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U-36 VIIB
Patrol No5
6 March 1940 20:21 hours U-36 left port under the escort of a minesweeper with orders to patrol grid AM32 11 March 1940 Grid AN11 09:45 - 18:53 hours The RAF had sent a whole squadron of Swordfish biplanes during these hours Of 9 planes attacked only one returned home. 1620 20mm rounds were used. The attacks were one at a time. 25 March 1940 Grid AD59 Convoy attack , 4 bow TIs fired , 2 hits scored 10:33 hours Small freighter sunk by 1 bow torpedo 10:34 hours Coastal freighter sunk by 1 bow torpedo 30 March 1940 Grid AD59 Convoy attack 4 bow TIs fired 4 hits scored No ships sunk 2 torpedoes were aimed at a convreted whale factory ship and the other 2 at a large cargo. No evidence as to what ship the torpedoes had hit. No other contacts during return passage 10 April 1940 14:43 hours U-36 docked at Wilhelmshaven. 36 days at sea 2 ships sunk 4266 tons 8 aircrafts shot down vonHarris and the whole crew were transferred to the new U-96 VIIC boat New batteries , allowing shorter recharge times were installed as well as a new color scheme. @sublynx Nice report with a lot of details. |
I just came back from what was supposed to be a trip to the med. Waiting for the right conditions to pass Gibraltar i met a huge convoy just a few hundred miles outside Morocco. Managet to sink a few escorts, a tanker, and two rms Aquatanias. I saved one acoustic fish incase a escort ship would follow me as i tried to escape and actually two did. After hours of bombardement one of them gave up and i decided the best thing to do was to get up at topedo depth and fire the last fish. I did and the escort blew up in a terrible blaze. I hadnt slept for some time to i gave the highest ranking officer orders to get us back to France while i took a long nap :).
Satisfied with the tonnage, 102 000. Not 100% realism though :p |
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20 - 25 seconds = 60 - 75 meters. DC drop rate = 3 meters / second. Helpful? Very nice, and extremely interesting report. I realy enjoyed the read. |
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Oh yeah!! :D Extremely helpful, thanks a lot Snestorm! I'll keep that 3 m/s in mind and try to find out if there is something I can do to make avoiding DC damage more likely. If I don't succeed, at least I have something to do while the DC's keep exploding.:arrgh!: |
Leutnant z.s.Yiannis
My first contact Patrol No 2 Day at sea 14 September 5 hours:06.07 Grid BF41 Weather: Clouds Overcast,Precipitations none,Fog medium wind speed 7 meters per second direction 125 ship sunk Medium cargo by 1 bow torpedo September 5 hours:10.04 Grid BF41 Weather: Clouds Overcast,Precipitations none,Fog medium wind speed 7 meters per second direction 100 ship sunk Passenger/Cargo by 2 bow torpedo Patrol No 2 Day at sea 15 September 6 hours:02.54 Grid BE39 Weather: Clouds Overcast,Precipitations none,Fog Ligth wind speed 7 meters per second direction 50 small convoy of ships in 7000 km..approach and ship sunk Nipiwan Park-type Tanker sunk by 11 88mm rounds. ship sunk Coastal Freighter sunk by 18 88mm rounds. |
U159 IXC. Patrol 7.
Underway from Lorient 27.jul.44 at 2025.
