I just realized that if I switch flotillas I'll have to redo my conning tower emblem. Same dealio if I upgrade out of a VIIB since I don't think there's a Turm Your Way for the IXs yet. :hmmm:

That would fall into the "tinkering with mods" category, a lot of which I want to do between finishing this career and starting a new one. So I may just hang on to U-51 for as long as she stays afloat. :DL

Regarding proximity of the Tommies' airbases, I noticed quite a few things on fire when I cruised into Lorient for the first time, including a couple of sunk/sinking ships near the mouth of the harbor/river plus some things further inland that I didn't identify. I presume this is GWX's way of letting me know the RAF paid us a visit? :rock:

Don't blame you a bit. You've got GWX. So, with the added refueling capabilities, you may just be able to pull it off. (And, VIIBs are a nice ride). Go for it.

Had a couple issues with SH3... so I uninstalled it then reinstalled it. New campaign started in '39 in VIIB, 84% Realism (everything except for manual target acquisition)

First patrol
Left Kiel and headed for the northern coast of England. Met some neutral ships on the way; waved at them and contented myself with the fact that'll soon be able to taste Norwegian tonnage. Rounded the northern coast, and then headed for Loch Ewe. Took out a fishing boat with my AA gun, then spotted two Flower Class Corvettes. Decided to mix things up a little. Went decks awash and trailed them until it got a little darker, then went to ahead full and closed with them. They did not notice my approach. At a range where I knew I would not miss, I fully surfaced the boat and manned the deck gun and took out the main weapon of the first ship. Explosion from this also took out the MGs on the superstructure. I stayed on the far side of this so the other one could not effectively attack me, and pumped rounds into it. I repeated the process for the second corvette. I lost my navigation officer attacking the second one :nope:, but it was fun doing something out of the norm lol. Kept heading south-west; avoided a couple of torpedo boats and sank two more merchants in the Atlantic around my patrol grid. Didn't meet any destroyers on this patrol :yep:

I'm thinking you meant Armed Trawlers? Because Flowers weren't around in 1939. They first appeared in early 1940.


U-11 reporting in. The date is April 13th, 1940. The time is 5:21 local time. The Warspite rests on the bottom of a fjord. After putting three eels into the side, the ship went under after roughly 30 minutes. Her escort's response was spirited, but misplaced. I was easily able to sneak away from them and surface. After taking stock of the situation, I've decided to dock at Narvik and take on fuel for the return trip to Wilhelmshaven.

Edit: On the way to Narvik, I ran into the Warspite's escorts in 20 meter deep water. Unfortunately, they noticed me and put down a pretty vicious depth charge barrage. Miraculously, the only damage U-11 sustained was when I bottomed out the thing when diving to escape their notice. During the depth charge bombardment, a tribal type managed to trap itself against a cliff wall. After his friends left, I took a simple shot and put it out of its misery. The rest of the short trip was uneventful, and U-11 docked in Narvik in the early evening to a hero's welcome. A band and a throng of well wishers welcomed the gallant defender of Narvik and his crew. Also welcoming the captain was news from Bdu that not only had he earned the swords for his Knight's Cross, but also of his promotion to Kapitanleutnant.

Woops thanks for catching that :yep:

Haven't had many extended patrols from this date for quite some time :shifty:

U-51
2 U-Flotilla Saltzwedel
KptltzS Kurt Dennert, Commander

Christmas Day, 1940, the Bay of Biscay.

We departed Lorient for our ninth patrol late in the evening on 21 December, five weeks and a day since putting in at our new base for the first time. Upon our return it had become apparent that we'd taken more damage than we realized from our encounters with the RAF off the coast of Morocco, and as repairs began I secretly cherished the thought that we might still be ashore for the upcoming holidays... but the new facilities at Lorient turned out to be more than up to the task of getting U-51 seaworthy in time to dash whatever hope we had of spending Christmas with anyone else but each other.

