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#4018076 - 10/04/14 05:33 PM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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In case anyone was looking for the gyro, it is the dial directly below the range dial. I am using larger a larger dial mod and it blocks the label for the gyro.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
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#4018184 - 10/04/14 10:42 PM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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I checked out the link that Chucky put up in his last post and that covers the basics of the US TDC quite well. And that mission, which is the school torpedo attack with the Mogami cruiser is a perfect training ground for learning the manual targeting ropes.

Personally I use map contacts, though in most of these mods they are altered to not provide the course 'tails' or speed, and are not colored to reveal friend or foe, they only show position. It is much more challenging to play without map contacts, and for those choosing this it's almost imperative to use the TDC to determine speed.

With map contacts on though, I prefer to use a stopwatch and a nomograph. I can plot 3-minute positions and easily arrive at an accurate speed. My reasoning in using map contacts is that WW2 submarine crews usually had a tracking party that would be responsible for plotting, but obviously in the sim it is done with unfailing accuracy, however this is the only 'aid' I allow in my careers. Players who play with all the options checked including manual targeting and with map contacts off are playing at the most challenging level for sure.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4018222 - 10/05/14 12:59 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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Wow. Now I can't wait to try this for myself. Thanks for posting those videos, Chucky. DBond, I would be very interested to see a tutorial on how you use manual targeting. I have a feeling I will be spending a fair amount of time on youtube tonight yep


"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC
in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918
#4018224 - 10/05/14 01:12 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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I have no trouble using manual targeting with the Mugami training mission. I get him every time. But I'm slow. With DD's bearing down, and shells splashing around my periscope...it's another story.
When I have to get off a snap shot, I find that the position keeper is a great tool. Pick the target and hit the red button. Wait a few seconds and hit the button again. You have a quick solution. "Fire one and two!" then "Dive!!!" I usually will start turning the boat as I fire to compensate for errors. Works surprisingly well.


"From our orbital vantage point, we observe an earth without borders, full of peace, beauty and magnificence, and we pray that humanity as a whole can imagine a borderless world as we see it, and strive to live as one in peace."
Astronaut William C. McCool RIP, January 29, 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia

#4018493 - 10/05/14 10:14 PM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: VMIalpha454]  
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Originally Posted By: VMIalpha454
Wow. Now I can't wait to try this for myself. Thanks for posting those videos, Chucky. DBond, I would be very interested to see a tutorial on how you use manual targeting. I have a feeling I will be spending a fair amount of time on youtube tonight yep



Let us know how you get on with it. And I will put together something. Are you sailing a German or US boat? Since I'm in a VIIB I will do a write up using a German boat/TDC. There are of course differences but in general the approach is the same. I use the same basic procedure in both. Pooch you are braver than I am, if I find a destroyer is shooting, then I am going deep. There have been occasions where I've fired a few down the throat, but in general I try to put as much water over my boat as I can!

--------------------------

U-47 left St Nazaire the day after Christmas, 1941 on her eleventh war patrol, again bound for the BF grid south of Ireland on the western approach to the English Channel. We managed to put a 5500 ton freighter on the bottom while waiting out the objective. But targets were scarce. Aircraft seemed to be everywhere, and the patrol was conducted largely submerged. Coastal patrol vessels, mostly armed trawlers, crisscrossed the area. It was frustrating, because I would often make an approach only to see a target not worth a torpedo, and at the same time I hoped to avoid them as much as possible to reduce the likelihood we would be spotted, which always brings a swift reaction from Allied surface and air ASW assets.

After completing our objective, I decided to head south off the coast of Spain in the CG grid. This has proven a lucrative area, with essentially a convoy highway, and occasional heavy warship traffic. We managed to contact two convoys, but each time our approach was detected and we were driven off or held down as the convoy steamed past. We then moved west into the open Atlantic in the western edge of the BE grid. Did not make a single contact. Chased a few radio reports without success, then decided to head to the western approach to Gibraltar, thinking the bottleneck would aid us in developing contacts. And sure enough it did. Again, we made contact with convoys, but they were heavily and effectively escorted. More modern destroyers are being encountered, as well as Black Swan Frigates. In SH3 I developed a particular fear of Black Swans, they are exceptional ASW vessels, and I will not attempt to tangle with one. So again, we were driven off or held down and hunted each time we try to find an opening in the escorting screens of the convoys we found.

