(Story) U-104

[MantiBrutalis]

So, I got back into Silent Hunter 3 after many, many years. Got myself GWX 3.0 after a few patrols and I loved every bit of it. A week ago, I added h.sie’s V16B1 Realism Patch, because I really liked the ideas, mostly Range Inaccuracy, Torpedo Reloads and the U-tanker mod. In middle of my last patrol I said to myself – Hey, with this much realism and this awesome patrol I got going on, I have a good story on my hands right now. And because I found GWX and V16B1 here at Subsim, I figured I might as well post it, if I’m going to write it down. So here goes…



Note 1 – I don’t know how far will I go with this or when I’ll stop, can happen any time for any reason.

Note 2 – English is not my native language, I’m 21 years old student and I think I often suck at English. So sorry for destroying your language people…

[MantiBrutalis]

Diary of Manfred Bollmann, 26th December 1940, Lorient.

I start this diary this evening, before the 4th Patrol of Type IXB U-104 of the 2nd Flotilla. I start this diary as a radioman of the boat. I start it, because I have nothing to do in free time during our patrols, and this one will be the longest one yet, because we got assigned coordinates somewhere in the Atlantic.

I have to keep faith in our luck, but I worry we might not return from this one. Last patrol has gone very bad, after attacking a convoy off the British coast, we got surprised by a flight of Swordfish bombers. 3 men died, including my dear friend Karl Krieg. Badly damaged, we even hit the sea floor because of the water coming in. We spent an entire day repairing the boat before we could at least get up from the floor and move again. It was a horrible experience and all the crew is shaken.

The 2nd patrol was a bit luckier, we got a few British down, and we head home soon because of the bad weather. And the 1st patrol? That was only a few hours drill off the French coast to test our brand new boat.

Well, that’s all for today, tomorrow we depart early, they wake us up at 7 AM.

[MantiBrutalis]

Diary of Manfred Bollmann, 27th December 1940, U-104, 200km west of Brest.

The Captain woke us up at 5 AM. The few people here, who were with him on his previous ship, the U-1 „Cloverleaf“ from 1st Flotilla, tell us, that it’s in his nature. We were told that he is very eager and doesn’t like to come back from patrol with spare torpedoes. Back in Lorient, they told us (again) the story of Cloverleaf’s demise. How the captain had tried to get to Scapa Flow out of frustration, that they had no luck with finding ships. The Cloverleaf had returned to Helgoland in terrible shape with only 14 survivors and had been ripped of useful equipment and scuttled there. It had only lasted 6 patrols.

We are now going to sail near the Irish coast to pick a few tons of British (if we’re lucky) and then head to our patrol destination. I think I heard the captain say something about grid AK53, but I didn’t see the orders myself.

In the evening, the captain told us all to come up with a name for the U-104 to grant us luck in the Atlantic. I don’t care about the name, but I really hope for some luck with this bloodthirsty captain.



Note 1 – This is turning out to be quite a good English practice for me.

Note 2 – I may have to rush this patrol a bit, because I started writing this when the patrol was at like 10th January 1940. I just don’t want to forget what all happened. I even stopped playing SH3 for a while to catch up with my writing.

Note 3 – You may already guessed it, I don’t have a name for the boat yet. Any ideas?

Note 4 – The part about Cloverleaf is almost true. I had a career with a IIA that had a cloverleaf as an emblem. And yes, I tried to go into Scapa Flow. And yes, it didn’t go that well, but I survived, I had 14 people alive, and I ended the career in German waters with a canoe that barely floated. I just couldn’t take anymore of the IIAs and I got overplayed with VIIBs, so I tried the IXB.

Note 5 – I like to play a little hardcore. I always return back to base, I never load a saved game if I die. I even researched that electric torpedoes couldn’t be placed in external reserves because of maintenance. This means that this story can end anytime, even in patrol 4, because it hasn’t ended yet.

Note 6 – Until now, I had my auto-correct set to Czech, so there may have been some mangled words so far. Usually you can guess what it is supposed to be in English.

[David I]

Mantibrutalis,

Keep them coming!

You English is just fine for the task at hand (even adds a bit of flavor).



David I

[MantiBrutalis]

Diary of Manfred Bollmann, 28th December 1940, U-104, 200km south-east of Ireland.

It’s the second day of our patrol and already we have 2 marks on our sheet. The watchboys spot a large merchant when we were nearing Ireland, and after getting a bit closer, they spot a smaller one ahead of it. Eventually, after getting close enough to recognize the British flags, the captain chose to make a use of our deck gun. From what I heard from down here, I can say that we were the only ones firing – the enemy had no guns. I hope the watch saw it, because if not… then the captain just risked that they were not armed. Anyway, that’s about 7500 tons on our nameless boat.