After clearing the mouth of the river and all the coastal islands we turned south to take us out of range of the Tommies and their pesky bees; judging by the fires still burning when we arrived there, they'd been even more busy over Brittany than they'd been over our last patrol grid. As the sun rose on the 24th we were at last heading WSW towards the open Atlantic. Our "celebration" of the holiday began with a crash dive at dusk, the result of a pre-arranged false alarm given on my orders. We leveled off at 70 meters in just over 2 minutes and then continued down to 150 meters. All systems are performing up to expectations thus far.

After that we came back up to 40 meters and stayed there long enough for everyone to have a chance to join in the Heiligabend festivities... songs were sung, gifts exchanged (where Hollbach found the space to hide them is anybody's guess) and Smutje provided a meal fit for kings, or at least a u-boat full of hungry sailors who would no doubt prefer to be elsewhere on such an occasion.

We resurfaced just after midnight. The weather, I'm happy to say, has held fair and calm since we left Lorient; at least the men standing first watch today will not be doing it knee-deep in salt water. Our course is still WSW, and we'll continue on it until we've cleared the Iberian peninsula and sailed far enough west to be out of range of the Tommy fliers based in Gibraltar. Then it'll be south towards Madeira and the Canaries, then west again, then south until we reach our station - roughly 1000km north of Cape Verde. We'll be patrolling right in the path of the Sierra Leone convoy routes, so with any luck the hunting will be good.

Frau, I think after reading this post and the way you treat your crew, I'd have to say I like how you run your U-Boat;) Heck, I may even request for a transfer out of Kaleun of my U-boat over to yours!! Whadya say?? With both our knowledge we'll rid the world of Bernard!! Only problem is, with my stomach, your patrols will be half as long. :shifty:

haha, brings up a post I made in the SH5 forums:

ROFL:rotfl2::har: Now THATS funny. I could see them talking about it after

Destroyer Commander: Haha we sunk you!!

Captain: Only because my crew are all idiots :nope: Except for the torpedoe men, they had SOMEWHAT of the right idea

Seaman 3rd Class: LOLLLLZZ

:har: That just made my day, or night. Whatever you want to call it.

My post or Schweiggers?

:har:

Date: April 16, 1940.
Time: 12:27 local time.
Location: AF-38, approximately 300 kilometers WSW of Bodo

My Flak Gunner just earned himself an Iron Cross. He shot down a trio of Swordfish torpedo bombers that happened upon U-11 as we cruised South. I thought there was only one, so I decided to take my chances against it. By the time we spotted the other two, it was a bit late to attempt to crash dive. I guess we're lucky Bootsman Kurt Witt is such a good shot. Other than that, the trip from Narvik back down to home has been pretty uneventful.

Edit: I decided to take U-11 East to try and find the carrier the Swordfish came from. Another three Swordfish quickly appeared overhead. Feeling cocky, I decided to take them on. That turned out to be a really bad idea, as a Swordfish dropped a bomb that missed the stern by about 3 meters. Now I'm not sure how secure the hull is. It doesn't show as damaged on the screen, but who knows. Kurt's now an Ace though, with 6 kills to his name.

Edit2: After a day, I gave up on finding the carrier. Shot down 9 Swordfish though. That's got to be galling for whatever carrier it was.

September 12, 1939
Patrol AM 24

After accidentally deleting my saved game, I started a new one. I encountered a convoy on the last saved game and was hoping for a repeat. Almost nine days of clear skies and 7mph winds. Have sunk eight small merchants/coastal merchants and one C2 and one Hurricane2. Missed the convoy but have sunk more ships without it.

I have been trying out a new, bold tactic since its early on. I intercept a reported ship ahead of its position and then follow the estimated path heading straight for the merchant. When the watchman spots the ship I stop and get bearing and distance information. Then I speed up, go to periscope depth and turn 90 degrees for a stern shot. Otherwise I do a quick circle and come about for the bow shot.

Got this one small merchant perfectly. Spotted him and set the trap. And waited. I watched him from the scope from 3.4km to about 2.5km. Lowered the scope and followed him on hydrophone. Waited til he's at 190 degrees, raised the scope and fired from about 1.9-2 km. Lowered the scope and waited some more. Poor bastard didnt know what hit him.