In addition, aircraft seem to be finding us much more easily, and it is very dangerous to be surfaced. Twice, we were damaged by near misses as we attempted to crash dive after sighting one of these Angels of Death. One more convoy was spotted and I got in great position, submerged ahead and lay quiet, still and with the scope down as we traced their approach by hydrophone. But that allowed an escort to get very close, and suddenly we were being short-scale pinged. I went deep, but not in time and we took serious damage from depth charges but we managed to get the flooding under control and limped off to live another day.

Feeling we had worn out our welcome, we headed north to patrol off to the west of England, and on the way stopped in Portugal to top off the tanks. The patrol was six weeks old and I had managed to fire two torpedoes. We spent another 3 weeks in the AM grid without reaching position to attack. More convoys, more failed approaches. As they say discretion is the better part of valor, and as I hope to survive the war, I won't press my luck against alerted enemy destroyers. No lone merchants were found at all. It was frustrating the hell out of me, but it is what it is (and quite frankly I love it smile ).

Perhaps I let it all get to me, and I decided to try to sneak in the back door, headed for the waters inland of the Hebrides. I thought if I exercised caution, and stayed submerged, I could find some targets and maybe take the enemy by surprise. But soon, it was the enemy who would surprise me.

One morning in early March we had just submerged for the day when a merchant was detected on the hydrophones closing from the north. Soon the course and speed were plotted and we surfaced to flank speed to get ahead and submerge for a periscope attack.

U-47 makes the flank speed dash as the sun comes up with the 9000 ton British merchant visible in the distance.



Our flank speed of 17 knots allowed us to reach the attack position and we submerged and waited for the ship to come on. I had plotted it's speed early after sighting, and had her at 9 knots. I dialed in the solution and prepared to fire two bow electrics, one aimed at the leading edge of the bridge and the second at the stack from a range of 500 meters.

It seems too serene and peaceful. The scene belies the fact that two torpedoes are on the way at thirty knots to destroy this beautiful ship



Either the ship had increased speed, or more likely my initial plot was incorrect, and the first torpedo struck near the after mast and the second missed astern. But one was enough and the ship blew up and went down by the stern. The mistake was mine in only getting her speed once. When time allows, multiple speed readings should always be taken to make certain, but perhaps my success had gone to my head, and frankly I'm lucky we hit her at all.

We then cleared the area to the north, submerged at periscope depth at 2 knots. After running for about 12 kilometers, an aircraft was observed through the periscope. I put the scope down and waited for it to clear the area. But this particular pilot had other ideas. Three minutes later U-47 was rocked by explosions as we were hit hard by either bombs or depth charges. Damage was severe and two men were killed instantly. U-47 plummeted to certain demise as the after compartments flooded. I looked at my diving officer and thought so this is how it ends. He screamed 'we are diving too deep!' and I looked at the depth gauge as it passed in to the red and neared our crush depth of 220 meters.

At 186 meters, a loud crash and we hit bottom. So I have I will have plenty of time to think about dying, I would have preferred it to be quick. But my crew was not about to give up so easily. Damage control parties went to work, and soon machinery was being repaired. After three hours on the bottom, the pumps were repaired, bulkheads shored and I decided to try and blow ballast. It was just like the scene in Das Boot, and I actually let out a cheer as the depth gauge started to move. We surfaced in a still sea and we cleared to the north hoping to recharge the batteries and fix anything we could and most importantly, not be caught on the surface. Soon I felt we were able to submerge and we headed for the open sea west of the Hebrides. But sure enough, in the restricted waters, a convoy came on heading straight for us. This time the escorts did not detect us and we sank one huge freighter and damaged a tanker and snuck away apparently undetected.

Later that night we reached the open Atlantic and set course for St Nazaire, arriving there after many close calls from aircraft after four months at sea.

I knew aircraft could detect submerged boats in TMO, but I didn't know it could happen in OM. Now, I do smile I have decided to transfer to the 29th Flotilla out of La Spezia in the Mediterranean. If I do not see Britain again, I will not miss it.



No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4018571 - 10/06/14 01:30 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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Oh no. I don't take on the destroyers either. You're just asking for it. I find them almost impossible to hit with torps. But if I'm trying to get that merchant ship, and here comes a DD, I'll try a quick shot at the merchant before running. Than, "Dive the boat!" Zig-zag, throw out decoys, dive deep. Anything. I don't feel cowardly at all. Discretion is often the better part of valor.


