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kk20 11-12-10 05:58 AM

Here we go.
 
Ditched the vanilla and installed GWX3 (yey!) 84% realsim - just the officer assistance and manual targetting disabled (im not good enough for total realism quite yet!)

New mod so new career 1940 with a VIIC 2nd flotilla U-93

First patrol, quite eventful for a shakedown cruise. Ordered to patrol the north atlantic we didnt quite get there. Got a report of a small convoy so decided to investigate. calm seas and great visibility. Sighted convoy and set up shop ahead and 90 degrees at periscpe depth. Only one DD escort on the far side of the convoy. Sent 1 eel each into 4 coastal merchants and knuckled diving to 50m at silent. DD came over to my side and gave me a right kicking. Took a big chunk out of the forward battery and diesel engines. Heavy damage to command but luckily no fatalities or injuries. Didnt dare dive further. Depth charges moved away. Lost contact with DD so came up to periscope. DD was 1000m resuming course astern. Chanced my rear eel set to high speed magnetic. Hit a wonderful astern shot almost taking the rear off the DD. She went down to davy jones bum first. Due to the damage we decided to limp back to port. Still 8400T merchant and a 1350T DD to our maiden voyage.

Patrol 2 went marginally better. Ordered to redirect to lorient and ordered to patrol the channel. Great. Saw a juicy pair of merchants unescorted. 2 eels each saw them go down. One was an ammo carrier as it blew sky high with a hit amidships - the second eel was unnecessary it seemed. After a horrific 15ms storm a lone merchant sighted. 2 eels into her from the surface at 500m, however she wasnt alone, a pair of alco boats managed to hole the side and yet again the forward batteries and diesel engines were hit. Bad flooding but with the storm rendering flak and deck gun out of service I had no choice but to dive. Luckily depth under keel was 50m as we soon settled on the floor with man on board shoring up the crippled boat. After an agonising 30mins repair the flooding had gone and once again we set sail. Put into port at cherborg for repairs (52% hull!).

Patrol 3. Freshly repaired out of cherborg with calm seas we resumed our trip out of the channel to lorient. A troop carrier with an alco escort proved no problem. 2km periscope attack put 2 eels into the ship and a surface attack dusted the deck gun off to sink the alco. In the crews jubilation the watch missed the ASW trawler who seemed to have little in the way of tactical knowledge of submarines - failing to weave as an eel took her broadside. 2 more alco boats fell prey to the deck gun (and flak). Another ASW trawler as sent to their maker again failing to weave. By the time we docked in lorient, 1 8400t merchant and 7 warships to our name without a scratch. The crew were happier.

kk20 11-12-10 06:11 AM

thats more like it.
 
At lorient we were offered a IX but turned it down. Somehow U93 had taken a kicking but felt stronger for it. Our radioman and sonarman were both trained up now. We had also decided to remove the watch officer for a far more competent watch officer skilled in gunnery and repair. He wouldnt be missed by the crew who had already seen his uselessness in combat.

Before we reached the patrol zone, a juicy 10000 ton cargo was sent to the bottom with a single torpedo along with their ASW escort - again not weaving. Upon reaching the alloted patrol zone, the sonarman picked up a faint signal. No 2 signals. No lots of signals. In wait we saw a motley selection of granvilles, tramp steamers, coastals and a single DD escort. The watch officer suggested we might be better taking on the single DD leaving the relatively unarmed convoy to the mercy of the deckguns. Positioning ourselves in front a full forward spread at the DD saw an eel hit but not down. One of the spread also hit a cargo which went down immediately. Panicking we decended to crush depth only to hear another torpedo hit "something" and the initial DD finally flood to the depths. This change of fortune made us surface and literally take our pickings until ammo was expended. Minor damage was repaired. Returning to port we had a tally of 39k merchant and 2.2k warship. Sonarman was promoted along with decorations for the gunners who sank 7 ships whilst under fire.

