SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Tell us what you are upto in your current campaign

SUBSIM Radio Room Forums (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/index.php)

- Silent Hunter III (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=182)

- - Tell us what you are upto in your current campaign (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=151090)

Found a large convoy in area BC sailing my IXB in 1942.
Manage to hit and down 3 of the biggest merchant ships using 5 torpedoes!
(Thats a great % of torpedoes working!)

I went down, and soon after i was pinged by 4 destroyers. Sat a course away from the convoy, zigzaging depth and course, silent running (never heard and felt so many depthbombs). At a time i was down at 150m!!

I manage to sneak away, with my tower, aa and deck guns destroyed.

I got promoted with yet another mass produced cross...my jacket is getting heavy:D

January 18th, 1940 (campaign #2)

U-123 IXB

Patrolling in AM 65. I have been hunting unsuspecting merchants, and had already sunk a large tanker, small tanker, ore carrier, 2 coastal merchants, and a granville type freighter. I still had 10 of my torpedo's left (most of my victims being finished off by the deck gun) when near the mouth of the River Clyde I run across the HMS Hood sitting stationary. Finding it odd that she is here, I fire all four bow tubes at a range of around 2000M. I set 2 to impact, 2 to pass under the keel with magnetic detonators. One of the magnetic pistols explodes half way through its run, yet the Hood doesn't respond. The two impacts hit amid ships, and the last passes under the keel and explodes. I turn the IX around and fire both stern tubes at 5m depth with impact pistols. One aimed for the forward powder magazine, the other for the rear magazine. Both hit, and HMS Hood turns turtle and sinks! On my way home with 2 torpedo's in the stern and 2 in the bow torpedo rooms.

I say it is odd that the Hood was near Greenock, because according to the HMS Hood's war diary, Hood was supposed to be patrolling the Shetland–Faeroes gap from the 15th-24th of January in 1940.

(From message to BdU)
Kptlt. Viktor Kress.

23:49 Status Report
09/01/42(Jan) 23:49
U-129 (IXC). Position Grid EN 32
Torpedoes left: 13
Tankers Sunk: 4
Total Tonnage: 30,300

Not a bad start for a new career. :arrgh!:

I want to start by saying hello to you all since I'm new to both subsims and to the forum as well. I've always had a fascination for submarines, but in the last month it has really escalated. As I bought a PC for just some weeks ago it opened up the now several years old, but amazing, world of Silent Hunter III.

Naturally it took me a few (disastrous) patrols to get up to speed with all the controls and all the gameplay, but with the aid of assisted torpedo targeting and a realism level of 65%, I'm slowly getting the hang of it, and am now on a quite succesful (compared to my other patrols) patrol on grid CG, North West of Gibraltar.

I started out by patrolling grid DH47 with my IXC based in Lorient, as that was my objective, but did not have any success during my mandatory 24 hours of patrol. However, as I was heading East towards Gibraltar I stumbled upon a merchant, which kind I cannot recall. After sinking her with two torpedoes I felt the crews and my own morale rise, and I decided to head even closer to Gibraltar.

I sneaked around about 80 kilometres west of Gibraltar and, surrounded by destroyers, managed to sink another cargo ship. While heading west submerged to escape the heat, I encountered several other lone cargo ships, last one being a C2 Cargo, my biggest sinking so far.

I am now heading West by South-West, with seven torpedoes and 70% fuel left, which should allow me to sink a few more before I head back to port. Wish me luck! :salute:

Happy hunting Woxor :ping:

Try going to AM52 AM53 and AM02 Woxor, lots of lone shipping there especially between 40-43 :arrgh!:

Near Canadian coast.Intercepted a convoy full of fat targets,about 5 10000+ ships including a battleship.Planned to kill escorts and use all remaining torpedoes on the ships .Sunk an Flower Class,then detected and depth charged for 8-10 hrs in-game time.Periscopes, front compartment damaged and floded. Gun,radio, hydrophones destroyed. Returning for repairs to Lorient. Nobody died and the kaulen learned an important lesson.:/\\!!

U-105 type IXC

Almost to my patrol grid CB13. Shot down 7 Sunderland Bombers as soon as I left Brest, France. Then shot down a mkII before I decided to dive to get away from the rest of his unit. sank 2 merchants along the way. ran into a convoy which Appeared to be coming out of Halifax. Engaged and sank a T3 before breaking contact with them. Hopefully I will engage another convoy before heading home.

Happy Hunting!!!

