Yesterday, on my third patrol, I've finally encountered and attacked my first convoy. It went hilariously wrong.
First attack - I shadowed the convoy, keeping well in fron of them, until the moon has set, then tried an AOD-style surface attack: around the leading escort and slowly crept towards starboard flank of the convoy, which seemed to be left unguarded. As I started to aim at those big fat tankers, I found myself in the middle of a spotlight cone, like a pop singer entering the stage. Turned out that the escort actually been there all the time, undetected by me and my watch crew - he closed to point blank distance before turning on the spotlight and unloading his ammo storage. Surprisingly, I managed to survive this. So, second time I decided to go in submerged. I calculated a perfect position to shoot, dived and silently waited for them to come into my sights. When the hydrophone was picking up noises from freighters at desired bearing, I was about to launch but wanted to check just for a second whether they really are where they were supposed to be. So I go to periscope screen - start raising it and OH FU...! Well, my calculations proved to be a bit inaccurate. The ship I intended to attack was about 20 meters from my bow. Unfortunately, I was out of pikemen divers. At least my crew is still alive, and with the damage my boat has taken in process they are guaranteed to have a long holiday. |
A pretty eventful patrol, but my first post here. :D
U-99, 7th Flotilla Left at: October 4, 1940 From: St. Nazaire Mission orders: Patrol grid BE67 Sub type: Type VIIB U-99 departed at 18:51 from the harbor of St. Nazaire, setting sail for sector BE67 to complete a 24-hour patrol there. The crew was a little scared due to setting sail for the first time. I'll have to admit I was too, even though I have spent a lot of time in Type II subs near the coast of Holland. We encountered 2 neutral ships during the night. When we reached BE67, we didn't ecounter a ship until around midnight. However, we failed to pursue and sink the ship, sadly. Patrol results: No crew lost No ships sunk No aircraft shot down Total tonnage remains at 0. How come I never encounter anything during my patrols? :down: |
Waiting for a transfer to St. Nazaire.
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Also, just got awarded my U-boat Front Clasp. Woo? |
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How long are you staying out to sea, and what mods do you have enabled (if any)? |
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Anybody know the info for this kind of stuff in the stock game? I only know GWX. I don't know for sure but I suspect that there is less traffic scripted into the game in stock than what you get with one of the supermods. Keep in mind though that it's a very big ocean and going a week or two or even a month on patrol without encountering an enemy unit is not necessarily unusual, in fact it's actually more rather than less historically accurate. Most u-boats sent out during the war never sank anything, and enemy contacts could be very few and far between. At any rate, if you only stay out for a week at a time your opportunities for action are going to remain very slim no matter what. |
Ah, thankies for the advice. I tried to make a few more patrols, but I ended up almost getting my ass kicked and limping back to base in most of them, except for one in which I sunk a merchant with one well-aimed torpedo. My first kill of my career. :D
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How did you do on fuel? You can find your most economical speed by choosing a speed and then asking the navigator for your range at that speed. That's how far you can travel at the current speed on the fuel you've got left. When you find the speed that he says will give you the most range with what you've got, stick to that speed unless you've got a good reason not to (intercepting a target, evading an attacker). That way you can stay out a lot longer and increase the odds of finding something to sink. :D In GWX the most economical speed for a VII is around 7-8 knots. Don't know if that holds true in stock though. |
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In GWX, that will give you weeks of patrol time, and more than enough in stock to lose 14 torpedoes. |
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I almost always play GWX, but with both stock and GWX I plan on a 40-45 day patrol in a VII. A week or 10 days to get to my assigned area, then at least a week to 10 days in the area. If I still have torpedoes, I roll some dice to see if I am allowed to proceed on my own to favorite hunting grounds for a few days. Then there is the long slog home. Results vary. I once came home from a 55-day patrol with only one torpedo fired, and it was a miss. And the next patrol cut off at 15 days because of empty tubes and 120K on the charts. You never know. |
A Type IX will allow you to stay out even longer. You get your best mileage at about 8 knots. You can easily head from St. Nazaire to New York and back without any need for refueling. And the 22 torps will last longer than the VII's 14. The larger deck gun is an added bonus. (That's actually the main reason why I captain a IX.)
