I've just started a new career, and I decided I'd try out a IXB from 2nd Flot. Lorient.
What a patrol I've just had, normally I'd get perhaps four vessels, a good patrol maybe six at a push. I normally go for lone merchants and the odd convoy I stumble across but as I encountered this convoy one seemed a little different, sailing merrily in the middle was a HMS Revenge - with just one escorting vessel well ahead she was easy meat, with three single topedoes set for impact the first hitting astern to disable her and the next two amidships she soon went down. Revenge sank swiftly, although the nice weather enabled 750 of her crew of 1189 to be rescued. I dived deep, and ran silently waiting for the escort to appear but to no avail, tubes reloaded and I waited as the hydrophone contacts faded - I was just about to surface and follow when two new contacts were picked up, heading straight for us. Reinforcements from the south I thought, and my attack on Revenge had me wanting more, but after waiting for them to appear in my 'scope a liner and a merchant travelling together appeared. As they passed by I could see no armaments so I surfaced and followed with my finest three POs manning the deck-gun. Only to find out that the merchant was armed! Still, I presented a small target for the DEMS crew and soon she was ablaze and disabled patiently waiting for the inevitable. I chased the liner down and within 30 minutes she too was on her final voyage. Success after success followed, my patrol of grid AL33 just south of Iceland was unremarkable but my return - looping around Rockall Banks and skirting the continental shelf of Europe - I encountered myriad vessels and sunk 'em all :D. Me like the IXB. I wondered if this shot would actually make it!:hmmm: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4045/...6e9047c9_b.jpg It did :yeah: My log. http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/...2b5bb103_b.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/...cae25281_b.jpg |
Do you know what? I bloody love reading others reports! Its such fun seeing what scrapes you lot get into!:yeah:
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That shot probably blew up the boilers sending her to the bottom fast. Intentionally trying to hit the aft bioler section is a mighty challenge, usually you end up hitting it by accident. Good solid hit (doesn't even need to be magnetic) can be as effective or more so than exploding a magazine.
Current patrol left the supply ship heading back to Kiel (again, last time ran straight into a convoy 12 hours later and sank 50,000 tons, and 2 solid hits on an iceberg but she was tough, she wouldn't go down even with a magnetic hit at 30 meters deep) and once again ran into a convoy this time about a day and half out. Weather was awful so was one of those situations where one of my watch crew spotted the lead escort about 4000 meters away and was able to dive before it saw me. Maneuvered so I would go straight through the convoy submerged (luckily it was daytime, with the rotten weather - heavy storm, rain, and 20 foot waves) I was able to see through my scope to a range of about 2000 meters and spotted the jackpot. Sat in wait till she got closer made a 90 turn to port and went at her flank using my only 2 electrics: http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/4...neyinscope.jpg Being point blank I aimed one eel at the B turret and the second at the boiler room (being so close would be nearly impossible to evade it). First shot impacted into the armor (despite a liberal setting of 12.5 meters deep), second was a direct magnetic hit to the engine room. http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/945/rodneyhit1.jpg http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/5641/rodneyhit2.jpg And here she finally goes down (after a good 10 minutes of taking some severe pounding from the waves): http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/2...hitsinking.jpg Escorts were trying to get all over me with so much deep water and the noise of a very large sinking ship was easily able to evade but lost contact with the convoy, temporarily. Proceeded to one of my favorite hunting areas in the squares around AM65 and got notice of a task force leaving Liverpool. Was heading NE so was in the right spot to intercept. Somehow (weather was still rotten, very heavy rain and no visibility) and I passed the task force somehow just to come back in contact with this same convoy I harrassed several thousand Km's back. All the tankers were too far ahead that the escorts managed to keep me away being forced to stay submerged. Figured with the weather being so bad I could try and slip by them on the surface and maybe get 1 more shot. For better or worse convoy made it to its destination but the enterance to Liverpool was completely devoid of any patrol boats. Went into the harbor on the surface then submerged once in the river. Apparently all the escorts had followed the convoy and were going back out. Having made it past the hard part went to the harbor to see if anything was there, luck had it a task force was forming up and got just plain lucky: http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3108/hoodblownup.jpg Was some weird fluke that there happened to be two of them moored in the harbor. Have 5 eels left and going to head to Dunkirk to "help" with the evacuation that has been going on and hopefully catch another big fish before the long trip through the Kanal back to Kiel. http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9174/logtt.jpg |
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Good job, it's happened to me also, :yep:
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But yeah, I was expecting some glorious history report, but nope, only sank one boat before getting torched herself. |
RIP U-53
Oberleutnant z. S. Wolfgang Kästner and crew were lost on October 6th, 1939. Kastner may be the first U-boat captain lost during this war. It was his first career, and his 4th partrol. Scholars have often thought that his promotion to U-Boat Captain may have been a move of desperation by the Reich in the frantic days at the start of the war. Wolfgang had never successfully completed his Naval Academy training. Supporting this theory, the H.M.S. Pretty Damn Devistating recently found an audio tape floating in the North Atlantic near Scapa Flow. The voices are believed to be Wolfgang Kastner and his officers during the last moments of their lives. What follows is a transcript.