"From our orbital vantage point, we observe an earth without borders, full of peace, beauty and magnificence, and we pray that humanity as a whole can imagine a borderless world as we see it, and strive to live as one in peace."
Astronaut William C. McCool RIP, January 29, 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia

#4018781 - 10/06/14 04:32 PM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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OK yes, I think I misunderstood and pictured you slugging it out. It depends on which version a bit too. For example in OM, the destroyers will come straight on. but in TMO they come on with a zig making hitting them a little more difficult.

I sound like I never shoot at DD's, but of course sometimes I do. In this career I am detailing in this thread I have sunk three, and probably missed another 3 or 4.

War Patrol Twelve is in the books and I hope to put up a new report this evening. I will say that transferring to the Med was a fine idea indeed.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4018988 - 10/06/14 11:32 PM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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After being temporarily sunk on our eleventh patrol, I decided to take a transfer to the 29th Flotilla based at La Spezia on the northwest coast of Italy. I spent a lot of time based in the Mediterranean in SH3, and wanted to give it a go in OM. The Med in 1942 has the advantage of being surrounded mostly by German controlled territory, aside the from eastern end, Malta and Gibraltar. Though we of course could not know this, the Torch landings will begin in November, and this 'German Lake' will slowly become the property of the Allies, but in May 1942 the situation is favorable for boats patrolling here. In SH3 I had a great deal of success patrolling the bottleneck between Sardinia and Tunisia. In that sim, this was essentially a task force highway, and many battleships and cruisers were sunk here.

One shortcoming of Silent Hunter is the inability of the program to shift patrol objectives immediately following a transfer. Your objective is assigned when you return to base, and subsequently transferring does not change your patrol objective grid assignment. So it was that U-47 was to set sail from La Spezia with the objective of patrolling BF15 south of Ireland. We decided to ignore those orders and would try to cover as much of the Mediterranean as we could, to get a feel for our new environs to hopefully allow us to focus on most profitable areas in later patrols. In addition, I hoped to get a feel for those areas that the enemy could cover by air, or were patrolling with surface units.

U-47 set sail from La Spezia on May 28th, 1942. The T III version of the G7e was now available, and would prove to be a marvelous weapon, a huge upgrade over the T II we had become accustomed to. After leaving base we headed for the bottleneck between Sardinia and Tunis. Soon after arriving on station, we began to receive rapid radio reports of task force positions and courses. Most of them were reported traveling east soon after departing or passing through Gibraltar. Positioned in the bottleneck, I was certain we would make contact soon. However it became evident that these were either not passing by, or more likely were hugging the north African coast, passing just out of range to our south. I shifted to patrol closer to the coast and soon made contact with a task force consisting of many destroyers, at least one light cruiser and troopships.

As we attempted to get in on this force we were detected and the escorts charged. We were forced deep and the TGB as we crept away. This repeated itself twice more. I am finding it almost impossible to get in on TF's and convoys any longer. The escorts certainly have radar, and their ability to detect U-47 submerged is remarkable.

After several failed attempts I gave it up as a bad job and decided to head east to see what we could find and essentially attempt to reconnoiter the Med. I also planned to stick our nose in to Valetta on Malta and see what we might stir up. The next day the watch spotted a ship and we went to battle stations and began the plot. But it soon was apparent the ship was lying to in the middle of the Med. Closer inspection revealed it to be a C&D class destroyer. It seemed a trap and we crept closer, scanning the horizon for any surprises. But there were none. The ship was just stopped and we moved to 2000 meters off her starboard beam. One of the new T III's was fired with the mag/contact pistol and struck the DD amidships. The destroyer was lifted out of the water and exploded in a flash, sinking on an even keel in less than a minute.

We cleared to the east and approached Valetta in darkness. I wanted to be in position for a dawn look in to the harbor, because if we were to be held down for any length of time, I wanted it to be during daylight, so we would have the full night for recharging. As we neared the harbor I could see many cargo ships and destroyers moored offshore and in the quays.

We continued on submerged to get inside the 5000 meter circle that is the max range of our torpedoes. I selected two freighters near one another as targets and fired two torpedoes at each. I didn't know if there might be torpedo nets and I began to reverse course to head for deep water. After a long run the torpedoes began to hit. The first target exploded and the second absorbed both torpedoes and began to settle. I fired the stern torpedo and this also hit, sinking the ship but she grounded without exploding and in Silent Hunter you get no credit for that.

