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Lets Play: Silent Hunter IV U-Boat Missions

Burning Bridges

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I began to play Silent Hunter for the first time in a year. I hope you don't mind if I begin with my first career, which turned out to be rather short :(

The setup is Silent Hunter IV U-Boat Missions with Operation Monsun and several other mods.

This time I wanted some challenge, so I started a career in Mid 1942, all realism options enabled, except external view and view stabilization.

I want to operate on the US coast but I prefer the Type VII to the Type IX. But if we choose the 7th flotilla it will be possible for our Type VII boat to take part in Operation Paukenschlag too! Of course it's clear beforehand that fuel will just be enough to reach the US East coast and return, there will not be enough left to operate in the area. But in OM we can resupply at sea I am going to bet on another U-Boat or another friendly port.



South of Newfoundland we run into a Hunter Killer Group but could evade submerged. As you can see, it was pretty .. dark.



We also spot aircraft several times but manage to crash dive every time. I realize it was not very prudent to steer so close to the British bases in Canada, next time I should set a more southerly route.



We arrive at CA8755 and soon spot our first 5000t merchant, an American.

I usually suck at calculating the target solutions but I have a simple method. I use dead reckoning on speed (most merchants travel at 5-8 knots anyway), try to get as close as possible (ca 500m), make an ideal angle-on-bow of 90 degrees and fire a fan of two or three torpedoes.

I also usually attack on the surface because at this heavy sea a periscope attack just sucks. That works almost any time, as long as the merchant is not armed or faster than 10 knots.

As you can see one torpedo was a dud, but the other one sunk the ship.



No need to look for survivors .. unfortunately, although SHIV has this feature, life boats are not enabled in OM. I only saw them once when I sank a Cruiser but never from a merchant.



We complete our task of operating in our assigned area for 48 hours.

Although we used only two of our torpedoes, fuel is already under 50%, which may not even be enough for a return to St.Nazaire :(

It could still be enough for a resupply at El Ferrol. In any case we must get on the way back.



Fortunately we get orders to resupply from U-459 on the way and can return to our operations on the East Coast.



We return to the East Coast around Cape Hatteras where we spot a Dutch merchant. Hm, I thought they capitulated in 1940?

anyway the sea is bad again so it's time for another surface attack.



He spots us and runs away but I overtake him with full speed



and swing around at the right moment for an almost perfect 90 degree angle.



Torpedoes away, first hits.



The second hits the same ouch-spot and he sinks.



After this we operate a bit more to the South, around Charleston. So close to the coast, we get several visits by aircraft, at times it's too close for comfort! I should have taken notice, as we will see ..

Looks like a Catalina .. usually you should not see the planes so close ..



The storm gets even worse, no way we can attack anothing in a U-boat .



Finally the weather improved an we spot another ship. It's from .. Panama. Well, I have no idea if I should sink ships from Panama or not. Should I? I really did not want to sink neutrals just for easy tonnage.

I decide to investigate on the surface. First I am about to let him go because he doesnt take evasive action, so it means he could be neutral.

But suddenly he starts to shoot at me! That way he makes it easy to decide on his neutrality.



Luckily they can't aim. All the same it may be too dangerous to use the deck gun, and thanks to our previous resupply we have lots of torpedoes. I go to persicope depth in the last minute and fire two torpedoes again, both are hits.



That was the third sinking and we have 15.000 tons. I would like to go home, but I still have a lot of torpedoes, so the order is to stay.



But I am sure you notice the weather is perfect and I am in range of the coast, and aircraft. I should have paid attention to that! I turns out the first, and last mistake I made in this career.

So, soon after, just when it appears to turn into a promising career our luck runs out. Out of a clear sky another airplane spots us and throws several depth charges right upon us. It must have been very bad luck or we were hit by an expert. So much for the US planes not being able to harm you yet ..



I realize too late, the damage is extensive. At 200m even blowing ballast doesn't hold us. No one can do any repairs, we go deeper and deeper. At 400m the light goes out and we are sunk. Good to know the crush depth of our boat was so good .. over 300m :)



Sunk by an airplane. It does not feel right. Lesson learned is that it's damn hard time to begin a career and my tactics from the happy times won't do it any more. Aircraft are no joke, and I needed a more experienced crew that might have spotted them much earlier. I also should have blown ballast earlier, that way I could have made it to the surface and fight it out with the flak. Perhaps.



