Stories and Patrol Logs + Screenshots and Videos (merged)

[fitzcarraldo]

I see it in some patrols. I think a Nikola Tesla invention.

Regards.

Fitzcarraldo

[Lexandro]

To; Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine Erich Raeder
Regarding; Korvettenkapitän Franz Faquer Commander U-boat 42 (IX).

I am sad to report that U-boat 42 was today listed as lost at sea with all hands during patrols on the northern Norwegian shoreline. Reports from Franz stated he was attempting to intercept a British task force consisting of 1 BB and 4 DD class vessels. No radio reports have been had from the boat in over 2 weeks and overflights of the area by recon aircraft in that time were hampered by bad weather and a high concentration of enemy AA fire in U-boat 42's last known position. We did confirm that one BB class ship was badly damaged and barely aloat in the area, but appears to be under tow back to port for repair.

I am left with no alternative than to assume that the U-boat went down with all hands, and that one of our best captains with over 200,000 tonnes to his credit has perished. It is highly unfortunate that this has happened on the ships maiden patrol, after the esteemed captain came over from 7th fleet in Kiel to take command of U-42.


Regrettably yours;


Konteradmiral Karl Dönitz

[captcrane]

What a game!

[captcrane]

Love this Mod

[Kermit the Frog]

Sorry to hear that mate. It must be one hard battle of survival, but I believe that Royal Navy paid a price?

I was playing SHIII, GWX, GWX gold, NYGM ~10years. Now (with pleasure) I'm part of US Navy :-)

Since start of this game I've been sending to bottom of the ocean Battleschips, Cruisers, Destroyers, but this Roadrunner (or Searunner) I've met first time



God bless USS Salmon (God She's large) and her unexperienced crew :-)

[Lexandro]

̶C̶a̶p̶t̶a̶i̶n̶'̶s̶ ̶l̶o̶g̶,̶ ̶S̶t̶a̶r̶d̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶2̶1̶4̶3̶5̶.̶6̶1̶2̶.̶ ̶W̶e̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶d̶i̶n̶g̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶.̶. ̶.̶ woops.



Patrol Log,
USS Silversides SS236,
Captain Charles MacDuffer commanding officer,
September 2nd 1942
--------------------

Its now four months since I was given command of USS Silversides, the shakedown went well and our subsequent first patrol netted 25k tonnes of enemy merchant shipping sunk off the coast of mainland Japan. The crew performed admirably and have gotten used to the new boat in short order. Command has now given me the task of patrolling around the Truk atoll, which is not a great place for a submarine to be with all the hazards to navigation and small islands in the area. I will be running drills every day to ensure the crew are fully prepared for action.

September 12th, 1942, 08.50 hrs
--------------------------------
We have reached Truk without any enemy contact thus far. The crew have drilled hard and my 1st officer and I agree that they are as sharp as they can be for now. There is some room for improvement but that will come with more time sailing in Silversides and learning her quirks. The navigator has plotted a tight search pattern to the east of truk, but the weather reports and not looking good at the minute. Seems like there is a helluva storm on its way and we could be smack bang in its path.

September 12th 19.20 hrs
-------------------------
The weather reports didn't do this thing justice, its not a squall its near typhoon conditions. The sky is black as the eye can see, the rain is lashing down, and with the strong gusts there are thirty foot troughs which are making the crew highly nauseous. I have had to increase speed just to keep us on course.

September 13th, 06.30 hrs
--------------------------
If the weather wasn't bad enough already, visibility is now at zero thanks to a thick fog bank that's whipped up overnight with the storm. If it wasn't for the fact that our navigator is a maths genius I am not sure we would be able to navigate in this. This new "radar" unit we had installed at last layover hasn't done much for us yet. But the chief and my first have a daring idea they have just come to me with. A raid in to the atoll itself. Number 1 has a plan of action and the navigator has plotted a course right in the front door. With the weather this bad.........it could just work IF this radar isn't a pig in a poke.

September 13th, 08.45 hrs
--------------------------
Were in! The maps were accurate, and the course was bang on.

"RADAR CONTACT!, bearing 325!"