On the other hand, we didn’t spend that much ammunition, the captain slowed down when we were close enough (I really can’t tell how close), so the gunner could take precise shots. He even instructed the three freshmen, who had joined us in Lorient, to observe and teach them a bit of real shooting. Both ships were probably down before we closed in, at least I think… There seemed to be some kind of ammunition on one of the ships, the fireworks were very loud even down here.

The captain was satisfied, so he ordered to make for the open sea and head directly to our patrol area. Some of the crew expressed the fear of incoming planes to investigate the missing ships, but the captain didn’t even take notice. Guess he had some sixth sense, because we weren’t attacked. Anyway, this is going to take a few more weeks. I hope this soothed his bloodlust – I want to survive. I often think about the dead of the Cloverleaf and of Karl. Even the Cloverleaf wasn’t lucky enough for this captain…

[MantiBrutalis]

Diary of Manfred Bollmann, 31st December 1940, U-104, somewhere in the Atlantic.

Finally we are closing to our patrol area, which hopefully marks the half of our trip. The weather is still very calm, although cold. The days are very short, but it doesn’t make much of a difference down here. Despite great visibility during the short light time we are given, we haven’t met a single ship. Occasionally the captain has a “sense” that something is near, so he takes us under for half an hour, stops the engine… and spends the time asking Max (the hydrophones guys) if he’s sure that nothing’s near.

I spend my free time with our medic, playing cards or listening to his stories from the 1st Flotilla. He is not one of the Cloverleaf’s crew, but he served on two other IIAs. He doesn’t want to talk about his time on the U-14, apparently that boat claimed quite a few lives. Anyway, he got transferred to the 2nd Flotilla, because his proven skills were needed on one of the new “better” U-boats.

The crew is in better shape now, the calm sea and very uneventful patrol took out most of their worries. Just the captain isn’t very happy. He even gave me a “personal” message to BdU, about how they must have left out some contacts in our vicinity and so on. I didn’t send it though – it was quite rude and offensive, and it wouldn’t help anybody either way. Despite his anxiety, he makes a good captain – he reminds us to check the equipment often (mostly the torpedoes), so we should be in a good shape if we meet something.



Note – By this time I probably should state the setting I use on realism. I am too lazy to learn the targeting system entirely, although from time to time I set things myself – for the fun of it. So I am using Automatic Targeting and Weapon Office Assistance (whatever that does). I am using Map Updates (never tried without it) and External Camera, because I love explosions. I use it sparingly though, not to reveal anything I shouldn’t see, so I don’t spoil the fun for myself. Everything else is ticked – 81% Realism.

[MantiBrutalis]

Diary of Manfred Bollmann, 2nd January 1941, U-104, somewhere in the Atlantic.

We reached our designated patrol area yesterday in the morning. Captain said he knew there was prey close, so he set up quite a fast patrol route. For 24 hours it looked like we were burning fuel for nothing, then BdU sent me a contact very, very close to us. The message said it was a British ship, slowly moving away from us west.

It took just 15 minutes to find it – the captain spot it first, even though there wasn’t much light in the morning. Again he insisted that we get close and personal with our deck gun – the ship was moving away, and our batteries wouldn’t be enough to close the distance before they would be empty. Again, there was no return fire. But there was fire. Loads of it. At least the men who were up there said so. With more 5000 tons on us, we were pretty happy to look forward to the way back home.

But – we weren’t going home. The captain explained that we were supposed to be on a major shipping lane, which has to bring us some prey for our yet unused torpedoes. So we’re sailing along the supposed shipping lane towards Canada. The crew isn’t very happy about that. I am not very happy about that. We were ordered not to engage American ships, so what is he hoping to find here? I hope he finds it soon – I have never been this far from home. I never wanted to be on a tiny tin can in middle of the Atlantic. We are sailing away from the patrol area – in the wrong direction…

[Kelly621]

Keep your reports coming...one of the lasting qualities of SH3 is that it fires our imagination

Kelly621

[Aarnoman]

Keep them coming MantiBrutalis! Very enjoyable to read so far

[MantiBrutalis]

As experienced by Herbert Krauss, 4th January 1941, 7 AM, U-104, somewhere in the Atlantic.

I hear the captain shouting orders in the command room. Anytime now we will breach the surface. I can almost feel the merchant some 200 meters behind this wall.

I look at Arnold sitting on the other torpedo: “How many do you reckon?” “Should be a small ship. About 30?” “I bet they can sink her in 20,” I say. Nothing to do for us torpedo loaders. We sneaked up upon a small merchant we met, took us an hour under water. In this darkness, we couldn’t be sure about their flag, so we ended up pretty close.

We hear a hatch open, many legs rushing up the ladder. The few of us without work to do remain still and listen for the action up there. Few others begin to feed rounds up to the conning tower.

Bam! “One.”

I can hear two pairs of feet running from the tower to the deck gun, each man with a huge round in their hands.

Bam! “Two.”

There is some kind of a commotion suddenly, everybody up there stops and hesitates for a moment. We can hear the captain shouting: “Don’t just stand there, get that spotlight!”