The two target ships, we were credited with the one on the right



This alerted the destroyers who got underway and we cleared to the north. Because of the extreme firing range and the fact our torpedoes are wakeless, they had no idea where we were and never got close. After moving well out of range we surfaced and headed for the U-Boat base in Salamis, Greece for a reload and to top off the tanks. After leaving Salamis, we headed further east, to patrol the waters between Crete and Cyprus and perhaps have a look into Alexandria.

As we patrolled here, we began making contact with lone merchants once again. I began to call this area the Mediterranean Air Gap, and it was like 1940 all over again, except now the targets flew Turkish and Palestinian flags. In the course of the next two weeks we sent six lone merchants to the bottom. One was a small 1800-tonner, and the rest were all the same exact type of ship, what is known in OM as M-KF-M (E), 5000 tons.

The new torpedoes were remarkable, as much for their reliability as for the destruction they wrought. I used the magnetic/impact pistol and set depth for impact, usually at around 3 meters. When these torpedoes hit, the ships were often lifted from the water, broken in two and followed by secondary explosions. We did have one dud, and of course it was the one time I fired a single. After seeing how effective these weapons were, I thought it safe to fire just one, and of course it did not explode. But overall, they were fantastic torpedoes, and I was very pleased after three years of firing unreliable torpedoes.

Here are some shots of a typical attack. On August 6th a 5000 ton Turkish cargo ship was spotted emerging from the fog making 8 knots. Making our normal approach, we set up the attack as she came on.



Here, the first torpedo hits the below the stack



The second torpedo hit below the after mast



I really like the Operation Monsun Mod, lurker did a great job with it. But there are a few wrinkles. One is the fact that when submerged, the watch crew is not automatically moved to the interior of the sub. As a result, you can cruise around below the surface with your crew members exposed as though they were still on the bridge, though they are not shown on the bridge, but are considered to still be there from a damage and danger perspective. Further, it isn't only the crew members on watch at that time, but all three watches are considered exposed. When there is a possibility of counterattack, I place each of them inside the boat, with six going to the conning tower and the rest in the crew's berth. But I admit I don't do this when attacking lone merchants, as I don't expect depth charges, though if a plane happened by they would be in serious peril. And I paid the price for this laziness.

As I watched through the scope waiting for this ship to sink, the gun crew on the fantail spotted my feather and opened up with small caliber fire killing my XO! and wounding the rest. He was easily my best watch officer, with a watch rating of 103. I was devastated. We had now lost three crew members killed and many wounded in the past two patrols. I admit it was entirely my fault, but moving the crew one by one gets old and I didn't do it.


After this the ship suddenly exploded. And not just any explosion. A massive blast that broke the ship in three!



After the ship exploded we headed for the barn, with many watch crew wounded, I didn't want to risk losing any more of these men I had worked so hard to train up to the level they were now.

Here are my poor watchmen doubled over in pain after being wounded.




The remnants of the Turkish freighter that killed my XO





U-47 put in to La Spezia on August 15th having put 8 ships including the destroyer on the bottom of the Mediterranean. In a sense it was a patrol back in time. It was a good not to be hunted and hounded constantly, but I know this too won't last.

Here is a shot of the eastern Med, and you can see the location of our base at La Spezia as well as those at Messina and at Salamis, of the destroyer sinking near Sardinia, and the area east of Crete/south of Rhodes that became a Turkish ship graveyard.







No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4020512 - 10/10/14 12:11 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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Niklas Baumann and U-47 continued to patrol the Mediterranean. Patrols twelve, thirteen and fourteen were all successful. Patrol twelve left La Spezia in late May 1942, and U-47 returned from patrol fourteen in March of 1943. I am quite pleased to have survived this far, and transferring to the Mediterranean has certainly had a large role to play in that. Aftert the Torch landings by the Allies in November of 1942, there has been a marked increase in Allied air patrols, but during refit before war patrol twelve, U-47 received an upgrade that may prove to be the most important of the war, the Metox radar detector.

The Metox proved invaluable time and again, giving advanced warning of approaching destroyers and aircraft, giving us ample time to dive and avoid, or get in better position. I can't say whether the enemy will employ radar wavelengths not detectable by the Metox, so we cannot rely on it exclusively, but the value of the warning it gives of approaching aircraft is beyond measure. Very happy to have mounted it on our boat.

