Full realism Campaign Series using the GWX OneAlex Edition

[Tonci87]

Thank you
And we are starting the new year with a bang...quite a lot of bangs actually


Episode 55
We got a bit too curious

[Tonci87]

Episode 56
The Captain seeks to redeem himself for the almost fatal mistake he made

[Hooston]

Excellent episodes as usual, I like the way you are slowly chipping away at your Kaleun's morale. What will he do if he is sent off to a training role?
However two annoying things about modded SH3 in the last couple of episodes:
GWX escorts always seem to get their initial contacts with passive hydrophones, which are super sensitive out to around 6-8km. They use ASDIC for depth charge runs only. If you watch the near contemporary film "The Cruel Sea" from 1953 you will see that escorts used active ASDIC almost all the time and it was the primary sensor, which is enough to tell you passive detection was no use beyond about 1.5km. I guess the passive function of ASDIC was used to confirm an ASDIC target really was a submarine and also when quietly waiting above a submarine that had gone deep. I think someone in the game or mod team was applying modern tactics and technology or simply made a mistake. I prefer NYGM for this aspect, it seems better to me.
The weather is too bad too often. Worse, with many mods too many ships sink simply due to the weather. I find it useful to check the wave height multiplier and seasonal effects options are turned off in Silent Hunter Commander.

[Tonci87]

I agree with you.
The passive Hydrophone on escorts seems to be a bit too sensitive at times.
Regarding the weather: Well it is winter and the weather is always worse during the winter months, and what we have in game is still very tame compared to how it can be in real life. So I can´t complain about that.

Episode 57 of this series that has just received the Best of Subsim 2023 Award.
Thank you very much for nominating me!

We continue the attack on the enemy convoy

[Tonci87]

Episode 58
We end the patrol, but not in the way we intended

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Hooston

Excellent episodes as usual, I like the way you are slowly chipping away at your Kaleun's morale. What will he do if he is sent off to a training role?
However two annoying things about modded SH3 in the last couple of episodes:
GWX escorts always seem to get their initial contacts with passive hydrophones, which are super sensitive out to around 6-8km. They use ASDIC for depth charge runs only. If you watch the near contemporary film "The Cruel Sea" from 1953 you will see that escorts used active ASDIC almost all the time and it was the primary sensor, which is enough to tell you passive detection was no use beyond about 1.5km. I guess the passive function of ASDIC was used to confirm an ASDIC target really was a submarine and also when quietly waiting above a submarine that had gone deep. I think someone in the game or mod team was applying modern tactics and technology or simply made a mistake. I prefer NYGM for this aspect, it seems better to me.
The weather is too bad too often. Worse, with many mods too many ships sink simply due to the weather. I find it useful to check the wave height multiplier and seasonal effects options are turned off in Silent Hunter Commander.

Yes, various Allied u-boat killers said/did the same thing, including to the point of never using hydrophones as it was considered obsolete tech.
Standard tactic was asdic banging away at all times. AOD handled escorts this way.
Another item in the long list of things badly in need of being changed in Sh3.

[Tonci87]

Episode 59
After a long break, U 55 leaves for another patrol...and doesn´t get very far...

[Tonci87]

Episode 60
Rapidly changing circumstances put me in a tricky situation

[Tonci87]

Episode 61

Did our attack on the lone merchant draw away the escort of the small convoy?

[Hooston]

My understanding from others on this forum is that the problem with running "decks awash" is one of safety. In running decks awash you have a similar problem to maintaining periscope depth, but with a lot less margin to play with and a dead watch crew if you get it wrong. Worse, the sudden change in flow patterns from no water on deck to water on the deck would make for very unstable hydrodynamics. I guess it was possible for a good crew in calm weather but much too dangerous otherwise.
The only historical accounts I am aware of are Gunther Prien in Scapa Flow and Herbert Werner in the Bay of Biscay (in the book Iron Coffins). See https://uboat.net/forums/read.php?3,...4391#msg-34391 It sounds like the technique was to run with slight negative bouyancy and the planes at an up angle; but hard to see how this could be controlled, especially at high speed.

Gamewise I have no idea if decks awash actually makes a difference in game and whether it was considered when the modders were setting detection parameters. It's a bit like sneaking some unrealistic extra knots out of the boat with realistic hydroplane angles...

[Tonci87]

Episode 62

A lone Target meets a very explosive end

[iambecomelife]

Loving it! Especially when I don't have time for a career myself, the videos and play style are very good - thanks for sharing

[Tonci87]

Episode 63
We take a look at something unique

[Hooston]

I strongly disagree with your comments on SH3 aircraft.
Coastal Command did indeed operate the PBY/Catalina (and also the Liberator and B17) . In fact a few months later than shown in your video it was a Catalina (being flown by a "neutral" US aviator on exchange) that regained contact with the Bismarck as it made for Brest. The PBY was famously slow, so plenty of time to dive.
The problem with a bomb is that if it is reasonably powerful it has to have a delay fuse to protect the dropping aircraft, which would mean it would explode too deep unless it was a direct hit. Depth charges replaced bombs but it was found fairly soon that using any settings other than 25 feet was a waste of time as the chances of a hit on a uboat that was below periscope depth were too small to worry about. SH3 does not capture this very well and airborne depth charges are a threat at moderate depths.

A uboat was a terrible gun platform and indeed it was found that manually aimed AA guns were incredibly bad at hitting anything. The Bismarck mounted a large array of AA weaponry (including 12 20mm flak and 16 dodgy 37mm flak) but failed to down a single biplane aircraft in two separate attacks in which the attacking aircraft got close enough to use their machine guns against the battleship. Several Swordfish were damaged, and yes some did break off their attacks. However it is unlikely that a single 20mm would have that effect, In photos I have seen of uboats under attack it is the uboat crew that are hiding from the aircraft guns.
Late war boats with many more flak guns managed to bring down slightly more aircraft than boats destroyed, but the British were prepared to accept this ratio. Most attacks would be a no-score draw. Towards the end of the war a boat that chose to fight it out on the surface was a big threat to a Swordfish from an escort carrier, but the aircraft could wait until the boat started to dive, or whistle up some Wildcats to strafe, or call up the nearest escort. Late war Swordfish were armed with rockets, which helped considerably.

Sadly there's not much that can be done for the SH3 AI. For example the Catalinas did not attack on their first pass because of a known bug with one of the highest levels of crew experience.


Having said all that, great video. Even if you were trolling for footage by not diving during the air attack....

[Tonci87]

Episode 64
Scary things happen at night