Restarting 4th patrol of current campaign,due to a minor change to realism settings (explained in other posts of mine).

Oct 30th 1942
Assigned to AL35.
Departed at 01:00

Approx 100km west of France.
Weather is very good,waves 2mps

Endured 2 air attacks already,1st attack single fighter,no damage due to perfectly executed dive in good time.
2nd attack in space of 30mins,forced to fight on the surface as multiple Hurricanes screamed out of the sun preventing crash dive.1 plane crippled,bombs landed very close to aft SB section,shaking boat,no damage due to zig-zag maneuver.
Dived to 25m,will surface in 30mins.

You might want to stay down longer. Once you have been spotted, the chance of them finding you again is increased. The chance then slowly returns to normal over time. In '43+ I stay submerged 24 hours or more after being sighted.

It's good to change course while you're under too and return to the original one after you surface again, that way they can't find you again by just following along the line you were on before.

I think for the moment and for the current year in my game being under for no more than an hour is sufficient,mainly because there is no further added support,ie destroyers homing in on the last sighting.When I am spotted it takes them no more than about 1 hr to return to Britain,and then the gap increases as you say.
If after 30mins - 1r the skies are clear and there are no sounds nearby I will break surface at full speed,and make as much distance on the surface as I can,before the next AA.This can only be done naturally on clear days though,and any signs of cloud and I make a mandatory dive until it clears,or get as far as I can submerged,as the risk of being surprised even closer is greater in cloudy weather.
I am not sure how difficult its gonna get as soon as I hit 1943,but no doubt I will experience longer submerged times,due to either planes staying in the area longer,or added support from warships sent to the area by the aerial spotters.

:yep:

As soon as I crash dive from planes,and as soon as the UBoat is FULLY submerged I normally make a course change into the planes of about 20degs,then run at high speed until the first bombs drop.After then I slow to 1/3 and return to course.
It normally works,sometimes the DCs come close,sometimes they are way off :yep:

Continued from last report

Oct 30th,1942
07:30
3rd air attack,bombs fell very close,no damage.I suspect the sun is not high enough in the sky yet,making spotting that more difficult at long range.
08:45
4th AA,multiple fighters,many bombs,no damage.
10:24
5th AA,single fighter flew past,bomb landed close again,no damage.Decided to man guns at this moment,except for when facing bombers.Better to fight back against fighters it seems.
12:10
6th AA,multiple fighters,fired back and damaged one fighter.During emergency dive one of their bombs glanced us causing minor damage to the flaks and foredeck.Apparent our guns had minimal effect on the planes,due to low calibre and poorly trained gunners.Decided to dive against all planes now,until a better refit of guns becomes available,if ever that day comes.

As you can see,I have been having lots of fun in the bay of Biscay,and am only about 150km west of France :nope:

DH42

Shadowing a convoy, only one flower class as escort... It's going to be fun....

Choking off Rosyth
 

A little while back I decided to try out the XXI. First availability in the game is July '44 (which, I understand, is not historically correct), 3rd flotilla out of La Rochelle. After some time to get used to the advantages, and drawbacks, of the boat I am now on the 6th successive mission - April 1945. Since I was pretty sure this would be the last opportunity to take it out on the guys which had sent so many of my comrades to the bottom I decided this should mainly be a destroyer hunt. Since standard load-out, among others, were 6 Zaunkønigs, I "bought" 3 additional ones to be better prepared. I am now lying in the narrow entrance to Rosyth with 4 Zaunkønigs and 1 TIII left. The fjord around us is littered with 7 destroyers and A/S vessels, their bows and afts sticking out of the shallow water, together with 4 merchants, among them a large cargo and large merchant - still burning.

Presently a small carrier is entering the fjord, quite near now, escorted by 4 other vessels. The weather is nice, flat ocean, middle of the day - with only 3 meters under the keel. This could be a close call.....

continued......:

It certainly became a close call - still is.....Of course, in my eager of speeding up their approach I was a little too generous with the TC and suddenly a Hunt III was on top of me. When I sidestepped it veered off and continued straight on. The Bouge class carrier and a Black Swan was quite close now. I aimed the TIII at the carrier with magnetic depth setting and sent a Zaunkønig towards the Swan. Problem is I didn't space up enough between the Bogue and the Swan so after a little while the Zaunkønig meant for the Swan veered off towards the carrier. This one was obviously giving off a louder signal. So I had to use another Zaunkønig for the Swan. That worked out fine for the two other escorts, too - so, now I was out of torps with a Hunt III approx. 1500 meters behind.