At least I am somewhat consoled by the fact that my aiming was good, with simple tactics, and without fancy calculations. Out of six torpedoes fired, five were hits, one was a dud. Under better circumstances, and with more caution I could have made a really successful patrol and return with an experienced crew.

But the decision to go to the US Coast in order to get quick success turned out to be unlucky. Next time I should go into the Mid Atlantic, where I want to see some really exciting convoy battles.
 

Quilty

Magister
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Ah, another fine captain. May your tales of fail span the entire war. :salute:

I would recommend learning some advanced tactics. For me it's actually a lot more fun to stalk my targets properly, calculate everything and then sink them by using the TDC, or only the hydrophone, which is an especially BRO thing to do.

Do keep this going. I am experiencing some technical difficulties with Silent Hunter 5 so we need somebody to watch the seas. :salute:
 

Burning Bridges

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Brest, March '42. We return into the Atlantic.



The scoreboard. Soon I will be on top.



We head into our patrol zone near Newfoundland (again). Hopefully we will do better this time.



Our new boat in rough seas.



Again, we must dive before aircraft ..



IT ATTACKS!



Somehow we were not hit.

We take up position in our patrol zone, and just as we want to play cards, we get a report of a fat convoy in the south.

Fuel situation is much better this time. We can reach it! We head to the convoy at full speed.



We dive for the hydrophone check.







There is a huge contact in front of us, it covers 50 degrees, that must be the convoy!!



The first hydrophone bearings show up on our map. We don't surface, but manoeuvre only by our signals.



We must be right in the convoy YES!!!



We are between the two right columns. Now it's time to got to periscope depth. From the periscope, we see the first targets.

A run of the mill merchant, very close.



A modern 6000t freighter from America, somewhat distant.



Target solution will be a bit trickier. But it's still not too far away.



And finally to the left is one ugly 5000t merchant heading in our aim.



I settle for 9 knots on all targets. Fire all five T's. We should hit something.

The shot on the first merchant misses, because I was too close already .. damn.

But the American is hit and begins to burn!



The ugly thing on the left is hit too!



For the last time we take a look at the flame effects.



Our last victim looks severely damaged.



Pinging?! Destroyers have headed our way. Jetzt kommt die Abrechnung Männer :(

It looks like I stayed on the surface for too long. We must dive.



I order a dive, to no avail. Waterbombs. We are hit again.

Who thought that could be so quick.

:rpgcodex:



Everything goes kaputt again.



Ouch I got boiled by water .. I can't take it any more!!



While my crew begins frantic repairs, I am at my wits end.

I take position in the only safe station on the boat, the captains bed. Nothing bad can happen to me here.



I pull the blanket over my head and dream of a beautiful meadow and Marika Röck's legs. When the Chief Engineer yells something to me I yell back at him 'let me sleep, can't you see how tired I am!'.

Then I wake up, glad to hear that the damage has been repaired, and we can surface, says the Chief.

But suddenly his face turns to a grimace. 'HaHaHa. April's fool. We are at 190 meters, and the flooding can not be stopped .. This time I really pulled one on you! You should have seen your face ..''

stupid asshole .. All that's waiting for us now is a thousand meters of water.



This is like Hitchcock's Marnie.



The light goes out.



Are we still alive?



"You have added another shadow into the Hall of Honor. Your Family remembers you full of pride but you fade in the annals of sea war history."

.. I guess that's the Nazi way of saying: epic fail.



Damnit. No more boom boom for this captain-san :(

Conclusion. The escorts in this mod are quite uber. They were right upon us after our first attack run.
That's the second time in a row that I could not survive my first patrol. But we torpedoed two merchants, so our effort was not completely in vain.

Shit.

:salute:
 

Burning Bridges

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The Silent Hunter games are very slow. A patrol represents about a day of playing, even more when you are operating on the US East Coast.

The problem is that this mod (Operation Monsun) keeps killing me. When I play dead is dead, I find it hard to survive even the first patrol.
 

Norfleet

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Burning Bridges said:
The problem is that this mod (Operation Monsun) keeps killing me. When I play dead is dead, I find it hard to survive even the first patrol.
This is what I meant by "short", yes.
 

