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Good thing you made it back to Xmas eve.....:)....think of all those others that didn't..... |
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absolutely right! btw, we sent a radio message before arriving and so a JU52 was waiting for the crew to take them home to their families. :salute: |
U-97, TypeVIIC, Oberleutnant z. See Theodor Winter
Patrol II Left St. Nazaire for AM51. Sank one Granville freighter with deck gun for ca. 4000 tons. On reaching AM51, received report of enemy large convoy making 4 knots on an easterly course. Moved to intercept in 15 metre seas. Spotted lead escort at 20:15. Ran decks awash in already-high seas, at roughly 3 knots. At 4000 metres from the escort, U-97 dove to periscope depth and ran silent. U-97 was running parallel to the convoy at this point, directly between the two centre columns. As the merchants made their ways to 45 and 315 degrees of relative bearing, U-97 executed a right angle turn, and waited. To the stern, a passenger-cargo was passing. In front of U-97, two medium cargo ships were visible. The closest was engaged with two Type II torpedoes on impact setting. Immediately afterwards, a Type I was sent from the stern tubes towards the passenger-cargo on a fast setting. Oblt. Winter was giving firing data to the weapons officer when the passenger-cargo exploded, sinking almost instantly. Four seconds after the explosion, two Type I torpedoes on impact setting were launched at the second medium cargo. While they were en route to their target, the first medium cargo caught the two Type IIs and sank. One Type I impacted the second medium cargo, holing it under the bridge. The second never detonated. At no point was U-97 directly engaged by escorts, as they had no clue where she was. Surfacing half an hour later, U-97 overhauled the convoy at flank speed to attack from the side before dawn broke. Spotted by a destroyer, U-97 turned into the convoy early and, still at flank speed, fired four more torpedoes, sinking a large merchant and damaging a tanker. U-97 dove at flank with the destroyer almost directly above her, but took no damage from the depth charges. She dropped to 210 metres and turned west, directly out the backtrack of the convoy. Evaded for a mere 20 minutes, then surfaced, headed for St. Nazaire. Encountered a lone passenger-cargo, which was torpedoed from periscope depth at a distance of roughly 4km with a fast-moving Type I torpedo. Oddly, this kill was not recorded in the ship's log. Possible neutral vessel. Finally, a lone small merchant was overhauled by U-97 and, the seas being calm, was sunk with the deck gun. Total patrol tonnage: roughly 28,000 GRT (over 30,000 if counting the possible neutral passenger-cargo), making for a career total of roughly 60,000 tons in two patrols for Oblt. Winter. EDIT: U-97, TypeVIIC, Oberleutnant z. See Theodor Winter Patrol II Left St. Nazaire for AM51. Sank one Granville freighter with deck gun for ca. 4000 tons. On reaching AM51, received report of enemy large convoy making 4 knots on an easterly course. Moved to intercept in 15 metre seas. Spotted lead escort at 20:15. Ran decks awash in already-high seas, at roughly 3 knots. At 4000 metres from the escort, U-97 dove to periscope depth and ran silent. U-97 was running parallel to the convoy at this point, directly between the two centre columns. As the merchants made their ways to 45 and 315 degrees of relative bearing, U-97 executed a right angle turn, and waited. To the stern, a passenger-cargo was passing. In front of U-97, two medium cargo ships were visible. The closest was engaged with two Type II torpedoes on impact setting. Immediately afterwards, a Type I was sent from the stern tubes towards the passenger-cargo on a fast setting. Oblt. Winter was giving firing data to the weapons officer when the passenger-cargo exploded, sinking almost instantly. Four seconds after the explosion, two Type I torpedoes on impact setting were launched at the second medium cargo. While they were en route to their target, the first medium cargo caught the two Type IIs and sank. One Type I impacted the second medium cargo, holing it under the bridge. The second never detonated. At no point was U-97 directly engaged by escorts, as they had no clue where she was. Surfacing half an hour later, U-97 overhauled the convoy at flank speed to attack from the side before dawn broke. Spotted by a destroyer, U-97 turned into the convoy early and, still at flank speed, fired four more torpedoes, sinking a large merchant and damaging a tanker. U-97 dove at flank with the destroyer almost directly above her, but took no damage from the depth charges. She dropped to 210 metres and turned west, directly out the backtrack of the convoy. Evaded for a mere 20 minutes, then surfaced, headed for St. Nazaire. Encountered a lone passenger-cargo, which was torpedoed from periscope depth at a distance of roughly 4km with a fast-moving Type I torpedo. Oddly, this kill was not recorded in the ship's log. Possible neutral vessel. Finally, a lone small merchant was overhauled by U-97 and, the seas being calm, was sunk with the deck gun. Total patrol tonnage: roughly 28,000 GRT (over 30,000 if counting the possible neutral passenger-cargo), making for a career total of roughly 60,000 tons in two patrols for Oblt. Winter. Patrol 3 (Final Patrol) U-97 left St. Nazaire for AM41 on 1st November. Encountered one Empire-class, which was sunk with one magnetic torpedo