Careful, though - you will have a harder time avoiding enemies because you have a larger turn radius and a longer dive time. Those are things I miss about the VII. As for not finding anything: watch the first, oh, half of Das Boot. |
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Actually, I haven't seen the threads on patching problems yet...
[insert Homer saying D'OH! image here] Made a run on Gibraltar the other day. I at least made it through to the Mediterranean. |
It is October 1940, and i am in U104, a type IXb out of Lorient on patrol south of Iceland looking for convoys. On the way to my assigned grid I detected and tracked a freighter on hydrophones, but was unable to attack due to thick fog and heavy seas.
Several days later a contact report placed a convoy 200km NW of my route, so I plotted an intercept and raced at flank speed through heavy seas to the IP. On reaching my guesstimate I could see nothing in the storm, so submerged to see if hydrophones could pick up any sign. As I submerged a Flower class corvette ran over my position at top speed, missing my scope by 3m as he tried to ram. I crash dived to 150m and he began pounding me very accurately for 2 hours as the convoy sailed straight over me. I was unable to regain contact with it afterwards. The weather cleared as I reached my patrol square a day later, where I had to dive to avoid air attack from an RAF Hudson. It dropped 4 bombs but wide of the mark, and left after 15 minutes. Next day I intercepted a nearby convoy of 15 freighters and 4 escorts heading west. I came in at 45 degrees between the first and second column and fired all torps in snapshots along the rows, the immediately turned east and went deep. Four hits, two misses and ineffectual escort attack followed. I was able to get to periscope depth to see that I had hit 3 small freighters and one escort. Two freighters were sinking by the stern, one was afloat but dead in the water and the escort was down at the bows but still moving. When the two tin cans moved off I put a second eel into the stationary freighter, which blew up in spectacular fashion. I am now running around the north of the convoys course to try and get in position for a night attack. All I got were three tiny freighters and I know there are at least 2 huge colliers and a good sized tanker in there waiting for me. I'd also like another crack at that wounded escort, just for old times sake. |
My most successful non-harbor raid patrol ever. And also one of my most disappointing at the same time.
I had already picked off some small freighters and an ore carrier, when I saw a large convoy very near by. I got into position, waited and struck. 1 torp hit an ammo ship, sending her to the bottom instantly. The second hit a large merchant, but she didn't sink. 3 more torps failed, but the last one sank the Southampton cruiser escort. I evaded the escorts, reloaded the tubes and set myself into position again. 4 more torps: 1 Empire and 2 large cargoes went down; the 4th missed an ore carrier. The escorts didn't even bother trying to find me again. At this point, I realized that the large merchant I had hit earlier wasn't there. So I went back and there it was, not too far from where I had hit it. 2 more fish made sure she went down. Total tonnage from this patrol: 71,899. What makes this disappointing? I also ran into a task force composed of the Hood, a couple cruisers and a bunch of destroyers. All of my torpedoes exploded far short of their targets, and I couldn't match the 20 knots the force was going. |
Faulty torpedo nonsense just caused me severe issues as well. I regained position on the convoy I've been attacking and fired off two torps each at the large collier and a tanker. Or rather as I was firing the third, the first and then second shots blew up in the flat calm seas, bringing down the nearest 2 escorts, one of whom I think was already suspicious. After the customary depth charge attack and evasion, I waited until they moved off out of sight and surfaced.
I wanted to run at full speed to get ahead once again, but a straggling escort spotted me and started shelling and gave chase. I figured I was faster, he was probably damaged and at extreme range, so I manned the deck gun and went to flank to put some distance between us and draw him well away from the convoy. My gun crew actually blew the funnel right off him, but he eventually got lucky and one of his last shells killed my entire gun crew. Damn! |
October 12, 1939. Oberleutnant zur See Karl Blauert set out in U-34, a Type VIIa armed with 11 torpedoes, on August 19, has just returned to Kiel and filed the following report:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...132813_187.jpg http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...132817_359.jpg http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...132820_953.jpg http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3..._132824_93.jpg http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...132828_265.jpg |
Were those post game edits to the Log file, or can you do that ingame?
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SH3 Commander, post-game. It then automatically retrofits it into the games patrol log.
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