Update from U-180.
Entry IV 1 April 1943. 06h20. GR56. Successfully infiltrated Capetown. Very heavily guarded; numerous ASW trawlers and two destroyers of unknown class spotted. Sank three vessels inside Capetown harbour with two torpedoes each; using a combination of keel-breaking magnetic pistol shots and impact pistol torpedoes aimed at their engine compartments. Six torpedoes expended total. One Modern Tanker sunk for 10,869GRT and two Large Cargo type merchant freighters for approximately 8500 GRT each. Exfiltration was easier than it should have been; there is no apparent reason for the weakness or ineffectiveness of the ASW defences in this area at this time. Entry V 14 April 1943. 12h15. GH21. Reached patrol grid. Will patrol until 00h30 15 April. Morale extremely high after the cakewalk harbour raid conducted earlier on Capetown. Crew able to dine in open air during a gap between light storms for a change. Entry VI 25 April 1943. 04h15. GR91. Encountered an Ore Carrier and small merchant freighter running at nine knots on a course of 270, formation line astern. Ran on the surface with decks awash to get into an ideal intercept position before submerging. Dove to periscope depth and approached the targets more closely, prioritizing the Ore Carrier. Tube three fired first, magnetic fused eto, successful launch. Target's screws remain audible through hydrophone; fired tube one with an impact fuse, ato, running fast. Impact thirty seconds later. Target's boilers exploding, screw noise stopped, vessel sinking rapidly by stern, fire from aftmost antiaircraft gun positions to bridge. Small merchant begins zig-zagging, though this drives their speed down to six knots. U-180 keeps pace while submerged, running a course of true West, closing the range. Hydrophones and sonar allow us to maintain contact very well. At a range of 1145 metres, the boat was surfaced. Deck gun crew were first on deck, followed by the Kaleun and 1WO. We were running at ahead flank on the target's port-aft quarter. Engaged with 105mm, first three rounds knocked out their stern naval rifle. Twelve more rounds set the ship on fire from bows to fantail, numerous secondary explosions, no survivors observed from either sinking. Light damage sustained to aft torpedo spaces; fully repaired. LI estimates the boat is good to dive to as much as two hundred metres. There is no intention of testing this unless absolutely necessary. |
U 4467 outbound to patrol AL67..
Have sunk S class sub, with deckgun in BF52 ,Nov 2,1940. 1 eel fired..miss. http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/5...nter011.th.jpghttp://img294.imageshack.us/img294/2...nter013.th.jpg |
U-150 (IID) with the 30th Flotilla.
10/42-Leaving Constanza for her first patrol in the Black Sea. :cool: U-516 (IXC) witht the 12th Flotilla. 5/43-sunk with all hands on second patrol after attacking a convoy off the Canaries. :cry: :) |
May 20, 1942. Type IXC out of Lorient.
Finally returning home from Gulf of Mexico and Carribean/Bermuda Triangle area... currently in central Grid DG. No torpedoes remaining... all deck gun rounds expended while finishing off a couple of damaged merchants. Ten ships sunk... three were large tankers! Tis been a long patrol... nearly two months. Have incurred moderate damage from DC and air attack. (I got overconfident and stayed on the surface to try and shoot down a Kingfisher near Cuba... and suffered some bow damage to a near miss.) Will be near the Gibralter bottleneck in two days... Then to traverse Biscay home to Lorient... Rumor has it that enemy activity is increasing there... |
Oblt Josef Härtel got tired of his slow moving Type IXB and changed it for a VIIC, I decided to go around the arctic ocean but found nothing after 10 days of being up there, on my way home I decided to raid Lerwick, it was pitch black since a storm was approaching, when we where 2.5 km away from port we hit a subnet, ordered emergency back then surfaced the boat and full ahead we passed the net with 58% on hull left, spotted 1 T class, S class and small depot ship, sunk the 3 of them and went away slowly, no one knew what happened.
When we where back at home I found weird that I was given 1200 renown for this patrol and my tonnage for it was 20k tons when I raided ports and got 70k tons I used to get 420~500 renown or could it be that the fact I was playing @ 80% realism had something to do |
February 1942
Currently at drydock refitting my IXC for a new patrol; Operation Drumbeat's going on. |
U-2548 returned from her 6th patrol with 20,000 tonnes after a frustrating patrol. Severe weather produced almost three weeks without any contact with the enemy, until two convoy reports finally lifted the gloom.
