I had a sweet kill on a DD yesterday, I had just sunk a merchant a few hours before (game time) and as I was heading SE along the Scottish coast I detected a destroyer, now given that the water wasnt TOO deep I shut off my engines, went to silent running and hoped he'd pass by without noticing me.
To my everlasting shock he passes off my stern about 1800 meters away with me in a perfect shot to fire off a torpedo at him, it hit him in the side right under the bridge and he went up like a firecracker....Defo one of my luckiest ever warship kills, given how he just wandered into the lions den so to speak |
Date: 4 July 1941
Time: 0832 Loction:Lorient U-boat pens Destination: Western Approaches U-47 Exited harbor as the sun rose, set course for Western Approaches. ASW escort trawler broke off at 0839, returned for base. Friendly Kondor spotted returning from patrol. Date: 10 July 1941 Time: 1701 Location: Grid BF35 Convoy spotted, ordered dive. Following on hydrophones. On further observation, convoy is moving ENE at approximately 6 knots, escorted by at least four Hunt-class and L-class destroyers. Date: 10 July 1941 Time: 2306 Location: Grid BF11 Surfaced and began attack procedure on convoy. Targets selected are a large tanker and coastal freighter. Conditions: Calm, no precipitation, water surface has minor chop. Flooded tubes one and four, fired on coastal freighter. Waited thirty seconds, fired tubes two and three at large tanker. Coastal freighter is hit by both torpedoes and breaks in half. Large tanker is hit in the sternmost part and stops. Dived to 50 meters and ordered full stop. Date: 11 July 1941 Time: 0545 Location: Grid BF11 Surfaced at 0530 and commenced firing on large tanker. Sunk at 0537, returned to course and moved external torpedoes to internal storage. Date: 27 July 1941 Time: 1353 Location: AL26 Reached predetermined location, began patrol search. Aircraft attacked with bombs, one destroyed, one damaged. Minor damage to bow quarters, repaired. Began return to Lorient after 48 hours. Date: 30 July 1941 Time: 1542 Location: AM77 Lone merchant ship located at 1529, medium merchant. Commenced firing and sunk at 1540. Received report on large convoy SW of current location, adjusting course to intercept. Date: 2 August 1941 Time: 2131 Location: Grid BE26 Convoy intercepted. Large escorting force consisting of at least 8 destroyers and a single Nelson-Class battleship. Attempted to sink battleship, one critical hit scored, one damaging, two misses. Depth-charged by escorting destroyer, dived to 75 meters. Bow torpedo room moderately damaged, evaded further attacks and surfaced when clear. Contact report sent to BdU. Date: 14 August 1941 Time: 1136 Location: BF48 Buzzed by aircraft, dived and depth-charged. No damaged sustained. Date: 15 August 1941 Time: 0652 Location: Lorient U-boat Pens Returned to base with minor tonnage scores. Pulled into Pen No. 9 and disembarked from submarine. |
End of May 1941. Battle of the Denmark Strait. Grid AL2167. Sound contact bearing 078 turns out to be fast moving warships. Heading WSW. 21 kts. Carrier, two BBs and a few cruisers and destroyers. 5000m bow shot with four T2s. Hit a Dido class, 2 hits on the Illustrious class n the fourth misses. Dido blows up and the carrier sinks by the bow. Renown class sweeps by and all gone in 5 minutes. Raced down to BE53 but missed the end of the Bismarck...
Gets home, awarded Golden Oakleaves like my hero Rudel. Then I get demoted to Oberleutnant zur see. :confused: Any ideas my fellow Kaleun? I quite enjoyed being a KptLt. :) Oblt zur see Riccardo U-66. June 13th 1941. |
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The Kriegsmarine promotion system is bugged, I bet! :haha: |
Lol..
Turns out the renown I spent buying the piece of junk which my Type IXC is means I dont have enough renown to be a KapitanLeutnant with Golden Oakleaves... :rolleyes: I love this game and the renown system but you should only get demoted for sinking a hospital ship. Or an American cruise liner. ;) Riccardo, U-66, listening to BdU trying to get hold of U-556. :( |
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Dont often sink fleet carriers...
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Patrol 5 (11/24 - 12/13) aka "It was a dark and stormy night"
Patrol grid BF17 While U-27 was initially quite happy to draw a grid right in the heart of the western approaches the tone for this patrol would be set quite early and decisively as a gale with heavy rain moved into the North Sea 3 days out of port. With visibility limited to next to nothing U-27 barely even slowed down while transiting the shipping lanes between Norway and Scotland. This continued as we rounded north of Scotland. West of the Hebrides, during a routine dive to periscope depth to check for surrounding traffic we picked up a lone C&D class destroyer whose track would take him almost exactly 2km astern. U-27 barely even had to move for a G7e to send him to the bottom. Fortunately it was during one of the rare moments when the rain stopped, so we could actually see him. I figured if he was going to be that obliging about it, it would have been rude not to sink him. Continuing south past the west coast of Ireland we again only intermittently checked for traffic as the torrential rains returned. Reaching BF17 the seas were still too heavy to use the deck gun. This would be the first time that U-27 would actually reach its hunting grounds without having expended a single round of deck gun ammo. Feeling that the crew was getting antsy after a week without any appreciable action I did decide to sink 2 smaller vessels with torpedoes rather than let them go. Fortunately later that afternoon Bdu radioed about a convoy contact in BF15. It was a fairly easy intercept though visibility was fairly poor. The convoy only had 2 escorts one leading and one astern so it was fairly simple work to close in during the night and start picking out the higher value targets. A pair of whale factory ships were the highlight, though annoyingly both refused to sink until a 2nd torpedo was put into them. Same for a large merchant and ore carrier. U-27 would fire 13 torpedoes by 8 am the next morning and claim 8 victims leaving only a handful of small ships to comprise the convoy. Turning back to BF17 we hoped for the weather to break so the deck gun could be put to use. For three days U-27 experienced alternating weather states such as gale, storm, monsoon, and "Where did my hands go?!". Figuring that the storm had to break eventually U-27 turned north. Hopefully better weather would arrive while U-27 headed for the northern reaches of the Irish Sea. Finally, the seas calmed to the point where the deck gunners could atleast work even if they were drenched by the swells. In these challenging conditions (7 m/s swells). A single merchantman was tracked down and sunk by gunfire. It was an auspicious change of fortunes. Atleast until the next morning when the next gale arrived just as the boat was nearing another target. The Captain was observed uttering some choice words at the situation. Alas defeated for the moment U-27 made the east bound trip north of Scotland hoping fair weather would return...it would...with U-27 less than 200km from home. And thus a 2nd first for the U-27 occurred as it returned to base with almost all its deck gun ammo. Still 63,700 GRT. 9 merchants, 1 destroyer. |
Just took a deck gun hit at 900 metres off a crippled Empire class listing 30 degrees to port in a 15m/s gale West of Gibraltar. Stern quarters flooded. 91% hull integrity. Damage control team couldnt cope. U-66 lost with all hands 4/10/1941.... :(
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Patrol 6 (12/27/39 - 1/24/40) aka "Close encounters of the destroyer kind"
Grid BE 59 After the somewhat lackluster previous patrol (compared atleast to the earlier exploits of the U-27). Spirits were lifted as the crew got to spend Christmas ashore in Wilhelmshaven. As one of the most successful u-boats of the war... To Date: 2 battleships (Royal Oak, Nelson) 1 battlecruiser (Hood) 2 cruisers (Southampton, Auxiliary) 7 destroyers (assorted classes) ...the Captain was hard pressed to find a single example of a crewman managing to buy his own drink for the duration of the stay. Even the maintenance workers got a break as for the first time since the U-27's first training patrol the Captain had managed to bring the boat back without a scratch on it. (collided with sub-nets patrols 2 and 4, strafed on patrol 3). It was lucky then that U-27 had checked out a petty officer as a medic at the end of the last patrol. His skills had grown after treating half the crew for seasickness for 2 weeks straight during the previous patrol. The crew was recovering from hangovers as U-27 motored out of the harbor...the talk though being about how the Captain had been observed avoiding mirrors, or stepping on cracks between the paving stones, and alternately throwing salt over his shoulder as he walked to the berthed submarine... "I don't care...if it prevents a repeat of the last patrol I'll do anything," he had said... the crew had to restrain him a moment later from training the deck gun on a black cat that had come around the corner of the nearest quay warehouse. Still off to the Shetlands to make the well practiced turn to port. An early prize was found in a motor vessel (100 tons). The Watch Officer joking that the Captain should have left it go so it could grow up to be a bigger catch. Still it cost little as the Captain sent it to the bottom with the 20mm flak gun. "I missed you two...," he sighed. Another medium sized target was found soon after and a Granville class was added, this time by the actual deck gun. However, the weather was not going to cooperate for much longer. Still it was only 9 m/s seas instead of 15 m/s...it could have been worse. U-27 was less interested this time in the Hebrides...figuring that we might have been overstaying our welcome. Also other U-boats were beginning to report mine strikes farther and farther out. U-27 thus passed further away from the Scottish coast this time. Traffic was minimal and nothing worth firing a torpedo at was found. It would be into the Bay of Biscay in BE 39 that the first major engagement would be fought. U-27 detected a small to medium sized convoy defended by only a single C&D class destroyer....which had apparently not been in refit any time recently as it was lacking ASDIC. However the destroyer's skipper was apparently quite determined to prove the adage that its not about the equipment, its how you use it. The hydrophone operator's chart tracking the destroyer would later be hailed as a early example of modern art under the title 'Abject Linear Confusion'. Needless to say the Weapon's Officer was not keen on the idea of shooting a torpedo at a destroyer that was twirling around like a Bolshoi ballet dancer. If the destroyer had ever gone in a straight line for any appreciable length of time it was likely that the U-27 would have destroyed the entire convoy through a combination of torpedoes and gunfire. As it was, every major ship in the convoy was systematically claimed until by morning the only thing that remained was a handful of small and coastal merchants. Without ASDIC the destroyer was utterly impotent as U-27 always moved after firing, followed by reducing the engine RPMs to under 50. The best the destroyer could do was was depthcharge in roughly the area the sub had been. Unwilling to shoot torpedoes at minor vessels, especially with daylight arriving and after sailing all the way to the Bay of Biscay off the NW corner of Spain, U-27 broke off after radioing the convoy's location. There was a little hilarity that followed as the sub settled into a slow patrol of BE69...atleast until the Navigator reminded the Captain that we were supposed to be in BE59. The Captain cursed whoever chose the font on the map and moved the sub to the correct grid. On the way the sub encountered the largest prize of the patrol..and unescorted large tanker. after a few more days and intermittent encounters with mostly small tonnage vessels the Captain decided to move back North more into the convoy lanes coming out of the Western approaches. The maneuver was rewarded as U-27 picked up a medium sized convoy outbound through the northern Bay of Biscay. However it was at this moment that U-27's greatest archfoe returned. 15 m/s winds and monsoon grade rain. Having picked up the convoy in the wee hours of the morning U-27 would atfirst simply shadow the convoy. This became difficult as the only way to do was by hydrophone and the convoy was moving at a decent clip, 8 knots..faster than the VIIB could make under electric power, especially faster than the VIIB could safely make in the vicinity of the convoy as there were two destroyers this time and the lead one did have ASDIC, though the trailing destroyer (another C&D) did not. This necessitated alot of diving, surface running, and position checking that became increasingly complex as the convoy was running a zig zag course with about 20 km long legs. As night fell, visibility dropped to near 0. It was very much the same "Where'd my hands go" weather from the previous patrol. Trying to judge the convoy's location became almost impossible visually. At about 11 pm after an hour on the surface catching up to the convoy (after U-27 slightly misjudged and zigged when we should have zagged) we needed badly to check the location via hydrophone. Worryingly we could hear a ship in the distance, but couldn't tell from where. "Periscope depth...silent running" ... 30 seconds later we passed into the effective range of the hydrophones..."all stop" "CONTACT, WARSHIP, CLOSE RANGE, MEDIUM SPEED, BEARING 160" "How close?!, you didn't draw a line on the chart?!" 