War patrol twelve saw U-47 return to the waters between Crete and Cyprus, patrol thirteen was largely conducted in the Aegean Sea near the southern approach to the Dardenelles Strait, and patrol fourteen was actually conducted in the Black Sea. Patrolling in the Mediterranean and Black Seas offers several advantages, not least of which is the relatively restricted area means that using aircraft as scouts is effective and useful. In the open Atlantic, scouts aren't very practical, in part becasue one tends to patrol so far from any German air bases. But in the Med, patrols are often well within range, and I found that utilizing the scouting system was very beneficial.


Here you see the numerous contacts that the scout has revealed for us. The scout is the black dot just west of U-47




The combination of the scouting planes and the lack of enemy ASW in this area along the Turkish Black Sea Coast meant the Happy Times returned for U-47. In a matter of just 2 or 3 weeks, eight merchants went to the bottom.




In this shot you can get a feel for the size of the search circle for the airborne scouts (500 km radius). Here, a patrol from Crete flies out over the sea in support of U-47




Other highlights of these three patrols include a look into Gibraltar during the twefth patrol. Our assigned grid was off the Moroccan coast, and after completing it we set course for Gibraltar, hoping to catch units of the Royal Navy at anchor. And we certainly did! We had to dodge patrols and dive to avoid planes, but we slowly made our way toward the anchorage. A daylight periscope approach revealed two battleships, a fleet carrier, two heavy cruisers, and two light cruisers. U-47 made an approach to 2300 meters, and prepared to fire torpedoes at a Revenge class battleship and an Illustrious class fleet carrier. As they were at a zero angle to our boat, I planned to fire two torpedoes at each with depth set to run under with magnetic pistols. This type of attack had served me well in SH3 in Loch Ewe and Scapa Flow, but as we were ready to fire, U-47 bumped into the sub net protecting the harbor. I could have attempted to search for an opening, but felt that was an omen, and with patrols in the area we made for the open Mediterranean.


Here you can see our periscope picture just prior to running in to the sub net. On the right is the Revenge and the Illustrious is on the left.




At dawn the next morning we made contact with a large convoy that had just passed through the strait. As chance would have it, this convoy was unescorted. We got in to ideal position and toredoed three ships. One 5000 ton freighter went down immediately, and a large tanker and another medium freighter continued on damaged, but slowly falling behind their friends. AFter reloading the torpoedoes, we surfaced and ran end arounds on each straggler, sinking them both, though interrupted by radar equipped aircraft several times which forced us to dive.


Here U-47 reaches ideal position off the starboard beam of two overlapping freighters. The near ship was the first out of this convoy to go down. The far ship was damaged but sunk in a follow up attack later that day.




On December 9th, after the thirteenth patrol, Niklas Baumann was promoted to Fregattenkapitän.

As we enter mid-1943 I realize that our time in the Mediterranean is nearing an end. The enemy are slowly closing the ring around the Sea, and their ASW effort is increasing quickly. It won't be long before our base at La Spezia is no longer tenable, and eventually we will be forced back to the north, likely to Bergen if we survive that long. But this transfer has been a reprieve, and I have enjoyed the respite. It will only become more difficult from here, but the end of the war is in sight, if still a long way off. Quite frankly, I did not expect to survive this long, and as detailed earlier, we came very close to the end on more than one occasion. If we do return to the Atlantic, I will do all I can to make it to the end, though it may not be entirely up to me!


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4020561 - 10/10/14 02:56 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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DBond,

Once again I have truly enjoyed reading your patrol journals. Congratulations on your promotion, and also for surviving so long! It is a difficult thing to have any longevity in these sims. May fortune smile upon you in your future missions.

Thanks to the suggestions and resources in this thread I learned basic manual targeting. I am by no means an expert, but I was proficient enough to get a fair amount of hits over the course of two playing sessions. What a difference it makes regarding immersion and achievement! I have my realism settings on 80%. I only left external view (I just like looking at the ship underway) and map plot updates on. I started a new career and had fun for a while, but before too long I was reminded how utterly unqualified I am to be a submarine skipper! I never figured out what exactly I was doing wrong but my torpedoes never went where I wanted them to. After much frustration and wasting of time I was sunk and called it a night. The next day I started out trying to practice my manual targeting, but then decided to try and install some mods. I joined subsim and installed RFB and RSRDC. When I re-launched my patrol it was the same as the stock patrol, so I dont know if I did something wrong or if the mods were installed correctly. I will have to try a new patrol to tell, I guess. In any case, I played this patrol twice (both ending in my demise). I got a lot better at the manual targeting and planning of attacks. Still not so good at hip shooting, but I'm sure that will improve. I am really enjoying this game again, and I thank you for rekindling my interest in it. There are a few questions I'd like to ask. 1) Are there always a ton of planes buzzing you in the daytime around the Phillipines? It seemed excessive to me, but I could be wrong. I did get buzzed by two Emily flying boats loaded with bombs. That was a first for me (usually Zeroes) so I think the mods are probably working. 2)When I died, the first time was a blunder on my part. The second was when I dived deep trying to evade a destroyer. I only went to around 200 ft but the entire sub just started being destroyed and then sank. I was surprised because I thought I should be able to dive that deep. According to Wikipedia the test depth of the Salmon class was 250 ft. Is that a normal problem?