Hangman 11-13-10 08:04 PM

First patrol
 
I have owned SHIII for a few months now, but have not been able to get a good time on the machine. The following account has been over the past several weeks. Slow, but well worth it.
(Running SHIII with GWX 3.0 and a few mods)

This was my first patrol as captain. I had been on other patrols on other surface vessels, as a Watch officer and a First officer, but this was my first command in a submersible. The commanders called these uBoats the best in the fleet. Not for size or power, but for stealth and abilities.
We left port on August 1st, 1939 in U-52, a Type VIIB, fully loaded and ready for a month at sea. It is a beautiful boat. Long and narrow, with enough battery capacity, armament, and storage to last us the time it would take to traverse the world, and we had the ability in this sleek machine to do so.
I was nervous and excited. The anxiety was high and my stomach constantly growling. I had eaten a large breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast, and a good helping of cantaloupe and banana’s, but I felt as hungry as a bear after hibernation.
My crew was as green as an unripe avocado. I had two other officers on board and three enlisted men who had served on other vessels, though none aboard another submersible. These were the guys who would hold up the morale when things got tiresome.
I was ordered to take the boat out and run through the drills. Give her a good shakedown and train the men. We were assigned the section to the West of the Great Isle Ireland; BF16, the Southern mouth of the Irish sea. My navigator and I figured we could make the destination in no more than a few days, but a storm blew in the day after we left port and we were forced under for an agonizing two days. The seas were rough and unrelenting and after fighting her on the surface for what seemed days, and having watchmen swept overboard and nearly drowned from the waves crashing over the conning tower, we surrendered to the depths where the crew could get some rest and we could continue our progress unhampered. We ran the batteries to one quarter remaining power, and the oxygen was nearly depleted as the storm raged on above us. There hasn’t been a single vessel anywhere around us and we were getting desperate for air. I finally ordered the boat to surface, regardless of the conditions above. As we came to the top, the boat again began to rock uncontrollably and many of the faces in the crew reflected the idea of capsizing. They deeply pulled the fresh air into their lungs as it came down the pipe along with sea water from the crashing waves. We had no choice, we had to run on the surface to recharge the batteries and replenish the oxygen. Once again, the crew was exposed to the harsh nature of the sea. ‘What a shakedown’, I thought. ‘Talk about being thrown into the fire’. I clambered up the conning tower to the open air where the four watchmen were on duty only to find one still on his feet. Two men were hanging over the rail by nothing more than their lifeline and the third was struggling desperately to haul the third back over the rail. We had only two thirds of our batteries charged and we were taking a beating. After hauling the men back over the rail, and trying to lift their spirits a little, I, myself was nearly thrown over the edge by a ghastly wave which buried the boat and sent liters of seawater down the hatch.
We buttoned her up and dropped again to thirty meters, crawling along at three knots to preserve the batteries as long as possible and get some rest from the beating we had endured from above. The storm finally cleared on the third day but the winds continued to beat the surface long afterwards.
The crew had grown accustom to the waves and the winds by the 7th day and had learned to either sleep restlessly in the belly of the cramped boat, or were just too tired to care. We had just made our destination in the early hours of the 7th and were just beginning our patrol of the sector when we came across two freighters – in line – traversing across our path. As the crew were well on their way to getting the feel of the boat on the seas and the rigors of life as sub-boat personnel, I felt it was time to get some hands-on-experience to the attack. The two freighters were literally driving right in front of us so I used the opportunity to its best. “Battle stations” I ordered, “ahead one-third, bring us ten degrees to port”. I called the Weapons officer from his bunk and had him bring a crew to the deck gun. We were to attack the first of the two freighters – an 8,000 ton merchant – with the deck gun after a single fish was thrown at them.
