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In preparation for my next patrol, I did the Naval Academy flak training. Again - or so I thought. This time it was completely different. When I first played that training during my first days with SH3 (stock), it was just that: an exercise to learn the icons/commands, use the flak myself(find F11, find Tab key, push space bar, miss, miss, ... reload, ) Nothing special. This time (GWX and SHC), it was pure hell. Died after 5 minutes. Not just me ... ALL of us died, and fast. How can they do that during training? Slaughter their cadets, and not just them, kill shiploads of seamen, sink an expensive UBoot - just for the "exercise"? Hm ... But ... I did learn. Another training in hell: Full speed, rudder max port, target bombers first, double click on damage control in F7 screen, replace dead flak gunner, rinse repeat. Downed 7 of these murderous planes, then my gunner kept shooting at a damaged plane that went in circles until he ran out of ammo. So, all in all, a valuable lesson: three flak gunners lost, 7 planes down. Which means, I just COULD stand against a single incoming aircraft without too many losses, but then: is it WORTH it? What exactly is the benefit of staying surfaced, exposed, vulnerable - only for the CHANCE of shooting one stupid plane that will have radioed my position anyway ? Considering I get nice renown for spending 2-3 torpedoes on an 8-10k t merchant, why bother with the enemy planes at all? Kicks, ok I understand that. But in a war and with 50 men aboard, I strongly doubt that commanders would be expected to take that risk without very good reason. I guess my default tactics would be to dive and do a turn unless he's already throwing his bombs at me. |
The problem is that quite often you would not have the time to dive to a safe depth.The weather or others circumstances could enable the plane to get close to the u-boat.Then diving could result in the u-boat being still only partially submerged or at any rate leaving a still visible trace it could not put enough distance from by the time the plane was able to drop its charges.
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Oh, definitely, I'll put up a fight if it can't be avoided.
But my first analysis really was about cost/benefit in PICKING a fight with - say - a lone airplane. I looked into lots of .cfg files to find out what the renown values are for those ships I might encounter in fall of 1939. While I'm at it, I also put together "museum" shots and "Erkennungshandbuch" pages, because I cannot yet recognize the ships at all ... if any newbies like me are interested, the document is here (2,5 MB - Merchant ships only): http://helmut.saueregger.at/gamereso...chants1939.pdf If I read the files correctly, a Sunderland airplane gives 70 renown which puts it into the same category as Small Merchant, Small Freighter, Tramp Steamer. Hm, I think I would not waste a torpedo on a Small Freighter for 70 renown... would I kill a Flak-qualified Petty Officer for possible 70 renown ? Definitely not. "Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up." So, back to the question: how late is too late to dive? And: how much time can I spend looking around - find the plane, guess the distance, think ... - If my guys spot the plane 9 km away, that's 5nm. A plane approaching at 100kn needs 3 minutes to reach us, from 4.5km away only 1.5 minutes. To dive to 20-25 m, how long? one minute? Two? The window for the decision to dive or stand seems to be very narrow ... Like "Q" said in one of the Bond movies: "always have an escape plan" :D My plan is yet in very bad shape! |
What I do, if it is early war and something pitiful like a swordfish I will shoot it down. My flak gunners are good, and will always kill a swordfish on its attack run. If it is a bigger plane, I will try to discourage it, fire upon it, maneuver at flank, and after he passes over me, then I crash dive to 60m. That way once he is turned around, I am long gone. Later in the war, if I have the long tower installed, and it is a lone plane, I might fight it out, but most of the time I will crash dive on first sighting. Remember, planes carried depth charges that had a maximum of 50m fuses on them (I think it was more common for them to have 25M fuses). Anything deeper than 50m, you should be okay.
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I have recently done some experiments with a type VIIB and the chronometer.
Dive to periscope depth takes about 2 and a half minutes while not moving, but a crash dive will take about 30 seconds to make 25 meters, and little while longer for the wake to disappear. |
Thanks dark knight and jacobston for your replies - very useful indeed!