Sorry for the long post. And sorry that it is kind of off topic. Keep the reports coming! I, for one, am eagerly awaiting news of Fregattenkapitan Baumann and the U-47! salute


"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC
in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918
#4020564 - 10/10/14 03:09 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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I almost forgot, in the Operation Monsun mod can you operate in US coastal waters or the Carribean?


"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC
in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918
#4020575 - 10/10/14 03:27 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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Thanks mate, it's been a fun career. I hope to survive it but we will see!

For your last question, yes, you can sail essentially anywhere in OM. Starting in 1942 there will be Milch Cow supply boats sailing near the US, and you will get position reports by radio. In OM, you can literally patrol anywhere.

Are you sure you are in a Salmon Class? If you are certain that you had no damage, I would guess you are in an S-Boat, which does have a test depth of 200 feet. You should not be collapsing at 200 feet in a Sargo or Salmon, 250 feet test depth is correct as you stated, but even then, you should be able to go a little deeper than test depth. Crush depth is deeper than test depth in any type of boat. So even in an S-Boat you shouldn't crush at 200 unless the hull is damaged. What is the name of your boat?

As for planes, yes they are everywhere around the Philipines. I have a bit of an issue with the way planes work in RFB and TMO, and I will make a few edits to the airstrike.cfg file when playing either of those two mods. Essentially I drastically reduce the frequency of air contacts, while at the same time drastically increasing their skill.

When you install any SH4 mod you should only do it while in port. Modding while in the midst of a patrol can lead to unexpected results, or things might just not work right. When using a 'supermod' like RFB or TMO it is highly recommended to begin a new career.

There are several ways to tell if the mod is working, but in RFB the easiest way is to start a new career and look at the options for where you can be based. This is different from stock and should be readily obvious if there are new and different options here.

One thing I noticed when using the US TDC in SH4 is I often found that before firing I would need to 're-enter' the AoB, range and speed. That is, I would click the 'send to TDC button' or whatever it is actually called for each of these settings, and it will sometimes (often?) result in the gyros getting set to correct. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but I found that the solution and gyros weren't automatically correct for the data I had entered. If this happens, you will see the gyro angle jump to the correct position. As mentioned earlier in the thread, after some experience you will begin to know what gyro angle you expect from your torpedoes given the situation, and to recognize when it does not match. This will reveal some sort of error in the solution.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4020582 - 10/10/14 03:43 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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Originally Posted By: DBond
What is the name of your boat?


USS Stingray. Like I said, I was in the neighborhood of 200 ft. Maybe a little more, maybe less, but was definitely surprised by being crushed. I will have to pay more attention next time. I did install the mods in port, but didn't want to reallocate my crew so I didn't start a new career. I will begin a new career this time. The fact that you can sail anywhere has sold me on OM. I really enjoyed reading Morison's History of the US Navy in WWII vol 1 (The Battle of the Atlantic). Seems like it would be great fun to lay off VA Beach and sink merchants within sight of the shore. I wonder if you can use shore lights to silhouette ships? Now if only they will make a mod that allows your crew to sunbathe on the decks!


"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC
in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918
#4020586 - 10/10/14 03:54 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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Yep, Stingray is a Salmon allright. That is not normal, and perhaps it is because a new career needs to be started when installing RFB. Just a guess.

You can sure sit off Virginia Beach in OM and sink all the stinkin' Amerikaner tankers you want!

Morison is excellent of course, and I would also recommend Clay Blair's Silent Victory (US sub war in Pacific) and
Hitler's U-Boat War, which is two volumes, The Hunters for early war, and The Hunted, for late war, if you haven't read these books already


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4020599 - 10/10/14 05:44 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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I will surely look into them. I am always on the lookout for a good history book. Prompted by my realization that I didn't know much about the capabilities of my own boat, I decided to do a little research into the Stingray. I was able to find a microfilm document with a summary of her involvement in WWII and even the captain's reports of war patrols. This seems to be a great resource for learning the tactics used, etc. http://issuu.com/hnsa/docs/ss-186_stingray

Now I can't wait to start a new career.


