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On a Type IX there's enough room to keep Bernard stowed away :smug:
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October 10, 1940
Attacked a convoy heading north in the southeast corner of AM48, easily slipped past the green escorts, positioned myself to the front right of the convoy, and let it come to me. So far so good, even spotted a Dido-class in the middle stack, after maneuvering into my 'final approach.' Solutions set up on the Dido and the remaining two eels are aimed at a fast freighter farther ahead.... Finally, Los! Almost immediately a small freighter right in front of me goes up - so much for that fast freighter. But the two G7e's aimed at the Dido continue on... and pass underneath the cruiser harmlessly. I check the depths again, all is correct - of course both electrics would be duds. I quickly try to maneuver my tailpipe into position, and setup the aft tube (a steamer) for another keel shot. Before I send it off I check everything, but it's not until I've fired it off that I notice the pistol was set to impact. :damn: The torpedo passes underneath as harmlessly as the other two. Checking the other tubes, I realize all had been set to impact. (I think of my mods restricts the firing pistol to impact early war) Cue major headbanging as I dive to 120 meters and reload one tube for another go at the Dido, this time set to run at 2 meters. 12 very long minutes later I come up to periscope depth as quickly as possible, and fire off a snapshot at the cruiser, before I'm forced to dive again by the destroyer coming up my [aft]. Almost immediately after the torpedo hits (somewhere under the forward turret) she goes down, and I give the escorts the slip after about an hour of creeping. Now I'm running parallel to the convoy, reloading my tubes while I wait for sunrise. Should be a good day :arrgh!: |
Looks like October 10 of 1940 was a good day for both of us.
U-81, a VIIC, was in the north-east of sector BE when I received a contact report of a convoy heading west. Finally!! A convoy that is close enough that I will be able to make a good interception. We had been plagued by elusive convoys this entire patrol. I plot an intercept course and I arrive there early thinking that I will be set up for a nice port 90 degree shot at the convoy. They got there later than I expected and a little more north than I originally thought too. They were heading south-west. I race ahead to try to get close enough to the convoy so I can make a good shot. Its 2200 and I can't see a darn thing. I reach the convoy and I can see that there are some nice fat ones in there. I see a large tanker, large merchant, and two ore carriers. I would have liked to get the large tanker and merchant, but they were too far away for me to get an accurate range reading. I aim instead for the two ore carriers that are in the second to left-most row of the convoy. They are coming in not quite perpendicular, but they are bringing themselves closer to me, which is perfect, because there are escorts all over the place. I set up shots on the ore carriers with all my forward tubes. I set magnetic pistols on all of them, as I don't trust the impact pistols at this angle. The first lines up at 000 and I fire tubes 1 & 4, both electrics. I then line up tubes 2 & 3, steamers, and a fast setting so the second ore carrier won't have time to evade my eels. The first ore carrier gets hit by both and immediately stops. Yes! I had managed to hit her propeller, or at the very least destroy it. Only one of my last two torps connected with the second ship, the other must have been a dud. This one slows, as does the whole convoy while I begin to slink away to the north-east. The escorts had no idea where I was until I cleared the convoy, and even then, with three destroyers hunting me, they could not get me. They dropped what must have been 70-80 depth charges in the wrong place. None of them came near my boat. (That's a new thing I just started with this attack. Counting how many depth charges go off. I counted 44 this attack, but only after another 30-40 went off.) I snuck away after maybe an hour. I thought of going after the convoy again and nabbing that large tanker, but I decided not to. I know, I know, be more aggressive. I'm kicking myself for it now. I now have 12,000 GRT for just 9 days at sea. Things are looking up! |
December 1940