While doing the circle I thought of a neat maneuver. Its called the Krazy Klaus. Assuming five contacts on three sides. Come up from 25m at about standard or 1/3 speed, fire the bow torps at targets as you move from 0 to 270 degrees and save the stern torp for the last shot and make a hasty exit (submerged). Will have to see if I ever use it.

As a side note I followed a merchant ship with the external cam as it was hit with a torp and sank. I watched it as it hit the sea floor. It was so beautiful I almost cried.

I ran into one escorting a convoy in sept or oct 1939 in the stock game.

Both sent me to bed cracking up.

Date: April 25th, 1940
Time: 0:700 Local Time
Location: AN 52

Heading home after intercepting a small convoy heading towards the Firth of Forth. I blew 4 of my 5 eels trying trying to kill the largest ships in the convoy, a Large Merchant and an Empire type. The Large merchant took a single eel to the forecastle break and quickly sank. I sent two towards the Empire. A single eel hit towards the stern, around the first set of boxes. Another hit near the bow, but was a dud. I chased the Empire as it fell out of formation and began to straggle. Desperate to sink it, I sent a long-distance eel in a hull-cracker configuration towards the Empire's stern from about 3 km. The torpedo seemed on target, but prematured about 700 meters from the ship. Having to give up the chase due to escorts, I began to search around for a new target. roughly 6 hours later, I found a coastal freighter. Despite having a near-perfect distance, 90 degree angle, and a impact fuse, the torpedo bounced off. So, I'm heading home with one Large Merchant and 9 swordfish under my belt. Easily my worst total so far.

Had a superb November patrol (1942), during which we happened upon a military convoy, and sunk the HMS Rodney, a carrier, large tanker, and a troop ship. Continuing to our patrol point, we completed our mission. Our Type VIIC sent many other vessels to the bottom whist on our way home to St. Nazaire. In port we received a heroes welcome, medals, and a full month and a half of Christmas leave time as a reward.

During the holidays, I had a little too much to drink and publicly insulted an important party member who was present at the function. Taking my recent hero status into consideration, the matter was hushed, but it was decided that I be transferred back to the 2nd Flotilla, where I was assigned command of a newly commissioned Type IXC/40. My future patrols would send me as far away from Europe as possible, primarily towards South and North America.

18 March 1944
From : BdU
To : All U boats at sea

U - 126 has failed to report in. Large convoy in her sector (AM 73) Presumed lost.

Kapitan Lt. Otto Mannek and U-126 were lost at sea on 18 March 1944 during a convoy attack at grid AM 73
The convoy was made of a troop ship , a VIctory cargo , a modern tanker a coastal freighter and 6 escorts. It was travelling ESE with a speed of 5kts.
U -126 used her snorkel to get into a favourable attack position. The night , the rain and strong winds kept her safe. Things were good : Lower the snorkel , switch to electric engines , open tubes 1 - 4 and 4 eels were fired. One at the troop ship , one at the tanker and two at the victory cargo. Immediatelly Kaleun Otto Mannek ordered silent running and dive down to 160m.
The torpedoes did what they were supposed to to do: the cargo went down , but the other two missed.
U - 126 was at 110m when hell broke loose. A hedgehog salvo landed on the forward deck. Flooding was severe but under control for a while. But she was seriously wounded(85% damage to hull), U - 126 couldn't maintain her depth. She was going deeper and deeper: 150m - 160m - 200m and kept going.
Otto deciced to save his crew. He ordered to blow ballast but ...........
U -126 imploded at about 190m.
Otto Mannek was a holder of the Knights cross with golden oak leaves swords and diamonds. Two of his officers were holders of the Knights cross. His total score was 1,600,000 grt (approximently).
A great loss to BdU.

I can only imagine what rewards were due to the commander of that escort ship that sunk U -126 when they found out who they had sunk!
A cross of Victoria and a DSO may be.

A sad sad day. My virtual flag will be at half mast for the U-126 and her crew:salute: