This isn't new, or news, and many will already know of this mod, but it's new for me and I am impressed enough to post it up in case some might not be aware, but want to play UBoats in the SH4 engine.
Recently I had an itch to get back in to a German boat, so I had a look at some of the SH3 supermods, like GWX, NYGM and LSH. Just looking through the install instructions for LSH was enough to make me lose interest, which might be a shame, as I might be missing a really good mod. But no matter, because there is Operation Monsun for SH4.
I downloaded and installed with JSGME, but I got it wrong somehow and ended up with some sort of hybrid of stock and OM, and I wasn't impressed, not least because I didn't know I had screwed it up. But after having another go I got it right, and frankly I am really impressed with the mod.
If you want to try it, join Subsim.com if not already a member there. If you are not a donor, you will be limited in the amount of downloads you can do in one day, so it will take a couple days to get everything, at least if you want to run an install similar to mine. Using JSGME, this is the install order I recommend, but of course you can flavor to taste.
download links to the main package and to patch 7 are included in that thread at subsim
I highly advise you use JSGME to install these files, and for any mods you use with SH4 for that matter. If you do not have it already you can get it here
There are many additional mods you might choose to use, I am using the KiUB mod, which redoes the attack periscope screen among other enhancements, and I find it very good because I use manual targeting. It is included in OMEGU patch 7
I am also using larger HUD dials (I use the medium option)
There are other sites where you can get most or all of these files, but of course I recommend Subsim. I am Threadfin at Subsim. The install I am using is the recommended one if all you want to play is UBoats, but you can aslo choose to have US boats in which case a different install is in order. Be sure to read through the OM installation thread for details. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166159
If you have the UBoat itch, but SH3 isn't doing it any longer for whatever reason, or if like me you just don't feel like fooling with resolution fixes, Starforce, and many hoops to get a good mod, Operation Monsun is a fantastic choice.
Here is a shot of the attack periscope screen using the KiUB mod and full manual targeting, that is I set the dials myself, don't use the notepad method. I find speed using the mark pencil, stop watch, compass and nomograph. This screen is ideal for manual targeting.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Yes, I am really liking it. My first career did end when I had some sort of glitch causing all crew slots, torpedo slots, and upgrade slots to disappear. But I started a new one and it's been fine.
I've used manual targeting for years now and the mod I pictured in the last post is by far my favorite attack periscope in any version I've played. Just perfect.
I am currently in command of U-46, a VIIB. Took command in September of 1940, out of St Nazaire. Just completed my third war patrol and it was a memorable one, just shy of three months at sea. Sank a 5500 ton freighter early on, but then made no sinkings for almost 2 months, just no contacts, though I did attempted to thread inside a convoy, fired 2 torpedoes at a large tanker that were both duds, and escaped.
Finally, off Stornoway, while surfaced in a raging storm, a Kent class Heavy Cruiser emerged from the fog at 1300 meters. Working as quickly as I could I submerged, attained position and obtained the speed for the firing data. Less than 4 minutes after sighting I fired four bow electrics at the cruiser, 3 hit and the forth was a dud, but the ship exploded and went down.
Later in the patrol in the BE grid made contact with a force of one Fiji CL, HMS Argus (an escort carrier), and a troop transport. Sank the carrier, and attempted to get one of the others, but they were difficult as they were running about constantly changing course and I wasn't about to surface under the guns of the cruiser. Fired two electrics at the Fiji for misses, and as I was chasing, a large 9000 ton freighter was seen coming up astern. Switched to this ship as it would be easier to target as it plowed along steady on a WSW heading. But as it came on it was alerted by the other ships and took off at speed to the southeast. Waited until it was out of sight and then ended around. 3 hours later got in position and fired two torpedoes, both hit but were duds. I love the fact that this lone ship was somehow alerted by the other ships that I was nearby and changed course so drastically. This is the sort of thing sub sims need, as too often the ships just sail along fat and slow until they run in to your torpedoes.
Did another end around and fired the stern tube for a hit on the bow, but she kept on.