We sped up eastwards for a few minutes, let go a Bold 5 and veered sharply northwards, cutting engine to crawl speed. For a time it seemed as if the Hunt III should pass us and go out the fjord. But, it didn't. After a few attacks it was out of D/C's. That was about 1300. It is now 2030 and while we have crawled and sprinted approx 25 miles eastwards it is still terrorizing us by crossing over us again and again. A Colony and a Town destroyer has been lingering not too close but they seem to be chasing something else. However, the Colony is now approaching us. There is a little swell starting.

Well, to tell the truth I may be fired from my job for playing at 200% realism.

YES!!! 200% The regular 100% and then 100% extra realism.
The extra is listed below...

1. I work at a hotel, which I now only refer to as U-53.
2. I have not shaven in two weeks- I'm on patrol.
3. I have not showered in two weeks.
4. I speak only broken German, and is gibberish because I do not know German.
5. The only German that is real are U-boat commands, and that makes checking people in hard.
6. All messages sent to coworkers require an enigma to decode.
7. When ever I am outside smokeing a cigerette, "Watch Duty" and an airplane goes over, I scream "ALARM" and pull the fire alarm.

Right now I am about four days out of port on my return voyage. I have specific orders from BDU to return due to lack of ammo.
So far sank 1 bb, 1dd, 2lrg cargos. I thought I had gotten more but I think there was some freindly fire by the SCR's in the convoy and they stole a few kills. My hull is better than average since I have taken almost no damage, only a few of the shots from the SCR hit me. Most important though, all my men are alive! I had thought I sank around 78,000 tons but ended up with around 58,000 so some one must have helped me a little with one of them. I'm not complainging though, as lucky as I was, I should have died so many times before that. Those SCR's by the way may have sank eachother, yes I got one fish in the side of each, but they were shooting at everything, they may have gotten eachother. Either way less Spam for Tommy!

I am thinking that soon, you will have all kinds of time on your hands to play SH3 when you are unemployed. :D

Keep on surfacing after 30 minutes and I will lay an even money bet that, unless there is a change in the weather to medium or heavy fog, or you manage to get outside of maximum range of aircraft coverage, you will be sunk before 12:00 NOV 2. With your current approach, you have been averaging one attacking aircraft per hour. (When you say "multiple" aircraft, I assume an average of 3.) As long as you keep surfacing so quickly, this will continue. If there is only a 1% chance that any given aircraft attack will sink you, then you have a less than 50% chance of surviving 69 consecutive aircraft attacks. At your current rate, that 69th attack will occur the morning of NOV 2.

You are averaging about 12.5km/h. In the next three days you can cover about 900km and endure about 72 aircraft attacks, or one attacking aircraft per 12.5 km.

If you dive for 24 hours, run at 1.9 knots on improved batteries (you have upgraded your batteries, haven't you?), then recharge for one hour at 10 knots, you will average just over 4km/h. Even if you are attacked by an average of two aircraft after an hour of charging (on average this will not happen) you will average less than one attacking aircraft per 50 km.

So, by resurfacing every 30 minutes you are subjecting yourself to over 4 times the rate of attacking aircraft per kilometre travelled.

If you are not detected during your first 1 hour recharge then you can switch to a schedule of recharging for one hour after dawn and again for one hour before dusk, submerged at 2.9 knots during the day, and 1.9 knots during the night. This yields an average speed of 5.5 km/h. Doing this you will be attacked by an average of two aircraft, less than once every day. This gives an average of less than one attacking aircraft per 66km, less than 1/5 your current rate of attacks. Of course, once you are attacked, you should submerge for 24 hours.

Choking off Rosyth.....2
 

...continued...

2100 it was all over.....would have been the last mission, anyway. What was it to go back to other than bombed-out cities and missing family members.....:cry:

Wonder how much such sentiments influenced on the U-boot crews during the final stages. Walking through a German war cemetary in a former occupied country it was striking to see how many had died (while prisoners) after the termination of hostilities and the end of 1945.