Seems like since it is only 1939 in my naval career, I might try the "shoot the incoming plane then dive" strategy. I do have a qualified flak gunner, and in any case those AI flak gunners are way better than I am myself (as opposed to deck gun which I usually fire myself unless I'm maneuvering). Glad you did those timing experiments alredy, jacobston - that would have been next on my list. I had the feeling that diving took more like half a minute and not 1-2 minutes when going at 1/3 ahead and then doing a "crash dive". So now that I have a plan A and a plan B I feel much more comfortable with staying on the surface when the "plane spotted" message arrives ... |
All depends on the mod you use as well, I've found that in vanilla SHIII the planes arent near as effective as in rl, making it easier to duke it out
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Realism to the higher order .
Date 16/Sep/1940
Location Grid AM94 Intercepted Convoy , 0500 hrs Avoid lead destroyer , have Ammunition ship in sights along with two T16B tankers lined up and solutions for attack ready . Fire first torpedo target Ammunition Ship , line up for second and third targets , fire second torpedo , fire third torpedo , Hit with the first torpedo , hit for the second torpedo miss with the third , up periscope for confirmation , scanning aft what do I see but a destroyer heading straight for me , no time for solution , alarm !!!!! Down we go , run silent run deep , so I thought , the circus begins . Long story short , did all kinds of maneuvers to shake the destroyers off , 2 Flower Class 1 V&W Class 2 Motor Torpedo Boats , played dead on the ocean floor , nope that was not wise of me , from the start of the attack run on the convoy until 1500 HRS they would not give up , depth charge and pinging was the order of the day , U-Boat took some big hits but it was salvageable until they got a fix on me resulting in U-Boat destroyed by pressure , all hands lost SUMMARY Oberleutnant z.s. Peter Gipp and U-48 were lost sometime on 16SEP40 . 13 patrols 175 days 43 merchant sunk 7 warships total 239041 tons . Many , Many Thanks for everyone who contribute to this site and creators of the many mods that renders this simulation as close as possible to realism . :Kaleun_Salute: |
Decided to try manual targeting again, this time with a white board to take notes. Spotted a pasenger-cargo and fired a two-shot salvo from the bow tubes.
http://i.imgur.com/RKQyr5p.jpg (I missed by half a boatlength. So I popped up and shelled it until it was somewhat flooded.) |
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May 1940, U-123 type IXB
After spotting an Empire freighter NW of Scapa Flow and sinking it, we decided to hunt off the northern waters off of Scotland. We found a group of 3 ships, 1 destroyer and 2 auxiliary cruisers. I set all 4 eels to magnetic and adjust the depth to pass under my victims. I fire one at the destroyer, 2 at the first cruiser and one at the last. 3 of the 4 hit, one on each ship right under the ammo stores. 3 huge explosions, and my victims quickly sink! It was then I decided to go scope out the waters surrounding Iceland, and in the process, I stumble onto an enemy convoy. The water is shallow, only 35m, but I decide to take the risk since this is a huge group of ships. I fire upon and sink a ceramic ocean liner, large tanker, and 2 C3 cargo's. I did have reload time after polishing off the liner and then bag the tanker and cargo's, since the escorts were not really looking for me yet. After 6 hours of holding my breath during intense depth charging in shallow water, we are headed home. Luckily the escorts set the charges way too shallow as I crept along the sea floor at 32m. |
Finished my third patrol today. 23 days at sea, none of my crew injured (except Gustav, who fell off a bunk while playing cards).