Assigned grid is DC72 (W of Florida, USA). Sunrise 0450. Sunset 1940. ½ moon, and growing. After just 1 day out Heavy Fog moved in, making our exit from Lorient safer and faster. 2.aug.44 BF45 (275 miles S of Ireland). Heavy Rain & Fog. Wind 8 m/s. At 1335 sound reports a medium speed warship approaching. U159 immediately points her bow toward the warship, and goes to periscope depth, where the weather becomes known. At 1338 a second warship is reported, and at 1342 2 more, allcoming straight at us. A T5 accuistic torpedo is set up to be fired into the group, with hopes that it will home in on a target. Bearing & AOB 000. Speed 12 knots. Depth 3 meters. At 1405 sound reports the closest warship at 000, medium range & speed. Fire 3. New depth 100 meters, at silent speed.. The torpedo never detected the warships, and the warships never detected U159. Lesson learned: Even with accuistic torpedoes, the shot still has to be properly set up. (One ship passed directly over us, on a directly opposite course). 3.aug.44 BF44 (Still 275 miles S of Ireland) Heavy Rain & Fog. Wind 7 m/s. At 1611 sound reports a medium speed warship closing. Periscope depth. Listen. Point stern ahead of our visitor. Again we will attempt to fire on sound only. Estimated course is 280, making 12 knots. Depth 3 meters (always). Course is confirmed by sound "constant bearing" 30 degrees prior to the shot. 1647: Fire 6! And at 1651 a big explosion is heard, in spite of being in our baffles. Town Class Destroyer (1190 tonne) sunk. 5.aug.44 BE66 Temporary sound contact on a fast warship, at long range. 18.aug.44 BD74 ("No man's land", between Canada & The Azores). 1841: "Detecting radar signals". A L A R M ! Crash dive! 1842: Sound: "Warship. Closing very fast." Destroyer! Heavy Rain & Fog. Wind 15 m/s. 1852: Depth charges are heard in the distance. 1856: 2 weak pings are heard, with a wide gap. 1911: Warship moving away at medium speed. 20.aug.44 0830: Present position is CD96. Heavy Rain & Fog. Wind 8 m/s. 2 of 14 torpedoes expended. (3 T5 torpedoes, and 9 FaT torpedoes remaining). |
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U-159 seems to have some issues with those promising homing torpedoes. |
U-96 VIIC
Patrol No6
10 May 1940 18:10 hours U-96 left Wilhelmshaven for grid AN34 in Norway Patrol area reached with no enemy contacts 24 hours and no contacts either U-96 requested orders and was ordered to patrol the area south of Iceland 15 May 1940 Grid AN41 21:31 hours Passenger/cargo sunk by 1 bow + 1 stern torpedoes U-96 remained submerged to reload the empty tubes 16 May 1940 Grid AN26 05:44 hours Large cargo sunk by 4bow + 1 stern torpedoes U-96 remained underwater to reload Grid AN14 13:37 hours Coastal freighter sunk by 2 bow torpedoes 16:30 hours Large tanker escorted by ASW trawler was picked up by hydrophones. 4 bow tubes were fired , 2 explosions heard 1 possible missed and the other is unaccounted for. The tanker escaped With only 1 bow + 1 stern externally loaded torpedeos unusable becasuse of 12-15 m/s winds U-96 started her return passage vonHarris was blaming the new camouflage pattern for his bad luck with the tanker and everybody agreed. 19 May 1940 20:13 hours U-96 docked at port vonHarris rushed out to file a request for skin change with some excuse he made up that this one wouldn't blend in with the enviroment. Strangely the request was approved. 10 days at sea 3 ships sunk 12698 tons No casualties or damages |
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Unknown whether SH3's T5s are better than the real ones, or we were just fortunate. Even late war, my favorite torpedo is the good old G7A. Hard as it is to resist going 100% steamers, I try to keep them down to historical limitations. Don't care for G7Es, but always keep them in the majority. |
U159 IXC. Patrol 7 final.
25.aug.44
DF18 At 1247 ZT (Zone Time) U159 was depth charged and sunk by a USN DE, while attempting a daylight submerged attack against a USA - Gibralter convoy. U159 reported the convoy on a course of 094 and making 6 knots, but made no additional reports thereafter. The Campaign consisted of 3 Boat Careers. U6 IIA: 3 war patrols between 1.sep.39 and 7.mar.40. 2 merchants sunk for 4.389 GRT. Boat retired from frontline service to become a schoolboat. U122 IXB (my darling boat): 7 war patrols between 2.maj.40 and 20.feb.42. 29 merchants sunk for 211.398 GRT. Boat retired from frontline service to become a schoolboat. U159 IXC: 7 war patrols between 17.apr.42 and 25.aug.44. 12 merchants sunk for 109.354 GRT. 2 warships of 2.240 tonne sunk. Sunk in grid DF18 by a USN Destroyer Escort, while attempting a convoy attack. All hands lost. Commander, 4 officers, 19 POs, and 32 ratings. (Error #1 was trying to go deep at high speed following a very general attack. Not staying at silent speed cost the boat.) I've got an appointment with '39 again. |
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If I make it later the TI FATI is OK and the TIV and TV. Sorry about the the loss of U-159 Welcome back to 1939!:salute: |
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The T1 FaT1 is a great torpedo, but then they ruin the concept later with the FaT2. The reason for the G7E wasn't quality, but quantity. It took 3 times the man-hours to build (the superior) G7A, than it did for the high maintnance, low performance G7E. |
U-552, Patrol 4
Ob.lt. z. s. Helmut Unger
