Just loving getting back into the game. Although I had to start over because of a screw up on my part.
Currently have one ship sunk, Empire class freighter off the coast of Spain and I'm trawling in one of my favorite hunting grounds, the southern approaches to Liverpool. Currently haven't spotted anything for a couple of days but diving drills deep down have gone well in my new Type VIIC so at least I know I have a safety net with the allied ASW being still weak in 1940. Going back to my old career, I remember stalking a convoy for 2 days across the Rockall bank. I slipped within 1km of the rear guard and actually made visual contact with one of the escorts. The fog hid us well though and he didn't realize we were there, taking very accurate readings of their course. Needless to say, they landed up with a light load of ships by the time they reached the English coast. |
Just finished patrol number 6 with 26,948 GRT sent to the bottom. Came home to an Iron Cross 1st Class for that patrol! Ended with 7 ships sunk including a destroyer, which is a nice bonus. My next patrol will be a bit closer to home this time in AL69. Maybe I can finally break 30,000 tons this time.
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Wilhem Harner was retired and assigned to a desk job as he was seriously wounded during an air attack on U-126 during her third patrol. (CTD during patrol and I quit the whole career).
New Kaleun now , commanding U-103 IXB just leaving Wilhemhaven for her third patrol. The date is 11 April 1940. I will report in as soon as something happens. |
November 20th 1940, Werner Sherner :D left kiel for a patrol that would take him around scotland and to the BE zone in the atlantic.
Sank a couple of ships north of scotland and finally reached patrol zone. Was given co-ordinates of convoy heading north east towards ireland. Tried to intercept convoy and managed to get infront of it ( Large convoy ). Then was given position of another convoy NNW of our position so we were sandwich between two convoys!!!. A while later (Time compression) i decided to raise the periscope only to see U99 1st flotilla lit up which i assumed was a flare. I thought, surely they have not seen me. I was submerged at periscope depth at the time so i thought I will surface. I got on the bridge and had a look and their was a destroyer metres away heading for me. The destroyer opened fire and severely damaged my boat. The boat shook and the CE would not respond to my orders to crash through the shock. Eventually we crash dived and I had my experience crew fix the leaks as we went down to about 120 metres. After the fixes we were heavily depth charged by at least two destroyers and the flak gun got damaged . I managed to escape and left both convoys without any tonnage sunk. This was all on 27th december just after we celebrated christmas 1940 together as a crew. Finally towards the end of the patrol while we were heading back to kiel, we were attacked by enemy aircraft in which I lost a very good man after he was killed on the flak gun. Back at kiel all crewman attended his funeral. Overall for the patrol around 29000 GRT was sunk (not manual yet) and we returned on January 14 1941 albeit one man less. |
14 Nov '39
Warrant Officer on deck spotted a medium cargo ship, identified as British. Fired 2 torps at long range (7km). Watch officer soon reclassified target as Norwegian. Opened up with deck gun, striking the target several times, causing the target to serpentine and avoid the torps. Disciplinary action taken against warrant officer. 17 Nov '39 Three merchants sunk so far, 10,000 tonnes total. All Deck gun kills. 19 Nov '39 Getting very bored east of the Orkney's. Going to bother Hartlepool for a while, see whats there. Will Report. 20 Nov '39 Took a look at Blyth. While lining up a shot on an ammo ship, was spotted by ASW trawler. Fired off two torps, sunk ammo ship. DD came to life that wasnt noticed before. We were able to fire off a desperation stern shot as it bore down on us. Hit the Dd in the Bow, disabling it for now. We were run over by the trawler as it DC'd us. We fired off a couple more shots at the harbor, hitting another freighter and a sub. Neither sunk. As we snuck away. lined up another shot at the DD, sinking it. Continued to sneak away. Encountered a small freighter on our return to patrol area, sunk that with deck gun shots. 21 Nov '39 150km ESE of Shetland, encountered 4 piece DD Hunter Killer TF. 2 Torps left, 1 bow, 1 aft. This could be bad. No further Reports. |
Actually, I got away by going really deep and quiet. Figured the 'no further reports' sounded dramatic! :woot:
But I found an ore freighter a little later, but my first eel donked out on the side of it, and the second eletric eel didnt down him. With only 12 rounds left in my 88, he still didnt go down. But The flak gunner got a medal for killing the freighter. http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/2...0201759748.png http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/4...0201945123.png |
Had a decent patrol that ranged from the Gulf of Mexico, to New York, St. John's, and finally Ireland. We sunk over 100k tons, including a few carriers, and could have gone higher, but for one idiot at the dive planes.
