U122 IXB. First patrol.
 

2.maj.40
Late starter for The Norwegian Campaign, so BDU put us on guard duty against any threat comming north from The Channel. Temporarily assigned AN68 (NW of Nederland), before being the first boat to re-enter the commerce war in The Atlantic.

Remained on station from 4.maj til 6.maj. then proceeded northward scouting for enemy activity enroute to The Atlantic.

15.maj.40
Grid AM52
At 0840 a freighter was sighted in bad weather. Three torpedoes were fired at what was mistaken for a much larger target. Two impacts immediately followed, sinking a Small Merchant for 2.389 GRT. 11 of 14 torpedoes remaining (7 bow & 4 stern).

16.maj.40
Grid AM29
At 0903 we dove to avoid Heavy Fog, and found a convoy to be rather close.

At 0920 I decided to risk 1 torpedo on any target that came into periscope view.
We had taken up what was best estimated to be the convoy's course, and were JUST outside the formation. An angled shot, at a 90 degree angle set for 7 knots, and 300 meters. Should anything show itself, at least the range would be set right.

Impact! Closest warship reported to be at medium range. Down we went.
The gamble paid off well as a DIW merchant was reported by Sound at 0948.

At 1129 tube 5 was fired at close range, resulting in the sinking of a C2 Cargo for 6.449 GRT. With 9 torpedoes remaining (6 bow & 3 stern) the torpedo tally sheet is looking much better.

18.maj.40
Grid AM19
At 0800 what turned out to be the lead escort of a convoy was sighted.
At 0909 3 T2 torpedoes were fired at a T2 Tanker at short range. Although 2 explosions were heard, no impacts were reported, and the third "missed". Was I too close? Unknown for the moment, as U124 was going deep.

In a second approach the tanker was again our target. 3 T1 torpedoes (time for the good stuff) were fired at the target. 2 hit home sinking her for 10.872 GRT. All bow torpedoes have now been expended, leaving 3 T1s in the stern.

A night surface attack would follow. 2 torpedoes fired at 1 target. 2 vessels struck. No vessels sunk, slowed, or stopped.

The final attack was a return to daylight submerged. A C2 Cargo was selected for our final target. Target was struck, but apparently not greatly hampered.

U122 docked at Willy on 31.maj.40, with 1 Tanker & 2 Freighter penants flying for 19.710 GRT.

Restarted my campaign (modwork screwed up my last one :shifty:). I am now Wolfgang Grimm, commander of U-127. The war has just started.

U-505 IXC update
 

Patrol No 7
September 25 1940 09:55 hours
U-505 left Germany with orders to patrol grid CF84

October 3 1940 18:57 hours
Grid CF84 Granville type freighter sunk by gunfire

October 12 1940 04:38 hours
Grid CG95 Tramp steamer sunk by gunfire

October 13 1940 Grid CG95
05:32 hours Medium merchant 03 sunk with torpedoes
06:51 hours Coastal freighter sunk with gunfire
21:58 hours Medium merchant sunk with torpedoes

October 14 1940 Grid CG95
02:11 hours Passenger/cargo sunk with torpedoes and gunfire
14:39 hours Medium merchant 04 sunk with gunfire

Grid CG94
18:34 hours Coastal freighter sunk with gunfire

October 24 1940 09:20 hours Grid BF15
Coastal freighter sunk with gunfire

October 26 1940 Grid BF18
Convoy attack
6 torpedoes fired 2 hits scored (by luck since the convoy changed its course after the torpedoes were launched)
09:20 hours Black Swan class frigate sunk

October 28 1940 Grid BF18
05:07 hours V&W class DD sunk She was part of an ASW patrol group
U-505 escaped unharmed at 130m doing 1 Kt

November 2 1940 Grid BF15
04:48 hours Small merchant sunk with torpedoes
05:20 hours Convoy repair ship sunk with torpedoes
05:41 hours Heavy merchant 01 sunk with torpedoes
U-505 was submerged and in battle stations from 04:20 until 05:50

November 7 1940 Grid BF43
17:18 hours Small coal tender sunk with one 105mm shell

November 8 1940
16:02 hours Docked at Lorient France.
45 days at sea
15 ships sunk for 49744 tons
584 men killed

Gorrammit! Twice I've attempted to complete this patrol.