under her keel. U-97 encountered 8 metre seas and thick fog for the duration of her patrol of AM41, and these conditions continued after she left the apparently-empty AM41 grid to patrol AM51. It was here that she received orders to intercept an SC convoy making roughly 3 knots. Overhauling the convoy, U-97 approached from the front in very heavy fog which limited visibility to roughly 3 kilometres. U-97 made a surface attack with decks awash, commencing at 02:07 on November 11th, 1940. Four torpedoes were fired, with hits on a large cargo and medium cargo. As these hits were on the far side of the convoy, and searchlights were only visible at that great distance, U-97 assumed it safe to press home an attack on a small merchant 1800 metres to her 160. As she began her turn, the merchant suddenly snapped on her spotlight, fixing U-97 within a second. No more than two seconds after this, U-97 came under extremely focused fire the likes of which are rarely seen. This fire came from an unseen source, but was instantly devastating, with four shell impacts in the space of three seconds. The first shell hit the conning tower, killing the WO and one petty officer outright. Oblt. Winter ordered a crash dive and had the damage control team (led by CE Bergmann) do an immediate assessment. U-97 continued to sustain hits from shellfire as she dove, and it became apparent that no compartment had escaped severe damage. CE Bergmann declared all compartments to be condition red, with heavy flooding. As his team worked in the bow quarters to stem the rapid flooding, an explosion claimed the lives of CE Bergmann, his seven-man team, and six other seamen who were also in the compartment. The boat continued to sink out of control, breaking up at 138 metres at 02:14, less than one minute after the first shell hit her conning tower. Oblt. Winter and all hands were lost.... Which sucked, because this was my favourite and most immediately-successful career so far. :( |
Installed GWX a couple of weeks ago and can't leave it alone. In a word "BRILLIANT".
Nearly completed patrol 12 - October 1940 V11B. I seem to be running into convoys all over the place. Managed to spot a battleship in the middle of one but the escorts were too good. Kept me down until there was no chance to catch up. AM 46 - 21 Oct Hydrophones picked up what only can be large convoy closing. Managed to get into position for a 90 attack and shut everything down. Careful periscope work shows position looks good, inside the port column. Bloody hell! in too close the lead destroyer scoots past no more than 100m away. Everybody starts to breathe again. Spotted a cruiser in the middle column. Had to sneak slow astern to get distance. Set up a full spread and fired. Calculations were a bit off. Managed to get one hit right on the bow but it was enough. We copped a pounding from 3 destroyers, and they were good. Batteries were nearly flat, air was foul and the crew were exhausted before we managed to sneak away. Dido class 5600 tons Have since sunk 2 empire freighters 1 large cargo 1 ore carrier 34439 tons Have taken quite a bit of damage so far and with only 2 stern fish left have decided to head for home. |
In the wake of U-97's destruction in 1940, I started a new career in September, 1939.
U-53 is a Type VIIB attached to Saltzwedel Flotilla. Leutnant z. S. Jochen Lübke is her commander. Departed Wilhelmshaven on September 2nd, 1939, with orders to patrol AM32. While traversing the North Sea, U-53 twice came under air attack, both times driving off the offending aircraft with flak (though U-53 did not succeed in destroying the aircraft). The rest of the trip to AM32 was uneventful, but on reaching AM32 on September 7th, U-53 encountered a coastal freighter. The first Type I was a dud, but the second holed the freighter in her stern, and she sank within minutes. Later that same day, a small merchant was sunk with a single torpedo. The remainder of the AM32 patrol was uneventful. U-53 opted to hunt AM51, off the northwest coast of Ireland. While there on September 12th, she sank a passenger cargo with a single torpedo, bringing her total haul to roughly 6000 tons. Two days later, off the southwest of Ireland, U-53 surprised a Granville freighter, sinking her with a single torpedo amidships, and increasing her first patrol bag to roughly 10,000 tons. U-53 then headed to BF13, and ran a search pattern that turned up a small merchant on September 17th. U-53 overhauled her, sinking her with a single torpedo amidships. Immediately afterwards, another merchant vessel was caught and torpedoed by U-53. Though she was only a small merchant, she took two torpedoes to sink, despite developing a severe list after the first one. On the morning of the 18th, another coastal freighter was caught and torpedoed by U-53. With only two torpedoes left, she made for home, plotting a course through the English Channel. Later that afternoon, U-53 caught a large cargo ship, sinking it with a magnetic torpedo on a fast-running Type I, after having missed her first shot. Heading through the channel was strenuous, but U-53 made it through undetected. Proceeding at flank speed on the surface when no ships were visible, she would dive and run silent for hours on end when one appeared. Through this method, she made it out of the channel and then ran at flank speed all the way home, arriving on September 22nd after 20 days at sea. Her total haul was in excess of 28,000 GRT. |
U37 IX(A) 2. Flotilla. Patrol 2. Grid BF15.
