U-103 IXB
Patrol No8
02 January 1941 21:02 hours After a hell of a party with Kaluen Snestorm and all of the crews of both U-39 and U-103 for the New Year , it was time to leave. Despite the drinking, all men of U-103 were in station and ready for action. The same was for U-39. Intercepted enemy messages indicated that U-552 had made a succesful attack on an enemy convoy. Orders were to patrol AK-23 , again in the North Atlantic with its storms. 06 January 1941 23:13 hours. Grid AM78 Intercepted enemy convoy after Bdu message. Visual contact was made but ... the lences on the attack scope mulfunctioned. I had to use the observation scope for this patrol 4 bow torpedoes fired 23:48 hours Ore carrier sunk by 1 bow torpedo ( + 1 dud) 23:48 hours Ore carrier sunk by 2 bow torpedoes U-103 dived to 100m and left without firing the stern tubes. 21 January 1941 23:16 hours Grid AD83 Aircraft sighted. It was a RAF light bomber. U-103 crash dived and escaped unharmed. 2 explosions were heard away from U-103 position 24 January 1941 13:00 hours Grid AD59 Convoy attack in good weather 4bow + 2 stern torpedoes fired Large tanker hit twice Converted whale factory ship hit once Medium merchant 02 hit once No ship sunk. At least we were not spotted by the escorts That attack brought back bad memories of a previous patrol. Crew morale dropped. 25 January 1941 12:14 hours Grid AD83 Aircraft attack, U-103 crash dived to safety. 27 January 1941 10:44 hours Grid AD83 Aircraft attack, U-103 crash dived but she was damaged by machine gun fire. 30 January 1941 08:19 hours Grid AD86 Failed to intrecept convoy after BdU message. 17:35 hours Grid AD83 Aircraft attack, U-103 crash dived to safety. That was the fourth time we were attacked. von Harris decided that it was not safe to operate here anymore since no contacts were made. 31 January 1941 16:50 hours Grid AE74 Aircraft attack. We engaged the plane with the twin 20mm and caused him some damage. After the aircraft overpassed us without dropping bombs we crash dived. In his second pass , he releashed two DCs that done minor damage to the boat. 08 February 1941 19:20 hours Grid AM02 Convoy hydrophone contact. Unfortunately they were moving away. We surfaced and radioed BdU of the convoy 10 February 1941 15:24 hours Grid AM02 Enemy warship on the hydrophones , moving away And then : merchant closing and another .... A convoy was heading towards us. With 15m/s winds and rain it wouldn't be an easy task to attack , but if I let this convoy pass it woulf have been very bad for the morale. All six tubes fired on hydrophone readings. No explosions heard. It didn't matter since now the men knew we were the predators again. Only 2 bow torpedoes remained in the front tubes and none aft. The weather is just awful. Time to go home 13 February 1941 10:13 hours Grid AM79 Moving to intercept enemy convoy 11:34 hours torpedoes fired : 1 at an ore carrier and 1 at an intemediate tanker. Both hit , no ship sunk. U-103 left undetected. When we surfaced we encountered rain and 9m/s winds. This patrol was over. Back to Lorient. 18 February 1941 06:26 hours U-103 docked at Lorient. 3 ships sunk 25846 tons 48 days at sea U-39 was not there. Lets hope Kaluen Snestrom has better luck in his patrol. No news from U-552. We lost U-93 during a harbor raid. A good commander was gone. We shall revenge his death. When vonHarris went to the HQ , he was in for a big surprise. The flottila commander announced him that he was promoted to Kapitanleutant as from now. |
A little southwest of Ireland, was able to safely get amongst a US/Greek convoy. Picked out a liberty cargo and let fly with one of my two remaining torpedos, both in the stern. Set the first for a meter deeper than her draft and scored a hit.