The crew on the deck gun was relatively quick considering this their first time on the seas, and still too slow to be effective in a real surface attack situation. The fore torpedo crew were already much prepared as the fish were already in the tubes, so little had to be done to finish preparations for launch. Overall though, the adrenaline rush was an instant success as everyone scrambled to their assigned positions and waited for the anticipated war cry and the illusory results of heroism.
As the first freighter closed to within 800 meters off our bow, I ordered the crew to ‘stand down’ and those on deck to wave to the crew of the freighter. Peering through the glasses, I could see the shocked, bewildered expressions on their faces as they passed, expecting an attack and not understanding why we were waving to them.
We came across one other small merchant vessel of 3,500 tons on our southern course to which we followed the same drill procedures. Toward the afternoon hours, we altered our course to a West, Northwest direction and continued our patrol at 12 knots surfaced. At 18:35 hours the watchmen spied a vessel approaching from the Southeast. We prepared to run the surface attack drill again when my Watch officer mentioned this was the same merchant we attacked earlier in the morning. “Well then, it’s time for a submerged attack”, I declared. I called my Navigator to take us to periscope depth and called the crew to attack position. We maneuvered into position and gave my Weapons officer the chance to calculate the trajectory, the distance, and the speed for a successful attack. We ran through the drill to the point of firing, when I called the crew to stand down. As the crew started to relax once again, I heard a comment from one of the enlisted grumbling about the drills. I decided it was time to give a pep-talk and either lift their spirits or throw them overboard for mutiny. They took well to the pep-talk.
On the 9th of August, after successfully running surface and submerged attack drills, I felt it was now needed to actually fire some fish to see how the ship and the crew would take to having a real scenario play out. Around 20:45 hours, we found a merchant of 7,500 tons heading in a Southwest direction and decided she would be a perfect puppet for our drill. We charted her course and after an hour and a half of running ahead of her, we turned into her path and submerged. The sun had set and the moon barely visible over the horizon. A dark setting for a foreboding drill as I was planning a defensive maneuver as well. I inquired of the Navigator the depth under keel and brought up the attack periscope for bearings on the merchant. We ran through the drill of recording bearings and speed for a calculated attack and set our boat at 600 meters from the projected path of the merchant vessel. I asked the Weapons officer to set the fish from tubes I and III at 18 meters deep running. “I don’t want to actually sink this ship, but I need to know what this boat of ours is going to do as well as the crew”. At 22:29 hours I ordered tubes I and III to be fired, the spread angle at three degrees, medium speed. We were running silent speed at 1 knot. As the first fish was pushed out of the tube, we could feel the boat not only stop in the water, but lurch upward from the immediate weight loss plus the air in the tube causing the positive buoyancy. The second fish following closely behind added to the effect. The Weapon officer’s calculations were good for the first fish as it sailed under the back half of the merchant vessel. The second fish however, went on behind the vessel clearly missing everything. There were several lessons learned on this drill and we had to rework our calculations to get a good double hit on a double firing solution. As the moment came for the second fish to detonate, the First officer bellowed “ALARM” !!! The crew immediately, frantically, began moving about the crowded belly of the boat in an effort to drop as fast as possible. We were 126 meters from the bottom when we began our decent and within a mere few minutes we reached that depth. I had only intended on 120 meters but miscalculated our decent speed. We hit bottom going seven knots but were relatively level as I asked for an up angle of twelve degrees. The crew in the command room crumbled to their knees as the force brought us to an abrupt halt. We sustained damage to the fore quarters, the radio room, the command room, and the engine room, but no major leaks were found. The crew immediately began damage control as we tenderly brought the boat up to 80 meters at 2 knots.
