U-103 IXB
 

Patrol No8
02 January 1941
21:02 hours
After a hell of a party with Kaluen Snestorm and all of the crews of both U-39 and U-103 for the New Year , it was time to leave.
Despite the drinking, all men of U-103 were in station and ready for action. The same was for U-39.
Intercepted enemy messages indicated that U-552 had made a succesful attack on an enemy convoy.
Orders were to patrol AK-23 , again in the North Atlantic with its storms.

06 January 1941
23:13 hours.
Grid AM78
Intercepted enemy convoy after Bdu message.
Visual contact was made but ... the lences on the attack scope mulfunctioned. I had to use the observation scope for this patrol
4 bow torpedoes fired
23:48 hours Ore carrier sunk by 1 bow torpedo ( + 1 dud)
23:48 hours Ore carrier sunk by 2 bow torpedoes
U-103 dived to 100m and left without firing the stern tubes.

21 January 1941
23:16 hours
Grid AD83
Aircraft sighted. It was a RAF light bomber. U-103 crash dived and escaped unharmed. 2 explosions were heard away from U-103 position

24 January 1941
13:00 hours
Grid AD59
Convoy attack in good weather
4bow + 2 stern torpedoes fired
Large tanker hit twice
Converted whale factory ship hit once
Medium merchant 02 hit once
No ship sunk. At least we were not spotted by the escorts

That attack brought back bad memories of a previous patrol.
Crew morale dropped.

25 January 1941
12:14 hours
Grid AD83
Aircraft attack, U-103 crash dived to safety.

27 January 1941
10:44 hours
Grid AD83
Aircraft attack, U-103 crash dived but she was damaged by machine gun fire.

30 January 1941
08:19 hours
Grid AD86
Failed to intrecept convoy after BdU message.

17:35 hours
Grid AD83
Aircraft attack, U-103 crash dived to safety. That was the fourth time we were attacked. von Harris decided that it was not safe to operate here anymore since no contacts were made.

31 January 1941
16:50 hours
Grid AE74
Aircraft attack. We engaged the plane with the twin 20mm and caused him some damage. After the aircraft overpassed us without dropping bombs we crash dived. In his second pass , he releashed two DCs that done minor damage to the boat.

08 February 1941
19:20 hours
Grid AM02
Convoy hydrophone contact. Unfortunately they were moving away. We surfaced and radioed BdU of the convoy

10 February 1941
15:24 hours
Grid AM02
Enemy warship on the hydrophones , moving away
And then : merchant closing and another ....
A convoy was heading towards us. With 15m/s winds and rain it wouldn't be an easy task to attack , but if I let this convoy pass it woulf have been very bad for the morale.
All six tubes fired on hydrophone readings. No explosions heard. It didn't matter since now the men knew we were the predators again.

Only 2 bow torpedoes remained in the front tubes and none aft. The weather is just awful. Time to go home

13 February 1941
10:13 hours
Grid AM79
Moving to intercept enemy convoy
11:34 hours torpedoes fired : 1 at an ore carrier and 1 at an intemediate tanker. Both hit , no ship sunk.
U-103 left undetected.

When we surfaced we encountered rain and 9m/s winds. This patrol was over. Back to Lorient.

18 February 1941
06:26 hours
U-103 docked at Lorient.
3 ships sunk
25846 tons
48 days at sea
U-39 was not there. Lets hope Kaluen Snestrom has better luck in his patrol.
No news from U-552.
We lost U-93 during a harbor raid. A good commander was gone. We shall revenge his death.
When vonHarris went to the HQ , he was in for a big surprise.
The flottila commander announced him that he was promoted to Kapitanleutant as from now.

A little southwest of Ireland, was able to safely get amongst a US/Greek convoy. Picked out a liberty cargo and let fly with one of my two remaining torpedos, both in the stern. Set the first for a meter deeper than her draft and scored a hit.

She went dead in the water, so I waited for the convoy to depart and let fly with my last torpedo. Instead of a direct hit in the side of the hull, I again set it for a meter deeper. It didn't go off.

I waited two days, and the ship never sunk. It just sat there the whole time, and it was too well armed to try to take it with the deck gun.

Oh well, I racked up 36,000 tons on the patrol anyway.

Stupid Yankees.

