Just when I think I've answered something correctly... :wah:
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well hopefully Ill get somethin on this next patrol :) at least better than the last.
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Just docked at a milk cow since my patrol was interrupted by 2 b25's dropping bombs on my coning tower destroying the radar, both periscopes and severely flooding all other compartment's. Just when I thought it's safe I surfaced ordered flank speed and a crash dive because a PBY catalina has nothing better to do than waste bombs one me. At least she missed and I slowly went to the closest milk cow.
Pretty much my first encounters with aircraft and now I know what you guys were talking about. |
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Planes are the devil!! |
I've had so many planes buzz me the last few patrols it's not even funny :nope: Once I took a dive, then came up too quickly - I quickly went under again with minor flooding and damage all along the hull. Took several days to get everything fixed up again...
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April 27th, 1943 and I have just returned to Brest. I now have 91,752 in tonnage. My outward transit across Biscay was interrupted several times by aircraft but my return transit was uneventful, thankfully. I suppose I will be shipping out in May, the month of slaughter of the U-boats. I shall be very, very careful from herein. A couple of times over the last few months I have had to break off pursuit of a convoy because the escorts are too dangerous. I hope my current Kaleun can earn a Knight's Cross before he is killed or retired.
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Now heading out for patrol 4 in May 43. Just installed the new flak vierling in addition to my twin 20's. Still, I will dive on sight of any plane. This is the month when things get very hot for us. Also removed the deck gun for historical accuracy. I may not even reload externals from this point on if aircraft become very problematic. I run at max 256 TC in order not to fubar the aircraft settings. I don't like getting jumped by planes, but I'm not playing historically if I exploit the time comrpession settings to avoid them. It's a pain running so slowly over long distances, but I put a movie on and keep one eye on the TV, the other on my boat.
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Here's my current campaign:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=531380 All in all, not going too badly, but it's been a quite few days at the moment, with no merchants spotted in 2 days... |
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U64 IXB. Patrol 8.
Departed Lorient on 17.JAN.42 with orders to recon Grid DJ13, thence proceed southward along the Freetown-England commerce lanes, and finaly proceed westward to the Caribeane Sea.
Current Date: 19.FEB.42 Current Location: Grid EE85 (East of Port Of Spain). Fuel: 78% Torpedoes: 0 Expended. 14 Remaining. No contacts of any kind thus far. (Will continue to operate in early war mode, until we learn of aircraft borne radar the hard way. I hope we survive the lesson, but to suddenly begin traveling submerged at night prior to being attacked, would be a non-historic "competitive edge" I shan't employ.) |
U 126 IXC
Start date: 05 Dec 1939
Current date : 01 Aug 1941 Types used: U 124 IXB U 126 IXC (current) Situation : At port after mission Lorient 2nd flottila Next mission : Grid CF86 SEARCH AND DESTROY (Doom) Tonnage so far : 855.234 GRT Patrols : 16 , 408 days at sea. Objective: Survive the war. GWX3.0 + SH3 Commander |
Well, grid AM53 turned out to be just as much as fun as I'd hoped. :stare: :O:
Managed to sink one smallish freighter there, lol, but aside from that... the only other merchant we got a visual on may have seen us as well and reported our position because we soon found ourselves under attack by a lone destroyer while trying to take up a parallel course outside of visual range in order to overtake her. Our only other sightings in our initial patrol grid were also destroyers, two of whom also graced us with enough of their loving attention to keep us running silent and as deep as possible for much of our time there. Thankfully "as deep as possible" turned out to be deep enough, even though 100m was about as deep as we could safely get during any of the attacks and that was pushing it. If nothing else, ordering a crash dive and then leveling off at 70m with <5m of water left beneath the keel and a pesky Tribal class revving up for a depth charge run in one's immediate vicinity certainly gets the heart pumping! But I must say, the ASW tactics we encountered seemed fairly lackluster; never more than one DD on us at a time, and after 2-3 attack runs they all seemed to lose interest and move on, or lose track of us entirely judging by all the ashcans exploding further and further astern of us as we made our escape. Not that I'm complaining! :D Only once did they get near enough to cause any damage, and that was the one time when we were in water just deep enough to get the repairs done and still stay clear of additional punishment until going silent again. :yeah: I took some shots at the DDs when I had decent position and range before getting detected and/or going deep, but if any of them hit at all they were duds or else the Tommies saw them coming and their evasive maneuvers proved more effective than their subsequent attempts at destroying us. Six months ago I could run at p-depth and lure a distant DD into giving chase and then blow it out of the water with a