1st time: Sank 2 auxiliary cruisers and the destroyer escorting them. Bunch of other merchants... and then Windows auto updates shut down my computer.

2nd time: Some small fry, and then a large convoy. Sneaking away from the second run... BSOD. :I

December 1939.
Lt. z S. Wolfgang Grimm.
U-127, a Type IXB out of Wilhelmshaven.

Our maiden voyage did not end as well as expected, yet was extremely successful at the same time. We were given orders to patrol grid BE68. We never made it that far.

The North Sea brought plenty of targets. Five merchants were sunk with torpedoes and shells.

It was east of Loch Ewe where we ran into trouble. We had just torpedoed and damaged another merchant in heavy seas. Visibility was low, and we had thought we were alone. Apparently not. We were shelled from fairly close range. Emergency diving revealed that a patrol craft had been lying with its engines off. Depth charges followed, but bottoming on the seabed threw off the sizable ASW group that assembled.

Three torpedo tubes for'd, most of the tower and the FlaK guns were destroyed. The deck gun, propellers, rudders, rear torpedo tubes and all engines were damaged. A good deal of flooding occurred after hitting the bottom, bow first. Communications from BdU were cut off and the decision was made to return home.

Despite our damage, we sank three more ships. Torpedo attacks were carried out on the surface, with the one remaining good tube.

We limped back in disgrace, but were surprised to be commended for our actions. We had sunk eight ships for a total of about 24570 tons, with slightly less than half of that tonnage despite having severe damage.

We are in for repairs, and I have just gotten my orders for my next patrol.

"Please attempt to patrol BE68.'

Advice:
Turn off Windows (and all other) Automatic Updates, and scans.

Pull the plug on the internet before firing up SH3.

If possible, set your firewall to Game Mode (Deny access of all programs).

Use the firewall to stop Windows Error Reporting from running, at all.

Grant SH3 immunity from Windows Defender.

Hope there is something helpful here. I used to be plagued by the same problems, constantly.

U122 IXB. Our second patrol.
 

Departed Willy on 26.jul.40.
Arrived at Lorient on 10.sep.40
We were enroute back to Willy, and got turned around by a Base Change Message.

2 Freighters & 2 Tankers were sunk for 37.666 GRT.
This, for me, was a "Wow!" patrol.

Both tankers, and one freighter, were sunk from a Freetown to UK convy.

The remaining freighter was the only independently sailed merchant we encountered through the entire patrol.

On two occasions we encountered RN destroyers along our track into The Bay.

U122's history to date:
2 war patrols completed between 2.maj.40 and 11.sep.40.
7 ships sunk for 57.376 GRT.

U-4 IIA Patrol 7
 

My current career began in December 2010. The following protocols are observed:

no time compression, pausing 'frowned upon'
if u-boat destroyed, restart patrol
GWX3.0, 100% realism
begin with renown = 0
1st flotilla @ Kiel

I hope to have the 2500 renown needed for a better boat by the end of this patrol. This will require sending ~20kt of British steel to the sea floor (which I think is what I managed during patrol 6). Sadly, I can't seem to get past patrol 7, which invariably ends with my death at the hands of the escorts of a certain predictable convoy that makes its way down the east coast of Britain about 4 days after I leave Kiel. I'm currently attempting once again to intercept this convoy, having just entered the NW quadrant of AN73 from the North. Earlier today I took out both an ASW trawler and a coastal freighter with my flak cannon. (Having only 5 torps, I like to pick off the wee boats with the cannon. I'd rather have avoided the trawler, but thanks to 'periscope depth' often leaving the top of my bridge exposed, I was spotted despite the darkness of night. And I've learned that when faced with a single depth charge-spewing ASW trawler, it's better to surface and go toe-to-toe with it than try to survived its DCs).

January 1940.
Lt. z S. Wolfgang Grimm.
U-127, a Type IXB out of Wilhelmshaven.

Without going into much detail, we did not make it to BE68 for patrol 2.

March 1940.
Oblt. z S. Wolfgang Grimm.
U-127, a Type IXB out of Wilhelmshaven.

After dispatching a single merchant north of Ireland, we came across a large convoy. On the first strike, four ships were sent to the bottom. The escorts spat in the wrong direction.

The weather calmed down considerably. Under the cover of darkness, we surfaced and took out the two escorts in short order. Both were crippled by a torpedo each and then shelled. After that, the convoy was open.

