After a month in transer and refitting, the crew and I have moved to a new sub, at a new base- a IXB out of St Nazaire :)
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U-93 Patrol #4
21/6/1941
After losing contact with a convoy further south yesterday, I Carried on towards north of the IOM, where i detect some more signatures on my phones, they are south of us, so it sounds like I'm back in touch again with that convoy I lost yesterday! :yeah: Proceeded to surface and run on an intercept course based upon what Im hearing (bear in mind no "RADIO REPORT" has yet been recieved) and before long im catching them! A short time later that afternoon we spot many smokes seen on the horizon, some distance off, possibly four km away. GUNFIRE!!!! :o Sunddenly a shell whizzes overhead, and then another! "WHERE THE 'ECK DID THEY COME FROM??" :damn: I shout at my bridge crew as we crash dive to 70m Currently Im sat at a depth of 108m, which is about as low as we can go with the ecco sounder now reading around 5m before we hit the bottom... :stare: Being chased by at least two ASW trawlers so it seems and have taken light damage to my rear tube compartment, as I dove away. holding them off thus far with attacks lasting 35minutes. :yawn: (bedtime in R/L for me!) |
January 1941.
Kptlt. Kurt Todlich. U-127, a Type IXB out of Lorient. We did drills the moment we got into deep water. A regular crash dive took approximately 40 seconds. We must improve on that. On the other hand, we were able to level off from a crash dive at only 40 meters. Encountered a small convoy, about 100 km west of northern Portugal. Sank one small freighter, but rough seas negated a second attack. There are bigger targets elsewhere. Wiederhaller finally got that violin he wanted. At night, he plays it in the torpedo room. Now we are headed towards our assigned patrol area, grid DT28. We plan to sail through the Canary Islands. BTW: Is "extended shore leave" a rank or something else meaningful? |
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Arrived safely in Kiel on 2.apr.43. Checked the IXCs leave out dates for patrol 1, so I could have nearly the same departure date. U523 was the closest, but was months off. What I did find was U534 IXC40. I think that means the deck gun is history? Hoping not, but if so, so be it. The departure dates should match within a few days. The days will be getting shorter, and the trip over the top of Scottland could be a killer. (The RAF can reach all the way to Store Bælt now! Super shallow!) |
First encounter with a Q ship today, near gibraltar. hit it fore with a torpedo she started listing heavily but didn't go down so i surfaced along side to hit her up close with my deck gun. no visible armament but then 3 muzzle flashes and I take 2 hits to the conning tower and one to the forward decking! crash dive, come about, and vehemently loose both rear tubes on impact. Broke the sucker up.
Have to be more cautious in future. EDIT: On the dawn of our next patrol, my leading torpedo man, Hans Kreuzer, got his neck broken in a bar fight. Is there nothing SH3 commander cannot do? :P |
12 October 1942
U-64 IXB After patrolling grid EJ 99 as ordered started my return passage. Tonnage so far was Ok for this patrol (45000 grt) but since there were 14 torps left I decided to pass through grid CG 95 outside Gibraltar. The weather was good so I was surfaced after a long period being submerged to refresh the air. Radar detector goes off so a crash dive follows. The external camera shows two Wildcats MK IV attacking. Their bombs fell close to my starboard side but no damage was inflicted. I stayed at 70m for 2 hours (game time) and surfaced since CO2 level was high. I didn't check with the periscope , I just broke the surface and paid it. I was immediatelly straffed by a pair of Hurricanes (Were these ever on ASW patrols in RL? I don't think so) The 20mm cannons caused flooding in bow torpedo compartment and bow quarters but my damage control crew handled it. Behind those two were two more Wildcats that dropped their load accuratelly. More flooding and uncontrolable dive to 165m until the situation was under control again. The hull was producing starnge noises so I surfaced once more. This time no one was around. I don't know the percentage of damage caused so I am on my way back to Lorient. |
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In port checking out the French totty. :DL
What! I must set sail for America, yes sir. :salute: Jan42 on my way to kick Yankee butt. |
sighted a convoy in the south atlantic, too calm a day to engage the convoy, early morning too.... so I loaded the crew onto the 105mm and engaged the lead escort, a flower class corvette. Funny thing is, a uboat heading straight at you is quite unnerving, and a bloody small target. I took one minor hit he took 3 below the water line. That should make THAT a little easier :D
EDIT: Jimbo, aggressive enough for you??? |
Right now in sort of a pickle of what to do. May 5th of 41' sitting in St. Nazaire, an almost ideal spot and time for sailing to help the impending Bismark battle; though my patrol area is in CG am torn as to where to go. I know there's gonna be a lot of juicy targets up there all bunched together, but my kaleun wouldn't know that and was sort of looking forward to an extended trip down the African Coastline with the new supply ship in the South Atlantic.
