BdU
Lost all contracts with U-47 and Oberleutenant z. S. Lothar Prochnow while he and his crew where returning to Wilhelmshaven from their fourth war patrol. Last radio message received was a distress call date 30 January 1940, from a position roughly E of Helgoland. Kaleun Prochnow is our most successful commander with a confirmed 107K tons of enemy vessels sunk and a further 54K claimed during current, last patrol. Probable fate of U-47: sunk by mine, all hands lost. |
Just lost my latest career in April '41 after starting it in April '40. I'm too mad regarding this one to put any poetic flavor into my post.......I was feasting on a convoy in the BE grid area......I had already sent 3 large tankers, 1 modern tanker, a small merchant, and a large cargo to the bottom from this convoy. It was the middle of the night and after finishing off one of the crippled aforementioned ships above with my deck gun, I knew the convoy was still close enough that the escorts would still come rushing back to investigate. I decided that in order to help make 1 more attack on this convoy easier, I was going to pick off the escort that came back. Well, I dove and while not visible yet, there were 2 escorts approaching.......
I sank 1 with a head on shot shot from my stern tube........played cat and mouse with the 2nd escort and finally got him in my sights for a shot from a bow tube. It was a pretty incredible shot too because he was drifting to port still searching for me, It wasn't a head on shot and I wasn't sure of his speed either.......it detonates right under it's bow and I'm like....:rock:.......and all of a sudden this burning hulk which is only 600 meters now of my port quarter turns right towards me and speeds up!!.......I'm like :huh:.......I hit full ahead and a dive order but it was too late.....the destroyer runs right over me coming from port and seemingly saws my boat in half as I look at the damage screen....everyone from stern quarters on back is dead.....:Kaleun_Mad: To have my career ended like this after escaping some harrowing and critically damaging depth charge attacks in previous patrols in this career was such a buzzkill...... |
Now you know what Joachim Schepke, Gunter Prien, and Otto Kretschmer must have felt like...
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↯ from U 353 to BdU:
= Convoy in CF8659 240° 8 knots. 3 - 4 radar equipped escorts, no air cover, one straggler making about 7.5 knots. WSW 4, 2/10, sea 3, very good visibility. 4+2 torpedoes. Light damage from depth charging repaired. Sending hourly reports. Wähling = |
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Another computer malfunction may have wiped out my latest campaign. The computer won't start, so I have no idea whether the information is lost.
I have started a new campaign. On 23 January 1943, U-514 set sail from Lorient. I am pleased to say that all internal torpedoes are T3s. I am equipped with the finest anti-aircraft batteries that I can find. I set sail from Lorient at ahead slow. I have been assigned to EE65. En route I got my first new experience – a radar detection. Curious, I headed that way. YIKES! It was an enemy aircraft. I did an about face and manned the guns. After it passed, I dived to 50 meters. Three destroyers showed up at my last known location. I ran silent and slunk away in the depths. Remind me not to do that again. |
you can always count on the enemy to remind you not to do certain things in battle...
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31.10.1942 0347
Radio message:
From U 353 to BdU: = Convoy in CG8846 250° 7 knots. 20 merchants 4-5 escorts. A 5000 GRT freighter sunk. 3+2 torpedoes left. Wähling = |
U-513 ran into a convoy on its way to its patrol sector. The convoy was headed almost directly for me, so I decided to investigate. I moved into position at 4-5 knots, on the surface, and dived as soon as radar detection came on. The convoy's speed was 6 knots and almost due north – perhaps 7º
Sea: 6 so I chanced a scope up, and lowered it till the waves lapped across it covering it more often than not. I located two desirable vessels, but they were not in neighboring lanes. I decided to chance the double shot through an intervening lane. At back slow, I maneuvered to about 200m from the intervening lane and fired an aft salvo at the ship in back. Then I located the ship in front and fired a salvo at her set for five meter depth, impact. Then I ordered ahead slow and dived. The ship aft took two torpedoes right on schedule and no more than 10 seconds later the fore ship took two torpedoes and sank. She was a whaling vessel of some 12,000 tons. Just as we passed 50 meters, I heard the first ping. I ordered ahead full and turned into the convoy's wake to hide my noise. Going to the hydrophone I located the escort and just as the pinging stopped I turned to 225º The depth charges sound awfully close, and I jumped as the first one went off. I slowed to ahead slow, with all silent, and went to 209 meters under the ocean – the deepest I have ever gone. There were no strange noises, no leaks, no problems, and, most importantly, no pings. The second ship sank at this time. The escort did a few depth charge runs, but with the rough seas, he never reacquired us. I considered that following up on the convoy would be too risky, so I am continuing to my patrol area. |
Last night, it was dark, very windy, raining very hard and very high waves. I approach a convoy. I was pinged by a warship, didnt know what type, I manage to evade him but lose the convoy doing so. after a while i go to periscope depth and there he was right in front of me, about 600 meter. It was too good to be true, i fire once at him, a perfect shot right in the middle. It was a hellish vision that big warship in flames. I wait a bit, all was calm, i surfaced the boat and bam ! I was rammed by another warship !
