2 AUG 41, U-651...* intercom crackles * Attention! Thanks to Jaesen Jones and SH3 Commander v 3.2.0.203, I have removed all fatigue exclamation points from our boat. No more complaining about being tired! From now on, the bosuns will maintain the good order of the boat, by keeping the following watch bill and six-hour rest period for the crew. Engine room: 6 hours, E-room: 6 hours, Deck watch (fair weather) 4 hours, Deck watch (foul weather) 2 hours, Radio: 6 hours, Sonar: 6 hours, Helmsman: 6 hours, Control room: 6 hours, Bow torpedo maintence 6 hours, Stern torpedo maintence, 6 hours. That is all.

Chasing Task Forces?
 

I've been playing submarine sims since the days of Silent Service.

You have to be pretty dumb to attack a task force on purpose.:doh:

Dive deep, go quiet and head in the opposite direction preferably into deeper water with your fingers crossed that you haven't been spotted..

I never attack more than two and only if they are heading for me in a straight line,whilst I'm at scope depth, rigged for silent running.

Heller bought his tickets and then won the raffle.:yep:

Oberleutnant R A J Murphy
U-111

There was a time in 1943 during the war that the U-boats were ordered to attack destroyers. The first such attack against the destroyer screen of a convoy was a success and the second a disaster.

I think a decision to attack a hunter group with a type XXI could have been historically possible if there would have been XXI's around. It's something I would not attempt light-heartedly, though.

At the risk of going a bit off topic... and thanks to everyone who's commented on this, it's nice to get some real feedback from other players. What the forum's all about.

I suppose the disparity might be because I very much play 'in character', trying to act as a real U-boat commander would have done. I accept all the arguments that people put saying it was incredibly dangerous, and yes it was done with an element of suicidal madness. But that was realistic suicidal madness.

Real U-boat commanders attacked much stronger enemies, with much worse boats, in much worse situations. And they had more at stake than their 3-year DID campaign. A great number of them died, but some succeeded. Commanders were expected to attack when the odds were against them - and a Knight's Cross Oakleaves Swords winner, commanding a XXI, would have a certain amount of expectation to attack.

Furthermore, attacking a task force was in many ways safer than attacking a convoy full of ASW assets. Task forces cruised at 15-20kts at times - too fast to use ASDIC. And a commander would likely maintain speed rather than hunting for a single U-boat - at this stage in the war the danger from Gnats was too great for everybody to sit still and scan for a sub. Better to remain at speed, invulnerable to Gnats and rely on best speed to cruise out of the attack zone before the U-boat can attack.

I'm not getting shirty about some criticising the decision - that's what this thread's for. But I do object to people putting it down to amateurish over-enthusiasm, because that by extension applies to all the commanders and crew who died in the same circumstances in real life - on all sides. Submarine warfare is a one-sided business.