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...make that two flower classes... now all I have to do is torpedo the black swan that is REALLY pissed off... and I have it made!
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Missing Name syndrome is catching on to more people.... t'is contagious |
U531 IXC40. Patrol 1
Pulled out of Kiel 0700 on 30.apr.43.
Heading for canadian waters. Then it's on to Lorient, if we live. 0320 17.maj.43 Current position is AE94. Keeping the oxygen and battery levels up has been a real chalenge due to heavy air activity. No darkness to hide in. No surface contacts to date. |
So I'm in february '43 now, and I'm thinking about going to the Indian Ocean / Pacific. I'm not sure yet, but I may transfer myself there. Couple of questions though:
- I read in the GWX manual that if you join the 10th flotilla and have a XID2 sub, I'll get transferred to Penang in september (or november) '43. But when and how do I activate the Pacific campaign mod? If I get transfered, I have to exit the game, activate the 'Indian Ocean only' mod through JSGME and then re-load my game? Or do I have to use the''merged campaign' mod to actually travel there? If I can avoid that, I'd like to, as I fear the loading time for 'merged campaign'... -Second question: how's the action over there? Are there just as many convoys in the far east? And are there any maps like the stock Atlantic traffic map showing convoy / traffic routes? I'm not sure if I'm gonna go east or stay in the trusty Atlantic, so if anyone had gone there, what I'm asking, I guess, is; is it worth it? |
Kapitänleutnant Josef Ochner reporting, September 11th, 1940, BF12.
After six combat patrols, the last of them a nearly two month patrol from Wilhelmshaven to the Canary Islands and Gibraltar, replenishing supplies at the Corrientes in Las Palmas, my requests for a brand new type VIIC and a transfer to the 7th flotilla at St. Nazaire were granted. The new boat, U-93, was ready to sail on September 7th, with orders to patrol AM23. Yesterday, September 10th, we received a radio contact report: outbound convoy some 150 miles northwest of us, heading west by southwest at medium speed. Only a couple of hours later, a new report: inbound convoy 70 miles west of us, moving slowly northeast. I decide to go for the slower convoy because it is closer to us, easier to intercept, and must be carrying war materials that soon will reach England if we do not try to stop them. The weather is very favorable, 6 m/s winds, overcast, no rain, medium fog, with a visibility of maybe 5000-6000 meters. After a couple of hydrophone checks to find the convoy, we finally see the first ship at 10 pm. We are on the starboard side of the convoy, and since no escorts can be seen, we maneuver to a position alongside a row in the convoy to easily match course and speed. Keeping the ships of the row behind each other on bearing 270, I know my speed and course must match. 55 degrees and 7 knots, as expected. We also spot a corvette in front of the convoy. My intention is to attack 3 ships in the 2nd row, a 5000 ton cargo, a 4000 ton cargo and a 5000 ton tanker, counting from outer column towards the inside, with one torpedo each. Behind them, in the outer column, is a 8500 ton large cargo, which will get the stern torpedo after I turn. With this weather and no side escort, it will be a surface attack. The maneuver to the attack position takes us a bit too close to the convoy, less than 500 meters from the outer column. Because no one seems to notice us even this close, I attack, firing three torpedoes from the bow tubes. As soon as the last torpedo leaves the tube, I order a fast turn port, towards the rear of the convoy, hoping to fire my stern tube at the large ship in the next row. Just before the turn is completed, we see two almost simultaneous torpedo detonations. Both the 5000 ton tanker and the 4000 ton cargo are hit beneath the front mast, just where intended. Due to an unknown reason, the third torpedo aimed at the nearest ship never detonated. Either I set it too deep, it was a dud, or the distance was too short. Incredible, if I could get too close on the surface without being seen. The intended target for my stern tube spots us soon after the detonations, starts turning, and turns its spotlights towards us. I fire the stern torpedo, order ahead flank and a heading away and to the back of the convoy. The torpedo hits the very front of the large cargo. Only 2 or 3 meters off, and it would have missed. Then a starshell lights the sea and the escort corvette engages us, forcing us to dive. With only 80 meters of water, we dive to 70 meters at flank speed and then slow down, hoping to get far enough to not be detected. It works, and the one set of depth charges is way off. No other escort joins the attack, so we soon reload the tubes, raise to periscope depth, make a quick check and surface with the convoy still in sight. No escorts behind the convoy, so the lone corvette must be the only escort. During our dive we heard the large cargo sink, but the fate of the two smaller ships we hit first is unknown. I decide to attack again as soon as possible, so we run around the convoy at full speed, keeping a distance of 5000 meters to the nearest ship. During the maneuver we notice the positions of the two ships we hit are empty, so they must be somewhere behind the convoy. I choose new targets, two 5100 ton cargo ships in the first row, in the outer column and the column beside it. Both will get two torpedoes. This time I don't go as close as on the first run, the estimated torpedo runs being 1700 meters and 2500 meters. With electric torpedoes, we should have enough time to turn and run away on the surface without ever being seen. We attack as planned, turn around and head out and to the rear of the convoy at flank speed. When the torpedo timers run out, nothing. 