Burning Bridges

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Even though it sucks to die on your first patrol, Silent Hunter is much more fun when you play dead is dead. In the past I used to reload savegames every time I died, sink every neutral ship I found and use the deck gun in sight of the enemy coast. I would constantly score between 20.000 and 40.000t in each patrol, and soon lose interest that way.
 

Norfleet

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That could very well be so, but it seems that you continue to do such things, and it gets you really-dead. Well, I guess there's something to be said for LPs that actually get completed.
 

Burning Bridges

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Depends what you mean with 'finished'. Only the very best crews survived ten or more patrols, and the unlucky ones did not even return from the first one. It seems this mod is designed to emulate that experience and I still have not adapted and are not careful enough. In the past, with more forgiving mods I completed long careers with a save game here and there, but lost interest because it was too easy.

By the way I still have stability problems. I lost a whole day of playing because of save game corruption. I sneaked into Scapa Flow, torpedoed some of the docked ships, then the game crashed at some point and I could not reload the savegame. Then I repeated everything and the same thing happened again.

Conclusion is that going into Scapa was fun but one should not do it.
 

Drakron

Arcane
Joined
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6,326
Burning Bridges said:
... It seems this mod is designed to emulate that experience and I still have not adapted and are not careful enough. In the past, with more forgiving mods I completed long careers with a save game here and there, but lost interest because it was too easy.

And this is were I call bullshit, early in the war U-Boats had it easy, hell when the US entered the war they were so badly prepared for U-Boat operations they did not even HAD a convoy system and the Royal Navy even had to transfer ships to the East Cost.

Only in 1943 things turned (Black May).

And this is why I dont use megamods, because when it comes to difficulty they are as unhistorical as the game out of the box, just a different type of unhistorical.

Burning Bridges said:
Conclusion is that going into Scapa was fun but one should not do it.

Pre-Prien or after?

Because if its pre ... four hours to figure out the Royal Oak was not sunk by a air raid, that says a lot about the Royal Navy.
 

Burning Bridges

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Drakron said:
Burning Bridges said:
... It seems this mod is designed to emulate that experience and I still have not adapted and are not careful enough. In the past, with more forgiving mods I completed long careers with a save game here and there, but lost interest because it was too easy.
And this is were I call bullshit, early in the war U-Boats had it easy, hell when the US entered the war they were so badly prepared for U-Boat operations they did not even HAD a convoy system and the Royal Navy even had to transfer ships to the East Cost.

Only in 1943 things turned (Black May).

And this is why I dont use megamods, because when it comes to difficulty they are as unhistorical as the game out of the box, just a different type of unhistorical.
That's what I was also indicating in my first failed career. American sea planes initially did not even have functional depth charges. There are reports that they would sometimes hit Uboat hulls directly and still not explode. The same with British in 1939 their bombs had a much too small charge.

I think the typical modder is a sick man. Consumed by his idea to create the most realistic experience he spends his whole life on one game, which often results in the most bizarre interpretations of realism. lurker was a typical example. On the one hand you had to admire him for the wonderful work he did on the mod and how he was able to transform the game, at other times you were shaking your head about his lack of common sense and tact.

Not that this should keep you from playing mods at all. If 'realism' bothers you about OM, I know which files have to be changed to bring escorts and airplanes back to where they were before the mod.

Drakron said:
Burning Bridges said:
Conclusion is that going into Scapa was fun but one should not do it.

Pre-Prien or after?

Because if its pre ... four hours to figure out the Royal Oak was not sunk by a air raid, that says a lot about the Royal Navy.
9/1939, using a Type IIC UBoat. Getting into Scapa was not a problem. I sank a Destroyer, damaged a Battleship and a troop transport. But then the game crashed and none of my savegames could be reloaded. Then I repeated the attack from a much earlier save and the same thing happened. It sucks because the athmosphere and graphics around the Orkneys is among the best I have seen in this game so far. But not much I can do about it, there seems to be something broken in the campaign at this stage.

Drakron said:
Only in 1943 things turned (Black May).
This I would not agree with. Basically the Royal Navy, and the US Navy thereafter, went through about six months of chaos in which even the most basic ASW was not available, but after circa a year both were quite effective.