She went dead in the water, so I waited for the convoy to depart and let fly with my last torpedo. Instead of a direct hit in the side of the hull, I again set it for a meter deeper. It didn't go off. I waited two days, and the ship never sunk. It just sat there the whole time, and it was too well armed to try to take it with the deck gun. Oh well, I racked up 36,000 tons on the patrol anyway. Stupid Yankees. |
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There you go, playing fast and loose with the historical accuracy adjustment knob again. :up: |
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U-552, patrol 4, report 2
Leutnant. z.s. Alfons Dietzmann
U-552, VIIC 11. Flotille, Bergen Orders: Freie Jagd Arctic ocean between Spitzbergen and Bäreninsel Statusbericht 8.5.1943 1937 Länge 5, 25’ Ost, Breite 70, 51’ Nord. Heavy rain, visibility 800 – 1000 meters, wind 15 m/s from 353. Convoy, course 259, speed 5. Attacked windward from the centre. The front guard noticed us at an approximate distance of 600 meters. Evaded crash diving and turning away from it, one Bold launched immediately and 2 later, the first one when trying to go back to schleichfart and the other one when picked by ASDIC again. DC's heard at Bold launching area. Went back to PD and managed to sink one 2400 BRT freighter and damage a 4600 BRT freighter from the back rows of the convoy. The first one was seen hit and heard sinking. The latter one was hit in the stern of the ship, but was not heard sinking. The ship was found dead in water later and was finished with a torpedo. The torpedo must have ignited the ship's fuel reserves, since the ship exploded very violently. http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/4...3explosion.png Three G7e's and one G7a used during the attack. Three hits, one miss. Five torpedoes left internally and two externally. Now shadowing convoy and getting ready for a third attack. Congratulations to U-103 on returning safely from airplane ridden waters and good luck to the boats operating in the Thames estuary. Condolences to the families of the crewmen of U-93. Dietzmann |
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HESSLER PATROL 1
Following the death of my previous skipper, I have stared a new career with a NEW skipper! I am now playing as "RUDOLF HESSLER"
KPT HESSLER is in command of U-65, a IXB, based out of Lorient as part of the second flotilla. In his shake-down cruise, he took u-65 out to the grid of AL33 and left lorient at 11pm, OKT 1, 1940. He patrolled the grid succesfully, which turned out to be a very quiet grid indeed. Nothing found there so the command was given to head around to some of the AM grids. Passing through the Irish sea and down the channel, he encountered a lone merchant in grid AM65. Torpedoes were fired (no reports on how many) and a succesfull sinking was registered with a score of 1,873 tons, agains SS Royalite. Later, according to his log, he encountered a medium cargo, this time in grid AM95, further to the south. HESSLER managed to sink a second vessel, this one registering in at 5083GRT. u-65 returned to Lorient on OKT 11th, after ten days out to sea on his shake-down and managed to sink two vessels. He is off to a great start and apparently the BDU is pleased, but has commented about making sure reports are as detailed as possible!! He has now been allocated His next grid, which will be the ever dangerous AM53! Reports from the other kaluen's coming in thick & Fast - VONHARRIS registering another 25k of british shipping aboard u-103 and was recently seen back at lorient, whereas SNESTORM is currently at sea with U-39. No word on what they are upto at present, although we've now heard from U-552 who's been operating succesfully against a convoy! |
(Continuation of my earlier report)
U-336 has been shadowing the convoy at AL23, going ENE/6 knots. We made several passes through the convoy at periscope debt, using the very bad weather (about 100m of visibility :D ) to our advantage. 0045 - Another pass through the convoy Destroyer attacking! bearing 264! I turn the periscope around to see a bow coming up in the fog. It's wide. Too wide for a DD. Wait, it has a deck house with 3 windows? A tanker? She passes by behind us. HMS Nelson Created some distance, turned around and plotter her course. They're not aware of me yet. 01:46 Fired a 2 torp, 2 degree torpedo salvo at the Nelson..hope for the best. 01:46 (+26 seconds) Torpedo treffer! - Torpedo treffer! 01:49 Visual with the Nelly regained...she's dead in the water. It takes her hours, slowly but surely her stern settles deeper and deeper into the water. 06:10. Nelly goes down. ----- Returning to Lorient...We took some bad damage earlier, and only have 2 fish left. 08:13: Large allied, Convoy, AL23 heading east 5 knots. 50 ships, 10 escorts. I'm happy taking just the Nelly ;) |
U-103 IXB
Patrol No9
A class mate showed up in Lorient Kaluen Hessler in U-65 doing his shakedown cruise and getting familiar with the IX type. U-552 is continuing her attack on the enemy convoy. No news on U-39 yet 20 March 1941 08:12 hours U-103 left Lorient for grid DG91 for a change. 23 March 1941 Grid CG21 17:01 hours Spotted Spanish large ocean liner bearing 185 doing some 16kts 2 April 1941 Grid DG99 00:21 hours Failed to intercept enemy convoy after Bdu message. Original distance was 212 kms but the bad weather did not allow speeds more than 13 kts on the surface. As a result the convoy passed the meeting point. We were able to pick it up as it was moving away. No point in hunting it. vonHarris radioed the convoys speed and course to BdU 11 April 1941 Grid DJ16 09:22 hours Empire type freighter sunk by 2 bow torpedoes. 13 April 1941 Grid CG95 02:38 hours Spanish large passenger/cargo spotted at bearing 331 doing 10kts. Grid CG94 09:10 hours Kingfisher shot down. That slow flying aircraft was an easy target 10:14 hours Kingfisher turned away by AA fire 11:37 hours Attacked by a couple of Hurricane fighter bombers. They came out of the sun and caught us by surprise. U-103 crash dived but took hits by 20mm cannons and two direct bomb hit on the forward deck, The deck gun was turned into a metal muss. The LI informed vonHarris that it was not safe to dive to 100m so the dive was stopped at 35m. Strange noises were heard indicating that the pressure hull was badly damaged. 20:03 hours U-103 surfaced. The damages were estimated as heavy and the desicion was taken. Patrol aborted. Retern to Lorient U-103 went close to the Spanish coast and returned safely to Lorient 17 April 1941 13:36 hours. Back to port 29 days at sea 1 ship sunk 6786 tons 1 aircraft shot down No casualties , thank God for that 30% hull integrity U-103 had a long time period of repairs ahead. |
Always good results,:DL but you made it,good!