"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC
in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918
#4020659 - 10/10/14 11:54 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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Yes! Patrol reports are great. You get insight in to the tactics, as well as the thinking behind the decisions the skippers made. I've read dozens of them over the years. This is an amazing resource for US submarine patrol reports. http://hnsa.org/doc/subreports.htm

I like to read the report as well as Silent Victory, as it's interesting to compare what the skipper thought he had sunk with what he actually did, or at least according to JANAC. In general it seems that sinkings were overclaimed by about 100%, at least as far as tonnage, not necessarily by number of ships. The most glaring example was probably Roy Davenport who was credited with 17 ships for 171,000 tons, but postwar accounting reduced this to 8 ships for 29,000. Of course JANAC cannot be 100% correct, but I consider it to be reasonably accurate.


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4021026 - 10/11/14 02:19 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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I've been playing submarine sims for almost 25 years. The first one I can remember was Silent Service around 1990. Various early PC sims, like Aces of the Deep, Nintendo and Sega titles followed, and then in '96 Silent Hunter was released. Blown. Away.

Almost 5 years would go by before SH2 was released. In the interim I devoted my time to flight sims, titles like Falcon 4, EAW, MiG Alley. And shooters like Half-Life, Operation Flashpoint, and Deus Ex. Strategy games, tactical games and even surface sims like Destroyer Command. But through it all submarine sims remained my first love. SH2 introduced me to the fascinating world of German U-Boat Operations. Pacific Aces brought me back to the Pacific (still hard to believe that PA was 144 MB!). And of course SH3 was for me a seminal moment in the course of my sub sim odyssey. Now I play SH4, and with all of the fantastic mods we've talked about in this thread, it's as though all of those titles that have come before are forged in to one great sim.

I don't know if I can pinpoint it, but I tend to be drawn to games where I am alone and hidden, stealthy, sneaking. I like to play the sniper, the Apache pilot, the Thief, the Black Ops man invisible behind the lines until it's time to strike. Of course this is the essence of submarine warfare, and this is a large part of the allure of the Silent Hunter series for me and submarine warfare in general.

One aspect of submarine sims that I find appealing is you never know what will happen when you set sail on a war patrol. It could be fantastically successful, with ships seeming to go down by your mere presence. It could be a slog, with contacts scarce, and endless storms, and little or no success after months at sea. It could result in a battleship falling to your torpedoes, or it could end after being hounded for hours when depth charges finally find your boat.

When I set sail on U-47's fifteenth war patrol on March 31st, 1943 it would prove to be the shortest war patrol I've ever conducted in sub sims and survived. The actual shortest patrol was in SH3 when my boat was sunk by an aircraft less than an hour after leaving Brest. But U-47's fifteenth lasted all of eleven days port to port.

U-47 left La Spezia on March 31st, with a full load of TIII electrics and the trusty Metox. Our objective grid was off the Algerian coast just to the north of Algiers. This is dead on the convoy route from Gibraltar, and I was sure we would make some contacts, expecting that the Metox would be our first indicator that one was approaching.

As we passed off the southern tip of Sardinia, the weather closed in and a raging storm tossed our boat and reduced visibility to less than 1500 meters. In this weather, the radar detector is even more valuable than usual, and I waited for the first contact. The storm raged for a week, then suddenly the skies cleared, the seas moderated slightly and a light fog opened visibility to 3500 meters.

Here the watch crew keeps vigil in the heavy weather




Shortly after dawn on April 8th, during a routine trim dive and sound sweep, we detected merchant screws closing from the west. A convoy was closing, and the hydrophones revealed the bearings were constant. We were right in their path. No warship screws were heard, and we surfaced to see if the Metox detected any radar. It did not. This convoy had no escorts. Soon the first merchant appeared in the fog and we began a plot, clocking the convoy's speed at 8.5 knots. U-47 submerged and got between the oncoming center and starboard columns. I planned to fire bow and stern torpedoes at the same time. One thing I really like about OM is the behavior of convoys after they are aware of an attack. The ships scatter in all directions, it isn't like SH3 was as the ships start constant helming and parade past your periscope. So therefore the attacks need to be swift and as many torpedoes should be in the water at one time as possible.