07.nov.39. 19.26 Underway
21.nov.39. 20.03. Grid AM43. C2 Cargo. 6.446 GRT. Sunk. Course 275. Speed 9 Knots. Night Surface Attack. Wind 15. Fog Light. 3 x T1 Torpedoes. 25.nov.39. 02.30. Arrive at patrol grid BF15. 07.17. BF15. Sound Contact. 08.16. BF15. C2 Cargo. 6.447 GRT. Sunk. Course 065. Speed 8 Knots. Day Submerged Attack. Wind 10. Fog Light. 2 x Stern T1 Torpedoes. (Target D.I.W.). 1x Bow T1 Torpedo (Target Sunk) 23.43. BF15. C2 Cargo. 6.448 GRT. Sunk. Course 051. Speed 6+ Knots. Night Surface Attack. Wind 10. Clear. Moon Full. 3 x T1 Torpedoes. 26.nov.39 03.35. Corvette Spotted. Dive. Sound Contact. Convoy. 07.07. Surface. Full Ahead. Course 232. 08.23. ASW Trwawler closing. Dive. Undetected. 09.06. Surface. Full Ahead. 09.21. ALARM! Aircraft. 13.26. Surface. Full Ahead. 15.45. "We've been detected". Dive. 100 Meters. Depth Charge Attacks. 20.06. Surface. Full Ahead. Course 237. 21.06. Dive for sound search. Convoy dead ahead. 21.08. Surface. Full Ahead. 22.00. Corvette spotted at 2.600 meters. Periscope Depth. Gather information. 22.47. Surface. Full Ahead. Course 246. Working around convoy, and escorts. Gathering information on surface. 27.nov.39 01.23. Grid BF17. Submerged forward of convoy. Lead escort is V Class DD. Convoy coming dead on at us. Match convoys course. Will fire torpedoes at 90 degrees from boat. (My 270. Targets 090). 02.09. Clear. Full Moon. Wind 10. Target is a C2 Cargo. Course 221. Speed 4+ Knots. 3 x T1 Torpedoes fired at 800 meters. Fire. Dive to 100 meters. 2 impacts. Nothing sunk. No torpedoes remaining. 4 escorts deliver numeriouse attacks. Nothing close. No damage. Evade, and head home. 06.dec.39. 15.34. Grid AE69. Alarm! Aircraft. No ASW attack. 08.dec.39. 14.50. Grid AF47. Alarm! Aircraft. No damage. 15.dec.39. Arrive at Wilhelmshaven. Patrol results: 3 ships. 19.341 GRT. U37's total for 2 patrols: 8 ships. 43.384 GRT. (2 External Stern Tubes. No stern reloads. No External Reloads carried. 12 Torpedoes in all.) |
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I figured someone would like to know that it sucked. :)
Just returned from 2nd Patrol, October 1939. Went to BE99, through the channel. I had promised myself I wouldn't torpedo anything in the channel, because I just want to get out of there as quickly as possible and, you know, not die. But I saw a large cargo flying a tricolour in heavy fog and overcast skies, so I figured I was safe. Sent her to the bottom with two torpedoes. On returning to base, I discovered that that was probably a Belgian tricolour, and I didn't pick up on that because of the bad lighting. The first neutral tonnage of this career, and it was worth 11000GRT. Between some large cargoes and small merchants, I sank another 15000GRT of legitimate allied shipping, so I kind of rectified the situation. They gave me an Iron Cross, but I'm still just a Leutnant. :( |
Presently on our third patrol since I took command of the boat in October. We have just finished tearing through a convoy we had intercepted north of Ireland, near our assigned patrol area. The encounter could not have come off any better.
As we sailed NNE ahead of the convoy the watch spotted a small merchant about 8 klicks north. I was about to ignore it when it dawned on me that an attack on that ship might draw some of the convoy escort away. We closed in, opened fire and sank that ship in short order. Headed back to the convoy and sailed a box-like pattern around them, keeping a distance of 4-5 kilometers. The dark of night cloaked us well, and the weather was near perfect. We came around behind them and trailed for close to two hours (much of that was in TC). Didn't spot any escort whatsoever so I decided to give the order, and away we went. Tore them a new chute. Out of 15 ships - three were neutral - we sank 12. The only protection I saw for them was an armed trawler that had meandered back from where we had been spotted several hours before. It must have been too far away to notice what was happening... we were still busy lobbing HE at the last few merchants! The only fire we took, I think came from the last merchant. We were pretty close to it by the time she went down. I had sent an aft torp to the escort, but never saw whether or not it hit. All in all, hands down, the absolute best convoy intercept I have ever had since I started playing SH3. The weather was perfect, it was pitch dark, and there was a diversion opportunity nearby (I didn't think it would work). Not crossing my fingers for any subsequent luck, though. I only took one screenie, of the map. Shows the rough path we were to sail as we scouted the convoy. The merchant we had sunk as a diversion is part of the smudginess in the upper-right corner of the image: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/pict...pictureid=1157 |
Why is it that I never get to see those mythic unescorted convoys when I can attack them? As it is I have only ever seen one in campain play and the weather was too bad to make a gunnery run on him, just bearly thoguh, and I was fresh out of eels to give them. I guess I will have to bone up on my convoy finding skills :O:.