Bam! “Three.”

Arnold smiles: “I told you, 30 rounds. They gonna waste a few trying to knock out that light. They could make it in 20, if it wasn’t blinding them.” “20, if they can pack –“ Bam! “- them all under the waterline.” “No way.”

We didn’t fire a single torpedo this patrol. Just maintenance for a week now, kinda boring.

Bam! “Five.”

“You think the captain will have enough now and head home?” I ask. “No way, he won’t leave these ladies unused,” Arnold says while gently rubbing his chair-torpedo. I just want to head home now, we aren’t even doing anything.

Bam!




Note - I seriously had a nightmare last night, with car accidents and stuff. And suddenly, in the middle of it, some random guy pesking me for my terrible past tences in this story. I am really sorry if I ******* English up from time to time.

[MantiBrutalis]

Diary of Manfred Bollmann, 5th January 1941, U-104, somewhere in the Atlantic.

Finally, the captain has what he wanted. We are finally making for a large British convoy south of us. When I delivered the contact report to the command room, I briefly watched the Navigation Officer make a lot of weird lines and circles on the map. I asked how precise can he be with determining the intercept course. He probably didn’t hear me, because the captain answered for him – “Magically. Now get back to your work”

We sank a small merchant yesterday and a bigger one this morning. Both of them with same procedure – sneak up in the darkness below water, check their flag and armaments with our periscope… And then the deck gun. It is really being put to work this patrol, it is responsible for 22000 tons of merchants so far.

We are some 800 km east of Canada now. I hope that we can make a fast attack on the convoy and go finally home. We are even getting close to having just enough fuel to go home, although we still have food enough for some 2 or 3 weeks. Large and British – means a lot of prey with lot of escorts. Max is quite superstitious, he thinks that attacking a convoy with a nameless ship will bring us bad luck. Or a depth charge.

[MantiBrutalis]

As experienced by captain Georg Braun, 6th January 1941, noon, U-104, somewhere in the Atlantic.

Here we go. Finally. Spent last two hours deep under water to slip under the escorts. Now we’re slowly making our way up. Any time now. If the hydrophones guys is any good, we will come up right on the middle of the convoy. Just a few meters now…

“Open tubes one and two.”

Come on, come up, come up. Now. Oh boy. There is a lot. I quickly check for any escorts around, then hastily observe the prey. All British, as I can see. Ahead, behind. This will go very well. Let’s do this…

[MantiBrutalis]

As experienced by Max Wermuth, 6th January 1941, noon, U-104, somewhere in the Atlantic.

Even through the hydrophones on my ears, I can hear them, pinging. Very faintly. Then again, few explosions to our left. They definitely think we are somewhere else than we really are. 200 meters under. Listening. Waiting for the escorts to catch up to the convoy. They should fear for the now poorly protected convoy and leave us be.

We heard all 6 torpedoes explode, but the captain wasn’t very happy about the first two. They exploded too early, captain first thought that they went off prematurely. Then I heard the crushing of metal, pressures claiming a ship, squeezing it in the deep water. After telling the captain, he began laughing. He said he misjudged the first two forward torpedoes, and it probably hit the small merchant closest to us, instead of a large merchant that we were supposed to hit.

Another set of depth charges explode to our left. Then a few more behind us, but I can tell they’re somewhat different. I quickly turn the wheel to listen in that direction. There! Another ship, slowly making its way down to the ocean floor. Captain reeks happiness now – both stern torpedoes found its target – cargo ship, estimated 9000 tons.

Another set of depth charges. The captain is good – he doesn’t believe in the reliability of electric torpedoes, but uses them for the stern tubes – so the escorts don’t have such an easy time to guess our position. They can’t find us even in this calm sea.

Time passes by. Still, I can hear three engines operating to our left, although they stopped with the charges. They should catch up to the convoy any time now. Then we maybe could go home…

[RustySubmarine]

Good account of a typical patrol. You may have given others, the idea to set up a diary. I like the way you involve different members of the crew. Great idea and interesting reading.

[MantiBrutalis]

Diary of Manfred Bollmann, 6th January 1941, U-104, somewhere in the Atlantic.

This morning we attacked the convoy. All went well, we sank two ships immediately, and a Greek merchant with no engines, which was left behind by the convoy. After the escort left us, captain ordered to take external torpedoes inside, three for forward tubes, two for stern. We are now in pursuit of the convoy – it sails at 6 knots. The captain plans to overtake them and set another ambush in the morning.

The crew split up to two parts. Some of them think that we are really doing amazing and we should keep attacking the convoy and do some good for our country. I am with the others – we just want to survive the way home. Anyway, we have to do what the captain says – keep trashing the British.

I just hope that the enemy doesn’t adapt too fast to us. We could be in a world of trouble tomorrow. The BdU doesn’t respond to our contact reports. Nothing. It bothers me.