Over the next three days, we worked our way around Ireland to the Northwest entrance to the Irish sea where we lingered to find the amount of vessels traversing the inlet. The activity was not as prevalent as was on the Southern entrance, but still promising. On the 12th of August, at 17:01 the watchmen spotted a vessel to our aft end approaching with relative speed to induce a slight panic. We quickly determined the vessel was a warship and we were either directly in its path, or it had spotted us and began pursuit. I ordered periscope depth and a course 90 degrees to starboard, three knot speed. After we made the turn, I ordered an all stop to assess the oncoming warship. I called the First Officer to bring the crew to attack stations and brought the attack periscope up to bear. I found the warship bearing down on us at 18 knots, but not directly. I marked the course and angle on the bow and discovered we were merely in the path, almost directly. I ordered back one-half and decided to run the submerged attack drill again. With this speed, there wasn’t much time to contemplate the scenario, so we had to act quickly. I again asked the Weapons officer to set I and III to 15 meters as I knew this was a shallow running ship. I searched frantically for a nationality designation through the periscope as the ship continued its course. At last, as we were almost half a kilometer from the projected path of the warship, I spotted the flag. A white banner with a red strip running horizontally through the center, and another running vertically, creating a cross upon the flag. I’d seen this in the identification manual before, but couldn’t place it while under the duress of this ominous vessel almost upon us. I decided to attack. For all intensive purposes, this was being treated as an actual attack and not a drill, as my Weapons officer was the only one who knew I was firing under the keel of the warship. The calculations were put into the TDC and the solutions set. The warship was upon us; we were 510 meters from its path, 89 degrees on the bow, I ordered tubes I and III fired. We felt the boat lurch upward as the fish left their tubes towards their target. The moment the fish left us, I realized our calculations were like those of the merchant vessels before, our fish would miss their target completely. I had the Weapons officer re-calculate and re-enter the information into the TDC and ordered tubes II and IV fired. Again, the boat lurched upward, but I felt elated as I knew the course of these last two fish were true. I dropped the attack periscope and began descending the ladder to the control room where I would congratulate my men on a well-performed attack when the hull of the uboat shuddered with an ear-splitting explosion.
I froze in mid-air, my muscles tense and body rigid. ‘What the hell was that’, I thought as I tried to get a grip on what I had just heard. After what felt like hours, I finally got enough stamina to push myself to the base of the ladder. As I turned to face my Weapons officer, there was another hull bending shudder from an incredible explosion – the second torpedo. My First officer’s face was displaying a humorous shock, but my Weapons officer’s face was as white as paper. “What just happened?” I asked perplexed. “I think we hit her” replied the First officer with a slight grin to his face. “Why?” I demanded looking from the First officer to the Weapons officer, “How, we were 15 meters below the keel?” I quickly scrambled back up the ladder to the attack periscope and began its accent. It took forever to get the scope to the point I could see clearly and then, to my dismay, I could see the backside of the warship in the air, and seconds later it slipped beneath the waves. There were men scrambling into life rafts and debris covering the area, … and bodies. How many had I killed? What went wrong?
After watching the scrambling victims for several minutes through the periscope, I found myself acting like a child who was running to hide from something he’d known he had done wrong. I ordered the boat to 60 meters, ahead standard, course two-seven-zero, we’re leaving.
It took me four hours to get my head around reality and begin investigating my mistake. I had asked the Weapons officer to set tubes I and III to 15 meters, not tubes II and IV. These last two fish were still set at four meters and in the adrenaline rush, the thrill of the kill, the moment at hand, I had completely forgotten this little detail.
At long last I decided I would take full responsibility for this mishap that cost the lives of several men. Men I didn’t even know. Men I had never even laid eyes on, let alone learn their names. Is it I who would start a war? Would they allow me to speak with the families of those whom I killed, to offer my sorrows and regret? I should receive the firing squad for this blatant neglect. I was now deeply depressed and angry with myself, and scared.
I ordered the boat to surface at 00:23 where I radioed in what occurred. I will take responsibility, but I don’t want to return to base just yet. I will leave the decision up to command, if they order me back to base immediately, I’ll comply. Otherwise, I think I’ll let time heal a little and stay out here until hell freezes over or we run out of fuel.
At 00:51 a message was received from Command, they suggest we stay until fuel runs out.