Further more, the sinking of an Auxiliary Cruiser in one such convoy, West of Gilbraltar, left everyone rather satisfied with a difficult patrol. June 1st 1940 - U-2548 Assigned to patrol AN87 Near Dunkirk apparently. :arrgh!: |
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Better to avoid Dunkirk.... lots of ctds in that zone :cry: |
Where others get CTDs I just tend to get 10-20 second pauses in the game. Lucky I suppose.
Anyway, whilst navigating on the surface towards the harbour at Dunkirk, some pesky torpedo boat appears out the mist and destroys my flak batterys before I can dive. Radar didn't pick him up. Alas, the entire Royal Navy is depth charging me now. 30m of water. :hmmm: |
U-97 reporting in still haven't left french waters, 191 kilometers away from St. Nazaire, current speed is 18-19 knots in approx. 20 hours we will reach grid BF 42, time is 10:04 am.
Nothing else but sea....and still so early :nope: http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/t...09_1050_68.jpg |
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http://img199.imageshack.us/i/xxia.jpg/http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9283/xxia.jpg Cheers for this one, Karl. :shifty: |
This is turning into the shortest and most annoying patrol ever. Weather cleared and I'm scooting up the Dutch coast, only for my watch crew to miss a Dutch armed trawler, who managed to land one on me from about 5km away. :hmmm:
Submerged and proceeded after repairing the fuel tank, only to surface and encounter another one. This time however, justice. Two Stukas appeared and had him. :yeah: Cheers fat boy. |
November 1, 1940, 1:28 pm
We have to wait at least another day to reach british waters and 3 days until we reach our designated grid. http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/t..._132556_67.jpg Checking decks awash depth when we get closer to enemy territorey http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/t..._132550_25.jpg |
Private Journal of Captain Wolfgang
Background: I bought SH3 when it first came out, but got distracted after only playing a few hours. I recently came across the DVD again and decided to give it another go. After playing a practice mission and watching a nice video on this site about plotting a target's course on the map, I decided to start a campaign.
Campaign, 1939, 100% realism (why not). From the private journal of Captain Wolfgang: Day One Sub duty. I'm reasonably sure this is a punishment of some sort. The admiral told me I am a last-minute replacement for the previous captain, who came down with a severe intestinal disorder. I approached the dock and saw at my new command: a type II-A, the worst uboot in the kriegsmarine. This one appeared to be made from an old boiler with an oil drum welded on top. The crew lined up in front of the wreck looked no better. After making sure we left the harbor intact, I went below. The odor was unbelievable. The navigator appeared to be a complete buffoon, so I plotted a course to the assigned grid area myself. After this I retired to my bunk and drank a few shots of liquor under the blanket. Day Two Reached assigned area. I instructed the navigator to plot a search pattern and went to get coffee. When I returned, he had drawn a pattern over only half the assigned area, confirming my earlier estimation of his abilities. Angrily I erased his feeble effort and drew the pattern myself. Day Three Early in the day we received a radio message about a ship to the west of our area. Reaching for the protractor, I discovered a different instrument than the one I had trained on. With a shrug, I plotted an intercept course. Several hours of cruising turned up nothing but a new radio message about a nearby ship heading north. This time the interception went correctly, running us right into a coastal merchant. I began a textbook plot of the target's course from the bridge, but apparently the merchant captain had both binoculars and a radio, because a few minutes later an enemy plane appeared. I immediately ordered a crash dive and scrambled down the ladder. The navigator confirmed only 16 meters of water under the keel, so I ordered the boat to periscope depth. The helmsman seemed to think periscope depth meant bouncing off the sea bottom, so after a few grinding thuds I ordered us to rise to 10 meters. Had I not been short on officers I would have thrown the dullard into the sea. I hope I can come up with a way of explaining the dents on the hull. The plane appeared to have vanished during our sea bottom escapades, and somehow the merchant had passed over us. I quickly surfaced us and ordered a flank speed intercept course. After a minute or two of watching the merchant recede, I asked the XO why we weren't moving. Apparently no one was in the diesel engine room. Several screaming fits later we were on our way. I laughed as the merchant weaved back and forth in a weak mockery of evasive