There is a very simple reason why the Germans were at an initial advantage. Their complete effort depended on not more than a hundred U-boats which were all quite sharp from the start. But on the Allies side there were thousands of ships and air crews in the Navy, Merchant Fleets as well as many civilians that were involved, and as long as a peace time mentality still existed in some geographical location, the germans could get optimal results by switching to these theatres.

This was no more possible after 1943. After 1943 they lost almost one Uboat for every allied ship sunk, so playing the game from this point whould really not be much fun.
 

Burning Bridges

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U-52 - First Patrol - PART 1

The successive death of two Kaleuns on their maiden voyage has taught me not to underestimate this mod. It is much harder than the OC and perhaps even harder than reality (see above). This time I will begin my career earlier to increase my chance of accomplishing successful patrols. Aircraft and destroyers turned out to be extremely unforgiving in my first two careers and I will need a bit of time to build a more experienced crew when the difficulty really picks up.

I also learned that I have to use more careful evasion tactics and I hope this will raise my chances to survive.

Here are just some defensive tactics that will need to be observed:

- attack during the night and if possible bad weather or fog
- stay submerged and use silent running
- go as slow as possible, otherwise the escorts will hear you. they have hydrophones, too :)
- no more surface attacks on convoys, although this is unrealistic it's just not meant to be done with this mod
- mark the known positions of escorts and turn a low profile to them, that will their ASDIC detection
- stay submerged near enemy airbases during the day



Realism is 73. I prefer enabling view stabilization, otherwise periscope attacks can be quite FFU. Contact updates on the map, too, it will show hydrophone bearings on the navigation map, otherwise you will have to plot everything yourself.

+

We get our orders to patrol in the Western Approaches. Banal. Boring.



We start this mission from Kiel.
Remember, if you begin docked in port, you start in the Ostsee and will have to sail through the Kiel Kanal.
If you choose the other option you will be teleported to the Elbe mouth (near Hamburg) and spare yourself a lot of tedium.



We carefully complete the northern Anmarsch route, and reach our patrol zone in the Western approaches.
As usual, all you have to do is to stick around for a few days, I don't think there are ever any special missions for you.
But I believe completion of the patrol assignements is important for your mission rating and promotions.



We send a status report by radio and get a new assignement the north towards Iceland.



We get several reports about ships but cannot locate them. I still take note that the traffic around Iceland is quite active, and I would not expect too many destroyers here.



After another week of boredom we get yet another assignment. This time we are ordered back to the Irish coast.
Does anyone up there know what they are doing? We already burned up half of our fuel and not used a single torpedoe.
I would have preferred to stay around Iceland for a while, and hoped to see my penpal, Helena Bimbo-dottir, who wrote me that she is awaiting me every day :/



On the way we make a hydrophone contact and investigate.



It turns out it flies a Panama flag and certainly carries nothing but toys for little children.

When I encounter neutral ships I usually wait if they take hostile action or carry war material, then I sink them. Otherwise not.
The decision depends on the geographic area, anything around ports of Great Britain is highly suspicious.

On closer inspection we see that it is loaded to the brim with lorries in military coating, and decide this one is just sailing under disguise and must be destroyed.



Easier said than done. This turns out to be an extremely frustrating attack.

Due to incompetence on my part and torpedo failures we waste one shot after the other. Our failure must also have to with the fact that all tubes are loaded with the damn electric torpedo (T2), which fail more often than I could believe, and prove to be near useless.

But I decide not to let go and on the third run we finally score a hit.



Incredibly, the stubborn tub does not look the least impressed and plods on as if nothing had happened.



Foaming with anger I realize we need to hit him yet another another time. If we'd let him go now we would have wasted all our nice torpedoes strictly for the birds.

Despite the terrible weather we shlep into position one more time



This time our torpedo hits.

Take note that I select the magnetic fuse and set it to explode at 8 meters, I hope to maximize the damage that way. The reason is that a torpedo that explodes 1 or 2 meters under a ship will blow a huge hole in its underside, whereas a shallow hit with the impact fuse will only damage the side and may not lead to the catastrophic leakage we want.

Also take note that the torpedoes used in the last shots were the old steam type (T1), which I think is much better than the T2 because it at least sometimes blows up at the target.



The ship gets slower and slower and after about 2o minutes it finally begins to sink.