Nice work on that one though, I had a dead dark gun fight with an armed merchant once in '43. I ended up straifing him at flank speed, kind of, shooting when he presented a good target. I had faverable conditions for about 5 hours but only managed to criple the already damaged ship, I think a storm beat him up or the Luft had a pass at him, but I did manage to bust his rear gun mount off and eather kill his engine or rupture the fule tanks for him. I was gearing up for another night run, keeping a close eye on him incase he sank, when just about the same time I sufaced to finish him he went under anyway. |
I was actually surprised. The first four or five convoys were all, like you said, in bad weather. I limited the time compression to 128 - not sure if that was also a help. But it was that one lone merchant that sealed the deal, I think. Never had that happen before. If it hadn't been there I would have had to knock out escorts first. :-?
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Keeping your time compresion no higher than 128 will definatly help with the weather. At higher TC the weather gets messed up and the current conditions will last much longer than they should, just poor game biulding.
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Patrol 7
U-46, Type VIIB, 2nd Flotilla, Kptlt Konrad Tietz Left at: May 12, 1941, 17:39 From: Lorient First encounter with enemy shipping after 21 days at sea. Patrol results Ships sunk: 4 Aircraft destroyed: 0 Patrol tonnage: 13261 tons Total: 233452 tons. 39 ships sunk (3 warships) Kptlt Tietz will now commission new type IXC uboot, U-153. |
Grats on your new Uboat, unterseeman. :salute:
Highlights from Patrol 4 Nearing the year 1940 now, and it is my fourth patrol from Wilhelmshaven. We are in the Channel, roughly 80 kilometers southeast of Portland. Encountered a handful of merchant shipping, beginning from what I believe was the coast of Belgium and leaving a sparse trail of wreckage along the southern coast of England. I do not remember precisely where on the map, but at some point I thought I would play chicken with an Elco. Ordered the gun and both flak mounts to be manned. It was headed straight toward us, so I decided to empty a bow tube at it. They saw the darn bubble trail and swerved to avoid it. Didn't take long to close with them. We were dropping 88's all around them. I manned one of our flak mounts and ordered rudder full to port, to get my sights on them and still be able to fire. The engagement lasted probably 20 minutes or so. Toward the end the Elco ran straight away from us. I learned from earlier experience that a bubble trail will get them to turn hard, which bleeds energy and helps shorten the distance between boats. We can't go as fast, but in smoother waters my gun crew can be fairly accurate. We managed to score enough hits with the 88 to sink the bugger. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/pict...pictureid=1160 The following morning we were in pursuit of two contacts moving west out of the Channel. Hopes of catching them were fleeting at best, as we had picked them up late the afternoon before. At some point my Watch Officer yells out "Enemy ship engaging us, sir!". I thought, "Well that's odd. There's nothing on the map but those two benign contacts...". Went up top to see what was happening, asked the WO for a bearing and he had nothing. Could hear shells flying overhead, so I tracked around with the UZO to our portside and saw a V&W with a full head of steam coming straight at us. She was less than 5,000 meters from us and the weather was clear. How could we not have seen it? I'll keep a long story short. We were being shelled and had to get under pronto. The destroyer had a moments-old fix to rely on, which gave us enough time to evade with minor damage. After maybe fourty minutes I took a peek around through the periscope and saw an opportunity to sink our adversary. Took three torpedos total. They evaded the first, took the second one under the stern. Thought that would do the trick, but it wasn't enough. She zig-zagged toward us, slowly, and I think maybe there was some damage after all. Within about 800 meters she seemed to be turning sluggishly away, so I set the third torpedo to run fast and fired. That did the trick. That was the first opportunity I've had to see up close and personal what a torpedo under the funnels will do! :DL Here's a screenie of her, snapped just after the keel had collapsed back into the water. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/pict...pictureid=1161 |
Started a carreer with manual targetting.
Three patrols, no torpedo ever touched any ship. Read again and again the GWX 3.0 part about manual targetting. Going back to auto targetting. |
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