Rant over - I won't clog up this thread any more with my ravings on this one :p

8 NOV 41, 23:50, U-651, 1st Flotilla, 16th patrol. While heading SW to patrol grid CF64, a report was received, via radio direction finding, regarding an enemy ship, heading NNE, aprox. 214 km away, SW of our position. Orders were given to increase speed to 13 kts. and change course to 200 degrees. The enemy's course was plotted on the chart, along with our intersecting course. Clear skies, a half moon and heavy seas greeted me as I went on deck. I scanned the sky to see the different star formations I had remembered when I was in the Boy Scouts. "There!" "The Big Dipper, with the two stars at the end of the cup, pointing to the North star." I climbed down the ladder to the conning tower, patting the helmsman on the shoulder, then climbing down to the control room. I advised the Chief Engineer to contact me when we were 50 km away from our contact's course. I retired to my bunk for a nap. 0540, I was woke by the navigator, who told me we had reached a point aprox. 50 km away from the course of the enemy ship. I ordered a dive to 30 meters, at 1 kt. At 30 meters, I listened, using the sound man's headset, for any sound of a ship. Nothing. "Surface!" "Same course!" "Ahead full!". 0800, 5 km from the enemy course, I ordered a dive to 30 meters at 1 kt. 0839, sound contact! bearing 251! "New course 108 degrees!" "Surface!" I marked the map, at a point about 17 km away from the boat at 251 degrees. 0855, sound contact! bearing 63 degrees! Marked the map, at a point about 14 km away from the boat at 63 degrees. I connected both marks on the map to determine the aprox. course of the contact. Marked a 90 degree intersecting course to enemy course. On deck, the morning sun is just off our starboard bow. 0908, aprox. 4 km from the intersecting enemy course, "Dive to 30 meters!" "Ahead 1/3!" 0911, contact! bearing 59 degrees! 2.5 km from intersecting point. I gave rudder commands to line the boat up with the 90 degree intersecting course. 0921, at a point aprox. 4 km away from the contact, "All stop!", scope observation. "There she is!" Heading right at us!" "Ahead standard!" Connect stern tube!" 0939, "All stop!" 0948, scope check. "It's a Brit!" "Open stern cap!" acquired solution "Fire tube five!" "Hit!" "New course 30 degrees, ahead standard!" "She's a C3!" "She's slowed to 1 kt!" "She's dead in the water!" "Open bow cap, tube 1!"!" "Rudder 9 degrees to port!" "Ahead slow!" I marked a 90 degree intersecting course to the ship. Line up for final shot(s), rudder 0 degrees, gryroangle 0 degrees, range 900 meters. "All stop!" "Fire, tube 1!" "Open bow cap, tube 2!" "Fire tube 2!" "That broke her back!!" "There she goes!" "Ahead 1 kt., dive to 50 meters, return course to patrol area". "We'll contact BdU once we have put some distance from this area". "Re-load tubes, then take a rest men, you have earned it!". Lt. jg. Carl A. Lange Jr.

As I see it, going after a task force is a mistake. Escorts were easy to replace and relatively expendable, especially late in the war. Sinking merchants loaded with supplies, while still easy to replace, caused some direct damage to the enemy economy and with a bit of luck to the enemy land forces themselves depending on the nature of the cargo. Put it this way, what do you think it is bigger loss of the following:
A) A frigate of 1400 tons.
B) A merchant of 14000 loaded with tin/rubber/wheat/tanks spares.
The only exception I would make is for high value warships: battleships, fleet carriers, large cruisers, as these were a harder to replace and would have an impact on operations on land.
Risk for risk it is still better to attack a convoy than a typical ASW task force.

...
 

Its December 1940 and iam with my IXB on patrol in BE36 and around, lots of single ships underway.

...
 

Its December 1940 and iam with my IXB on patrol in BE36 and around, lots of single ships underway.

Heading out on 11th Patrol.
 

Well, all promotions & medals have been handed out, and the crew had some time to blow off. :rock: Decided to upgrade U-50's engines which according to my office calendar pushed my sailing date out from Feb 8th to March 8th. However, I have just left port, and the Captain's log is showing it's still Feb 8th. :06:

Anywho, it's Feb 8th, 1940 (we think), and we are heading to AM-97. :arrgh!:

I Hate 1939
What idiot invented the neutrality laws :down:
Patrol 3, late sept
Nice grotty weather to hide in on the run into and through the channel, yet every merchant I get close to is either Dutch Irish or bloody Belgian

FFS 2 huge Belgian tankers line astern heading towards the port of London, Prime unescorted targets, massive tonnage, and I can't :arrgh!: them :Kaleun_Crying:

The same idiot who decided that it's his job to start wars, not some lowly skipper far down the ladder.

I wonder how worthwhile attacking even capital ships would have been unless the attack could be made with virtually no risk (i.e. no destroyer escort). By 1939 battleships are obsolete in surface warfare. Would you risk your boat attacking a ship if you knew it would only be effective for a few days in 1944, particularly since a ship that size requires quite a bit of resources to support?

retired SH3 for a bit since i really don't have the time to play it all my campeigns have captains getting fat on extended shore leave

Make sure that they don't get fat enough else they won't be able to enter the hatch of the conning tower! :D

already planed on putting them through a rigorous PT training program if they make the boat list considerably when stepping on and a lighter PT program if they just cant fit in the hatch:k_rofl: