U159 IXC. Patrol 6.
8.mar.44
Present location is the eastern border of GR81. Enrout to patrol grid GR83 (South of Capetown). Managed to remain undetected up to this point. CPA to Capetown will be approx 100 miles to the SSE. No contacts of any kind since departing Lorient. Should the grid prove to be dry, U159 will extend the patrol SSEward along the shallows, unless or until detected. |
Herr Kaleun M.Miklaszewski reporting that Rodney has been destroyed, 36k tons for just 1 ship :) fired 4 fast magnetic torpedoes , 2 malfunctioned the other 2 hit near the engines, that's it. No fireworks, no explosions, too many water flooded and he just went down pretty fast. His escort was not smart, never found me. They were not even near :) Will Hitler invite me for a drink ? :D
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"Before this, however, he and fellow Oak Leaves winner Erich Topp were invited to a dinner with Adolf Hitler. During the dinner, Hardegen caused great embarrassment by sharply criticizing the lack of priorities given to the U-boat war by Der Führer, causing Hitler to go red with anger and Hardegen to receive a reprimand from Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl, to which Hardegen replied, "The Führer has a right to hear the truth, and I have a duty to speak it."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Hardegen Now's your chance to make a lasting impression to the war and to the Battle of the Atlantic!:arrgh!: Just don't make him so mad, that he'll send you to the Russian front or even worse, to a cozy desk job... |
U159 IXC. Patrol 6 continues.
18.mar.44
Presently in GR49. U159 spent 6 days in her assigned grid of GR83, and beyond in GR91 when nothing turned up. Following our last report, on 8.mar.44, we had a warship sound contact. We came to periscope depth, but never gained visual contact. In GR91 sound reported 2 medium speed merchants approaching, during daylight hours. Upon coming to periscope depth, there was nothing to be seen but Heavy Fog. Came up with a hydrophone based speed & course guesstimate, and decided to try one of our new fangled accuistic torpedoes fired via the hydrophone. Must have been a good guess, as there was a giant flash directly at 000 on the periscope. Never actualy saw the target, before or after the shot. The impact stopping of the stop watch tells me he was at about 600 meters. Had to add a little speed on our way down to 50 meters, as his companion was close abeam. Target slowed from Medium to Slow, but never went DIW. With the air and base at Capetown being just over 100 miles away, U159 did not persue on the surface. Along our departure route, in GR81, sound reported a medium speed warship approach, off our stern. Turned my stern toward his direction of travel, and came to periscope depth at high speed. Estimated course 270, at 12 knots. Laid the settings in, and waited for the proper time to fire my second accuistic torpedo of the patrol. Very briefly slowed boat to under 1 knot, fired tube 6, and headed for 100 meters in anticipation of becoming the hunted. Bang! A Hunt III Class destroyer went down, 175 miles SW of Capetown. This time I had to feel for ship and crew. We've left our mark, and it's time to vacate the area. Present plan is a return to Lorient along the Freetown - UK shipping lanes. Hopefuly, a convoy will turn up, and I can put the FAT torpedoes to work. Now that I know they can be fired normaly, and in a fan, I'm coming to like them. (My first SH3 install wouldn't allow them to be fired in salvo, and I hated them). |
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Near Gibraltar with only one torpedo left. Along came a large merchant, which I figured would be a waste of the torpedo, since I've never taken a large one down with fewer than three torpedos, so I decided to try a magnetic shot under his keel right below the stack.
It worked. He sunk right quick. BdU is buying the first round. |
U-36 VIIB
U-36 will be docked for some time as her captain is down with the flu. Bdu decided not to replace him , so the crew now will do some skin change jobs and conduct some exercises under the IWO.
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U-552, back at port after patrol 2
Leutnant z.s. Helmut Unger
U-552, VIIC 11. Flotilla, Bergen 10.8.1942 Convoy attack. Three attacks made against an inbound convoy, at grids AM27 and AM28. The convoy's course was estimated as 117 degrees, speed 7 kn. The convoy had five columns of ships, each with four ships line astern. The columns were estimated to be 500 meters apart. The convoy was guarded by a destroyer as a front guard, and five corvettes at the sides and back. All of the attacks were made submerged, windward at a perpendicular course, torpedoes shot from inside the convoy during two of the attacks and from outside during one of the attacks. AOB of 80 - 90 was used, but at one attack at very short range, the shots had to be made at an AOB of 45 degrees and 79 degrees, in order to give the torpedoes time to arm. The ranges varied from 500 meters to 2200 meters. Four ships were sunk for 19000 BRT and one 4000 BRT tanker damaged. 11 torpedoes were used, 9 hit their targets. Escape was made diving at silent speed of 1 - 2 knots to a depth of A+60 or A+70. During two of the attacks the escorts didn't find us and no DC's were dropped. During one of the attacks, we were found, probably by ASDIC and approximately 40 DC's were dropped in groups of 5 - 6 charges at a time. Evaded DC's at AK and turning hard, then going back to silent running. Four BOLD canisters were released and seemed to be helpful in confusing the escorts. Enemy contacts. Grid AE86 A pair of destroyers Grid AM33 An airplane. Warship sounds on hydrophone Grid AN41 A trawler |
70 km out from Lorient, I decide I'm going to engage an aircraft to test out my IXB's shiny new flak tower. I shoot down a Hurricane, absolutely no problem, I'm congratulating myself and the crew, when suddenly my Watchman calls out, "aircraft spotted." Hmm. Better check that out.
My jaw hits the deck as I see over a dozen Short Sunderlands incoming, 2 km out. Before I'm able to give an order, I've got 1 watch crewman dead, 1 wounded, and 2 Sunderlands damaged. I was going to flee, but now I'm mad. Those guys had been with me since I shipped out in '39. I order us up to flank speed and reload the flak guns. We're in for a fight. I've noticed that travelling at flank speed limits the willingness of aircraft to expend DCs, and its working here. They seem content to strafe back and forth in waves. My replacement flak gunners are having a field day, with over half the enemy air force smoking. But now they're diving in from both sides at once, my officer yelps something about too many enemies for our flak cover to handle, but I ignore him. At this point I'm afraid to slow the boat for any reason, even to dive. I take over the guns intermittently to help out. The Sunderlands begin to drop out of the sky. Two collide in their attempts to remain airborne. Several explode and nosedive into the Biscay. Another of my gunners cries out and goes down, and is quickly replaced. 3 crewmen repairing my flak guns, including my watch officer, receive light wounds and are hustled to the medic below. The remaining Sunderlands - 4 from what I could tell - had enough and turned for home, smoking. One eventually drops into the ocean, no idea if the rest made it. 70 km into my patrol that was expected to last a minimum of a month, I'm turning back to Lorient. 3 crewmen dead, 3 wounded. 1 flak gun destroyed, damaged radio and forward decking. In exchange, my boys were credited with 12 enemy aircraft destroyed, 1 Hurricane and 11 Sunderlands, an indescribably fortunate outcome. I gambled that I would be able to negate the chances of being DCed while running at flank speed, and it paid off. In retrospect, it was a risky assumption that I was fortunate to survive, and even more fortunate to have worked so favorably. Not a choice a captain wants to make, but 3 crewmen for a squadron of Allied aircraft seems like an acceptable trade-off. Although I can't imagine I'll be very popular after this patrol. |
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The historical loadout for '44 is generiouse with them. They do seem to come in handy for odd situations. The FAT plan: Convoy, confident shot = salvo of 3 fired normaly. Convoy, unconfident shot = 1 or more fired as pattern runners. (With all the settings to be laid in, there may only be time for 1. The escorts seem to start zeroing in on my firing position the instant a torpedo is fired. They've come a long way.) |
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(U36 is a VII(A), with an external stern tube, non-reloadable at sea, and must be fired while submerged as the tube sits above the waterline. How's that for a challenge?) VII(A): 27 - 36. IX(A): 37 - 44. |
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U159 IXC. Patrol 6. Onward, very slowly.
10.apr.44
Present position is FS35. On 31.mar.44 at 2241 the lookouts spotted a ship. Grid = GF81. ("Ship spotted" brings a different sensation now, than it did in '39!) Turned out to be a C2 Cargo. At 2255 a single Fat torpedo is fired from tube 2. Course 247, speed 6 knots, range 1000 meters. FAT set to reverse course at 1400 meters, with 800 meter legs. The guesstimation turned out to be spot on, and the additional settings unneccesary. FAT struck the target 52 seconds after firing, sinking her for 6447 GRT. Our first merchant of the patrol sunk, and it "only" took 3 months. 7.apr.44 (FS63) and 8.apr.44 (FS39): A L A R M ! Our thus far undetected status has come to an end. With the fuel economy requirements of this patrol, on the surface we're just like a USN LST (Large Slow Target). Should we survive, this is going to be one long patrol. |
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Thanks Snestorm, I have to say you are very good at giving positive feedback :salute: I feel that reading well written patrol reports by other commanders (like yours are) gives me information I can use and try on my own patrols. I try to write mine so, that anyone reading them can get some info he might find helpful. |
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I seldom fire torpedoes from the surface so that will not be a problem. I will not use the 2 additional stern torpedoes. I am thinking this time of running a VIIC career in the Med. |
New Career
Recently joined forums
Here is my first documented career. ------------------ Kaptain Schlag U-46 2nd flotilla wilhelmshaven august 1st 1939 Realism: 63% everything checked except: limited compressed air realistic repair time-reasoning is I'm a newb to more realistic simulation style play as I'm a bit young and usually brash no external view- I like to see my kills drown! no noise meter- a crutch to learn for perhaps a more realistic career after this. no weapons officer assistance- I don't feel like doing all the annoying calculations. --------------- that said I am now departing on my first patrol, may the seas be calm and bountiful.:arrgh!: |
First Patrol
I was assigned AM23 as my patrol grid, however, upon setting sea Kaptain Schlag felt some rouge in him which he hid from the crew and decided while he would patrol AM23, he would do so and leave for other more promising shipping lanes. East of Scapa Flow, the U-46 claimed its first victim a tribal class destroyer with one torp to the mid. The next victim would prove to be a coastal tanker which was sunk without fuss vis the 88mm deck gun. The third and final victim was a passenger-cargo which took two torps to the mid-aft section of the ship and promptly sunk.
While still on the hunt after this last sinking, no further targets were found on the voyage back although reports of a Brit task-force came in, via a good memory, I recall from previous careers that this task-force is nothing but 5 destroyers. During the gradual return to base sound contact was made southwest of Scapa Flow with 4 warships however a sleepy Kaptain Schlag was late in ordering the ahead flank and decided not to risk getting caught by Scapa Flow's elite defense forces. Kaptain Schlag then reported in at Wilhelmshaven on the 28th of Sept. 1939 3 ships met Davey-Jone's locker 4650 tonns of enemy contraband sent to the bottom ------------- Kaptain Schlag upon arrival wants to ask his fellow submariners if there are any mods compatible with GWX 2.0 that would enhance the patrol experience such as getting relevant radio messages and intel during patrol and/or adding other details that would enhance the patrol experience.:D End of Report --------------- |
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Wreford-Brown has made radio mods and you can also find something at the downloads section of this forum, I believe. Here's one link: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...137713&page=12 |
U-552, Patrol 3
Leutnant z.s. Helmut Unger
U-552, VIIC 11. Flotilla, Bergen 4.9.1942 13:01 Arctic Ocean (526 km from Bodö, 583 km from Harstad). Clear, visibility 8 - 9 km, wind 15 m/s from 133). Reporting a slow convoy on a westerly course. The port flank of the convoy is covered by 2 - 3 patrol boats, probably of the Isles class. There is also a River class frigate on the port side. Judging from hydrophone contacts the convoy is large and there are more escorts. While approaching the convoy our FuMB-1 gave a radar warning three times. Apparently the enemy didn't notice us, though. The wind is 15 m/s, so maybe the conning tower of our boat is too small to notice in the heavy seas. Estimating the convoy's course by hydrophone readings went quite badly this time (not moving, 20 minute intervals) and we ended up close to the convoy but too far back. A crewman accidentally launched a BOLD canister, while we were submerged at the back of the convoy. The closest escorts had passed us and were approximately 1500 to 3000 meters from us. An Isles class boat and River class boat turned towards us. I decided to go ahead at AK speed at first. Then up periscope and noticed that the enemy were speeding towards the site of the BOLD launch. From the enemy's reactions I think that it could be possible to use a BOLD canister to lure an escort towards the decoy on a straight and somewhat predictable course and then try to sink it. While moving towards the decoy, it would be moving very fast though. We are now trying to pull away from the escorts, and maybe get some stragglers sunk - there is at least two 2000 BRT merchants that can't keep up with the convoy in these heavy winds. This time we have the air superiority and the enemy is without any air patrol capability, if there is not a carrier nearby - not a big chance of that, considering Tirpitz in Narvik and the enemy still remembering what happened to HMS Glorious. Unger |
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