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[Anvilfolk]

Whoa, that was amazing

Not very dissimilar to one patrol I had in SH:IV, where I found a convoy right in my path of interception. I don't recall the precise details, but I do know that I fired a barrage of torpedos, aiming for an escort and part of the convoy. Somehow, ANOTHER destroyer passed along the torpedo's path while coming full speed towards me and the torpedo hit it (completely unintentional on both parts). The other destroyer was surprised by the remaining torpedos and was hit as well. After that, it was just me and a bazillion tons (approx. value) of unnarmed merchants. I followed them for hours and hours and hours, using up all my deck gun ammo and torpedos in the process, but taking them all out in the end. Once I got back to base they offered me a medal and a new experimental sub.

Churchill had something to say: "Never in the field of human conflict has someone used up so much luck in so little time."

This will never ever happen to me again, it really was pure luck.

Looking forward to seeing how the next patrol comes along! Have a safe trip home!

[Erkki]

Hello again everyone!

Sorry about what happened with the Battletech LP. I have to confess that I ran out of motivation and time to run it... It may have worked better with 2 less units or with all players pitted in the same team. Might try that out later...

This time I'm playing with a proper PC, game is Silent Hunter 3 with Gray Wolves modification, Merchant Fleet mod and some others. Difficulty settings: all ticked minus external views, for the screenshots! 



But we are back to WW2 Europe!

After her first patrol, U-46 was given for another crew and a captain, and our heroes were put in reserve and training to be later given a new type of a submarine, the more advanced Type IX.

By summer of 1940 however, it was becoming evident that the Kriegsmarine's naval building program would not be able to build the new boats at the wanted rate. The crew was reassigned to the 2. Unterseebootsflotille at Wilhelmshaven and given a new Type VIIB boat, the U-35.


August 2, 1940

11:51 - the U-35 departs for its long journey to a patrol grid AM51 North of Ireland.

U-35's torpedo loadout is this:

Bow tubes: 2 x G7e/T2 electric torpedoes, 2 x G7a steam torpedoes
Bow reserves: 6 x G7a
Bow external reserve: 1 x G7a

Stern tube: G7a
Stern reserves: 1 + 1 G7a


August 3 - August 9

These days are uneventful. While the RAF and the Luftwaffe clash above the Channel for the first times, the U-35's crew sees nothing.

Kaleun decides again go around the Shetland Islands to minimize the chances of running to RN's destroyers or air patrols.

For the first days, the weather is fairly good but then declines rapidly. North of Hebrides, the U-35 is engulfed within a a storm. The boat submerges for full 24 hours to avoid the worst of it...




August 10

U-35 reaches her patrol grid. Its the same one she had on her first patrol. The weather remains horrible, and the boat mostly submerged, listening for enemy ships and convoys...



To be continued.

[Erkki]

August 11

approx. 0200: The weather finally clears, and somehow does that very quickly. The visibility stays mediocre at best, but the rain stops and winds ease.

After 0600, 9 days after the departure, things start to happen. A contact is heard! It is in the NE and traveling West, across the Atlantic. It is assumed to head more or less directly to the West at 5 knots. U-35 surfaces and moves to intercept at full speed!

0740: visual contact! The steam rising from the enemy merchantman is seen first. It is not moving any more, but coming directly at us! U-35 actually has slightly overshot the target's path, as we'll soon find out. U-35 submerges and prepares its weapons.

0752: enemy merchant closing in! From this attack angle an impact fuse is very unreliable. Torpedo is set to use the magnetic fuse... However estimating the target's draft would be important now. There are a hundred or so merchantmen listed in the identification book. A "close enough, will have to do" ship is selected in the book and its draft is used.

Spoiler: The enemy merchant is sighted: (click to show/hide)

0759: Los!! A G7a torpedo is fired. Notice how the bubbles arc at least seemingly just enough to the right to hit the ship(periscope is at 8 or 10x zoom). Gyro angle is 002 which also seems very good.