After my last convoy, we were sitting on the sea floor, as we had only 147 meters to hide in, three destroyers had left, and the final one was pinging, and getting close to his mark. Finally, I gave the order to go to periscope depth, in order to use our final stern torpedo to end things. Unfortunately, the man at the dive planes decided to surface us instead! I frantically ordered a crash dive, and returned to periscope depth when I could and finished off the destroyer. We were able to effect temporary repairs, but the hull was savaged mightily, and we returned home to Lorient. P.S. - As this is my first full campaign, and I wish to use both the Type XXI and the Schnelltauchback deck modification for the Type IXC/40, I will be bending the rules ever so slightly in this regard. Rather than waiting for the later part of 1944 to use the "fast diving deck" on my sub, I shall simply pretend that I began testing the deck modification sometime in the earlier part of the year. This will allow me to try out Kurfürst and Privateer's Schnelltauchback mod, and still make use of the Type XXI when it arrives. Of course, the chart in the GWX manual may be incorrect about the XXI availability time (shown as halfway through 1944), and while it has been wrong on a couple of items, for now I will simply assume that it is correct. |
23OCT43: Kptlt Dieter Haguenau left Lorient for his last patrol as commander of the U-125, a type IX-C.
After 9 patrols and 321 days at sea (in which he sank 47 ships for 275.000 tons), he will join ubootwaffe headquarters where his knowledge of submarine warfare will be helpful. 26OCT43: U-125 dove as a radar emission has been detected. 2 hours later, before surfacing, as always, crew made an hydrophon check to avoid nasty surprise and detected a faint noise... Merchants! Interception course and 1 hour later... http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/[IMG...ips768x576.jpghttp://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ips768x576.jpg They both took a torpedo in the bow and sank within minutes: 1 coastal freighter and 1 intermediate tanker for up to 5.000 tons This last patrol starts finely and a zigzaging convoy is in the vicinity (SW of Ireland) |
Kapitanleutant Erhard von Loser has just completed his 5th patrol on U-103 IXB. (Note : Any comment or even laughter on the Kaluen's name will be met with the firing squad!)
He is succesful so far. 1. 05DEC1939 - 03JAN1940 30days 84.633grt (1 CL) 2. 14JAN1940 - 14FEB1940 32days 80.439grt (1 CL) 3. 25FEB1940 - 21MAR1940 20days 78.999grt 4. 13APR1940 - 03MAY1940 21days 51.237grt (1 CL) 5. 14MAY1940 - 04JUN1940 12days 70.480grt During his last patrol he succesfully engaged two convoys and some lone merchants. He was a bit unlucky though. During the engagement with the second convoy and when all torpedoes were fired his sonar man heard very heavy propellers turning. A Revenge class BB was with the convoy. The battle took place at night with medium fog and rain. He let the BB go. As he was returning to port his IWO saw a Southampton class cruiser at long range. The U-boat immediately dived at periscope depth to listen. Out there were the light cruiser and two aux cruisers on their way to Scapa and they would pass just in front of U-103 empty now torpedo tubes. |
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http://charitymile.com/blog/wp-conte...9/08/loser.jpg In conclusion, I am eight years old. :O: |
July-Aug40 rotten weather but did bag a couple of medium cargo's.
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Frau Kaleun: Nice! |
First Patrol after a long Hiatus off SH3/GWX :wah:
Went well,U32 Ltz Werner Lott, And there wasn't alot either :haha: 5 ships of smaller size.only 16xxx tons,nice shakedown patrol,looking forward to the next one:salute::salute::salute: |
So I'm putzing around the Shetlands, trying to pick up some merchants, when radio reports an enemy task force around the Faroe's, heading towards the Shetlands, so I slide over that way seeing if i can pick up a cruiser or something. I'm yo-yoing between surface and peri depth listening, it's a dark and stormy night (:D), when I pick up the first DD. I try to avoid him while attempting to figure out whats in the middle.