maneuvers and sent several torpedoes her way from very close range. Two hit, one missed, and although she stopped dead in the water I was out of torpedoes. The lone, unmoving merchant should be an easy target for the deck gun. Sadly, I discovered our rusty garbage bin had no deck gun. We were forced to hover a few hundred meters off the side of the merchant while my crew lazily reloaded tube one. After an eternity, I fired another shot into its side. There was a thunk and nothing happened. Cursing madly, I awaited the loading of our last torpedo. Apparently the crew was tired from being on watch because the lethargic idiots took even longer this time. Recalling a lecture on the wonders of the magnetic detonator which could break a battleship in two with but a single shot, I set the running depth just under the keel of our unmoving target and fired away. The gamble did not pay off; the torpedo passed merrily on by, humming a happy tune and watching for a metal hull which it would never see. At this point I considered a boarding party, but our sidearms had been left ashore in order to fit more hams on board. That probably seemed a reasonable decision at the time. We cruised away, leaving the stranded vessel to fix its engines and return to port with a hold full of goods. Our mission required us to continue patrolling the assigned area despite the fact that our only remaining weapon was the hellish stink of the interior space. I dutifully reported a few contacts by radio until the time was up and returned to base. Day Four The base commander refused to credit me the merchant and accused me of being drunk. I was. |
Still September 1, 1940, 5:28 pm
Not a single contact so far, took a power nap to go up with the crew on the night, until 2-3 AM then we go in periscope depth and we will test our batteries how long they can last @ 5 knots :arrgh!: . Decided to plot another course near the english channel and british coast, passing through Ireland into Grid AM 41, hopefully we will get to see some ships. Can't complain the sky is beatiful out there (attempt of panoramic view) http://i626.photobucket.com/albums/t...th_nuevo-2.jpg |
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May 27th 1942. U-153 Type IXC. Homeward bound.
Have just entered the southwestern corner of the Bay of Biscay. Have ordered the flak guns to be cleared and serviced. Burned much fuel over last three days... pushing through massive storm 1400 km west of Portugal. The last remaining diesel is sloshing around in the tanks, and the boat is pitching and rolling more now that it is much lighter. For a short moment we considered a night visit to the Max Albrecht... but it would be just our luck to end up being detained in a neutral port. The crew is tired, but in good spirits. The food is now barely tolerable. One and a half days to HOME! No time to be complacent though. |
The Inshore Campaign continues for me. This time, the Bristol Channel beckoned after reaching the staging point off the western coast of Ireland (AM73).
About 36,700 tons in the drink off Hartland Point. Also damaged a Captain class destroyer and a second Liberty ship in the days leading up to the map below, and although the rough seas wouldn't have been good to them, I couldn't tell you of their fate. The seas weren't good, though, to the cluster of wrecks off of Lundy. All torpedo boats. Sorry about the lines all over the place, but if you're heading this way, that's what the patrol routes generally look like :up: http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/628/u...tolchannel.jpg |
well... u 45 is in shop after its last patrol... due to a issue with the periscope... will be back out too sea soon.:yep:
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I have 3 potential careers that I might do in real time since I have vacations and I feel it's better to play SH3 than some MMO =/ First Career is set in October 1942, black sea campaign in a Type IID Second Career is set in December 1940, Type VIIC Third Career is set in October 1944, Type XXI Most dangerous to go RLT will be the type XXI but I've only done 3 patrols with it, with the VIIC is my most advanced career with 13 patrols and the little IID is only at her first patrol :haha: I might move a little the XXI career :arrgh!: of course with TCx1 and I'll attempt 100% realism, hopefully I won't die outside port lol....just need to set clocks and I'm ready to go :P As expected no less than 500 meters away when I left sub-pen a comboy of B-24 liberators raids Bergen, sinking my escort, I've decided to go and say hello to the russians at Arkangel'sk, 5800 km away, Navigator officer estimates 365 hours until we reach the port, even when I'm still in norwegian waters I can't give the luxury to sleep and stay surfaced, this will also serve to test the endurance of the batteries of the XXI, current time is 2:44 AM. |
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