He turned my sub and scraped starboard side, damaging almost ervery room. Weather was too foul to use my deck gun, he continue on his way. I was a bit panicking, i wouldnt risk diving with my sub in that state. He goes on his way, never turning back to finish me off. I guess it was my Lucky day. |
March 1, 1942.
Breaking into Loch Ewe, again. For the 3rd time? 4th? I forget exactly. They (BdU) told us to stay away from the tropics for awhile. Apparently, we've been so successful in the Gibraltar area lately, that enemy operations are peaking. Everything is tighter there now, so our intelligence forces have to work harder, more supplies are needed, more enemy troops and tanks are being deployed, it's a huge mess, thanks to us. We cruised the lanes around Iceland for a while, but didn't find any worthwhile targets, so on a whim, I decided to return to our very first hunting ground, Loch Ewe. I was about 3/4ths of the way in, with 2 sunken destroyers behind me, beat cops no longer on patrol, when I found a Fiji class light cruiser at anchor. Figuring this to be a milk run, I started selecting targets. No easy task because it was at night, and I am struck by the feeling that I arrived at Naval Review week or something. This place was packed! I had more targets than torpedoes. I was forced to use my seekers against parked ships. But the best kill in the bag, was the Illustrious class aircraft carrier we found. (I've been playing this game steadily since 2012 and until now, I never knew they existed. I've heard about them, I've just never seen one. I sank a Bogue class escort carrier, once. So I had hope that I would eventually find a heavy unit, and I did!) U73 took a hit to the conning tower, but the water deflected the shell somewhat so we were spared serious damage. We had to leave 3 destroyers behind, 1 of them was American, but we sank the Fiji-CL, the Illustrious-CV, and 2 Hunt III-DD. |
Had a successful 3rd patrol. It's late November, 39'. I was rounding Scapa Flow (Westward) one late night when I came across a V&W, and 2 Aux cruisers travelling my along my route. I take flank speed up to them, reach 1000 meters surfaced and send out 4 eels, two each. Both sank to the bottom, I flank out keeping the V&W at my stern before it could send out a star shell. Never knew what hit them!
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I don't want to cut and paste, so just read this-
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...67&postcount=9 |
Harbor incursion report: Bridgetown.
After a long, and uneventful slog down to my patrol sector, and a 24-hour uneventful patrol, I was itching for some action and so I decided to attack the Bridgetown harbor. It was a nice cruise in because the water is quite deep -- over 400 meters when I was only a few km away. As soon as I got the radar detection I went to periscope depth and started moving the rest of the way in. It was a long, slow journey to get into the right position. In fact, my CO2 level was pushing 1.5 by the time I got into position. Sea 6 I went scope up and couldn't really make anything out. It took a long time, but finally I spotted a tanker. The sweet joy turned to sorrow as I realized that there was no way I could get a good angle on her. Finally and after some painstaking work, I spotted a stationary destroyer -- probably the source of the radar signal. I moved into position and then fired a 2-torpedo salvo at 2º spread (T3s) at 1800 meters out. The destroyer went down immediately, and one of the cargo ships promptly turned away from me and beached itself where it fell victim to the weather and sank. I didn't get any credit for that, though. Well, I figured that was that and I surfaced to move away at full speed as my CO2 was about 1.8. However, I quickly slowed back down as I realized that: A) I wasn't getting radar warnings and B) my crew quickly located multiple ships I hadn't been able to see through the periscope. So I set up for a nice shot on a cargo ship and sent two torpedoes zinging in. I was so pleased until I got the notification that it was a neutral ship. Come ON! Shouldn't I get credit for sinking a neutral ship in a hostile port?! |
Intercepted two icebergs today.
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