Sonar: "Contact, Sir! Warship bearing three-five-one, closing, medium range" Kastner: "Up periscope". [several moments of silence] Kastner: "Hmmm, looks like a V.W. Class, about 4700 meters out. Hey, the little triangle thingy is green! Fire!" Someone: "Los" Various-fading "Los, los, los, los, los, los" Kastner: "How long till it hits?" Someone: "5 minutes Kaelun" Kastner: "Five minutes!? I'm not waiting around that long, let's go East. Set course for 90, 20 meters. That ship is too small anyway, there was another one to the east, let's go see what it is." Someone: "Aye Kaelun". [time passes] Kastner: "Up periscope". [a few seconds] Kastner: "Hey, there's another one, and he's real close, about 1400m!" Someone: "Captain, you are looking aft Sir". Kastner: "Oh yeah, you're right, it says 180 at the top. Hey, that must be the guy we shot at! He should be way behind us by now, what's he doing over here?" Kastner: "Looks like man-overboard or something, they've got all these search lights going." Someone: "Sir! We're being pinged!" Kastner: "What!? Scheiss! Dive deeper, take it to 100m. Flank speed, right full rudder!" Someone: "20 meters, Sir." Kastner: "Navigator, how deep is the bottom around here?" Navigator: "Depth under keel, 20 meters, sir" Kastner: "Ack! Stop diving! Speed one knot, run silent, rudder 15 degrees to port!" [time passes, sounds of propellers and pinging] Kastner: "rudder 15 degrees starboard" [more silence, then more pinging] Someone: "depth charges in the water sir" Kastner: "is that bad?" [end of tape] |
we've all been there but luckily for us, we live and learn.
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True words!
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onboard a Scharnhorst-class Battleship (using WSM3.0)
" This is the Captain speaking. In 0200 hours, we will commence Operation Weserübung." |
Update on Erhard von Loser
U-103 has completed 3 more patrols with success but has taken some serious damage.
9. 19JAN1941 - 31JAN1941 13 days 25.576grt 10. 4MAR1941 - 24MAR1941 21days 64.726grt (2xLarge troop ship) 11. 23APR1941 - 12MAY1941 11days 56.968grt (1 CL) During a convoy attack (9th patrol) an escort got lucky and had a fix on U-103 while she was at 102m. The DC attack was so accurate that destroyed both scopes , the flak guns , seriously damaged the forward torpedo department and injured 5 men. Hull intergity dropped to 30% but the escort thought he had sunk U-103 and left. U-103 managed to reach port safely. Patrol 10: U-103 was off the east coast of Canada when she bumped into a large convoy. Weather was rotten but it was afternoon with good visibility. Two large troopships each 24.000 grt were in the middle of the convoy. Two well aimed shots of two torpedoes at each ship were fired. The first troop was hit midships and forward as intented and started listing heavily and sinking by the bow. The second one took evasive action but she was hit aft by both shots. An explosion and a fire ball appreared and the ship disappeared under the waves. By this time U-103 has completed a turn and fired both stern tubes at a small coastal freighter which was hit and sunk. http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2...troopships.jpg Patrol 11: Nothing noticable , exept the sinking of a Southmpton class CL which was escorting a convoy. Erhard von Loser was becoming a living legend. U-103 was the ruler of the Atlantic. Perhaps it was time to leave the sea for a place in operations where his experience would be valuable. But this would never happen. Von Loser was a warrior. More to come! |
NEWS FLASH
U-176 Defects to Heligoland Crazed Kaleun hauled away by men in black coats after dramatic surrender to fellow Kriegsmarine. Bemused onlookers offer beer, sandwiches to rattled crew. |
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Heligoland? Really? They don't even have nude beaches. :nope: |
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So, my old VIIB U-100 has been transferred to someone else. I bought myself U-106, a IXB.
And I love it. Took on a small convoy. 3 armed merchants, 1 destroyer. 1 torp, 100 10.5 FlaK rounds used. Yes, I used the deck gun more than the main weapon. I took out the destroyer (Hunt 1) with 2 hits! And I only used 4 shots on it total. Hit the depth charge rack and the escort suffered a critical existence error. Minor hull damage, some of it caused by the destroyer going boom. I'd say that's a success. I know it's not how you're supposed to use a U-boat, but the shells would be much cheaper than a torpedo in real life. Is anyone else as foolish as I am or is the deck gun that useful (at this point, at least.) It's early 1942 now. |
November 28, 1940
15:11 local time BF-52 Left Lorient at 05:06 this morning. At 14:31 lookouts spied a S-class submarine 102 kilometers South-West of Brest, heading towards Lorient. I wasn't about to let a threat like that near my base, so U-111 submerged and got into position. At 14:49 one G7e was launched at 1 meter depth. At 14:50 torpedo impacted right behind the S-class' forward torpedo tubes. The resulting explosion killed the sub pretty much instantly. Continuing voyage to BF-17. http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/1...0204312300.jpg http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8...0204641428.jpg http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5...0204651571.jpg |
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BTW, what am I supposed to do with this rifle thingy? I can't seem to chop firewood with it. And why are all the women here speaking Russian? :06: P.S. Please send warm clothing. :cry: |
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Well, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you... |
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