unterseemann 11-14-10 03:02 PM

25NOV43
U-702 (Kptlt Karl Schenk), a type VII/C uboot, is back to St Nazaire after its maiden patrol.
It was a difficult one with bad weather most of the time and high asw allied activity.
22 days at sea in western approaches
5 ships sunk for 20.991 tons and 1 badly damaged ( no deck gun to finish it)
Uboot damaged by aircraft (H.I 83%). No casualties.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ip4600x450.jpg



http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ip1600x450.jpg


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ip2600x450.jpg



http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ip3600x450.jpg

Arnold 11-14-10 07:33 PM

U-53, Type VII B, 15 SEPT 39, 1st Patrol

Dived to avoid planes twice near Ewe Loch. Decision made to remain submerged during daylight hours.
We sunk a third British freighter just outside our patrol area (AM18).
The lightning from the storm makes for an awesome background for this battle. We reached our patrol area by staying submerged during the daylight hours, at 2 knots, between 50 - 60 meters depth, and running surfaced at night, between 9 - 10 knots. Once at our patrol area, we ran 1/2 day South, and 1/2 day North, at 1/3 speed.
A return course to Kiel was plotted. Returning to base.

Missing Name 11-14-10 10:21 PM

Early December 1942.

Reached patrol area DN67. Extremely bad weather, all sensors were useless. Fired upon and rammed by a destroyer.

Captain Missing Name, 1939-1942. U-103 (VIIB), U-106 (IXB). ~375k tons sunk.

Falkirion 11-15-10 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Missing Name (Post 1535478)
Early December 1942.

Reached patrol area DN67. Extremely bad weather, all sensors were useless. Fired upon and rammed by a destroyer.

Captain Missing Name, 1939-1942. U-103 (VIIB), U-106 (IXB). ~375k tons sunk.

Capt Missing Name, I feel your pain. But remember you always have hydrophones. Sound checks in instances like that are your best friend.

Also updating my patrol log. Made contact again with the convoy, but only got one ship this time. Got the Empire, one torp into the bow must've hit something hard because she exploded all the way from the bow to the stern. Had a bit of rollercoaster ride evading the escorts. For some reason when I drop down to 170+m I lose all control of depth when running silent. Anything below 3 knots and I start sinking like a stone. Came back up and overhauled it again just out of visual range. Charged in on the surface and fired off my two remaining bow torps. 2 duds. I wasn't happy. Returned to St Naz with 23k under my belt for a first patrol.

Going to head back out again soon, about a month and we'll be set to go.

ijnfleetadmiral 11-18-10 03:26 AM

My Patrol History
 
I'm currently up to June 1944 in my career. Here's some info about my character, and I based promotions on the basic time listed in the manual for Silent Hunter II.

NAME: Kurt Hossel

PROMOTION HISTORY:
Fahnenjunker - 1 January 1935
Fahnrich zur See - 1 January 1936
Oberfahnrich zur See - 1 July 1936
Leutnant zur See - 1 January 1938
Oberleutnant zur See - 1 July 1939
Kapitanleutnant - 1 March 1941
Korvettenkapitan - 1 November 1941
Fregattenkapitan - 1 August 1942
Kapitan zur See - 1 May 1943
Kommodore - 1 February 1944

COMMANDS HELD:
U-1 (Type IIA) - 1 September 1939 - 23 May 1940
U-48 (Type VIIB) - 23 May 1940 - 15 April 1941
U-71 (Type VIIC) - 15 April 1941 - 12 May 1943
U-182 (Type IXD2) - 12 May 1943 - 17 June 1944
U-2503 (Type XXI) - 17 June 1944 - present

AWARDS:
U-Boat Clasp in Bronze - 15 May 1944

U-Boat Badge - 9 February 1940
U-Boat Badge with Diamonds - 15 July 1941

Iron Cross 2nd Class - 2 January 1940
Iron Cross 1st Class - 19 March 1940

German Cross in Gold - 16 November 1941

Knight's Cross - 3 June 1940
Oak Leaves - 15 August 1940
Swords - 28 September 1941
Diamonds - 22 October 1941

PATROLS MADE: 41

TONNAGE SUNK:
MERCHANT - 977,222
WARSHIPS - 10,114

TOTAL - 987,336

Question: Anyone know of a mod that enables the player to promote crewmen further (i.e., Seamen to Warrant Officers, Warrant Officers to Officers, and advance their officers (and themselves, for that matter) beyond Lt. Sr.) and also have the possibility of being awarded the Silver U-Boat Clasp, the German Cross in Silver, the German Cross in Diamonds, the Grand Cross, and the Star to the Grand Cross?

I'm especially curious as to why you can't promote people further; if it were possible, the senior-ranking NCO in my crew would've been commissioned back in 1941!