Number one and I look at one another, and I just give him a nod of approval. Zero visibility, jet black sky, yet we have a target, its range, its bearing and its stopped dead in the atoll. This could be good.

"SIR! Multiple radar contacts! bearing 325, 300, 010, 090,.......". God this thing is great! I sure as hell hope the Japs cant detect it, if they see us or can see our signals we are in trouble. The XO and I work up firing solutions for the targets we have in the first batch, but they keep coming. I don't have the torpedoes to sink everything! The ship count is at 12 so far, with only one moving. It must be a harbour patrol, he would be the only one crazy enough to try and make way in this.....well apart from us that is.

Radar calls up again that the signals are extremely strong, so much so he is sure that one is a carrier or battleship such is the size of the return. A carrier or a battleship means a taskforce! They must have laid up here due to the weather reports the day before. Radar then reports the island is blocking his returns and he has lost most of the signals but for those to the fore. I tell the XO to pass the word to the hands for battlestations. The first three tracks the XO has plotted are dead ahead in the harbour. I order periscope depth for the shot, since in these sea's with no visibility I want the most stable shot I can get on this "blind track".

"Flood tubes 1 through 6! Open tube doors 1 through 6!"

The seconds tick away as the crew get the tubes ready to fire.

"Target bearing 010, FIRE TUBE ONE!.............FIRE TUBE TWO!"
"Torpedoes in the water"
"Target bearing 000, FIRE TUBE THREE! ..............FIRE TUBE FOUR!"
"Torpedoes in the water"
"Target bearing 025, FIRE TUBE FIVE!.........FIRE TUBE SIX!"
"Torpedoes in the water"

Time seems to slowdown.......the sound of the clock hands ticking around my stopwatch feel like they are hammers striking on some great anvil somewhere.


"Torpedo Impact!", the crew and I breath out a little. Then the rest of the detonations can be heard on the hydro's. Six torps out, six hits! I cant be sure if the torps did the damage, so I risk a look with the periscope. Then there is two huge flashes of orange through the fog at what seems like extremely close range. Our Sonar operator says he can hear hissing as the boilers are drowned and breaking up noises on two vectors. Thats two on the bottom! But the third one refuses to sink, and in this murk im not about to go spinning around for a tail shot at this close a range. I order a course to the east around the harbour and in to the main channel for the atoll. I'm thinking of making my escape out the north east passage.


Then it dawns on me.....the japs in the northern bay didn't see the flash as the island obscured it. And with the racket the storms making I don't they they heard it either, and if they did they may well have confused it with the storm. I order us back to the surface and get another sweep with the radar. That big return is still there, and with us manoeuvring in to the channel three more returns have shown up nearby it. They are all at a dead stop! Its now or never.

"Set course 265. Get those tubes loaded on the double!".

It seems like an eternity to close to 3000 yards, but I dare not go any faster than 7 knots for fear that our wake might be spotted or we clatter in to someone in the fog, even with our radar. I call for one last sweep then order the radar off, I still don't know if it can be detected or not and I cant take the chance of it setting off an alarm somewhere close by, not with us this far in to Truk. The boys in the forward torpedo room work like madmen with a plan. Finally the torpedoes are loaded and primed. The tracks are all set, the maths is all done. I just need to get us in to a firing position.

We trundle on westward and with the radar off we are completely blind. But I trust my navigator, and his maths is never wrong. The XO is sharp as a razor when it comes to torpedo tracks so when both of them agree on our position, I don't argue. Two thousand yards off the bow is a carrier or a battleship and either side of him is two other smaller targets, and one directly behind. Four in all, but can I possibly afford to NOT target all four? What if they get under way while I'm here in the bay? What if they have crews at the ready, even in this weather? What if......... No, now is not the time for what ifs. The enemy is ahead, torpedoes are ready.......its time for action not indecision and second guessing.

Number One leans over to me, "Lined up on the big one captain, just say the word sir and we will let rip. I ready my stopwatch and say a quick prayer. I wedge myself firmly behind the TBT and use it to steady myself in the bucking waves and to ensure we are tracking true.

