Convoys do not always keep the same heading. I have seen convoys change direction many times. One time after successfully infiltrating the convoy and setting up for my attack, while I wait for my targets to get closer for a better gyro-angle, they start turning 40 degrees to port away from me. There goes my perfect 90 degree position and all my firing solutions down the tubes... :damn:

Third War Patrol
Date: 18 Jul 1942
Time: 18:49
Patrolling PZ South of Malta

“Now those are juicy targets boys! Down scope. My compliments Mr Johan good ear you have there. We have two Ocean Liners escorted by four destroyers one at each cardinal point of the convoy. Should be no problem sneaking in and out, this is right up our alley. Chief sound battle stations torpedo and take us in set course 175 and engage silent running.”

Third War Patrol
Date: 18 Jul 1942
Time: 19:11
Patrolling PZ South of Malta

“Torpedoes away!” Down scope! Take us down to 140m Chief”
“45 seconds to impact sir for all four eels!” Fritz informs me.
Plenty of time to get a nice buffer of water over our heads. If all goes well they will be too busy to come looking for us. Four loud booms were heard one right after the other but no secondary explosions.
“Two sets of fast moving screws bearing 60 and 280 cavitating!” The fore and aft Destroyers must be repositioning closer to the action while the side Destroyers are looking for us.
“At ease gentlemen, nothing to worry about just yet. We got 2 solid hits on each won’t be long till they sink. What about our targets Johan?”
“No screw sounds from the first ship Sir she is dead in the water. The second one has only one screw operating we must have destroyed the other shaft Sir.”

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...TroopShips.jpg
Ocean Liners foundering after being hit by 2 eels each


“Very well let me know if one of those Destroyers comes sniffing about”
“Heavy flooding Sir on both ships, sounds like the first one is going down Sir! Now the other one is going Sir no more sound screws, her boilers must out of action due to flooding! I think all destroyers are heading in for rescue operations.”
“All ahead one third Chief lets sneak away while they are busy. Good job men looks like Rommel is further indebted to us! Gerhart tell the cook to prepare a round of Becks for the crew as soon as we are in the clear”

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...P3DDRescue.jpg
View from a Destroyer engaged in Rescue operation.

final war patrol April 22- May 8 1945

Well I've done it i survived WW2 i live thought all the mayhem and destruction :woot: and all i got in return is that i haft to retrier :down: but never the less it was a heck of a 6 years of battle glad that the allies did not managed to kill me so for my last war patrol i managed to down 4 RAF Hurricane's and 2 small tankers

A very wise person once said the only real way to win a war is to still be alive when it's over.

Congrats on having won, herr Kaleun. :salute:

Well done Davy Jones :up:
I haven't managed that yet.

around Freetown (lot of air-traffic!) many convoys gather to sail up to the north.
and west of Dakar you can find many lone merchants (also travelling north)

Well during patrol 5 in U-123 (VIIB) my crew and I managed to come across a large convoy in grid DT31 with only an Auxiliery Cruiser for escort at the rear. That was first to go, then we just had a field day on the other merchants. Mix of surface (it was night and stormy weather) and submerged attacks (on the larger targets) got us the following:

7 Merchants sunk
1 Warship sunk
59,413 tons. My best tally yet! :yeah:

:salute: :arrgh!:

Career no: 2
Current Skipper: Gazpode I
U-Boat: U-45 (TBC - can't remember!! she IS a IXB)
Based: Lorient, 2nd Flot
Current Pos: NE Irish Sea
No of Torp: 22
Shipping Sunk:1

I've started my second campaign. Been to grid AL33 and patrolled as req'd.

In my previous career I'd found the irish sea a gold-mine so headed in that direction. Just after making rockall I had a radio report contact of a convoy near to my position. Given that winds were 15 metres per sec (30knots) and gusting more and the seas were really huge, I decided against persuing.

Reaching into the irish sea the wind had eased and the seas died to a mear calm (compared to what we had been in) and I had another radio report of a ship just ahead of me. I closed at flank and made sight

First eel was launched and after a lengthy 5min run blew away his propulsion. He was still sat there relatively undamaged and I then decided to go for the kill.

Another torpedo, magnetic pistol was launched from 1,200m and this detonated right under him and blew him apart :yeah: (note to self - depth used nearly 10m)

Ship sunk in two bits almost instantaniously! - Prob with loss of all hands who had around 5minutes between first detonation to incineration!

Decided to pause and save there as it was 1:20am and was getting nagged to power off and goto bed!!! Awww the rigors of living at home eh? :damn:

Good job mate :up: Although an IXB in the Irish sea? :o Much braver then I am to be bring that fat cow in such tight and airplane infested waters.