Thanks for any input, and hope you found my career summary interesting.

-Matt

kk20 11-18-10 05:20 AM

The new watch officer is a madman and a genius. After a few normal 20k patrols the last one was the best of my careers. An uneventful patrol in the carribean. No tankers, lots of neutral traffic, poor 15ms weather. Finished our allotted orders. Watch officer suggested sailing to New York to sink some traffic. Since we had a mere 5k tonnage to our name at this point the officers agreed.

Evaded aircraft and luckily bad weather has kept their visibility down. Crawling into the harbour there was a single ASW and an elco patrolling. Berthed was a single clemson , 2 large tankers, ceramic liner and various cargos.

An aft eel put paid to the asw (deliberate noise brought him steaming over in a straight line). 1 eel put paid to the clemson as we didnt want him sniffing about, 1 sent a tanker into explosive demise (slightly astern of midships). 2 into the ceramic and remaining taking out another tanker. Decided a swift exit was in order before reinforcements arrived. Only 1 heartstopping moment when we either run aground or hit a net. Retracing exact steps worked fine. Eluded 2 more ASW on the way out into deeper water. After surfacing and restocking torpedoes hydro picked up 4 (yes 4) tankers heading to UK without destroyer escort! Sank 2 with torpedoes and finished a 3rd with deck gun. 4th got away steaming at 14 kts with holes all over it but plenty of deck fire.

A single ore carrier (hit astern) took the remaining aft torpedo which sank after a full day of limping. 92000T and only 10% damage. Sailor Voglen and watch officer Eigenholtz was injured manning the deck gun (25% health remaining each) but both were patched up by the trusty medic (no wound badges offered when returned - will see to that in SH3 commander!). Watch officer stood at his post until ammo expended. He was awarded knights cross (along with me).

Have been offered command of an IXC which we will probably be taking. It is late 1942 and things are getting hairy now!

Watch officer has suggested Caraco (sp?) next time we are in the carribean...

unterseemann 11-20-10 01:54 PM

28DEC43
U-702 ( Kptlt Karl Schenk) was sunk in grid BE35 by convoy escorts after successful attack against two ships. All hands lost.
2 patrols-8 ships sunk-43.541 tons.

Gargamel 11-22-10 12:51 AM

Med or Bust
 
21 August, 1941
BDU HQ

"Sir, I think there may be an error in the orders given to U-103, 2nd flotilla"

"What may that be?"

"I think there was a typing error in assigning 103 to patrol grid CJ88. The rest of the 2nd flotilla are all operating off the African and Spanish coasts. This cannot be right sir! I think it was supposed to be CG88 instead."

Ruffling of Papers.....

"Ahhhh yes....
Kapitanleunant Gargamel, one of our better U-boats. Hmmm..... Let's see what he can do with this, let the orders stand as written."

"Are... are you sure sir?"

"Yes, dismissed."


-------------------------------------------------------------

22 August, 1941
1600 hrs
U-boat 103, just having left Lorient.

"1WO, I'll be opening the sealed orders now, you have the conn."

"Aye sir, 1wo has the conn."

Sounds of safe opening, ripping envelope, ruffling papers.

"
Was zum Teufel?!?"

"Sir?"

*Mumbles* "Med..... run the straight..... defend friendly convoys... attack warships and convoys.....Perkele!"

"Perkele sir?"

"Nothing, just something my grandmother used to say."

"Kaleun, our orders?"

"Navigator, make course around Iberia, and head for gilbraltar, we're running the straight."

Groans heard around the ship...

"Weps"

"Yes Kaleun?"

"Unload Tube 1 and service that eel."

A frown, "Sir?"

"Then have Bernard climb in the tube, and tell him to check for leaks around the door."

"Ummmm...."

"When he's fully in, close the door and fire the tube. We can't risk having him on our boat when we're in the straights!"

"Oh! Right away Kaleun!"

------

(So it pays to spell check your patrol grid in SH3 Commander)

Updates to Follow.

This is my (Hopefully short lived) homage to brag and Balz, whose exploits I am currently enjoying reading!

