Mid '42

Second Patrol

Left from "milk cow" to the Carribean.Thought some tanker hunting,glassy ocean & sun was in order,made my way toward Curacao knowing that there would be a decent amount of tanker traffic there.

Having never been this far into the carribean I soon learnt it is a deepwater port,set my depth to 100m,silent running & straight into the middle of the port.

Now I'm not sure if this is the usual Ai,but the patrolling Asw Tug,ran into the anti sub net which i had dove under and the Destroyer had somehow gone mad and kept running back and forth along a pier(bernard @ the helm).

Upon getting a fix on the surroundings i torpedoed A small tanker,modern tanker & T2 tanker not a bad haul.

Before leaving i ended up torpedoing and sinking another 2 small tankers,the destroyer,a C2 cargo and had a raging gun battle with an elco & an asw Tug that had come to hunt me,took minor damage & lost 2 crew.

Cant remember exact tonnage but it was a good haul.

Yep thats a mine alright,you do get a warning from Bdu in a radio message about it at some point If I remember correctly:hmmm:

To:BdU
From:U 124

Grid AL37
19/10/40,13:25 local

Have tracked large convoy,many tankers..2 escorts East/SE at 6 knts.
Sunk;
Large merch:6,747
Large tanker:9,553
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/306...nter241.th.jpghttp://img39.imageshack.us/img39/906...nter243.th.jpg
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/751...nter245.th.jpghttp://img39.imageshack.us/img39/361...nter248.th.jpg
3 eels hit,2 miss...1 dud
At 100 meters,reloading..escorts are on me....


Fuel is 25%..batt is 75%

Kirk sends...

:rotfl::har:
Dont worry,i'm not laughing at you,its just the way it all sounded as you wrote it.I love reading some of the accidents people find themselves in,and an unexpected 'bump :o (or tip in your case) in the dark' is one of the best ones

Paul
You can picture this. Totally immersed in the game, the sound of screws all around, poping the scope up occasionally to check the target. Occasional look around then back trying to distinguish the flag on the target. Then the bang and the tilt.
Believe me, it was that big of a surprise I nearly fell off my bloody chair :)

Started new patrol. Heading through the channel, beautiful weather. So far have 40,000t mainly with the deck gun.
Last night we were sneaking up on a coastal with the intention of lobbing the last few shells into him when surprised on the surface by a TB.
Right you bastard bring it on. So there we were, round and round in circles shooting at each other. I managed to put 4 HEs into him but he still would not blow up. Only things left were 15 SS and a few AA which I wanted to hold onto.
Finally set him on fire with the SS. That was a very satisfying 10 minutes of gameplay.
Had to beat the feet real quick as a destroyer came flying up. Finally lost him. Onward to assigned patrol area.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...ol/Patrol8.jpg

Never got back to Dunkirk. The intermediate mission after the CTD and restart took too long time. Now East of the Shetlands after having got this message. Maybe some serious action coming up after all:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...ol/Message.jpg


Arrived off Harstad morning June 9th. The Brits were gone! Wasted patrol.

You sure like living on the edge :salute:
Good luck anyway on your mission.

Interesting encounter in The North Sea - German commerce raider returning home - floatplane aircraft on the foredeck. Well armed.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...erchRaider.jpg

Edit:

Another interesting encounter 24 hours later. Do you see the little "ball" under the aft starboard side...?...Yes, a moored mine. Obviously of the contact type otherwise we would have been blown sky-high by now. Position: East of Aberdeen approaches - a convoy coming up from the South. They must be just inside the minefield......

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...MooredMine.jpg


http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...ooredMine2.jpg

January 24th 1942. Meditteranean Sea. U-74's third feindfahrt (operational patrol). Except for a PBY & a Hudson we haven't seen a thing.:damn: Heading towards Malta so hopefully something will turn up...

The continuation of my 3rd patrol in my XXI.

North of Ireland I get all these warship contacts, ten in all. Taskforce. :cool:

Nine tribal class and a revenge class Battleship. :cool:

After some very drawn-out attempts I finally get a good sight at the main target from about 2000m. Four torps on their way and I'm down to 100m as they go. Torpedo impact, torpedo impact. One of the destroyers has, it seems, heroically saved the battleship by taking two of my torps.

:down:

Torpedo impact, torpedo impact. The revenge class dips into the water at the stern, and I spend about 45 minutes evading three destroyers who come to have a look. After that time they start to do a runner North, leaving the Battleship truding along at 4 knots. Periscope depth.

Two more eels are let go from almost a 90 degree approach angle, and she's on her way down. However, her eight friends have now returned and Revenge is definitely the word.