Or so we thought. An enemy submarine had gone undetected, a guardian angel. We took heavy damage from shells and machine guns. Our gunnery officer was killed. We dove, put two torpedoes into the enemy and ran back to the convoy. The enemy sub probably sank.

From here on, it was a turkey shoot. A further ten merchants were sunk. We ran out of torpedoes, deck gun ammunition and FlaK. Our estimates were about 100,000 tons of shipping

Our return was slow due to engine troubles. A funeral at sea was held for Metzger.

I will try these things. Thanks!

U-505 IXC update
 

Patrol No 8
November 28 1940 15:13 hours
Left Lorient France with ordrers to patrol AE87 in Iceland

December 10 1940 Grid AD59
Convoy attack in bad weather
6 torpedoes fired 4 hits scored
22:32 hours Q ship sunk by luck as the torpedo was aimed at a whale factory ship
22:38 hours Medium merchant 38 sunk
Hydrophone showed one more ship hit and stopped
The escorts did not find us.

December 11 1940 Grid AD59
Came to periscope depth after reloading at 120m at 1kt.
00:30 hours Tanker 07 sunk with 2 torpedoes. The convoy has long gone.

December 17 1940 Grid AD59
05:00 hours Lone tanker 16 sunk with 2 stern shots

December 30 1940 Grid AM53
05:42 hours Enemy sloop sunk with the flak gun. Crew was allowed to abandon ship and given provisions and cigarettes.

December 31 1940 Grid AM53
02:39 hours Tugboat sunk by gunfire. Crew was agin allowed toabandon ship
05:12 hours Coastal freighter sunk by torpedoes. She was armed with a stern mounted heavy AA gun

January 1 1941 Grid AM52
Convoy attack
Starndard method of approach and attack followed
6 torpedoes fired 5 hits scored
19:52 hours Heavy merchant 01 sunk after huge explosion
19:52 hours Medium merchant 17 sunk (cut in half)
19:56 hours Heavy merchant 01 sunk after two hits

January 12 1941 some 300kms west of Lorient
15:37 hours heavy rain
U-505 surprised on the surface by a British Town class DD. Hiw first shells fell short only to raise water form the surface.
U-505 crash dived under fire.
The DD steamed on U-505 position. The first DC attack was well aft of the Uboat.
Hydrophones showed two more contacts: The DD was escoting two merchants.
The DD lost contact after his attack so U-505 dared to go to periscope depth to attack. A small merchant and a medium cargo were zigzagging at slow speed. 2 TIs fired , one at each ship but both missed. The DD was looking at the wrong place and U-505 had two more torpedoes left. Both were fired at the medium cargo , hit and exploded but she went on.
The DD was in the dark and U-505 dived to 100m and escaped.

January 14 1941 19:37 hours
Docked at Lorient France
48 days at sea
10 ships sunk
49762 tons sent to the bottom
223 men killed
1 narrow escape.

07 OCT 39

I'm currently in grid AM 51. The weather has been complete crap for a couple of days now. The seas are terrible and the rain is coming down in sheets.

I'm doing paperwork while keeping an eye on my Nav screen when all of the sudden I hear, "Ship spotted!" I look up at the screen and she's right on top of me! Holy Crap!! I jump to the periscope and raise it to see a British large merchant filling a good portion of the viewing area. Range...250m! :arrgh!: directly behind it.

So I slam on the breaks so to speak and wait for her to get to 300m. I quickly launch three eels running at 9m. All three find their mark and she's dead in the water; but she's not sinking...just sitting there.

I come up alongside and turn 90 degrees. At 300m I launch a 4th eel. This one from the stern tubes. An easy hit and at this point she definitely starts listing and taking on water.

I order "All Stop!" and go to the bridge so I can watch her go down. I would have thought that with four holes in her she'd go down pretty easy; but it was still almost a half hour (game time) for her to go into her death throes. 10600+ tons that won't make it to England. :yeah:

U-505 IXC update
 

Patrol No 9
February 3 1941 00:28 hours
Left Lorient with orders to patrol CG 73

February 11 1941 Grid CG94
04:30 hours Aircraft spotted. U-505 crash dived and avoided any damage
06:51 hours Aircraft spotted at medium range. No time to crash dive. Target engaged with the flak guns. 1 flak gunner died of mashine gun fire. A kingfisher was shot down. Damages to hull and engines from a close bomb hit.
10:03 hours Aircraft spotted U-505 crash dived but took damage from gunfire and bombs. Propeler damaged as well flooding in radio room. More hull damage.
12:55 hours Surprised by aircraft after surfacing. No time to dive. Target was engaged with flak gun. A kingfisher was shot down