""Tube one FIRE!..........Tube two FIRE!.......Tube three FIRE!.......Tube four FIRE!". I start the count on the first torpedo and realign the TBT to the left most target bearing.
"Tube five FIRE!.......Tube six FIRE!"
"Torpedoes in the water"
"HARD A'STARBOARD, ALL AHEAD FLANK!" I shout down the voice pipes, hoping like hell the chief is ready for the increase in speed. Slowly we start to turn, one degree, two.....then four....then 10...now she is healing hard over and coming around to the east.

"Torpedo Impact!" sonar shouts out, 5 of the 6 have hit home, and one seems to have missed all together. I fear our luck might be starting to run out.
"Steer course 090, speed 2 knots", I call out down the pipes. Shortly we are on course and going slow. I ring down for all back standard. The watch crew are worried, im worried, jimmy the one is worried, the XO is worred, But these japs still haven't got steam up yet, and I am not going anywhere until I know we have hit this taskforce hard. If this is a carrier and I let it slip away to wreak havok on our shipping I wont be able to sleep at night knowing its my fault.

Then a klaxon sounds from dead astern, but its cut short as the ear splitting sound of rending metal can be heard clear as a bell. There are several large splashes along with screeching noises. It must have been a carrier and its the sound of the airplanes coming off the deck we can hear. And there is STILL no sign of a response from the japs.

"Tube seven FIRE!............ Tube eight FIRE!" that's one more target, "Tube nine FIRE!........Tube one zero FIRE!" All tubes empty, a handful of torpedoes left, and we have only been in the area for........ 26hours? Its only just gone 10 AM, it feels like its been three times more than that at least. All stern torpedoes strike their marks with unnerving accuracy, and two jap cruisers are heading to the bottom. The third was definitely hit twice, but wont she go down. I'm sure she wont be going anywhere soon, if at all.

"All ahead flank! Steer course 340 Number one, get us the hell out of here! Navigator plot us a path out of the atoll to the north west through this narrow gap in the corral , and be sharpish about it!" In less than one minute he has us a course plotted out of the area safely. I order another sweep of the radar, and we pick up two ships moving at speed down the channel from the north. Time to beat a retreat back to Midway! If we make it home in one piece, this is medals all round for the crew!

[captcrane]

[merc4ulfate]

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE FOUND ON JAPANESE BEACH:

Circular running torpedo ... USS Balao struck forward of the Conn. Sinking rapidly ... basturd BuOrds.

[Shooter7]

I'm new back playing this game after a couple year hiatus while not having a machine that could run it adequately. Using it on a new gaming laptop and just running it straight out of the box right now, no mods. Had a pretty fun weekend with it and decided to share.

It was my 3rd or 4th patrol out in my Gato class sub and I had been instructed to patrol an area between the Honshu and Shikoku islands of Japan and engage merchant shipping. I sailed there uneventfully and set up a search pattern staying out mainly in deep water. I sank a few smaller merchants using the deck gun and was then told to patrol for merchants in the area west of Iwo Jima. The first evening there, on the surface in the middle of the night, I'm told there is contact with a merchant southwest of the island. I head that direction at flank speed, planning on submerging once I was closer. As I came up closer to the target, it comes back that it's a large convoy being escorted by at least 3 destroyers. And unfortunately for me, it appeared that I had already been sighted as the destroyer to the left rear of the group was already headed my direction. Being that it seems like it takes half a day for my sub to submerge, I decided I would try to slug it out on the surface. I got behind my battle sites to see just what was coming at me and found two destroyers making bee lines straight for me, the one from the rear of the convoy coming at me at about 25 degrees to starboard and the other from the front of the group at probably about 40 degrees to port. Giving myself a "here goes nothing", a trained my sites on the much closer destroyer to starboard, as he had spotted me first and was quicker to start my way. I fired one fish straight on his bow, then disengaged sites on him and swung around to the port side, once again training my site straight on the bow of this one coming at me and fired one fish towards him. By the time I swung back around to look at the first destroyer again, it was just in time for the torpedo to impact and impact it did. The destroyer blew up! I got an immediate message of enemy unit destroyed and it went down fast in flames. Swung back around to the second destroyer and apparently neither of these guys had expected me to send fish their way and the second torpedo impacted this one. This one didn't blow up, but went dead in the water right away. Holy cow, did I just knock out both of these guys?!