Note the very nice sinking mechanics. Both torpedoes hit the bow, and the ship slowly flooded from the front.



Then, with a loud bang it breaks in half, and the back part continues to float for a while.




We watch the ship sink. But it cost us an incredible number of 8 torpedoes.



We continue to our new operational area.

 

Burning Bridges

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U-52 - First Patrol - PART 2

Finally our Kriegsmarine guys have pulled their finger out, and we get a report of a large convoy.

It is on a easterly route, but we are already behind it.

Catching up will mean one or two days of AK Fahrt. I am getting concerned about the Diesel reserves, which are down to about a third. Even though we have orders to move to our new base in St.Nazaire, and won't need to go the long way back to Kiel, no one knows how much Diesel we will use up for the convoy and then we will still have over 2000 kilometers to St.Nazaire.



After our costly encounter with the merchant before Iceland we are also down to four torpedoes plus two more in our outer reserves.
Unfortunately we will not be able reload the torpedoes from the outer reserve before the stormy weather improves.
But it's not as bad as it looks, at least we have a torpedo ready in all but one tube.



We finally pick up the convoy in our hydrophones



If you have really good eyes, you can see the convoy in the distance.



We sneak in for an attack position from the front.

This time I only order very slow ahead and 'Schleichfahrt', staying submerged at 60m.
Since this means we make only 2 knots, we must hope the convoy moves over us and bring us into a into a good position.




If the signals are all around you must be inside the convoy. We go to periscope depth.

There are also 3-4 destroyers not for away, so we must prepare ourselves for a very speedy attack.



The position is not ideal and time runs quite fast when you are attacking convoys.
But at least there are ships all around us. I have no time for long preparations and quickly fire away all four torpedoes, hoping I will hit something, It helps that several times the targets are even overlapping.

We score at least one hit.



After which the convoy goes to full alert.

I instantly order a dive to 120m at full ahead, then make a hard 90 degrees turn and order very slow.



The destroyers are after me. But I turn my backside to them and sneak away. I think if you reduce your profile they will have a more difficult time to pick you up with ASDIC and later, radar.



I am now on a course directly opposite with the convoy, and it is already getting out of hydrophone range.
There are still five or six destroyers which have fallen behind to destroy me, but they are getting weaker too.



The destroyers are wandering off aft but there is still one curious signal in front. I must investigate this.



Männer, we picked up a straggler! Today our luck has returned: This one is definitely a tanker and at the speed it is making it can hardly escape us.

I have begun to suspect anyway that the fat tankers are always at the back of a convoy, because every time I approach from the front I will only pick up the boring, run of the mill 5000t ton ships.



Pity that we have not a single torpedo in our belly :)

Loading from the outer reserve will take along time. At least it's a bit of luck that the weather now permits us to do it at all.



We move into position, which is no problem because the tanker is making only one or two knots.



It takes until morning to reload our last two torpedoes.



It is one of the smaller 8000 ton tankers, but still, a fat target.



This is a very precious target and we have only two torpedoes. This time we cannot afford to miss even once, or we will have to attack him with the deck gun, which I would like to avoid.

But there are several factors which favor our attack:

1 .the weather is perfect for torped attacks.
2. both torpedoes are T1s which, if set to fast, hardly ever fail
3. aiming at a ship that is moving so slow is a piece of cake.

I am ca 700m from the tanker, and in a perfect position.

The tanker moves at about one and a half knots. I guess even if one were to set the TDC to zero knots and AOB to 'anything' you could hardly miss him from here.



We fire the bow tube and hit.

As I said if you have T1's, simply set it to 'Schnellschuss' (fast), it will be at the target after 10 or 15 seconds, you can hardly miss that way. Just don't forget about the shorter maximum range!



As was to be expected with a ship of this size, he does not sink yet, so we must get into position to fire our stern tube, too and hope that it will finish him.



Luckily he has now almost reached a standstill and even though positioning for a shot from the aft tube is awkward, we get into a good position.



We fire our last torpedo, which finishes him off.

With a broken engine this one really had no chance from the beginning, and they might as well have sunk their ship themselves. They just didn't know it.



After action report indicates that we also sank one merchant from the convoy itself. After this successful attack, we have used up all torpedoes and should return to base.