February 12 1941 Grid CG95
10:30 hours Aircraft spotted once again. U-505 crash dived and escaped.
12:10 hours While at 30m sound contact is enabled. Two merchant at slow speed closing.
12:20 hours U-505 came to periscope depth to visualy identify targets. Both ships are armed.
12:48 hours All 4 bow tubes fired.
12:49 hours Medium merchant 28 sunk
13:09 hours Empire type freighter sunk after two more hits (stern shots)

20:00 hours Coastal freighter (armed)sunk by torpedoes
23:47 hours Passenger/cargo (armed) hit by torpedoes and finished off by gunfire

February 13 1941 Grid CG95
08:20 hours Aircraft spotted. U-505 crash dived but took some damage by 20mm cannon fire
09:48 hours Empire type freighter (armed) by 3 torpedoes

12:53 hours Aircraft attack. Two bombs fell really close despite manouvering at 15kts. Massive flooding and damages.
The Hurricanes did not make a second pass. It is tiem to return.

19:20 hours Aircraft spotted U-505 dived at flank speed to 40m and avoided damage. Not safe to go any deeper since various cracking noises were heard.

19:40 hours Multiple sound contacts. Convoy attack. Torpedoes were fired from 4500m and turned away.

20:23 hours Small freighter sunk
20:26 hours Dido class light cruiser sunk

21:00 hours Decided to return to Lorient running close to the coastline

February 15 1941 Grid CG58
18:13 hours Unarmed small merchant sunk by gunfire

February 17 1941 22:14 hours
Docked at Lorient
Damages to hull were almost critical, we were lucky to survive
Hull intergrity : 25%
Enemy airforce always present.
Where are our planes Herr Georing?
2 aircrafts shot down
1 crew member dead
8 ships sunk
34225 tons to the bottom
246 men killed
15 days at sea.
A long repair and resting period is ahead of us.

U122 IXB. Patrol 3.
 

Departed Lorient on 5.nov.40.
Assigned Grid DH32, thence southward along the Freetown lanes.

Remained on station for 2 days (13.nov.40 - 15.nov.40), without sightings.

On 20.nov.40, while transiting DU47, U122 recieved a radio dispatch:
"Convoy. DT38. N. 6 knots". And off we went to play catch up.

On 21.nov.40, while rushing north through DT35, we recieved a second dispatch on the same convoy:
"Convoy. DT35. N. 6 knots"
BDU was finaly relieved that we did establish contact.
(General location was W of The Canaries).

Hr VONHARRIS must have sent the original contact report as, half the merchants seemed to be missing. It was later established that there were 4 destroyers for escorts. At least 2 were of the Hunt Class.

This convoy was our only contact throughout the patrol.
(Clouds: None. Fog: None. Wind: 0 m/s. Moon: Two thirds. And yes, the moonlight was used for night submerged attacks. Was there any other option with these conditions, and all Elite escorts?)
Over the next 48 hours we made 6 attacks on the convoy itself, and 2 additional attacks on previousely damaged stragglers.

U122 docked at Lorient on 4.dec.40.
2 Tanker, and 4 Freighter penants were hung from the periscope.
Crew & boat healthy. (Only because of early war DCs, this time.)

Patrol results:
6 ships sunk for 40.874 GRT.
All 14 torpedoes expended.

U122's history to date:
3 war patrols between 2.maj.40 and 4.dec.40.
13 ships sunk for 98.250 GRT.

Thanks !!!:D

My next patrol area is DH41 some time in March-April 1941 depending on how much time repairs will take.

I am looking forward to meeting U-122 and her brave captain Kaleun Snestorm to unleash hell in the Limies convoys.
A wolfpack is starting to form!

U-456, Patrol 3, day 2
 

November 1941
Lt. z S. Erich Scheide
U-456 ("die Elster"), VIIC, 7.th Flotilla, St.Nazaire
Sunny, wind 1m/s
BF58
Orders: Patrol ET54 / report weather

Just began our third patrol, cleared the shallow part of the Bay of Biscay. No ASW groups, no airplane sightings and no enemy shipping to report.