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love reading the accounts here.
im back playing again after nearly a year off:o i started a new campaign and im on my fifth patrol and getting used to the controls again. the great thing about this game is the random encounters that are rarely repeated so your kept on your toes. last night while being stalked by a cruiser in very bad weather i fired 3 torpedo's at a cargo and all three bounced off the sides so i aimed the last one for the stern and that did the trick it was a nice explosion very satisfying.:arrgh!: |
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U-552, patrol 4, end report
Leutnant. z.s. Alfons Dietzmann
U-552, VIIC 11. Flotille, Bergen Orders: Freie Jagd Arctic ocean between Spitzbergen and Bäreninsel 15.5.1943, back at Bergen Patrol results. A large convoy from Murmansk to England attacked thrice in low visibility and rain. Five freighters, 23000 BRT presumed sunk. The sinking of four of those witnessed by hydrophone or periscope and one sinking confirmed by Kriegsmarine radio intelligence. Observations. 1. The enemy was able to pinpoint our surface location during one our attacks in low visibility of 800 – 1000 meters from an approximate distance of 3000 meters and Metox didn’t give a radar warning. Metox was thoroughly checked and was found to be in perfect working condition. It is likely that the enemy is now using a location finding apparatus we don’t know the capabilities of, nor can we detect it. I recommend a procedure of submerging regularly in low visibility for constant hydrophone checks until the enemy’s capabilities are recognized and counteracted. Otherwise in low visibility there is a big risk of getting ambushed by the enemy. 2. FAT torpedoes seem to be working perfectly against convoys. During this and the last patrol we have used them in two attacks and have had two FAT torpedoes hitting their initial targets and two torpedoes missing their initial target and then hitting something else. No depth keeping or pistol problems noticed. 3. FuMo – 30 radar is almost useless. It revolves too slowly to be of any big difference in quickly locating targets and is too weak in picking targets. We would need a much faster and much more powerful device. 4. The Arctic sea area is not worth patrolling anymore. The sea traffic there is almost nonexistent right now. Didn’t see any airplanes either. 5. Bold decoys have worked perfectly again. Boat. The boat is in good condition. The second version of Bold is being fitted to the boat. Funker Adam Stwora was promoted to Stabsbootmann and chief engineer Lt.z.s. Arthur Stuhldreher given EK2 and an assignment to command a U-boat of himself. On a good note we have had news of U-336 sinking a battleship. On a more worrying note U-103 reports heavy air activity, and there has been no news of U-39 for days. |
I was patrolling south of Iceland. Saved, and came back.