U-123 type IXB, February 1940 orders for grid square EJ66

North of scotland we ran into a task force with HMS Rodney, HMS Hood, and HMS Renown. I was not in the best position to engage, and was only able to close to 5000m. The closest warship to me was Renown, so I aimed for her stern, hoping to cripple her ability to run at speed. 2 torpedoes hit, and Renown comes to a grinding halt. Escorts go crazy, but they never find me. I fire 2 more into Renown under the powder magazines and she turns turtle and sinks. As I headed south near Ireland, I attacked 3 trawlers with the deck gun, and an ore carrier and large merchant. I continued heading south when between France and Ireland I ran into a huge convoy (20+ ships) in daylight and being ahead of the convoy, I submerged and let the convoy close. I raise the periscope and I spot the HMS Nelson in the center of the convoy! I do some quick plotting and find that HMS Nelson will pass 500m in front of my bow! I wait for her to close and fire 4 torpedoes into her. Nelson comes to a halt and starts to sink. I fire my stern torpedoes into a large merchant, who turns turtle and sinks. I am able to slip away since the only escort was busy looking for me elsewhere. We are currently docked and resupplying at the Thalia.

First post, first patrol, first blood, first convoy

Hi all, this is my first time with SH, first post in this forum.

Lt zS Helmut, at your service. :salute:

First patrol uneventful. Start at W'haven, assigned grid BE16.
Took the channel route to get there -3 days Aug.1-Aug 3 1939 (72 h)
and 5 1/2 days to return via North route. mostly 30kn winds, sea rough.

Watch crew on tower completely submerged at times, but unfazed, continued looking through their binoculars :huh:

Between Patrols: upgrade hydrophones to KDG

Patrol 2: start at W'haven, assigned grid BF16, this time we go the long way (N of Scotland, Ireland). My log (BTW, is there a convenient way to keep a log in-game?) of the first days:

Code:

W'hafen 1939

    

08 31

    1600    leave port

    1700    part. cloudy, wind 8kn N

              exercise: man deck gun, load HE, return to watch

    1831    radio msg.: war starts, "no attacks!" "waiting positions" - continue plotted course



09 01    

    0400    overcast, wind 15kn SSW

    2000    radio msg. "Poland hostile", rest:neutral



09 02    

    0730    position: 150nm E of Lerwin

    1700    position: 80+ nm NE of Shetland (+ 75|76 78|79 ) HDG 270



09 03    

    0000    position: 80nm N of NW end Shetland Is. (+ AF 74|75 77|78 )

              overcast, wind 15kn SSW

    0211    radio msg: "at war with GB, attack merchants", continue course (peri / surface)

    0600    position: 190 nm N of Scapa Flow

    1000    position: (+ AE96|AF74 AE99|AF77 ) HDG 247

    1400    radio msg: attack troops, escorted, hostile action targets

    1551    radio msg: attack British ships

    1553    radio msg: do not attack French, only defense

    1948    radio msg: SSS 56°44'N 14°05' W "Athenia" - too far

    2101    radio msg: Brit., FR, AU, NZ, IN at war

    2113    radio msg: SSS Polish sub (AO94)

    2200    position: 30nm S of Färöer (+ AE98 AM31|AM32 ) HDG 225



0904    

    0800    overcast, wind 15kn SSW

    1202    radio msg: "do not attack passenger ships (even in convoy)"

    1809    radio msg: enemy AE83 HDG WNW 18kn (dist. 320 nm)



09 05    

    0000    position: 15nm NE of intersect (+ AM29  AM43|AM51 ) HDG 190 13kn

    0600    position: (+ AM43|AM51 AM46|AM54 ) HDG S, peri depth, 6 kn (ETA BF16: Sept 8 0800 - 72 h)

    0830    SSS 45°29'N 9°45'W "Bosnia" (Biscaya)

              Battery 50% (in 2,5h 50% ???) - surface

    0855    Battery 100%

    0905    radio msg: Convoy AM49, course NE, spd 5kn (dist: 100+ nm)

    1005    set course 230 to intercept convoy in 6-7 hrs at 10kn

    1212    Merchant ship - dist 4km BRG 005, new course 210 to get side view and torpedo angle

    1219    Identify British flag, Passenger/Cargo 2-3km BRG 030

    1222    2 torp T1, 1 hit 1 miss. Surface. Deck gun

    1225 *    she's going down. 2k+ GRT. continue towards intercept approx. 40nm at 10kn, ETA 1630

    1302    radio msg: SSS "Pluvoise" (off Gibraltar)

    1401    radio msg: SSS "Royal Sceptre" (Biscaya)

    1523    radio msg: "Large Convoy" AM49, course NE, 5kn (dist approx 10nm) - peri depth, slow

    1540    Contact: "Warship Medium Speed Closing! Bearing 342! Long range!"

    1549    more contacts (merchants), Silent Running HDG 130 

    1600    7 contacts (1 warship, 6 commercial)

    1630    more than 15 ships in convoy. Dist 12km.