Learned a lot. My first huge convoy. I lay there waiting already. Too late to run away when sonar guy went: Warship spotted, warship spotted, ... ugh. Depth 25m, engines off, silent running. Took 3 hours for the convoy to pass over me and be gone. I used the free cam and saw: Black Swan, Southampton, Black Swan, Submarine. Lesson: do sound checks from 15-20 km away. Wasted 2 and spent another two (yes, that's four !) torpedoes to sink a humble Small Tanker. Reviewed my strategy and adopted a totally different approach: go in front unseen and wait. Aim. Then kill. Worked great. I put my other torpedoes to good use, so consider those wasted torpedoes well spent on my learning curve. After 14 days, a small freighter and that small tanker was all I had in my bag. Then: "Enemy Convoy". Did she say: "large"? No. Let's take a look. Sound check reveals merchants and a warship. Hm. Only one? Let's go. I took the destroyer out first. At 25m depth so the cargoes would not hit me. Silent running. No periscope, only hydrophone bearings. 2 Torpedoes. 600m. AoB 90°. He never saw it coming. Destroyer went down 3 minutes after being hit. After that, no more warships. But a small freighter destroyed my flak and attack periscope when he rammed me. Used all torpedoes except one aft torp, and all my deck gun ammo. Came back with: Ships sunk: 12 Aircraft destroyed: 0 Patrol tonnage: 47573 tons full log here(as .pdf) Now what? give out medals and qualification. To whom? I have 5 officers Gun/Torp Watch Repair Machinist Helmsman and petty officers with Machinist, Torpedo (3 each), plus Radio, Watch, Flak (one each). I have no idea what to "buy" with my renown. Keep it for the promotion? Get a new sub (why?), better equipment (what?). Guess I'll just go to the Kit-Kat Club and spend the night with a Fräulein :yeah: They like my ... uniform. OLt zS Helmut |
So I spent a day in port.
No sub upgrades, one crew change: dismissed the Helmsman and took on another Watchman officer. Had a party with my crew and handed out medals, badges and promotions. Qualified a gunner PO Main upgrades were in the ship's "assist" systems: better view, better navigation and aiming tools. Spent the whole morning trying to figure out how one would determine course and speed from four (sound) bearings alone, could not do it... then in the evening: found Kuikueg's "four bearings" method (exactly what I was looking for) - AND the MaGui mod with the attack disc, too. So now this is how I'm going to sail on my next patrol: GWX 3 Gold GWX - 16 km Atmosphere <=== newly enabled GWX - Enhanced Damage Effects GWX - No medals while sailing TMT v2 <=== new MaGui Final <=== new German images for MaGui F <=== new Type II, VII, IX, or XXI salvo selector <= new sub VIIb, time ?Oct?/Nov 1939 realism: I'll keep the map updates and the external camera on, also WO assist(ID only), that's 80+% - good enough. See ya in two weeks game time (dead or alive) ... Still not quite sure what patrol grid to choose. South of Ireland again, probably. Rich hunting grounds so far. |
Journal
LEUTNANT Z. S. Johann Strauss U-83 (Type VIIB) Wilhelmshaven, Germany 11-28-39 Have just returned from a very successful patrol in U-83 off the Eastern coast of England, in a mere 8 days at sea we managed to sink 8 merchant ships and 1 fishing boat totaling 28,109 GRT. Will take on provisions, fuel, and torpedos and allow crew a short stint to rest and write to families and girlfriends, and then we shall return to sea by early December at the latest. |
HMS RODNEY
20/Feb/1940
Grid AF78 Spotted HMS Rodney with 3 Destroyer escort ( All three DD escorts port side of HMS Rodney ) Lined U Boat perpendicular to HMS Rodney's heading , closed into 1100 meter range , set torpedo's depth to 10 meters , fired 4 torpedoes , result 2 hits 2 miss Sea Cadet mistake did not set sights at bow of ship but rather at the super structure , therefore striking behind super structure . Once fired executed silent run with a spiral dive to 100 m bottom out and headed towards HMS Rodney while escorts began circling search around crippled ship . Rodney dead in water , escorts searched for 1 hour then headed north leaving Rodney ,secured from silent run loaded torpedoes , periscope depth , fired off 3 torpedoes for a quick kill . Start of engagement 04:42 , End of engagement 07:40 . 22:33 Hrs 20/Feb/1940 Spotted task force escorted by 6 Destroyers Tribal class , escorting HMS Hood , HMS Warspite and HMS Rodney ? Let them pass had enough excitement for the day reported contact to HQ dove to 50 meters and listened to the gramophone while enjoying a plate of potatoes and bully beef . |
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