Patrol 17, May 1942.
Crossed the Atlantic picking up a few loaners on the way, including a Liberty Ship and a Ceramic Liner

Intercepted a large convoy off Halifax, Picked up 3 Whale Factories, a medium Merchant and a Black Swan, Attempting to evade a 2nd black swan a Trash Can exploded directly above my conning tower, wrecking it,

Evaded the escort and set course to the Nearest Milk Cow,
Currently patching up the sail and refuelling

81,000 Tonnes

Multiple aircraft usually means at least 3,sometimes an entire formation of fighters,or bombers,at least it looks like there are that many.I don't normally hang around long enough to count them.If they are bombers I will DEFINITELY dive at the shortest possible moment,as our guns currently have no effect on them,and if I get caught by fighters (usually when very close to the French coast) I may decide to fight back,then dive.I dive for about 1 hour now,before I would surface about every 30mins.It will take them about an hour to return,and just to come back again will surely piss the pilots off.

I really don't mind having to dive every hour or so,just as long as I get under quick enough,and even minimal damage can be repaired.Sooner or later,I will be out of the gauntlet,as before I have done.The slightest cloud cover and I dive for much longer,24 hours at least.

I have the latest batteries yes.

Its like a game of Russian Roulette,but I have the war gods on my side :arrgh!:

Currently in port at Kiel. Arrived back from our second patrol on Dec. 26, 1939. The crew was hoping to be back for Christmas, but their disappointment quickly faded when they boarded the train for home. Those remaining in Kiel while the boat is re-fitted will get the chance to go into town for some holiday cheer as well. My challenge will be to make sure I can get them all sobered up and re-focused before our next patrol. My orders are to be cleared for sea by Jan. 23, 1940.

P.S. - There are rumors of talk in the KM high command of a major operation in early 1940. Wonder what they have in mind?

U-5 (Type IID) back in port (Kiel) at 29 December, 1939. We sailed at 24 (damn the BdU!) and the crew were in bad mood because of it, but i promised we would be back in time to celebrate the new year, and we did after taking care of a French medium cargo (3 torpedos for 5000t) and a British large merchant (2 torpedoes for 10000t).

For this action i was awarded with an Iron Cross, Second Class.

Now lets celebrate by getting rotten drunk!! :woot::()1:

U-99 - starting a new career Sep. 1st 1939 - leaving Wilhelmshafen 1000 heading for AM19 - Rockalls Bank. The plan is to proceed between Scotland and Scapa before hostilities break out. Maybe slow down a little when passing South of Scapa.....:arrgh!:

Leaving Wilhelmshafen.....

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...gWilhelmsh.jpg

I should'nt imagine a raid being too difficult,Vikings were particularly good at that (Norway) ;)

Good luck with that then :salute:

Thank you! We shall see how it works out. Met the first victim early morning Sep 3rd. Large Merchant. He wouldn't stop.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...0539Sep3rd.jpg

To be on the safe side I filed the order received earlier in the morning:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...0210Sep3rd.jpg

Continuing towards Scapa - just observed an A&B on the horizon. Diving to let it pass. Time is 2001 Sep 3rd.

Continued from my last report (last 4hrs real time).Just one thing,hope none of you mind these little (seemingly insignificant) reports,just gives me something to do before I go for a tea break :D

13:10
Surfaced from last emergency dive (+1hr submerged) Decided to recharge batteries at night,allowing us to run at a higher speed during the day,also enemy planes have rarely been seen at night,bringing us to the conclusion that enemy radar is not yet powerful enough to be a major problem.
17:00
Sundown,sun just dipping on the horizon,putting us in a cautious state,due to aircraft sometimes appearing a lot nearer in these light conditions,as has happened once or twice before.
17:09
Aircraft spotted on our 190 (+5hrs since last aircraft attack,strange).Immediately crash dived to 50m.Absence of any follow up attack means he either failed to spot us or it must have been a Luftwaffe reconnaissance plane?.
Distance travelled surfaced - 71km
Will try our chances on the surface tonight.
18:13
Surfaced,recharging.
18:30
Dark now,very clear night,wind 5.
Lets hope we make it tonight,hope to make as much ground as possible on the surface.
End of report.
.................................................. .................................................. .................

Regarding these last events,the aircraft spotted earlier failed to attack us,and as we are heading bang west about 250km from France it was spotted on my 190,meaning it had to be over the French mainland somewhere.Am I right in suspecting this was a Luftwaffe plane?,as it would be my first close encounter with the LW,having never seen them before.