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Mod
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This mod will place my rendition of the U-869 skin onto your Type IXC U-Boat in the game.
This u-boat has a plain paint scheme and no camoflage pattern on it. The colors were unknown
so I took my best guess with a little help. I saw a Revell model that was painted a light
blue with the red hull. I didn't use the darker blue scheme, as I wanted to stick with a light
grey with dark grey stripes, but I did put a hint of blue in there, overall, I think I made it
a little more of a convincing u-boat scheme.
HISTORY OF THE U-869
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The U-869 was laid down on 5 Apr, 1943. It was commissioned for Kptlt. Hellmut
Neuerburg. The interesting story about the U-869 came long after the ship's service.
Comparing its service to that of other U-boats, it had a rather undistinguished short career.
It only went on one war patrol and it sank no ships, and was sunk by the first ship that
it had encountered. On its first and only war patrol, twenty eight year old Hellmut Neuerburg
took orders to leave Kristanstand, Norway for a destination several hundred miles south of
Iceland. Being his first patrol, it is believed that Neuerburg sailed north of Iceland and then
south of the Greenland coast to his patrol grid, to avoid allied patrols, but costing more fuel.
On 29 Dec, 1944, U-boat command radioed that his new orders were to patrol off the coast of
New Jersey. He radioed back that he didn't think he had the fuel to make it. U-boat command
rerouted him to a refuel near Gibraltor. He never recieved that final order.
He followed his command, and took up a position several miles off the coast of New Jersey.
The USS Howard D. Crow, a Coast Guard armed destroyer escort, formed with convoy CU58 near
the U-869's location. Early on the evening of 11 Feb, 1945, the sonar operator on the Crow
picked up the U-869 on sonar, and they immediately radioed for back up, then started attacking.
The crow unleashed a barrage of 24 hedgehogs (38 lb contact explosives). Within 20 minutes
the Destroyer USS Koiner arrived and joined the hunt. The Crow continued its attack and
dropped 4 depth charges on the slow moving submarine. The charges brought up air bubbles
and oil to the surface. Twenty five minutes later, the sub was stationary on the bottom and
USS Koiner dropped 3 more depth charges, moments later, more bubbles and oil were observed.
The commander of the USS Koiner, Lieutenant Commander Judson, ordered a small boat to check
the area. All they found was an oil slick. The Crow and Koiner rejoined the convoy and sailed
for Europe. The attack was written as an attack on a submarine or a ship wreck.
After the war, a study was done on U-boat wreck sites, mainly for the purpose of giving credit
to ships that had destroyed U-boats. The original record for the sinking of the U-869 went
to the USS Fowler and French vessel L’Indiscret, near Gibraltor. The U-Boat command had
assumed that the U-869 recieved its orders and must have been sunk there, though they recieved
no reports from U-869 after the fuel report. So, there was a "sinking" near Gibraltor with
no u-boat, and a "u-boat" near New Jersey with no sinking.
It remained a mystery until forty six years later, when a group of Atlatic wreck divers
found a German type IX U-boat. The boat was dubbed "U-who" because no one could confirm
what U-boat it was. Germany assumed that U-869 was near Gibraltor. In 1997, the U-who's
true identity was finally found. The evidence, a knife engraved with a crew member's name
and a serial number plate from one of the diesel engines. For years, there has been a
debate over her fate. Between an acoustic torpedo malfunctioning and "circle running", to
depth charging. The US Coast Guards recent study put the debate to rest. There are two wounds
on the wreckage of U-869, some 75 feet apart. Two wounds that far apart, could not be caused
by one torpedo.
The depth charge used that day, a US Mark VII "Ashcan" has 600 lbs of explosives, just 4 pounds
less than a German T-5 acoustic torpedo. The Crow's crew had set the depth charges to detonate
at 200 feet below the surface. Logically, this was the correct depth setting, with the water
being 224 feet deep at the location and they were set in 50 foot increments.
The hull of a type IX u-boat is about 22 1/2 feet in diameter. So it's very possible that the
depth charges detonated within a foot of the U-869's pressure hull. The US Coast Guard concluded
that they can not determine which pressure hull breech came first, but either one were fatal blows.
One breech was around the conning tower and command room, the other was in the stern torpedo room.
The U-boat wreck site is located 4 1/2 miles off the coast of New Jersey, in 200+ feet of water.
It is considered an advanced dive with dangerous currents. At least three professional divers
have lost their lives diving the U-869 wreck site. For more information and the full story,
please visit:
Installation
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Take the Data folder from this folder and drop it into your Silent Hunter 3 Installation
folder. This will overwrite any previous IXC skins that you have in the game currently.
Permissions
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You may edit this skin, use it in other mods, and have tons of fun doing it, just make sure
you give me credit when you do so.
You MAY NOT use this skin to make any sort of finacial gain.
How To Reach Me
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Email : Frictionfactor@yahoo.com
Subsim.com Forums : Friction150
Thanks to
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+Ubisoft for making an awesome game
+All the modders and fans that made this game what it is today, the #1 Sub Simulation in the world
+Danlisa for the template. Saves skinners a ton of work!
+Uboat.net and The United States Coast Guard for reference and information.
+EVERYONE AT SUBSIM.COM WHO DOWNLOAD AND SUPPORT MODDERS!
Hope you enjoy! Sink em all!
Friction
Images
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