15 seconds later, still nothing. Just as I'm sure we missed, we hear two detonations, and a few seconds later, two more. Again, spotlights light up and a starshell is fired from the corvette, but this time no one detects us. Keeping a distance of 5000 meters we run towards the rear of the convoy, my intention being to next find the two ships I torpedoed earlier. With only the stern tube loaded, an immediate new attack wouldn't be possible anyway. After reaching a position behind the convoy, with the convoy still in sight, I set course in opposite direction, and after a few kilometers sight the two stragglers. The only escort must now be some 15 kilometers away, so I decide to attack with the deck gun from a range of 2000 meters. The tanker only needs 10 shells before it goes down. After we shift fire to the cargo ship, a starshell lights the horizon behind us. The escort was closer than I thought. We continue the attack anyway, firing a total of 30 shells at the cargo ship, before leaving the area at flank speed, certain that that ship too will sink. Despite firing a couple of more starshells, the corvette never catches up with us. We dive, reload three of the bow tubes with the last internal reloads, and surface again. The convoy must now be over 30 km ahead of us, is getting closer to England all the time, and sunrise is only a few hours away, so I decide to let it go. With 5 ships sunk for 28000 tons, four torpedoes in the tubes, and only two external reloads remaining, I order course towards AM23. Kapitänleutnant Josef Ochner, end report. |
Catch Up
Its good to be back and to share a round. We're all still alive after three more patrols, so I guess first round is on me...
Let me see - highlights. OK. On Patol 3, in huge seas and wind at dusk in appalling visibility (down to 300 -500m), (in AM97, I think it was) my hydrphone operator detected a large merchant tavelling East heading into the Bristol Bight. I chased the bugger all night, because, once again, I couldn't get ahead flank, so I had only a half knott per hour closure rate. Frustrating! At least I didn't also have the directional drift I had last time. Why did I persevere for 15 hours all the way into AM99? It was a Whale Factory ship, and I was sick of Medium Merchants! I wanted a real prize and some bragging rights to bring home for the crew. So, about 11 hours into the chace, we got within range, dead astern, and let go a couple of T1s, set to Mag pistol (the perfect scenario). They both pre-detonated. The next two Impacts bounced off! So, after reload, I tried another two Mags. These seemed to be going fine, but one passed harmlessly less than a metre under the hull (and, before you ask, yes I had the draft set right!), while the other bounced off the bottom of the hull and floated harmlessly to the bottom. Arghhh!! So, we stuck with it trying to overhaul the monster for another few hours, finally coming 500m abeam of him, intending to take an impact shot, when a triple-damned DD shows up! I had no trouble evading him, but by then I had lost aquisition, somewhere SW of Cardiff. :damn: I think that ship was under the protection of Loki! I was so furious, I decided to go to Cardif to see if I could locate him. Had to get in to under 1.5 km to see anything. No Whaler, but a nice Ammo ship. However, my XO made me see sense (temporarily), and we left it alone, as it was in a small harbour on the wrong side of a wharf and a submarine net. But I wasn't done yet - off to Bristol - determined to salvage something! Got in close enough to find accessible a Modern Tanker & a Troop ship. Drew up my preferred firing lines and maneuvered out to 3 kms, to let go of my last bow fish at the Trooper, followed by a 500m right turn to line up the Tanker with the last stern shot. Both impacts did their jobs (FINALLY!), but neither vessel went down. Spent the next two hours avoiding the hornets nest - two DD's, 4 ASW's and about 6 Torp boats. Wasn't too hard though, as I had launched from about 3 kms out, so the bulk of their hunt was inshore of me. By now, it was a good sea state and little wind, but still poor visibility, so I travelled submerged another 5 kms and took the risk of surfacing and loading both external stores at full stop. How we got away with that, I have no idea, but suffice it to say, we then repeated the previous attack profile and succeded in putting both on the bottom. (Though I don't know what to make of "Intelligence" - they are claiming the Tanker's cargo was Scrap Metal! As if!) Although we came back with our worst ever patrol results - 6 kills credited for a total of 29760 tons - it was still strangely satisfying. You talk now - I'm thirsty - I'll tell you about the others on my next round. |
Here's to you, Kaleuns!
Sometimes, it pays to actually go to your assigned grid. We were out in AN13 on our 4th patrol when we picked up a small convoy across in AN14.