Spoiler: Torpedo fired: (click to show/hide)

0800: The torpedo is a dud! That, or it passed too far from the target... Or it may have even physically HIT it. We will never know. The target however has understood that its under attack by now, and immediately takes evasive maneuver. U-35 surfaces and the enraged Kaleun orders the deck gun to be manned!

0805: 21 fired shells(aimed below the waterline) later, the merchantman stops and starts to sink.

Spoiler: Sinking merchantman: (click to show/hide)

0814: The target is now identified as a 3650 ton M40B  class merchantman. Scratch one! U-35 re-submerges as any nearby enemy warships will by now most likely be alerted, and soon their patrol aircraft.

U-35 spends the following 6 hours underwater and reloads. Nothing is seen or heard for the rest of the day. Weather remains good!

[Erkki]

August 12

A silent day. U-35 spends most of it submerged(listening for contacts) despite of the relatively good weather. No contacts all day.

10 days in the patrol, all new gramophone songs have been listed through several times already, broadcast through the intercom, and the playing cards are worn out and beginning to grow mold. As is the food.


August 13

The weather starts to worsen again in the morning. It doesnt rain, the the overcast and raising wind limit the visibility somewhat.


1630: A contact!! A lone merchantman again. This one approaches from the West, having probably just crossed the Atlantic.

U-35 intercepts. This is done by marking the direction of the contact with a line on a map, where the estimated maximum distance of the contact is marked. The speed of the target remains unknown, but its heading is assumed to be more or less directly to East. After 20 minutes of running on the surface at full speed(17 knots), the boat submerges to listen to the target again. The new position of the boat relative to the first is marked down, as is the new direction of the target. This is continued until the contact to keep estimating the target's heading and speed.

The first dive already reveals this one to be fairly slow, only 3-6 knots.


1735: Visual contact!

The Kaleun orders the boat to turn to heading 090 to get ahead of the target before lining up for a shot.

Spoiler: Target sighted! (click to show/hide)

The ship is still far and apparently has not seen the U-35.

1743: target idenfied.

Spoiler: This one? I dont think so... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Target identified! (click to show/hide)

Looks like a CAM or Empire-class freighter. Good! There seems to be a weapon of some kind on a platform in the aft... So a surface attack using the deck gun is probably out of order.

1750: U-35 attempting to get ahead of the merchantman:

[Sheb]

Out of curiosity, have you ever tried ramming one of those merchantmen?

[USEC_OFFICER]

I get the feeling that the merchantman will take less damage from ramming than the U-Boat. I wouldn't mind being proven wrong though.

[Erkki]

Out of curiosity, have you ever tried ramming one of those merchantmen?

No I havent... I dont think that would end well for the submarine.




1755: The merchantman opens fire! 3 muzzle flashes are observed before everyone is back in the boat. The boat submerges and turns 90 degrees left, to North, for an attack!

Target speed is estimated 5 knots and distance at 2500m, angle-on-bow 90 degrees. Bearing to target 350 degrees.

1800: tube 2 fired!

1802: torpedo impact!!! The running time is 2 minutes 31 seconds. --> 1,68 nm = 3100 m at 40 knots... So a 600 m error in range. Oops. Looks like I over-estimated the speed by 1 knot, so the torpedo still hits almost where aimed.

Spoiler: Its a hit! (click to show/hide)

Finishing the target off with the deck gun is not an option this time. Its a large ship, so a second torpedo is fired after the first hits, with adjusted settings of 3 knt(due to damage), 2000 m, 100 deg, 00 deg

Spoiler: A second torpedo is fired! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: TDC (click to show/hide)

The torpedo runs 1 minute 39 seconds. --> 2035 meters, the range estimation was perfect! As was the speed, as the torpedo hits right in the middle.

Spoiler: The 2nd torpedo also hits! (click to show/hide)

The merchantman begins to sink slowly.