December 15, 1941

Ran across a large merchant yesterday. It was so dark we practically had to crawl up next to it to identify the flag, and as soon we saw the Union Jack we scrambled to get a solution on her. Out of a spread of three, two eels struck, both on the bow. As soon as we saw she was going down we packed up and Onkel Leibrock ordered ahead flank for some time to put distance between us and the attack area. The fellows upfront are overjoyed at having three torpedoes' worth of room opened up. Maybe this won't be such a dull month after all.

I'm currently in AM81 heading 185. Trying to get out of this storm that's been blowing now for 2 days.
If I go any other direction, my boat is diving to 14 meters sometimes. My bridge crew is having to hold their breath.
Battery is about 20% right now.
Oh yeah, at ahead full and making 6 knots at this moment with zero damage.

I have 3 left in the forward tubes and trying to make for better weather to get the externals.

If I make for the coast, would the weather ease up?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...orderlylol.jpg


:hmmm: Mr Sommer maybe celebrated our last patrol too much :DL

Finished what might be my best patrol ever so far... started a new career last week and began our second patrol with the 2nd out of Willy on Aug 26 1939, assigned to BF19. Got news that we were at war with GB just as we were approaching the NW Irish coast.

Made way to our patrol grid taking out several lone merchants on the way, getting one good torpedo shot off on each and then finishing them off with the deck gun. Did fire two eels at the first large merchant we encountered, but only one did any damage so it was the deck gun crew to the rescue again.

Took some damage when we snuck up on a small freighter in the dark and put one torpedo into her - had the crew prepared to begin firing with the deck gun but only got 3-4 shots off before the "merchant" was firing back at us. We dove immediately and then began coming around into position for another torpedo attack from p-depth, but it turned out not to be necessary as she was already going down by the time we got her back in our sights.

Arrived in grid BF19 and completed our patrol there and then began patrolling outward into adjacent grids with continued success. Had excellent weather throughout which allowed for use of both magnetic fuses on the eels and our guns when necessary. However use of the gun to finish off a couple merchants in broad daylight may have resulted in our first warship encounter - we sighted a lone destroyer headed in our general direction in grid BF13 and had to dive as he was soon headed right for us with guns blazing.

I turned and headed away from him on his same general course with the periscope up while getting ready to ram a stern shot down his throat. We'd taken a little damage on the surface from the long range fire, but once we dove and it was obvious we were turning tail and trying to run away at p-depth, sure enough he came straight on for us at full speed, making no effort to zigzag at all. He caught up quickly enough and we fired from about 500m. Saw him try to turn away from the eel after it was in the water but it was running too fast and set for magnetic and he could not get the entire ship out of its path in time, so BOOM and that was all she wrote.

Sighted another destroyer coming through BF19 in broad daylight and calm seas, making a beeline straight north which would take her past us well to our east... she took no notice of us at all after we dove and headed north and east running silent but at full ahead trying to see if we could intercept. Since she was making around 14 knots and easily outstripping us in moving north I finally turned in eastward and hoped we could get just barely within range to shoot from p-depth as she came past still heading due north.

Set another fuse for magnetic and watching her approach I really despaired of getting off a decent shot from within normal attack range but finally ordered "los" from over 4000m distance - then began turning us around and preparing to run and set up a stern shot if she detected us and gave chase. Much to my surprise I heard the call of "torpedo impact" a couple minutes later and raising the 'scope again saw that we had a clean hit and she went down without further effort on our part.

After a few more days of good hunting in the lower Western Approaches we were down to one stern torpedo to play with so turned NW for the trip around Ireland and Scotland and home. Managed to sink a couple more merchants on the way home using the last eel and then just the deck gun, running up to them on the surface at night and then opening fire before they suspected any mischief. None were armed. Since we stayed well outside the reach of the Tommies' air cover and submerged upon sighting any ship at all in daylight while still rounding the British Isles we had no more run-ins with armed opponents of any kind.

Picked up our last enemy merchant off the coast of Norway as she was heading from there towards England... attacked and finished her with the deck gun and then it was nothing but neutrals and friendlies until we reached Willy again.

45 days at sea, 11 merchants and 2 destroyers sunk for a little over 50,000 GRT.

Good job :up: Enjoy the early days while you can, because before you know it they'll be gone and DDs will be chasing you and not the other way around.

Why so dead set at nailing the 2nd DD since he was so far away and not threat to you, why not save the eel for a merchie?