well-timed stern shot - but not this time. They are getting smarter in that respect. No aircraft, though! Which was kinda surprising. But we had very little clear weather while in that close, so maybe that explains it. I did expect a little love from coastal command, especially when it seemed like our position had been reported. Our one success in AM53 was with a hydrophone contact we picked up while patrolling the western edge of the grid; a second sound contact pulled us into AM52 where we had another sucessful attack. At that point we had two eels left in the bow plus our external reserves, and since the weather seemed to be in a cooperative mood we headed further out into the Atlantic in the hopes of getting the externals transferred without undue harrassment. No sooner had this bit of housekeeping been accomplished than we got report of a convoy heading, no doubt, for the upper Western Approaches; their reported course had them running NNW, almost directly into our path. As we turned south to find them ourselves the weather turned foul; by the time night fell and we were nearing our projected intercept point, the darkness and driving rain had cut our visual range to 2km or less. Submerging to 40m and checking the 'phones we found we had indeed come very near the starboard edge of the advancing convoy; the lead escort was already several km north of us, the starboard screen had been well and truly penetrated without our even having tried. We got a read on the ships in the nearest column, came to periscope depth, and turned slowly into attack position. I could barely get a visual on the ships about to cross our path, but was finally able to make out three of them - two smallish freighters and, eventually, a much larger vessel coming into view behind them. I fired one eel at the second of the small freighters, and then waited for the larger prey; that one got a spread from the last two available fore tubes. All three eels hit and detonated as I turned hard to starboard, waiting for any indication of response by the escorts and preparing to point my stern tube at the column should a parting gift be required. The smaller target didn't require it; we'd hit something vital judging by the series of explosions that soon followed the eel's detonation. The larger vessel slowed a bit as we continued to shadow the column, and small fires could be seen here and there on deck, but aside from slight list she was still making way although turning gradually to port. Unfortunately her slow alteration in course was also bringing her right into position for the parting gift I'd been contemplating. The third eel sealed her fate. By then the escorts had begun a slow if sure convergence towards the scene of the crime, but by the time they got within anything resembling visual range, we were diving at flank speed on a course that would put us directly underneath the rest of the convoy. We never heard so much as a ping from their ASDIC. We leveled off at 120m and went silent, listening on the 'phones as the entire flock made the turn east towards Britain and home. A couple of escorts stayed behind for short while, circling the attack location in ever-widening orbits and, once the columns were clear of the area, forlornly dropping ashcans in a section of ocean now thoroughly devoid of u-boats. When they gave up and left to rejoin the convoy we slowly returned to the surface, fired off a report to BdU, and began our own long journey home. |
The final report
U-51 2 U-Flotilla Saltzwedel Kptlt Kurt Dennert, Commander Patrol 8 July 16, 1940, 04:20 Departed: Wilhelmshaven Mission Orders: Patrol grid AM53 July 21, 1940, 13:30 Grid AF75 Ship sunk: SS Uritski (Small Merchant), 2587 tons Cargo: General Cargo Crew/lost: 33/17 July 28, 1940, 22:03 Grid AM53 Ship sunk: SS GreenIsland (Great Lakes Freighter), 1841 tons Cargo: Coal Crew/lost: 26/2 July 29, 1940, 21:02 Grid AM52 Ship sunk: Q Ship HMS Edgehill (Small Freighter), 2082 tons Crew/lost: 77/26 July 31, 1940, 22:19 Grid AM45 Ship sunk: Q Ship HMS Looe (Small Freighter), 2365 tons Crew/lost: 76/37 July 31, 1940, 22:28 Grid AM45 Ship sunk: SS Fort Good Hope (Empire-type Freighter), 7750 tons Cargo: General Cargo Crew/lost: 71/33 August 9, 1940, 02:12 Arrived: Wilhelmshaven Crew losses: 0 Ships sunk: 5 Aircraft destroyed: 0 Patrol tonnage: 16625 tons Awards: Oberleutnant (Ing.), Hans Woiwode, Iron Cross First Class; Oberfähnrich z. See (Ing.) Ulrich Kaeding, Iron Cross Second Class. Promotions: Leutnant z. See Hermann Schneider, to Oberleutnant z. See; Bootsmann Josef Girndt, to Stabsbootsmann; Bootsmann Fritz Hamann, to Stabsbootsmann; Matrosenobergefreiter Kurt Augat, to Matrosenhauptgefreiter; Matrosenobergefreiter Hans Ludwig, to Matrosenhauptgefreiter; Matrosengefreiter Johann Bollmann, to Matrosenobergefreiter. Oberleutnant z. See Josef Weissenburger will be leaving U-51 in order to prepare for his own command; he has been a capable and reliable first officer and will no doubt prove equally worthy of the additional responsibility soon to be placed on his shoulders. Our newly promoted Oberleutnant z. See Hermann Schneider will now take over as 1WO, while Leutnant z. See Johannes Hutterer will begin serving as U-51's 2WO effective immediately. Bootsmann Heinrich Kern and Matrosenhauptgefreiter Ernst Mai have also departed our ranks to receive additional technical training. Already posted to serve aboard U-51 are Oberfähnrich z. See Peter Hollbach and Bootsmann Gerhard Lehmann, who will begin their respective duties immediately and join us on our next patrol. |
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