Diesel is almost finished but the navigator calculates we can still make over 3000km, so it should be enough.



We finish our last task of patroling the Irish coast and take course for France.



On the way home we pick up a signal.



We spot a british trawler and destroy it with the deck gun.



Then a second one. Looks like they always operate in groups.

It's not easy to gun them because these trawlers are tiny, move very quickly, and still take about 20-30 shells.



Now I really need to get home. The crew is already warning me that Diesel is almost finished.



We spot another ship. This one turns out to be an American. No I got definite orders not to attack them, or they would rip me a new one. No, not yet.



Luckily BdU has realized our plight and gives us the official ok to go home. If we had used up any more of our Diesel we would have been forced to build a sail.



We spot a German minelayer. That means we are finally safe.



Ah La Belle France ..



Our new base in St.Nazaire.



And this must be the new concrete enforced bunkers they have promised us.



We made it back from our patrol and sank three ships with 22.000 tons, plus two small ones with 300t.

We also used up all our tropedoes and our Diesel reserve was down to 2/100. The Diesel was actually a big gamble, because if it runs out at sea nothing can save you in his game.



The subsequent return to my office was a real anti climax. I got nothing. No promotion, no medals. Nothing.

I would have expected at least a gift basket or a few vouchers. But what the heck, anyone on my boat calls me Herr Kaleun already anyway, even though I am just a measly Oberleutnant.

That was a fun patrol, and the game only CTD'd once, at the very end when I wanted to sail into the subpen in St.Nazaire.
 

Burning Bridges

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November 10 - 1940. The 7th U-Boat Flotilla, St.Nazaire.

After a rather successful first patrol the crew of U-52 has built up a some experience, and some self confidence. Captain Wittmann returns to base after his shore leave, during which he was locked himself in his hotel room, and played the new Grosses Reich Manager, which has unbelievable graphics.

Before we set sail again it's very important that we load torpedoes - the game engine will not do it automatically. After my horrible experiences with the T2 electric torpedo I am tempted to use only T1s this time - but decide on a mixture of gas and electric torpedoes. After all the T1 leaves a bubble trail and may be spotted if we have to attack in daylight, or against warships.



It's foggy and damp when we head out of St.Nazaire



The last night in relative safety.



On the second day we discover a german convoy and join it for a while, in case something interesting is going to happen.

I think if the game would send some aircraft now we should see some of the cool surface action that you know from the trailers, and never see in the game.



But nothing happens, and the convoy leader doesn't give a shit about my superior knowledge either.

We decide our presence is not needed here and turn around. I hope the RAF will come and sink all of you.



I the Celtic Sea we run again into fishing boats. This time a 'convoy' of three trawlers.



I send my crew to the deck gun, while the captain gives it to them with the flak.



Attacking three targets simultaneously is a somewhat novel experience, but the boats have not really a chance.

Trawlers can take a lot of hits, up to 30 shells. But it's also possible to fire a few times under the waterline and wait if they sink later.



The loss of these boats may not bring the British Empire to its knees, but at least someone will receive no fish tomorrow.



During the night we receive a very promising convoy report. This one is definitely in our reach. Our condition is optimal, we have plenty of torpedoes, fuel, good morale. We must plan our interception course very carefully. If we do not find this convoy we would miss a great opportunity.

The convoy is supposed to go 8 knots. That means it will travel 150 km in 10 hours. At the 17 knots we can make we can go 320km. I calculate that we could reach him by 10 and 12 o'clock tomorrow.



From now on we go at maximum speed.



But even before we reach our planned interception point, we spot a single ship.



Although this delay will spoil my calculations somewhat, we can not simply let this one pass. Closer inspection reveals that it's another merchant sailing under Panamanian cover.

I already made up my mind that my neutrality order does not apply to ships from Panama. There are simply too many of them, and in the blockade zone they are to be regarded as hostile.



To save time I fire a salvo of two torpedoes and both are hits. As can be expected the ship sinks rapidly.



At 17:00 we make contact with the convoy, not far from where we expected.



Judging by the smoke plumes, the number of ships is massive. Altogether I count somewhat in the range of 50 merchants.

 

Burning Bridges

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We are north of the convoy.

Because of the full moon I order flank speed to reach the southern side before the convoy arrives, so I can see the ships against the bright nlight.