Cheeky bugger! :damn:

There you go, playing fast and loose with the historical accuracy adjustment knob again. :up:

SINK EM ALL!! http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...ies/pirate.gif

U-552, patrol 4, report 2
 

Leutnant. z.s. Alfons Dietzmann
U-552, VIIC
11. Flotille, Bergen
Orders: Freie Jagd Arctic ocean between Spitzbergen and Bäreninsel

Statusbericht

8.5.1943
1937 Länge 5, 25’ Ost, Breite 70, 51’ Nord. Heavy rain, visibility 800 – 1000 meters, wind 15 m/s from 353. Convoy, course 259, speed 5. Attacked windward from the centre. The front guard noticed us at an approximate distance of 600 meters. Evaded crash diving and turning away from it, one Bold launched immediately and 2 later, the first one when trying to go back to schleichfart and the other one when picked by ASDIC again. DC's heard at Bold launching area. Went back to PD and managed to sink one 2400 BRT freighter and damage a 4600 BRT freighter from the back rows of the convoy. The first one was seen hit and heard sinking. The latter one was hit in the stern of the ship, but was not heard sinking. The ship was found dead in water later and was finished with a torpedo. The torpedo must have ignited the ship's fuel reserves, since the ship exploded very violently.

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/4...3explosion.png

Three G7e's and one G7a used during the attack. Three hits, one miss. Five torpedoes left internally and two externally. Now shadowing convoy and getting ready for a third attack.

Congratulations to U-103 on returning safely from airplane ridden waters and good luck to the boats operating in the Thames estuary. Condolences to the families of the crewmen of U-93.

Dietzmann

Nice shot http://www.psionguild.org/forums/ima...s/thumbsup.gif

HESSLER PATROL 1
 

Following the death of my previous skipper, I have stared a new career with a NEW skipper! I am now playing as "RUDOLF HESSLER"

KPT HESSLER is in command of U-65, a IXB, based out of Lorient as part of the second flotilla.

In his shake-down cruise, he took u-65 out to the grid of AL33 and left lorient at 11pm, OKT 1, 1940.

He patrolled the grid succesfully, which turned out to be a very quiet grid indeed. Nothing found there so the command was given to head around to some of the AM grids.

Passing through the Irish sea and down the channel, he encountered a lone merchant in grid AM65.

Torpedoes were fired (no reports on how many) and a succesfull sinking was registered with a score of 1,873 tons, agains SS Royalite.

Later, according to his log, he encountered a medium cargo, this time in grid AM95, further to the south. HESSLER managed to sink a second vessel, this one registering in at 5083GRT.

u-65 returned to Lorient on OKT 11th, after ten days out to sea on his shake-down and managed to sink two vessels. He is off to a great start and apparently the BDU is pleased, but has commented about making sure reports are as detailed as possible!!

He has now been allocated His next grid, which will be the ever dangerous AM53!

Reports from the other kaluen's coming in thick & Fast - VONHARRIS registering another 25k of british shipping aboard u-103 and was recently seen back at lorient, whereas SNESTORM is currently at sea with U-39. No word on what they are upto at present, although we've now heard from U-552 who's been operating succesfully against a convoy!

(Continuation of my earlier report)

U-336 has been shadowing the convoy at AL23, going ENE/6 knots.
We made several passes through the convoy at periscope debt, using the very bad weather (about 100m of visibility :D ) to our advantage.


0045 - Another pass through the convoy
Destroyer attacking! bearing 264!
I turn the periscope around to see a bow coming up in the fog. It's wide. Too wide for a DD. Wait, it has a deck house with 3 windows? A tanker?

She passes by behind us.

HMS Nelson

Created some distance, turned around and plotter her course. They're not aware of me yet.

01:46
Fired a 2 torp, 2 degree torpedo salvo at the Nelson..hope for the best.

01:46 (+26 seconds) Torpedo treffer! - Torpedo treffer!

01:49 Visual with the Nelly regained...she's dead in the water.

It takes her hours, slowly but surely her stern settles deeper and deeper into the water.

06:10. Nelly goes down.

-----
Returning to Lorient...We took some bad damage earlier, and only have 2 fish left.

08:13: Large allied, Convoy, AL23 heading east 5 knots. 50 ships, 10 escorts.