OMG, it's a huge convoy ... should I try to take out the warship (destroyer maybe, or frigate?) first? It worked in the Naval Academy exercise.
But who knows how many more destroyers there are?

Hm, in real life it was past midnight, so I postpone the decision.
What a long day ...
SAVE and EXIT

over and out,
Helmut

----
edit Nov.15: changed rank to Lt zS as I'm only starting my career.

First Convoy - ping ping

And so I died ...

I decided against attacking. Figured there'd be at least 2-3 destroyers in the pack. Too much of a risk for my first war patrol.

But ... I thought maybe sneak away and take a look at what's sailing in the convoy. Set a course SE - perpendicular to the convoy's NE course. Periscope depth to be able to listen and 5 kn speed. Stealth meter: green.

In the chaotic bundle of hydrophone lines on my map I must have missed the one that went after me: a Black Swan frigate was way ahead of the pack and started to chase me. I survived two runs of depth charges, but the third one hit me at 50-60m depth and engines off. Ping - ping - ping, you're dead. "Career abandoned"

----------

Good thing I still had that save from last night. Reloaded and made a quick run: surfaced, flank speed, course 110. After 15 nm there was no sound contact. Back on course due S. Phew.

Do not pull the tiger's tail ... (at least not if you're still a kitten)

Welcome to the forum and good luck on the next hunt :arrgh!: In 1939 you might well find a convoy with only one escort. If you do, attack it and practice avoiding just one escort. That's easier. But be sure to have lots of water between you and the escorts. In shallow water you might not have time to escape the depth charge runs.

At 5Kts, an elite escort certaiinly might hear you and investigate. A dull one might pass 1000 m in front and never twitch. You never know.

Remember, your great advantage is that you move in three dimensions, while your opponents cannot. The ability to go deep is your best friend in this game, which it is why it is madness to run the Channel in wartime: you can do it, but if you are caught, you are sailing around in a shallow bathtub.

Thanks, desireableroasted and sublynx, for your advice! Seems I need to pay more attention to good vs. poor position and be content to sink one ship out of a whole convoy - and get away with it :D
For the moment I'll have to learn how to observe without getting killed in the process. I'll do just that.

some time ago there was a hint here on the forum that I took to heart and still use today. When you are in your conning tower interior, there is a dial that shows your engine RPM's. If you are running silent and keep your RPM's below 100 (or less that 2 knots) when near an escort, you should be okay. I will get in front of the convoy, dive and go silent. When I am ready to unleash my attack I try to be in the middle of the convoy. I will come out of silent running and fire everything I have and reload if possible. When the escorts come, I crash dive and then go silent once more. The key is to keep your RPM's low. If you want to practice, the single missions are a great place to explore new tactics. :up:

I also like to cripple 2 or 3 ships by attacking their propellers. The will come to a grinding halt, and after the escorts are finished trying to kill me and they leave, I have some nice fat merchants sitting still for me to finish off.

Thank you, dark knight, for sharing your tactic and for the hint with the RPM dial . I took a quick look around last night but did not see it (or mybe just did not recognize it). Shall look harder next time ...

As for combat tactics, I definitely have to learn a lot here. During the "Naval Academy" convoy exercise I died often - until I changed the strategy and took out the destroyer first, then the ASW trawler. Seems I took a shortcut and never learnt the right way to hit Merchants and then escape the destroyers.

Did some searching last night and found a few hints/articles on the net that seem to be useful: "The Submerged Attack", "ASW technology and proper submarine tactics", "The Art of Escape" and "Defensive Maneuvering". Have to study these before moving on to training mode.

I was thinking about running the exercise again, but if there are any single missions that are particularly useful in training these combat/evasive tactics, I'll go and play these before returning to career mode.

Cheers
Helmut

Your best bet is to simply avoid convoys if at all possible, go for lone merchants or pairs traveling w/o escort, only go for the groups when you cant find the more helpless prey, you'll live longer :arrgh!:

Quote:

Originally Posted by sublynx (Post 2138350)

In shallow water you might not have time to escape the depth charge runs.

What I usually do if I get caught in shallow water is rig for silent running and hope I don't get blown out of the water by the depth charges. Then I get my sonar officer to follow the contact and when he is circling around after his attack run, I raise the scope and try to fire a torpedo into him. I did that earlier today when i was being hunted by four destroyers outside their harbor. I sunk two and managed to get the others to run aground.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacobston (Post 2139705)

Sounds like me infiltrating pearl lol :arrgh!:

Remember that a lot of shallow water is also heavily mined (at least in the supermods).

People play in different ways, but in my little SH3 world, being DCd means I have made a tactical mistake, but it comes with the territory. But being DCd in shallow water means I have been stupid for going there in the first place.