It turns out moving around the convoy was too cocky. Two destroyers and a corvette come to our spot and we are forced to submerge.

But running silent at 100m they do not spot us, and throw no depth charges.



My attempt to reach the optimal position failed and they pushed us under the water. But at least my maneuvre brought us in between the escorts and the path of the convoy.

I creep towards the ships, while the escorts are searching behind me.



Underwater we are moving very slowly and the bulk of the convoy has moved past. But with so many ships, we can still hope that we catch the tail end, where I suspect the fat ships are sitting anyway.



At 19:30 we go to persicope depth, and see an incredible number of targets.
In moments like this you wish you had 40 torpedo tubes ...

Right now they are still 4.000 metres away, and I am not David Copperfield.



While we crawled on, about fourty ships of various sizes have passed our line of fire.

But at the back of the convoy there is a single destroyer and a neat line of four tankers.
If the destroyer should pass me by I could be able to get close enough to some of the tankers.



The moment has come. The tankers are ~2000m away which is the absolute maximum range I will risk. I fire a spread of two torpedoes on the first one.



I check what the destroyer is doing, and see that he is still far away.



While I take aim on the second tanker, one of our torpedoes strikes the first one.



I fire another salvo of two at the second tanker.

After a few moments it is hit by one torpedo, then another, and lights up in a huge explosion. It looks as if we ignited a huge torch.



Through the periscope we see that this one is already finished.



Once again this proves that you should not be miserly with your torpedoes.

The advantage of salvos is that you can afford one miss. If both torpedoes should hit, you can be almost certain that the target will not get away.

We would like to know what happened with the other tanker, but first we must submerge and crawl away. We are already at the end of the convoy, and the three other escorts could now return to our position.



One of the escorts comes for us from behind and we must be careful with our escape course.



A few hours later the convoy is gone, and we spot a lone ship which has stayed behind.

 

Burning Bridges

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It turns out this is the tanker which was struck by our first torpedo, and it's now sitting motionless in the water.

This one is doomed. A shot at such a motionless target is impossible to miss. I aim at the forward structure.

Rohr Fünf Los!



Or is it.

Torpedo ist ein Blindgänger. :)

The shocking truth is that Germany is short of money, and by orders from the Reichstorpedominister half of the weapons must be Made In China. They are cheap, very rugged and fairly reliable :)



That the torpedo failed from this position is of course a joke but bearable in this situation. It would have been worse in almost any other situation but this.

We can simply reload the aft tube and sink the tanker with the next shot.



The scene of the battlefield.



After our long draughts in the last patrol, it looks like we're finally in an absolute hotspot of traffic.
In a single day we sank three ships. Together with the spic, and the two fat tankers (both over 8.000 tons) we already have >20.000 tons on the account, and still half our torpedoes left.

It appears we are also getting specialized in sinking tankers, which usually sit in the back of a convoy, where many Kaleuns will miss them during frontal attacks.

The convoy has already moved past hydrophone detection range. We set course for what I hope will be a parallel course and get us into position for another attack.



But despite our best efforts we fail to locate the convoy a second time.



After some days of zig zagging and following several weak hydrophone contacts we spot a single ship that we trailed for quite some time, on a course almost leading away.



We plot an interception course.



This is one of the small targets that I always get extremely nervous about. At just 3000t and shorter than other merchants, you must be extremely careful to get as close as possible to not miss your shot.



A careless Kaleun may have wasted a lot of torpedoes on such a ship. But from just a few hundred metres, I manage to score a hit.



The tub looks quite damaged, but refuses to sink.



The target is sitting motionless in the wate. It is unarmed and so I decide to dispatch the hull with the deck gun.



After a week of wreaking havoc on numerous targets in the North Channel, we can now think about sailing to our patrol area near Iceland.



It shows they are searching for us already, the lookout reports an aircraft and we must crash dive.

Fortunately the crew is now experienced enough to dive in half a minute, and nothing happens. If we should be able to dive before them every time in the future, our survival chances will have risen dramatically.



Some time later the lookout has spotted something again. By chance we ran into another convoy!

 

oscar

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My dad knew a guy who served on a merchant ship. A few minutes before they were hit by a U-Boat all the rats on board scurried off the deck and swam away..
 

Burning Bridges

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We make a convoy report, and the BdU sends this answer. I think I need not translate this.