U-552, VIIC 11. Flotille, Bergen Orders: Freie jagd, sea area between Norway and Bäreninsel 3.10.1942 02:29 AN24 Cloudy, visibility 8 - 9 kilometers, wind 7 m/s. Just started our fourth patrol. The boat was fitted with an Alberich anti-ASDIC coating and an extra day of work was needed to repair the damage to the ship's pressure hull that was caused by a destroyer's gunfire in our last patrol. We had inspected the damage at the port of Bodö and I had decided to return to Bergen for repairs. The brass commented that I was not aggressive enough, to return to base for minor damages. I was promoted to Ob.lt. z.s., however, so probably not much harm done. While refitting the ship, to a great shock of us all, we hear that U-159 has been lost. The commander and the crew was known to us all from many patrols back and it's a black day indeed, but I must concentrate on getting my boat and crew to tiptop shape for the next patrol. 8.10.1942 20:46 650 km SW of Bäreninsel. Cloudy, visibility 8 - 9 kilometers, wind 7 m/s. Icebergs sighted. A beautiful sight and at the same time, a warning for the watch crew to keep their eyes open. I looked at this magnificent sight of nature and couldn't help but mourning the loss of U-159. http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3430/icebergmoon.png 12.10.1942 05:35 Länge 21, 52' Ost, Breite 73, 13' Nord. Clear, visibility 8 - 9 kilometers, wind 15 m/s. At at 00:10 and 01:15 contact reports received from BdU. Reconnaissance pilots flying from Alta did a really good job: the sightings were so accurate that we were able to pinpoint the convoy's course exactly. 266 degrees, 7 knots. Nice over-sea navigation by the pilots! With no landmarks they have had to calculate their location, and obviously they did it spot on. Seven Metox warnings received while approaching the convoy from the starboard side. Area checked regularly with hydrophone, visibility 7 – 8 km, not much chance of getting surprised like the last time we had Metox warnings. At 03:01 ships were sighted. Two destroyers, one destroyer escort, one patrol boat and 16 merchants seen, but very likely there are more. An A&B destroyer as a front guard and a Tribal as starboard first guard. My attack course was 176 degrees, trying for an outside shot. Approached submerged at PD. The Tribal passed us from behind at a distance of 2000 meters. Suddenly it changed course towards the convoy and us. It came to a distance of only a couple of hundred meters at a very fast speed, but didn't notice us. We had to wait for it steaming away from us, before we were able to continue calculating a solution. The Tribal took a post in front of the convoy, slowing down to listen, judging by the hydrophone screws. A 9000 BRT merchant, presumably the second ship at the middle column, was chosen as target. At 04:11 rohr 1 was launched: range 4000 meters, speed 7 kn, schusswinkel 359, AOB 70, bearing 347 and right after that rohr 2 at a bearing of 346. The first G7e was aimed at the bow and the second between the funnel and the bridge. The range was long, but there were plenty of ships in the vicinity of the target and I thought that it would be possible to hit something, even if the solution would be wrong. We shot only two torpedoes, because the second starboard guard was getting too close to us for further estimations. A dive was begun at silent speed, RPM 100. After about four minutes two explosions were heard and afterwards a ship exploding. Presumed a certain sinking, but because of the distance, not sure if it was our intended target or another ship. When the eels hit, our boat was diving at silent speed towards A+80 at a depth of 25 meters. We were immediately picked up by Asdic. The pings sounded very strong and I decided to crash dive. One Bold canister was launched immediately and a hard turn was started to lose the Asdic contact. Another Bold canister was launched when were deep enough to go back to silent running. A course change at silent speed was made. Two to three destroyers were dropping DC's, at times almost at the same time. I had no situational awareness of the situation. There were too many ships at close range, merchant sounds on the background, and fast bearing changes from the destroyers. However the DC's exploded nowhere close and I can only assume that the enemy were chasing the decoys, and probably doing that very accurately. All in all, at least seven sets of DC's were dropped. While descending I ordered the RPM’s to 70 when I felt too uncomfortable and then back to 100 RPM, when I felt the hunters had lost us. At A+80 a course was taken away from the closest escorts. We have now escaped and are getting ready for another approach. 10 G7e's left inside the boat and 2 G7a's outside. Unger |
Patrolling CG89, the western approaches to Gibraltar, at PD, heading 000.
I hear a single high speed screw bearing 305, and smack my sonar operator on the head. While tracking it to get a heading, another shows up, but man that is a high bearing rate. They are MOVING! I plot an intercept, but it soon becomes evident I'm not gonna get close enough. (I have no flank speed, a malfunction which showed up off the west coast of Spain) I cried a little tear as I watched a Nelson, Revenge, and 2 Southampton class ships escorted by only 3 destroyers steam by to the north at 21 knots. The closest was the Revenge class at 7700 meters CPA, and I only had electrics loaded in the bow tubes. :wah: |
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