy ) after which I decided to surface. My deckgunners wanted to join in this frenzy aswell.

In my previous attacks I had noticed that only 2 merchants were armed, both with a single deckgun which were quickly dealt with after which the convoy was powerless to stop this U-Boote from emptying it’s deckgun on some of the T3’s. After expending our last shells we saluted the surviving ships and with Tipperary playing on the grammophone we left the convoy for home. :P

At the end of the day I had ravaged this convoy. 18 of it’s ships were sunk for a total of 263612 tons. The lack of air support was unbelievable and whichever British officer had arranged this convoy should have been shot as a traitor for leaving these valuable ships so weakly protected ( or maybe be awarded the Knights Cross ). But the Kriegsmarine will thank him anyway.

Upon our return to France we will request the IXC and have a party the likes of which the U-Boot Waffe has never seen before. May we all get drunk……

I don’t know if this is convoy is spawned regurlarly or not but for those wanting to know I came across it on June 5th 1943 at the western edge of AK 39.

Good hunting

Regards
Einzelganger

[Von Scheerbach]

MEIN GOTT!!!!!!!!!!!

You sunk more capital ships in one patrol than I've seen in 2+ careers!!!

Way to go!!!!!

I guess I just had me "Missing, or Just Rare" question answered....in spades!

[Kalach]

You've sunk more capital ships than I have ever seen - none
Keep up the good work

[Einzelganger]

As I said, i was barely expecting to still see these ships in the game but i can't help but feel the realism is a bit out of the window here when such capital ships are stuck in a convoy.

Gibraltar never did it for me though, yet i've read around here it seems to be the hotspot for these ships... I guess they really are few and far between in the game.

Still i'm gonna try and see if this convoy will spawn again....

[Ula Jolly]

BAH, you'll never be happy!

[Hitman]

But, up until now I did not feel I really had something to add in such a great group of people.Until now that is.

No that is not true, this community is so big and cool because we like to hear what all sub-fans want to tell, and share our fun

Thanks for the info about AK39, will give a try

[Wolf52]

Is i just me or does that seem like a bugged convoy? You would think with such capital ships it would be teeming with escorts, especially in '43.

[Einzelganger]

Apart from the lack of any real protection against submarines this convoy seemed as normal as any other. I do have an example of a ''buggy'' convoy....

Mid 1942 i did come across my first Troop ships in a convoy which seemed to be in a constant state of chaos. Several ships were running through the convoy lines left and right forcing other ships to slow down or stop or just change course to prevent a collision. I couldn't find any pattern in it and the escorts were just circling it as if they had no idea how to straighten these guys out.

I've come across this convoy dozens of times now on the west coast of Ireland moving from south to north in the area of AM 76. It sure makes an attack more difficult when your targets change course constantly...


And as for me never being happy..........

Originally Posted by Ula Jolly

BAH, you'll never be happy!

Happiness is always only a torpedo away

The wondering thing in the back of my mind afterwards was maybe some guilt for sinking the Troop transports with all those soldiers onboard who now had to swim for it.... ''Note to self: Must ignore, need to sink more Troop ships'' LOL

[kiwi_2005]

GIDDAY? thats kiwi-aussie for hello mate. long time since ive heard that saying lol.

One question sorry you might of already said it, i couldn't be buggered reading it all, so are you playing the stock game? or RUb mode. If stock game i might desable RUB just so i can go to that grid you stated and search out the BB's.

[Der Schatten]

I'm seriously thinking about starting another career, whose only job is to park in AK39............oh my, I would love to see that convoy, bug or not! By any chance, were they singing "Happy Birthday to You" as you sank them?

[Einzelganger]

Hey Kiwi_2005, I actually didn't even mention it. My bad......

I'm playing the stock game with some nice mods to enhance the looks and sounds of SHIII. I figured i'll give RUB a try once i'm sick and tired of just playing the stock game which probably is not going to be anytime soon.

Originally Posted by Der Schatten

By any chance, were they singing "Happy Birthday to You" as you sank them?

Imagine if they would have... i can picture it already. It would probably end up with my U-Boat crew standing on the deck blasting away at those merchants and the merchant crews throwing every insult in the book at us..... :rotfl:

[ICBM]

Sounds like a convoy bug to me, there is no way capital ships would risk sailing that slow. And they didn't even seem to speed up when atacked, you could pick them off one by one.

Personally I would not atack such a convoy for realism sakes.

[Einzelganger]

I have to agree on the realism part and if i would encouter this convoy again i'd probably leave the capital ships alone as the British never had so many of these units...... But if one is looking for realism in all places in a game one will probably find flaws everywhere

Still i'd like to believe everything has a reason and looking through naval history you'll probably find several cases in which you have to talk about extraordinary circumstances and some luck.

The BB Rodney in the hunt for the Bismarck for example... Before her captain decided to join in the hunt it was escorting passenger liner Britannic without any other ships present to the US and had serious problems with it's engines which had already failed once and were up for serious maitenance. The crew was expecting another failure at any time and she was not able to do more then 20 knots at best and even then for a short period of time only. And amidst all that the Rodney was also carrying several hunderd military passengers who were onboard to go to Canada for medical treatment. She was definitely not in the best of states.

After Bismarck's sinking Rodney's captain wanted to thank his chief engineer for keeping the engines running but was unable to as the man had collapsed exhausted after staying on duty from the moment Rodney had turned to join the hunt.

Imagine a U-Boat would have come across that scene and think what might have happened...

[hakkikt]

Originally Posted by ICBM

Sounds like a convoy bug to me, there is no way capital ships would risk sailing that slow.

I have repeatedly received radio messages about task forces in the Atlantic that had a speed of 7 knots (1942), so its not a single fluke.
As to such things happening in RL... **** happens, we all know the unbelievable luck stories from the Atlantic and Pacific fronts. As to keeping at speed 7 after being attacked, there is certainly room for improvement here

[kiwi_2005]

Personally I would not atack such a convoy for realism sakes.

Oh hell with it mate, its a game attack the bastards... you only live once, but patrol forever!