I wait until darkness and begin an underwater attack.



It turns out this is not one of the typical convoy we encountered so far.

To my surprise there is only a single Flower Corvette in the front, and the convoy is relying solely on it's speed (10 knots).

Behind the corvette is a large assortment of small to medium merchants in what appears to be one long, single file. We already know that the convoy moves fast, but if we let the Corvette pass we should be able to catch up one of the ships in the back.



Several targets pass by before we reach an attack position.



It looks like some of the targets are small, only 3.000 to 5.000 tons. To maximize our chances, this time I fire four torpedos on four individual targets.

Rohr 1: Los!



Rohr 2: Los!



Rohr 3: Los!



One torpedo hits home. Two others have missed, apparently.



We do a quick check of the lone corvette.

It is still in the front of the convoy. Since we could theoretically even outrun it on the surface, this one is not a danger at the moment.



We have still Tube 4 left.

The last ship in the convoy has interesting superstructures and looks quite large. And due to our perpendicular course, we will get closest to this one.

We turn the bow and let some time pass lest we miss this one.



Our torpedo is a critical hit, and the ship blows up before we know.



There is no point now in continuing the attack and we dive.



As could be expected, the helpless corvette makes no more effort to look for us.

When the signals got weak enough, I take a look around with the periscope.

There is a single ship that we shot out of the convoy.



At first I was a bit wary the targets would all be in the 3.000t range, but this one is at least 5.000t. So we actually managed to hit the larger ships from the convoy.

This one is another motionless victim and we can dispatch it with a single torpedo.



This als happened to be our last torpedo.

Our job is done and we pose for a photo for the Propaganda Ministry.

 

Burning Bridges

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From the after action report we learn that the freighter with the nice superstructure was 9.600 tons, which makes it our largest victim so far.

It seems to back up my my theory that the ships get largest towards the tail of a convoy.

For days we were on a lucky strain. During one extremely successful week (November 10-18) nine ships were destroyed, including 2 medium Tankers, 4 merchants, and three fishing trawlers.



For the sake of order, we sail northwest to complete our assignment. We spot some ships, but are not able to do anything without torpedos, and since most of these merchants are armed, the risks are too high to use the deck gun.



We quickly complete our last duty and receive the official permission to return to base.




This time our Diesel tanks are almost full and we can afford to go full throttle. On November 29th we reach St.Nazaire, and return only 19 days after we left.



The images of our arrival in port.



Our score.



And a Knights Cross for the Captain. Though I must tell you the one I got is Made in China too :( They stopped giving out the real ones some time ago.

I was also informed that there is no special award ceremony in Berlin any more, but that I would be invited to have suppper with Fräulein Braun, any time. I apologize myself under the pretext that I have belly ache, and watch TV instead.



A lot of CHEATERZ have much higher scores than me, but we have at least closed up with the big animals.



This is the logbook for the patrol.



We also received promotions for the crew.

Take note of the interesting number of prestige points (over 10.000 for this patrol). Looks like the game awarded a huge score for something we hit, may it be the tankers or the large merchant.



After this short, successful patrol every one is happy and on shore leave!
 

Burning Bridges

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Merkwürdigliebe said:
Well now this thing is finally going places, well beyond getting sunk on your first mission.

From looking again at some screenshots it seems like I made really stupid mistakes.

http://www.global-explorer.de/20111028/l/25.jpg
I did not pay enough attention to the crew stations, and left the propulsion room unmanned, and this may have been the sole reason the boat sank despite all efforts to maintain depth.

OM has really nice damage control, and boat physics, and you can usually repair a lot of damage as long as the hull is not destroyed.

I also did not pay enough attention to the position of the escorts.

The sinking by aircraft was pure bad luck I guess. It also is very important that your lookout has some experience and you can dive quickly. I notived that the boat dives several times faster now that the men have completed some patrols.
 

Burning Bridges

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oscar said:
My dad knew a guy who served on a merchant ship. A few minutes before they were hit by a U-Boat all the rats on board scurried off the deck and swam away..

Did he also have a theory for the cause? I believe animals have keen senses but I don't believe in superstition.

A possible explanation is that they sensed another torpedo that missed the ship and knew what it meant, from previous experiences on another ship.
 

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