Returned home after a very successful patrol. Saw nothing until the return leg home, when we received a contact report on a lone ship heading our way. Plotted course, and went on my way when another report came in about another merchant, also heading my way but from the opposite direction, and closer. So we turned around and headed for an intercept, though the weather was quickly souring. We finally picked it up on the hydrophones, along with two warships in the area... after some maneuvering and more waiting it became apparent that at least one of the warships was an escort for the merchant, so I had to let her slide. So we turned back around to try to catch the first contact, but after reaching the projected intercept and not hearing a thing for a good long while I gave up, and surfaced the boat. The boat had barely popped up when the watch officer reported a merchant barely 2000 meters to port, happily steaming past us. I quickly turned into a firing position, and sent off two torpedoes - both missed well forward of the ship, but the next two struck home. She still kept going however, so I cut across her path for a stern shot while I dived to periscope depth (both of her ducks guns were firing at us point blank - amazingly, no one was injured), and reloaded two of the forward tubes. 3 torpedoes later the bloody thing finally went down, but was barely worth it at 13k GRT :nope: A few days later while patrolling and adjacent grid, a contact report came in on a convoy very close by, so I raced to get in front of it. We caught it at 4:30-ish in the morning, but coming at it face-on in choppy seas - no keel shots this time. I pulled a slow turn to try to get into better position, but I barely made it in time to line up my torpedoes - I sent one torpedo each at a pair of large merchants, and then lined up the last two on what I made out to be a tanker of some kind, then dived and creeped away. Almost immediately the tanker went down, and then the two merchants a little bit later. Meanwhile the escorts had no idea what had happened, and I was able to slip away cleanly. Got some more contact reports along the way home, but I was out of torpedoes and the seas were too poor for the deck gun. In the end I pulled together 47k GRT - A fleet tender, fast freighter, large merchant and a large cargo. Needless to say I highly recommend BF15/17 for anyone looking to catch some early war convoy action :arrgh!: |
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On my way out to BE59 in late 39, its my first patrol on this carrer.
hopin to find some nice targets there :arrgh!: |
July 17 1940
...have just come back from AN 76/84 area. absolutley lousy patrol. found very little. and when i did torpedos failed or sailed underneath due to bad weather ( or my miscalculations ). with one torpedo left i thought of coming back only to find an Armed Trawler - so i turned on him, had him too, in my sights. he was coming right down my pipe and sent the eel out at just under 500 meters. it slid beneath him and blew out his engines. i thought he was a gonner but no. he just sat there like a duck - and me, in my canoe, no deck gun, no eels. i surfaced a 1000 meters away and started running he caught me in his sights and started shelling me. took a little damage and dived again. 1500 meters i surfaced again - and again he started with me. i was furious. had nothing to speak of to throw at him. the arrogance of it! only a bloody flak gun. i eventually got away unharmed, only to be hassled on the tip on Holland by something that didnt like me - another Armed Trawler. i kept running he was chasing and getting closer, but the sea was chopped up pretty bad and he was slowing. didnt like the idea of diving. then out of the blue he was attacked from the air - i think he was struck once, saw some black smoke but he caught the plane and it went down all spectacular into the sea! by that time i had got a good distance away. i had disengaged the battery charging and went hell for leather hoping i would'nt be found, especially with low batteries and bugger all in the way of attack or defence. we all returned safely. now i have been sent to a CF position - cant remeber which one, but CF in a canoe!! maybe i'll get back alive to tell you more. IWO H. Standahl |
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I love the Type IX series, but each of the boats have their own advantages. |
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Even that's a bit slow for me. I know it was boring being a Kaleun most of the time but I don't have any physical books :har: I hate reading from my monitor besides I can't even do that while in the game. Planning to up the TC a bit with commander since it was a blast going to New York and blasting that 44k HMT Aquitania, the trip itself was boring though and getting back to port with 2% fuel was a bit scary.
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Many VII drivers think it gets you out of harms way to drive a IX, but as you experienced, IX country can be just as deadly as VII country. Late war, the IXs can be even worse off. BDU likes to send them to far away coastal grids. They've sent me directly into, or next to, the Capetown grid. It stinks to drive all the way down there, knowing you ain't comming back. After the 2. flotilla gets closed and relocated to Bergen, one can expect to see grid assignments like BF13. Early war paradise, transformed into late war hell. Good luck in your next carreer. |
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Waiting on the far side of the shallows in the comparatively safe BC43 has always been my preference (and my favorite IX grid). On the bright side, at least you got to surface and save your crew. Sorry you lost boat and carreer though. And it was a damn good patrol! Good luck in your next carreer. |
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