Now I'm trying to find a save that isn't corrupted... |
Patrol 21
U-123, 2nd Flotilla Left at: April 25, 1941, 20:16 From: Lorient Mission Orders: Patrol grid ET13 All quiet during our journey to the patrolgrid. We spotted 2 small convoys but both were ships from neutral countries only. A tempting sight, we kept our torpedoes inside however. After lingering around our patrol area for a few days the officer on watchduty spotted a merchant. We plotted an intercept and went down to periscope depth. It was a fat one, aimed 4 torpedoes at her, 3 hit almost evenly spread out. She went down quickly. 4.5.41. 1523 Ceramic-type Ocean Liner, 14595 tons Continued the patrol and spotted another lonely merchant. Went down with 2 torpodoes. 5.5.41. 0331 Tramp Steamer, 1964 tons Spotted a small convoy and decided to hit what I can. Fired all my remaining torpedoes and sank the following. Some smaller merchants were left and 1 or 2 escorts but I managed to get away before they closed. 10.5.41. 0610 ASW Trawler, 1100 tons 0618 Medium Cargo, 4958 tons 0635 Large Merchant, 10417 tons 0701 Small Tanker, 2078 tons I was out of torpedoes and decided to rendezvous with our supplyship in the South-Atlantic, the Python. 16.5.41. 0756 Patrol results Crew losses: 0 Ships sunk: 6 Aircraft destroyed: 0 Patrol tonnage: 35112 tons Patrol 22 U-123, 2nd Flotilla Left at: June 5, 1941, 07:47 From: Python Left python and set a course north. After the unsuccesfull patrol of the West-African coast the decision was made to recon and if possible raid St. Helena. The approach went smoothly, hydrophones picked up two patrolling craft but these were easily evaded by running silent. Once inside the harbor I fired all tubes and dived to 150m (only the innermost of St. Helena's harbor is shallow. The rest is 1000+ m. Perfect for an attack. Will advise BdU to inspect this harbor more often). Reloaded and fired at the remaining vessels. Results were not bad: 7.6.41. 1628 Grid FU 28 Ship sunk! Fiji class, 10725 tons 1631 Grid FU 28 Ship sunk! Southampton class, 10725 tons 1640 Grid FU 28 Ship sunk! ASW Trawler, 1100 tons 1645 Grid FU 28 Ship sunk! ASW Trawler, 1100 tons 1645 Grid FU 28 Ship sunk! Tramp Steamer, 1992 tons 1738 Grid FU 28 Ship sunk! Small Tanker, 2053 tons Upon exiting the harbor I struck a mine and had heavy flooding. Integrity was not damaged much (obviously, look @ pic :) ) but we lost some key equipment. We went down like a brick from 20m to 243m before flooding was under control and we leveled out. Will buy the repair crew an extra round for saving the boat and everyone on it. Pic taken at deepest point : http://i52.tinypic.com/2v0erzn.jpg |
@BigK
243 m is cutting it pretty close!:) Did you have to blow the ballast? |
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U39 IX(A). Patrol 7.
Departed Lorient 11.feb.41, for JA38.
26.feb.41 to 29.feb41 AJ38 On station. 7.mar.41 to 8.mar.41 BC43, BC27, BC24, BC25, BC22, AJ89, AJ97 Convoy battle. Convoy on course 041, making 7 knots. 6 approaches (3 of which failed). 3 ships sunk for 23.773 GRT. One aircraft alarm in BF54. Docked at Lorient on 25.mar.41, and awaited the damaged U103 until 17.apr.41. Fine dining is in order this time out. Congrats to U65 for her daring penetration of The Irish Sea. U552 on her successes in spite of extremely difficult and dangerouse times, and conditions. U336 on sinking HMS Nelson. U39's history to date: 7 war patrols. 18 ships sunk for 97.431 GRT. Note: Had a nice long and detailed report, which got lost by the server. Thus the shortened version above. |
Pat2,Rpt1, From R.Hessler U-65 (IXB)
21/10/41 - 3am
Depart :Lorient, france Orders: Patrol Grid ref: AM53 21/10-3:35am O.O.W (officer of watch) reports sighting of VIIB class u-boat at long range. Unsure at present whether these are any of those who are known to us. 22/10 4:45am (BF21) Radio message recieved: INTEL reports enemy task force in grid AM53! U-65's aprox position is 90km NW of longships light, UK in grid BF21 - unable to action message - O.O.W issues instructions to continue with current course/speed and to dive in two hours for hydro-check. 22/10 6:00am (AM97) contact report recieved via map only - merchant some 25km to our NE. Spd x4 (ahead full) ordered and pursuit commenced. 22/10 7:15am (AM97) Distant contact identified as fishing trawler! U-65 returns to set course. 22/10: 9:00am WARSHIP SPOTTED! - Distant sighting confirmed to be "Motor torpedo boat" dive to P/D Other comments; We hear both u-39 and our classmate in U-103 are safely moored in Lorient. However U-103 is badly damaged and hefty repairs are needed. U-552 continues to hunt convoy's and finally u-123 is aparently badly damaged after a harbour raid and is crawling for her life back to port - hope they make it. :-? All on U-65 expresses thier thanks in being made welcome to the party, and the continued support shown from other Kaluens! :salute: |
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