Well, I found my cruiser................ CAPTAIN'S LOG Date and TimeLocation Occurrences 24.2.40. 1416 Patrol 9 U-102, 2nd Flotilla Left at: February 24, 1940, 14:16 From: Wilhelmshaven Mission Orders: Patrol grid AM54 27.2.40. 1917 Grid AF 78 Ship sunk! SS Quebec City (Granville-type Freighter), 4707 tons. Cargo: Tobacco. Crew: 98. Crew lost: 0 3.3.40. 1331 Grid AF 75 Ship sunk! SS Adherence (Coastal Freighter), 1870 tons. Cargo: Steel. Crew: 20. Crew lost: 16 4.3.40. 0838 Grid AF 75 Ship sunk! HMS Hood (HMS Hood), 48360 tons. Crew: 1412. Crew lost: 720 9.3.40. 0753 Patrol results Crew losses: 0 Ships sunk: 3 Aircraft destroyed: 0 Patrol tonnage: 54937 tons I had him lined up, and I was fine tuning the eels, when I lost him in the storm. By the time i reacquired him in the scope, he was almost out of the shot, and it was ugly. It was a 2' spread on 4 electric eels, at about 40' gyro. All 4 hit the back third of the ship, and he eventually went down. If I didnt have to dive and run silent, and if my guys coulda reloaded fast enough, I had the Revenge also lined up dead to rights........ And the rest of the patrol there was nada, I coulda stayed around for more, but the weather was horrible and I wanted to get back to base before the Norwegian party started. And yes my next career will be more historically accurate. I'm still learning this sim. :88) |
Erhard von Loser has completed his 6th and 7th patrol
6. 27JUN1940 - 13JUL1940 17 days 106.557grt (1 BB HMS Rodney) 7. 19AUG1940 - 01SEP1940 14 days 20.949grt During his 6th patrol a radio message came in informing him of an inbound convoy. A Fw-200 Condor had made an aerial recce finding out that the HMS Rodey was escoting the sheep. Weather was good so the wolf went for the kill. The convoy was made of 5 columns of ships each column had six ships and 4 escorts. The BB was the middle ship of the 3rd column. U-103 dived and run silent letting the leading dd pass. Hydrophone search showed that the DD was well behind the uboat so the periscope was raised. And there he was! Three torps fired against him and one at a whale factory ship in front of the BB. All 4 eels hit and targets destroyed. The HMS Rodney sunk some 20 minutes (real time) after the hits but the whale factory ship expolded and sunk instantly. His 7th patrol was a disaster. Patrol grid was BF11 but when passing AM53 von Loser decided to stay there as the weather was good. This time a lot of DDs were around. He had constanlty to dive to avoid them. The only valuable targets sunk were an intermediate tanker and an unescorted troop transport. Just when he decided to leave the area, a misteke a helsman made was almost fatal. A Hunt II DD was near and the helmsman instead of diving the boat deeper , as ordered, drove her towards the surface. As the conning tower broke the surface the DD began shelling. U-103 crashed dived with destroyed forward deck , deck gun , forward batteries and flooding. Chief engineer and the repair crew made a super human efford to stop the flooding and leved the bost before she hit the bottom. The DD called in his mates and a V&W came. Luckily , after three passes they gave up and left. The damage was big , 27% hull intergrity left. The patrol was aborted. Upon return to Wilhlemhaven , the helmsman was arrested and courtmartialed. He was charged with treason and sentenced to death. Next mission is to leave Wilhemshaven and go to Lorient naval base in France. Will be in touch |
03NOV43: Allied escorts of convoy HX 237 forced a german uboot to surface after heavy damages by both depth charges and hedgehogs.
The U-125 surrendered at sea and its crew is now P.O.W in a nice camp War is over for Kptlt Dieter Haguenau: 10 patrols ( march 42-november 43) 53 ships sunk for 301379 tons 4 damaged ships. U-125 was damaged 11 times in 13 patrols U-125 was the former uboot of Kptlt Tietz who sank 150.428 tons in 3 patrols ( july 41-february 42) So this uboot a type IX-C sank 451.807 tons of allied shipping. The true story of U-125 was sadder... http://www.uboat.net/boats/u125.htm |
After a 2,5 months repair period von Loser left Wilhhemshaven on board
U-103 for his 8th patrol. Reurn port was Lorient. 8. 15NOV1940 - 24DEC1940 40 days 49.286grt (1 aux cruiser) Von Loser has now a total of 542.650grt. Upon return he was flown to Berlin where on Chistmas day he was awarded the Diamonds on his golden Oak leaves of the Knights Cross by Adolf Hitler himself , in presence of Grossadmiral Karl Donitz. The ceremony was filmed by the Propaganda ministry to be shown all over the Wehrmacht , Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe. He was the first U-boat commander to reach this level. The crew of U-103 had a whole month leave to celebrate Christmas with their families. |
Sept-Dec41
Sail down to warmer waters hunting around Free town lots of small fry which did not interest me but every few days a medium one or two made it worth the wait. |
Not worth a new thread, but I looked up my boat (U-102) on wikipedia, as that has been my "lucky number" over the years..... and I'm a little depressed, surprised I've made it to 10 patrols so far!
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