'SCREEEEEEEEEEEECHHHHHHHH' "It's that dot on top of us Captain" "Well, on the bright side we have located the trailing destoyer," the Weapon Officer quipped but for a tense moment everyone held their breath...fortunately the destroyer didn't seem to be aware it had hit a submarine. "It was only a glancing hit, sounded like he brushed against the flak gun and its mounting" Bernard, the planesman then piped up "Don't we need to surface and exchange insurance information?" Everyone just glared at him. It was a good bit of luck that the destroyer didn't have ASDIC though. Maneuvering away, the Captain considered his options..."We literally sailed up the wake and right past a destroyer and neither of us saw the other. I seriously take back everything I ever said about C&D classes and how little they have below the waterline to get a solid hit on. If that had been a Tribal....<shudder>...to hell with this" At that point U-27 did surface but only to move around the sides of the convoy...closing to what could best be described as 'knife fight range'. The lookouts struggled to pick out the barest silhouettes of ships being lit up by the occasional flash of lightning...the Hydrophone operator did his best to help with the occasional update everytime the bow of the boat wound up 10 meters under. Several times the Captain had to abort attacks when it became clear there wouldn't be sufficient time for the torpedoes to arm but as the midnight hours ticked by U-27 began to pick off ships. Though we did record a miss or two due to the motion of the u-boat. Virtually every sinking though had to be confirmed by the hydrophone operator. The final note of the saga came as the U-27 had worked its way around to the opposite side of the convoy. An ore carrier was hit by one torpedo that seemed to do little damage. Still it was a raging storm and while dawn was not that far off U-27 had time. Sinking a medium cargo next, U-27 returned and decided that it would require her last torpedo to finish the ore carrier. The shot was dead on and soon the ore carrier was at a 25 degree list. Amazingly though she held her place in the convoy. As U-27 evaded on the surface at dawn after the 2nd torpedo hit the Captain was sure that in this rough weather the ore carrier would sink any minute. Any minute now...Yep any minute.... Things grew more complicated as the rain lessened and the sun came up. U-27 had to back off to 5 km now. But still shadowed the convoy...and still the ore carrier sailed on making the necessary 8 knots to hold position. Finally, out of patience, the Captain declared that it would only take a minor nudge to finish off the target...U-27 closed to 3.5km on the surface before the convoy raised the alarm. Believing in his trusty deck gun, though the sea was still quite rough, the crew proved just how veteran they had become at the gunnery drill. U-27 rattled off 12 shots before shells from the leading destroyer began to splash around the boat. 3 shells hit the ore carrier at the water line, 4 tore into her deck. Not bad considering the range and the heaving sea. The ore carrier was now on fire in 3 places and belching smoke. As U-27 evaded the Captain eagerly awaited news of the 8000 ton vessel succumbing. An hour later he was disappointed to see the ship still making 8 knots at a 30 degree list. "Why?" he asked.... Then he noticed...it was a Canadian ore carrier. To the virtual Canucks on that ship, that kept it afloat after being torpedoed twice and shelled...in a gale...the Captain tips his hat. It would be the first time that an underway ship torpedoed by the U-27 would escape. Though out of torpedoes the U-27 would not quite be finished. A collection of mostly smaller vessels with the remaining gun ammunition. The epilogue of the patrol being a trawler that was sunk very near where the first victim of the patrol had been. It took most of flak gun ammo to do it. The crew was in a good mood with the boat going back with the tubes and the ammo locker dry. They even decided that given the chance we were going to make the streaks of Royal Navy destroyer gray that decorated the flak gun mounting and rear guardrails a part of our 'official' paint scheme. We would qualify another petty officer in maintaining the engines. 19 ships sunk, all merchant, 82,700 GRT, No actual damage to the hull (flak gun was the only thing damaged in the impact with the destroyer). |
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:down: better luck next time eh...:sunny: |
Hearbroken. Now I finish ships off from 2000+ metres, plus with my crack gun crew 1 hit from 3 is good for me....
:D |
Surfaced off New York to finish off an armed tugboat from a decent distance and found an Elco at 155 degrees my soundman clearly forgot about. Got ripped to bits but hit it with three 105mm rounds and thought game over.
Nope. Caught fire and kept on shooting. Made of wood arent they? THREE 4 inch shells...? Not a happy bunny again. :rolleyes: |
Noob Kaleun of U-47 reporting. Realism settings 85% External camera enabled, but only for adoring MY boat when not in contact.
Patrol 3, start date December 3 at Wilhelmshaven. December 10, just north of Rockall Bank: My watch officer spots a 3 ship group at long range to my left, coming almost directly at me. Due to the angle I guesstimate their course incorrectly and identifying goes wrong too. First one is clearly a destroyer, V&W -class, but the two merchants I thought to be Empire-class freighters turn out to be auxiliary cruisers. Because of my miscalculation and guesstimating the destroyer and merchants turned to warships pass my bow at only about 300-400 meters. I fire 4 torpedoes and hit only one auxiliary cruiser. Destroyer depth charges me for 4 hours before I finally manage to slip away. After surfacing (I almost could swear tasting the fresh sea air IRL after so many hours underwater) I resume my course to SW where the map says is a known convoy route. Few hours later I get a radio contact report about a convoy southeast of Rockall Bank heading probably to Irish Sea. And the best part is that it is only hours away from the boat's current location. I'm really starting to get excited, it's my first real convoy. Some map work and diesels red hot, ahead full. Watch officer spots the convoy just before dark and I decide to trail it for now, to get better readings and to prepare my ambush better after the last botched attempt. It's hard to get good guesstimates at long range, but they're heading west and it's about 5 columns, so maybe ~25 ships or so and a single destroyer at the front (or so I thought). At this time I have 7 torpedoes left in front. I'm thrilled, but also the convoy seems just so big a target, how am I going to handle this? I trail them for the night slowly getting into a position to attack. During daytime I decide to make an attempt at periscope depth. I change my course and slowly start to make my way to a course intersecting convoys course. I let the escort in front to slip to my right while making my way to more juicier parts of the convoy. Torpedoes set for impact pistol I base my calculations for a large merchant in front of me. I fire 4 torpedoes and manage to watch 3 hits, ammunition ship blows like a crate of fireworks. Dive is ordered to 160 meters. All 4 torpedoes hit, but only 3 ships go down. I get the large merchant, a medium tanker and an ammo ship. Escorts start hunting my boat. Turns out that there were 2 destroyers. They depth charge me for hours before finally heading back to the convoy, U-47 doesn't even get a scratch. Time to surface to reload and recharge and to prepare ambush #2. This time it's going to be a surface attack. So again I track them from the distance. This part of the game just rocks like everything else: Watching, waiting a good moment, planning, literally hunting them. Finally darkness arrives. I can see why advacements in radar were fatal for U-boats, my only ally is stealth, escorts just outspeed, outgun and outarmor an U-boat. Approach goes similarly than last time, but on the surface. Again I target a large merchant and fire three torpedoes to three targets. Again 3 hits, but only get the large merchant and a passenger/cargo. Don't know why I targeted the last one, but I was acting in a hurry. At this moment I am not spotted, but they're turning on those powerful lights. Trying to get away with diesels, maybe the night will protect me, but not long and U-47 is spotted and fire starts to rain at my position. So, ALAAAARRRRMMM! Again the familiar game of hide and seek starts. This time I'm not so lucky as depth charges almost rip out my conning tower. All periscopes and radio antenna destroyed. After a few hours other destroyer heads back to convoy and other still hunts me, but has probably expended all depth charges and later it also leaves. Just have to say how good sound stage is in this game, immersion is really good underwater. When I surface, the convoy is gone, but I still see the large merchant defiantly pushing forward bow almost below the water. I align the boat for a rear torpedo. Luckily UZO is still intact. One final torpedo finishes the large merchant and she's going to the bottom (didn't see sailors swimming towards me :)). Time to get out of there at flank speed. The other destroyer returns to look for me, but this time I am far enough away. Searchlights are visible in the horizon for a time. Periscopes and radio antenna destroyed and all forward torpedoes used and only a few remaining in the back tubes. I need to get back to the base. After uneventful return journey I get back to Wilhemshaven, where medals are handed by the bucket. Total tonnage for the patrol: 53090t and 6 ships sunk. |
Halfway through the war. Started August 39 and I've moved to Bergen for the rest of the war in late 43. I plan on staying alive for the war's end. Ready to buy the Type XXI when I can.
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Although I have just recently started playing the game, I am pleased to say that I have completed 5 patrols (once I got the hang of it). The last two patrols were with a new U-boat–the VIIB. I must say that this is a very sweet ship. On my most recent patrol I was assigned to a patrol on the west side of Ireland, but before I could get there I sunk 5-6 ships! By the time I finally made it to my patrol zone I was down to 4 torpedoes in the bays and I was struggling to figure out how to get the external torpedoes inside for loading.
No sooner did I get to my patrol zone (The Northwestern corner) but I got a radio report of a ship to the north headed west (my way) so with a sigh I headed up and sunk it. The only real problem is the aircraft, though I did shoot one of them down. I think I should have trained someone on flak guns before now–none of my guys have the knack, I'm afraid. I got two iron crosses, and a buttload of u-boat badges to hand out to my crew. What good are they? I don't know, but I decorated the engine guy, the sonar guy, and the deck gun guy and then stared stupidly at the rest of them. I'm sure most people are doing wonderful work on the boat, but I'm not sure how to decide among them. Luck of the draw, maybe. |
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