I'm happy taking just the Nelly ;)

U-103 IXB
 

Patrol No9
A class mate showed up in Lorient Kaluen Hessler in U-65 doing his shakedown cruise and getting familiar with the IX type. U-552 is continuing her attack on the enemy convoy. No news on U-39 yet

20 March 1941
08:12 hours U-103 left Lorient for grid DG91 for a change.

23 March 1941
Grid CG21
17:01 hours Spotted Spanish large ocean liner bearing 185 doing some 16kts

2 April 1941
Grid DG99
00:21 hours Failed to intercept enemy convoy after Bdu message. Original distance was 212 kms but the bad weather did not allow speeds more than 13 kts on the surface. As a result the convoy passed the meeting point. We were able to pick it up as it was moving away. No point in hunting it. vonHarris radioed the convoys speed and course to BdU

11 April 1941
Grid DJ16
09:22 hours Empire type freighter sunk by 2 bow torpedoes.

13 April 1941
Grid CG95
02:38 hours Spanish large passenger/cargo spotted at bearing 331 doing 10kts.

Grid CG94
09:10 hours Kingfisher shot down. That slow flying aircraft was an easy target
10:14 hours Kingfisher turned away by AA fire
11:37 hours Attacked by a couple of Hurricane fighter bombers. They came out of the sun and caught us by surprise. U-103 crash dived but took hits by 20mm cannons and two direct bomb hit on the forward deck, The deck gun was turned into a metal muss. The LI informed vonHarris that it was not safe to dive to 100m so the dive was stopped at 35m. Strange noises were heard indicating that the pressure hull was badly damaged.

20:03 hours U-103 surfaced. The damages were estimated as heavy and the desicion was taken. Patrol aborted. Retern to Lorient

U-103 went close to the Spanish coast and returned safely to Lorient

17 April 1941
13:36 hours. Back to port
29 days at sea
1 ship sunk
6786 tons
1 aircraft shot down
No casualties , thank God for that
30% hull integrity
U-103 had a long time period of repairs ahead.

Always good results,:DL but you made it,good!

love reading the accounts here.


im back playing again after nearly a year off:o
i started a new campaign and im on my fifth patrol and getting used to the controls again.

the great thing about this game is the random encounters that are rarely repeated so your kept on your toes.

last night while being stalked by a cruiser in very bad weather i fired 3 torpedo's at a cargo and all three bounced off the sides so i aimed the last one for the stern and that did the trick it was a nice explosion very satisfying.:arrgh!:

Welcome back! Glad to hear you're still enjoying the hunt! :yep:

U-552, patrol 4, end report
 

Leutnant. z.s. Alfons Dietzmann
U-552, VIIC
11. Flotille, Bergen
Orders: Freie Jagd Arctic ocean between Spitzbergen and Bäreninsel

15.5.1943, back at Bergen
Patrol results.
A large convoy from Murmansk to England attacked thrice in low visibility and rain. Five freighters, 23000 BRT presumed sunk. The sinking of four of those witnessed by hydrophone or periscope and one sinking confirmed by Kriegsmarine radio intelligence.

Observations.
1. The enemy was able to pinpoint our surface location during one our attacks in low visibility of 800 – 1000 meters from an approximate distance of 3000 meters and Metox didn’t give a radar warning. Metox was thoroughly checked and was found to be in perfect working condition. It is likely that the enemy is now using a location finding apparatus we don’t know the capabilities of, nor can we detect it. I recommend a procedure of submerging regularly in low visibility for constant hydrophone checks until the enemy’s capabilities are recognized and counteracted. Otherwise in low visibility there is a big risk of getting ambushed by the enemy.
2. FAT torpedoes seem to be working perfectly against convoys. During this and the last patrol we have used them in two attacks and have had two FAT torpedoes hitting their initial targets and two torpedoes missing their initial target and then hitting something else. No depth keeping or pistol problems noticed.
3. FuMo – 30 radar is almost useless. It revolves too slowly to be of any big difference in quickly locating targets and is too weak in picking targets. We would need a much faster and much more powerful device.
4. The Arctic sea area is not worth patrolling anymore. The sea traffic there is almost nonexistent right now. Didn’t see any airplanes either.
5. Bold decoys have worked perfectly again.

Boat.
The boat is in good condition. The second version of Bold is being fitted to the boat. Funker Adam Stwora was promoted to Stabsbootmann and chief engineer Lt.z.s. Arthur Stuhldreher given EK2 and an assignment to command a U-boat of himself.

On a good note we have had news of U-336 sinking a battleship. On a more worrying note U-103 reports heavy air activity, and there has been no news of U-39 for days.

I was patrolling south of Iceland. Saved, and came back.

Now I'm trying to find a save that isn't corrupted...