Ahead of me lay the convoy of 8 merchants that had already all diverted course together away from me. I hit flank speed again to go after them. A previously unseen destroyer, also from the head of the group turned back to come after me, firing guns. I exchanged many shots with this one, luckily only sustained minor damage, and had him smoking. He peeled away and went back out towards the front of the convoy again. Again turning my attention towards the bulk of the convoy, I noted the last destroyer from the far rear of the convoy who had also turned to come towards me, had found himself slowed and caught up in the mass of all the merchants who had turned his direction to get away from me. I began pouring shells into him, quickly had him blazing and he sped away the opposite direction. Finally, the merchants were at my mercy and I went about sinking 5 of them until I had but one torpedo left and was low on deck gun shells. The other 3 merchants had scattered in all directions, it was almost light, and I was very low on ammo. However, as I decided to turn and head for Hawaii base, between there and me laid the destroyer I had left dead in the water. Who better to save that last fish for. As I closed back on his position I slowed to 1/3, took quick aim, and fired my last fish at him sitting there. Split him in the middle and he went down quickly. Excited and happy, I made my way back to Hawaii. Once there, I was surprisingly awarded the Medal of Honor for what I had done on that patrol! Awesome!

I would leave it at that, but the fun continued as I went out on my next patrol. I was assigned to the same area off Japan as I had started the previous mission. As I just got there in the middle of the night, on the surface, I got word that there was contact with a warship off the port bow. I quickly gave the order to submerge as, on a previous mission, we had been surprised when we came upon 2 destroyers out by themselves causing trouble and had almost got me. Didn't want to deal with that again. However, couldn't resist taking a look at this seemingly solo warship that contact said was moving slowly just offshore of the city of Tanabe. To my utter surprise, it was a Shokaku class aircraft carrier sailing along alone!! Needless to say, I made quick work of catching up to it and feeding it 4 torpedos, to which it quickly fell over on its side and sunk.

What fun this weekend was! lol

[AngryHatter]

Completed my first assignment December 23rd 1941 with three ships for 14k tons.

I am heading south from coastal Japanese waters in half moonlight when I stumble upon a large piece of the IJN.

What I can see through the periscope:

Two Carriers

One Plane Tender

Two Destroyers

One Heavy Cruiser

One Fuel tanker

I am 7k yards from the nearest carrier. Closing fast.
Haven't decided how to play this out.

But I suspect I have found a portion of the Pearl Harbor strike fleet.

[Pooch]

Nothing special. Just thought it was pretty. Made it my screensaver.

[AngryHatter]

I fired four torpedoes at the nearest carrier.

Three struck the carrier in the aft section. It went down rather fast. 20k tons.

I had to run from the destroyers and the cruiser. I took the boat to 150 feet and slowed to 1/3.
Plotted a course to Java for refit.

Currently I am dodging aircraft from the Philippines.

When I sent as dispatch to COMSUBPAC I got as reply,
"Good work. No Patrol set, pick your own or head to port."

Found a fat freighter on the way and sent her to the bottom with my last two torpedoes.

43k in three days of non stop action.

[Aktungbby]

AngryHatter! in honor of your successful patrol "Splice the mainbrace" ...well, get hold of the 'medicinal brandy' from the corpsman's supply.

[depthtok33l]

Marshall Islands 1943 - always the worst place for me.

Everytime I go there something bad happens.

Just surfaced after suffering a ferocious depth charge attack, batteries are slightly damaged and has been juiced out. I was recharging when these pesky things showed up in the horizon.

It was either him or us.

[Hambone307]

Today we mourn the loss of the USS Grenadier. Due to the drunken nature of her skipper, the Grenadier was detected by carrier escorts and sunken after 5 hours of being depth charged. The Grenadier did not die in vain, however. She successfully sunk 1 Flat top and 1 cruiser before falling prey to circling destroyers.


*Just happened an hour ago*