After nearly three hours at 1 knot, 123 metres down, the buggers headed off in an Easterly direction. Job done.

:arrgh!:

U 124 arrived in Lorient today..
4 merch sunk
3 tankers sunk
37,333 GRT
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/672...nter265.th.jpg

Not bad :arrgh!:

U-108 - patrol 8 - kvadrant AN1 - Jun 19th 1940 09:31

SE Aberdeen. All inboard torpedoes and deck gun shells expended. Crew works frenetic to download new torps. All the escorts (4) and 3 merchants are down. Several of the merchants in front also already have damage. 6 torps left. That 37 mm is good for nothing. The 20 mm, however.....

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...ttingDucks.jpg

U-108 - patrol 8 - kvadrant AN1 - Jun 19th 1940 13:12

Finally out of torps. Heading for base. Not a wasted patrol, after all.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...obFinished.jpg

Sliding down the NW coast of Scotland, I spot a task force outbound - battleship, battle cruiser, and half a dozen destroyers. Too fast and far away to do anything but watch the parade, which is disappointing because I'd like very much to sink a battleship.

Thirty hours later, off the west coast of Ireland, here they come again, inbound and headed across my track. Perfect! Except ... what I took to be an ESE course turns out to be E and I find myself directly in the path of the lead destroyers. Discretion is the better part of valor and I skedaddle at flank speed, but now it's too late to turn around and annoy them with anything more than the stern tube. No glory for ol' U-27 today. :oops:

Latest Events (only important events recorded now)

13th Nov 1942
Day 8
09:30
AL24
Attacked by group of 3 PBY fighter bombers based at Iceland.Caught on the surface and unable to man guns or crash dive in time,forced to run at high speed outrunning the first attack run,managed to dive shortly afterwards,no damage.
This has forced us to change our tactics in this area now,submerging throughout the entire day,surfacing only at night to recharge.

14th Nov
Day 9
AL31
03:26
Looks like weather is starting to deteriorate as waves are picking up at 7mps,still clear however.
23:45
Finally entered our assigned patrol area.Patrol ends at 23:45 on the 15th November,after which we head for our 2nd patrol in the Denmark Strait,to intercept any traffic on its way to Russia,my primary objective.

15th Nov
Day 10
11:47
Picked up a merchant sound contact while patrolling our area.Preparing to shadow submerged in daylight,ready for a night surface attack.If waves calm down we may go in for the kill submerged at close range,if not or they worsen then it will have to be a surfaced attack at medium range (2500-3000m)
Merchant course seems steady at 335 degrees.
Will attempt to run decks awash in daylight at 10kts,with sound checks every 15mins.Merchant also appears to be moving not much faster than us as we still have good sound contact on it as sound strength (volume) still sounds quite strong.
12:59
Bomber formation suddenly appeared ahead of us while running decks awash,immediately dived without delay,bombs way off,no damage.
14:17
Another Bomber attack,this time they were almost above us,then opened up with MG fire on the rim of the conning tower,frantically dived again,no damage,bombs landing quite close this time.
There is a blessing however to all this chaos with the planes,the more we have to endure them the more we understand and begin to hate them.We are getting the better of them slowly but surely.
16:21
While stalking our current contact we pick up another contact,this time moving much slower and sounds heavier,making it our new target,breaking off from our current pursuit.
Decided to run decks awash for 30mins,then submerge for 30mins,hoping to lessen chance of air attack considerably while still allowing us to make vital ground using the diesels,taking the stress out of draining the batteries too soon...could be an excellent tactic.
Tactic is working very well,making good ground on target,who is now steady bearing east,and appears to be heading away from us.
Looks like we may have our first contact with some Russian shipping after all :arrgh!:
16:50
Almost sundown,after which we will recharge our batteries while running at high speed on the surface to intercept our new target.
The men are in high spirits now after realizing our new tactic when having to shadow targets submerged,all the while being in dangeous (air attacks) areas like this one.

End of report
.................................................. ..................................................

So far so good
:salute:

Sighted a 4 ships convoy in CG19, attacked a medium cargo that slowed to 4 knots.. shadowed it submerged for one hour... then surfacend and started to shoot with the 105mm gun to finish it; the DD who was escorting the convoy arrived in zone 15 mins after at full speed; I shot some shells to it too, but apparently I damaged lightly its superstructure so I crash dived when it closed dangerously. I've been 1 hour submerged then the DD faded. I surfaced and sunk the cargo with the deck gun, then headed south at full speed. Freetown is waiting for us.