We closed to find 6 escorts for 2 Medium Merchants - something suspicious about that so I decided to go at them. Got a torp into each of the Merchants, from less than 1 km, but then the escorts were all over me. Took out a Tribal & a V&W within 10 mins of each other. (I later found out one of them was Canadian!), but then had to disengage and evade - for many, many hours). Shadowed them and late the next afternnon got another torp into a Merc - they tell me it was only carrying coal! The next two days were cat & mouse around the cripled other Merc (which could only do 1 knott) - I've never heard of such an extended engagement. Took out a C&D - another Canadian! - before finally nabbing the Merc, which I now learn was carrying aircraft - mystery solved! The next day it was almost an anti-climax to see two Auxilary Cruisers steam over the horizon with only a single escort! Took them both out with two torps each, and the escort hardly even bothered to come looking for us! Extraordinary. Anyway, that was a lot better, with 9 ships for 47,439 tons. Weird, but fun. Your shout. |
Thish'll be m' last round.
All right, I'll tell you this and no more - I'm legless already.
Took out 4 single merchants while transiting the chanel from BF 31 to BF25, on our way to our patrol 5's assigned grid at BF17. Never got there. Here's why. Alerted to Large convoy transiting BF13, ran intercept and caught them in BF14. Only getting one hydrophone return for warship, and no outliers, so a large convoy, virtually unprotected. I was dead in their line of travel, so I dove to 120m on the same bearing as the convoy, on silent, and went all stop until the escort passed overhead. Now that i was in his baffles, I ordered periscope depth at ahead standard, then slow as "Ears" detected another warship astern at long range. This had me at periscope depth in the middle of the first 5 wide row of Tankers & Merchants. But the real prize was in the second row. I armed all T1's with Impact/Fast at 2m, selected 1-4 Salvo at 10 deg spread and came hard right at ahead standard to engage. The target was that second warship that I had thought may have been a trailing escort. Nah. It was only a 31,000 ton Revenge Class (the Ramillies) loping along at 6 knotts in the middle of the 2nd row! We got around square and let rip. Three conected, with the 4th taking out a Med Merc on the far side. I hit a first column Large Merc with my stern tube before heading back to the depths on the reciprocal bearing to the convoy. As the strikes were on both wings and the middle of the pack, the escort was clueless as to where to look, so it was easy to go 'doggo' until they were out of range. I came off silent, surfaced, reloaded (including external stores as the weather was so good), and headed off in persuit. 5 hours later, I let loose with single torps into a Modern Tanker, a Tanker and a bunch of Med Merchants. The whole convoy had changed course once re-forming and three hours later, on a dark night, I came 500m alongside the on-fire Modern Tanker and put him down with the deck gun. I repeated this trick with an on-fire Med Merc an hour later, but this time the J&K escort got close enough to engage us. We danced for a while, with me luring him into a perfect submerged dead-astern chase with us firing a text-book stern tube Mag shot at him at 600 m. Of course the useless thing failed to detonate, so we had some fun before I out turned him after one of his attack runs to get him side-on with an imact. Then we had some more fun with the last of our torps and then using the deck gun to put down all those that had been previously hit (including the Large Merc that we got in the very first engagement). Then we took out some Intermediate Tankers with the last of our rounds (I didn't want to only wound a larger Merc - no point). Finally, just to rub their noses in it, we took out a whole lot of deck cargo with our flack gun from under 100 m. A couple tried to ram us, but we had had our fun, so broke off in BF15, 12 hours after commencing the engagement. Had some near misses on he way back home through The Ditch, but arrived home on the 7th of Dec for our shortest cruise ever (a week & a half) with unscathed crew and hull, for 13 ships and 96093 tons. If only the Brits would keep sending out such convoys! :salute: This floor is comfortable. Or I'm comfortably numb. Think I'll just stay here for a while. That must mean, by Peacock's definition, I quit, quietly, quite drunk, thank you. "Not drunk is he who from the floor Can rise along and still drink more But drunk is he who prostrate lies Without the power to drink or rise." |
September 9,1939 U-41 (VIIB)
Acted on contact report from BdU and intercepted merchant 70KM off the east coast of England grid AN73. Target positively identified as the British flagged medium cargo vessel SS Azalea City. Proceeded to shadow target in preparation for torpedo attack. Petty Officer Eckerman manning the hydrophone reported enemy warship contacts at long range moving fast. Decided to press on with the attack and launched three torpedos set for impact, all made good hits leaving the SS Azalea City stopped and listing in the water. Possible distress signel sent as warship contacts were soon reported closing at very fast speed to my position. Attempted to exit vicinity at surface flank speed but enemy warships identified as three Royal Navy destroyers were soon spotted on the horizon. Dived the boat to the maximum depth allowed by the shallow waters, reduced speed to 1knot and rigged for silent running. Enemy warships proceeded to collect survivors and swept the area before returning to their patrol. Thankfully I remained undetected. SS Azalea City sunk for 5078t. Now resuming patrol. Morale is high. |
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