And apologies to my murdering both the German language and the lexicon/vernacular used on U-boats. Currently reading Deep Sound Channel, set in the future of sub warfare, so I have modern American vernacular on my head. The language is me using Google translator to convert American phrases to German, my apologies if they don't make sense.










Gargamel 11-22-10 03:03 AM

29 August 1941
1500 hrs
175km West of the straights

Having sunk a small frieghter on our approach, our gunner appreciative of the practice after 9 months of not firing the gun (His aim showed it too), we continued onto the straights.

Running decks awash at 10 knots, hopping to avoid detection, we are waiting for night fall to begin our sprint through the straights.

--------------
1545

Encountered our first air patrol, two fighters. Diving from decks awash has allowed us to quickly evade detection, we hope.

------
1555

Having reread the orders given to us by BDU, I have noticed there is no mention of transferring to any flotilla operating in the Med. Furthermore, the return port is listed as Lorient still. Surely they cannot mean for us to return through the straights?

------
1630

Having again surfaced at decks awash to keep our batteries topped off, we spotted another patrol craft, this time a flying boat. We again were able to avoid detection, we hope.

------
2030
105km West of straights

Having run decks awash for the past hour or so, it is now dark enough to fully surface and run at full speed, hopefully we can sneak through in the darkness.

------
2345
40km SW of Port of Gibraltar

Still running full speed. Have not yet encountered any patrol craft.

------
0030
25km SSW of Gibraltar

Made a quick dip to periscope depth to scan for contacts. Only picked up a couple merchants in the port of Ceuta to our ESE. The hills of Morocco to our south are quite magnificent in this light.

------
0118
22km SSE of Gibraltar

Spotted our first patrol craft, light torpedo boat, running right towards us, 7km away. Dove to periscope depth to avoid detection. Sonar soon picked up a destroyer NE of us in the med.

-----
0200
10km NE of Cueta

Having lost all warship sonar contacts, we are surfacing to continue our speed run. Plotting location of previous enemies, I am adjusting our course to hug the coast of Morocco for a while.

------
0545
100km ESE of Cueta

Dawn is approaching, and as such, i have ordered our decks awash again, for we are still under the range of air. The transit of the straights appears not as difficult as is fabled by other Kaleuns.

VONHARRIS 11-23-10 03:18 AM

U-127 IXC
 
From : U-127
To : BdU

Current position Grid ES 23
Patrol orders completed (Grid GR 82)
Stb diesel destroyed
Both periscopes destroyed
Three men wounded.
Torps left: 7
Tankers sunk : 1
Cargo ships sunk : 4
Warships sunk : 1
Tonnage : 29317
Requesting orders.
Kptlnt Kurt von Richter

kk20 11-23-10 04:35 AM

Halifax? Tonnage? You forgot to mention the hidden destroyers that appear out of nowhere with racks and racks of depth charges. At least I have a bold 1 now and could happily sit on the floor flooding quietly.

Lost my 16 patrol radio man, sonarman and my trusty NO :( The crew didnt care about losing the rear torpedomen as they were fresh recruits. It isnt good to see a red exclamation mark appear on my repair officer though, still everyone has their breaking points. 6 dead in one patrol wasnt good and a low point of the war for U506 (crawling back from halifax with, no aft batteries, no radar warning, periscopes, flak, deck gun or bridge isnt good - although you can manually use the UZO you cannot put a watchman up). The medic was a trooper again, patched up the wounded. Deserved the knights cross (still no wounded badges after patrol completed- I add those manually afterwards)

still 80k wasnt too bad. And she sat at 30m with 21% H.I. !

80633 (74983/5650)U-boat damaged (H.I. 21.50%)

Gargamel 11-23-10 04:15 PM

22 September 1941
BDU HQ

"Sir, still no update from U-103 after they reported entering the straights on the 17th for their return run."

"They should have checked in after 4 days. No report from the supply ships in the area?"

"No sir"

"Well, give them a couple more days and then list them as lost at sea."

"Yes sir"


---------

Shoulda fixed that typo.

Ach, time to start a new career, again.


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