Spoiler: Sinking merchant 1 (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Sinking merchant 2 (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Sinking merchant 3 (click to show/hide)

1817: The water reaches the deck, and the Kaleun writes down the sinking in the logbook. Empire-type freighter, 6750 tons!

1830: U-35 is ordered to turn South. The boat stays submerged to reload the 2 tubes. The Kaleun has decided to move to the area South of Ireland, just West to the Celtic Sea. On its way there, the boat will submerge to listen for contacts every 3 hours.

[Chosrau]

Out of curiosity, have you ever tried ramming one of those merchantmen?

I did once.

It was night and a heavy storm raged. Visibility was practically nil, so I thought I might as well surface, get some fresh air into the boat, recharge the batteries( I had spent most of the prior day underwater due to planes) and so on. Before I fully surfaced, I tried checking my surroundings with the periscope, but couldn't see anything (the waves were extremely high, blocking my view, the water on the periscope made it hard to see and it was a pitch black night), so I deemed it safe, because there was no way anybody could spot me in this conditions.

And once my boat broke the surface and Lookouts assumed their positions:
"Ship sighted, Herr Kaleun!"
"What? How did they manage to see anything under these conditions? I have to see that for myself."

So I climbed onto the deck and what did I see? A ship to starboard , maybe 40 metres away, heading straight towards me. I tried crash diving, but it was too late for that.

The submarine didn't survive the ensuing collision.

[Sheb]

To be honest, it was more the ship ramming you than you ramming the ship.

[Chosrau]

To be honest, it was more the ship ramming you than you ramming the ship.

I'm pretty sure it leads to the same result though.

[10ebbor10]

Out of curiosity, have you ever tried ramming one of those merchantmen?

I once did (accidentally).

Was at a rather low speed, still heavily damaged my ship. Merchant had no visible damage.

[Ant]

Fine job, love SH3 very much. Sadly my W7 rig doesn't want it to work at all...

[Erkki]

Fine job, love SH3 very much. Sadly my W7 rig doesn't want it to work at all...

Thanks. More coming later today or tomorrow! This time I played the patrol through before posting to the AAR to avoid the AAR from breaking up due to corrupt save games, CTDs etc.

You can get the SH3 work in W7 64 bit by setting desktop resolution to 1024 x 768. If the game CTDs while loading a mission especially if you use a lot of mods, you may need to increase the max memory use cap of the .exe from 2 gb to 4(theres a tiny program that'll do it for you).

[Erkki]

August 14-16

These days went slow, the U-35 sailing down the Western coast of Ireland to the South in a storm, reaching the Celtic Sea by the evening of the 16th.


August 17

The weather cleared in the morning and the visibility finally became good. The boat would cruise slowly, diving every 3 hours to listen for contacts.

During another listening dive at 1600 hours, a nearby contact was heard: slow merchantmen dead ahead!

1639: TWO targets sighted! The boat is ordered to submerge. The targets are far and the boat's position is bad, being both too far and not enough ahead of the targets for a close shot.

Spoiler: 2 merchantmen (click to show/hide)

The first boat has a huge flag of Panama on its side, while the second one is Norwegian, and a valid target.

Spoiler: They steer port!!! (click to show/hide)

1655: 2 G7a torpedoes are fired at a rather long range... And infuriatingly, the merchants change their course slightly to the west about a minute after and the torpedoes both overshoot their target!!!!

However at least the later ship is seen to have no defensive weapons now. U-35 surfaces, speeds up for pursuit and guns down the Norwegian ship.

Spoiler: The norwegian ship sinks (click to show/hide)

The target is identified as a 5100-ton M12X-type cargo.

U-35 re-submerges to reload the 2 torpedoes.

2100 hours: The weather still being excellent, the boat resurfaces as the sun sets and reloads the externally stored torpedo to the bow torpedo room. 5 weapons have been fired, so there remain 6 torpedoes in the bow weapons and all 3(albeit 1 externally stored) for the aft tube.

[Sheb]

Is there any reason you can't use the aft torpedoes on the bow tubes?