So we tried to identify a good target forward, and would also fire at whichever target was abreast in the starboard column with our stern torpedo. The first ship to emerge in the center column was a medium 5000 tons freighter, and then I saw the third ship in the same column was a T3.

I haven't seen a T3 since my SH3 days. In the 15 patrols in this career, at 13000 tons this is the largest merchant I have seen aside from the two liners that were accompanied by Repulse and Argus off Portugal in 1941 during our eighth patrol.


The T3 tanker emerges from the fog.




We set up the shot, planning to fire two torpedoes at this ship and the stern at a 6000 ton freighter that would pass astern at the same time. Both shots would be 500 meters, and as the T3 crossed the wire the fish were fired, and I quickly spun the scope and the dials to send the stern torpedo on it's way. As I swung back to the T3 both torpedoes hit and it burst into flame from bow to stern.


The tanker is aflame and the spots the torpedoes struck are visible along the waterline.




I then spun the scope back to the ship astern and saw the torpedo explode below the leading edge of the superstructure. But as it dawned on me my sound man did not report 'Torpedo Impact!', I realized it was a premature that exploded so close to the target that I thought it was a hit.

Swinging the periscope back to the front, and again resetting the TDC as quickly as I could, a single torpedo was fired at an American cargo ship of about 3300 tons from 800 meters. She had begun to turn away, but this torpedo struck near the after mast and soon she would be dead in the water with a slight list but not showing any sign of sinking. As we moved to fire a coup de grace, tubes one and 5 were reloaded. I maneuvered to shoot bow tubes at another medium freighter that happened to cross our bow, but as I fired she saw my periscope, opened fire with machine guns, and combed the tracks causing both torpedoes to miss. We then got in position to fire the stern tube at the stopped American and sent her to the bottom.

In a furious span of about 30 minutes we had fired seven torpedoes for 4 hits, 2 misses and one premature, but with only two ships sunk for about 16,000 tons. I secured from battle stations and waited for the ships to go over the hill and surfaced for an end around.


After surfacing we kept a sharp eye for aircraft and bent on flank speed for an end around as the convoy reformed. I kept U-47 about 4000 meters off the port side of the convoy, where the ships were just visible in the fog, but far enough away that we remained unsighted.

Here you can see one of the columns as U-47 dashed ahead at 17 knots for another attack.




Five hours after the last attack, we submerged once again and torpedoed a big 9000 ton freighter which blew up and went down in minutes in the last light of the day. I swung the scope and the dials to fire at another ship off the bow, but inexplicably set the scope to 010 but the bearing dial to 350, introducing a 20 degree error and of course missed with both torpedoes. Could have kicked myself, but that's how it goes sometimes. As darkness fell, we surfaced once again and ran ahead. Eleven hours and 120 kilometers after the first attack against the T3, we again positioned the boat between oncoming columns, the last stern torpedo was fired at another big 9000 ton merchant which blew up, and the final bow torpedoes were fired at an 8400 ton tanker. Both hit and the ship assumed a port list and fell to 2 knots as the rest of the convoy went over the hill. In the darkness we surfaced and I ordered battle stations guns. The crew fired about 30 rounds and the tanker exploded with flames a hundred feet in the air. Out of torpedoes, U-47 headed for the barn, having fired all 14 torpedoes in 11 hours, for 9 hits, 4 misses and one premature, sinking five good ships for 42k, and returned to La Spezia on April 10th, after just 11 days at sea.


U-47 ties up at La Spezia













No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4021083 - 10/11/14 06:40 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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VMIalpha454 Offline
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clapping
What a spectacular patrol! Talk about being just ripe for the picking. I'd say they will probably demand escorts next time. Good Job


"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC
in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918
#4021130 - 10/11/14 11:30 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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Thanks. That patrol was one of the least productive of the career, though the ships were mostly big ones. In fact the previous patrol in the Black Sea resulted in 14 ships sunk for 71,000 tons, but included a reload at Sevastopol and lasted 3 months. This last patrol was unique though. And it was also the worst shooting by the skipper in this career with a hit rate of just 64%.

Yes, I'm surprised to have encountered unescorted convoys at this stage of the war. Another one was found near Gibraltar during patrol number 12. But ya gotta play the cards you're dealt.

How's your career going? Which mod, which boat?


No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
#4021363 - 10/12/14 07:44 AM Re: [SH4] Operation Monsun [Re: DBond]  
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Any german crew voices recommended?

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