Did another end around and with my last torpedo, in the stern tube, cracked it in half when the torpedo hit right on the aimpoint, the stack. All tolled, it was a 3 month patrol for 50k, including a heavy cruiser and a carrier. Now generally I'm not too keen on 'Hollywood' patrols, I'm the sort that would be just as happy busting my ass for 2 ships for 15k battling raging storms and faulty gear.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
And the career of Kapitänleutnant Otto Popp comes to an end in July of 1941 due to enemy air attack on U-46's fourth war patrol. I made the mistake of getting a second objective, and it was BF 24 near Crow Sound at the western entrance to the English Channel. I had just completed the objective and was heading west to deeper water when an Allied aircraft, Sunderland it looked to be, attacked out of the low overcast directly astern. We had only seconds to crash dive, but not in time and U-46 was sunk with all hands.
I played a lot of SH3 and I probably did in the neighborhood of 50 DiD careers, and out of those I only had one that saw the end of the war. I don't think my prospects in OM look to be any better. I play at 88% difficulty, with only map contacts enabled. And I play with survival as the number one priority, but the odds are slim, aren't they?
So now Niklas Baumann takes command of U-47 in Sept of 1939. Maybe this will give me more time to season the crew and increase our chances of survival.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
I don't know if I am lucky, or if there are a high number of warships cruising the high seas in this mod.
U-47 set sail from Kiel on Sept 3 1939, bound for grid AM52, on the western approach to the British Isles. Enroute between Scapa Flow and the Shetland Islands, we encountered a huge Dutch freighter of 9,000 tons, and another ship, west of Stornoway, a 5000 ton Panamanian steamer, both of which were sent to the bottom in straightforward periscope attacks.
After sinking the second ship we surfaced to put distance between U-47 and the scene, expecting aircraft to arrive shortly to investigate. Soon, we dove to avoid it's arrival, and as we did so, warship screws were detected closing from the south. Once the aircraft had departed, surfaced and made a flank speed surface dash to close the track and pulled the plug upon sighting a flank escorting destroyer. Continuing to close submerged, a fleet carrier emerged from the light fog 3500 meters distant.
Slipped inside the port screen, and using the pencil, stopwatch, compass and nomograph, determined a speed of 18 knots after a 3 minute plot. A ship making 18 knots covers 1650 meters in 3 minutes, so I quickly spun the dials, set the torpedos for 4 meters, fast, impact, and opened all four bow tubes, which were loaded with steamers. Dialing in an AoB of 72 port, bearing 020, range 700, speed 18 knots, resulting in a gyro angle of triple zeros, I placed the scope on 020 and 2 minutes later the Illustrious crossed the wire. All four tubes were fired at intervals to spread the torpedoes along it's length. Fortune was with us as all four struck the carrier and detonated, and the Illustrious, 23000 tons, plummeted to the bottom of the ocean, 6 minutes after sighting.
We did not see it sink as we were already on the way down to 160 meters. The escorts were not able to find us despite their best efforts, and we slipped away to the south. A good start to the career of U-47, 3 ships for 37k in the first 10 days of the war, but I know it is unlikely to last.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Perhaps I will turn this thread in to my personal diary of war patrol highlights aboard U-47
After the success of the first patrol, U-47 continued to makes forays in to the Atlantic from Kiel. Three more successful patrols followed, including the fourth, in support of the Invasion of Norway. Averaging about 50k tons per patrol, we found mostly lone merchants, with the occasional convoy to pick a target or two out of. The waters northwest of Loch Ewe, off the coast of Stornoway proved most productive.
A few task forces were sighted, but we were unable to close to an advantageous position, and in each case they got by without an attack being made. In the fourth patrol in the Norwegian Sea, a task force of one troop ship and many Armed Auxiliary Cruisers was found lying to. Made a submerged approach and torpedoed the troopship. Follow up attacks against one of the Auxiliaries failed as torpedoes striking the ship caused a crash to desktop. After two more attempts I gave it up as a bad job, but something is not quite working right with these ships. I don't reload in sub sims, but the crashes forced me to.
Later in the patrol we sank a large tanker escorted by 4 patrol boats, who evidently were not equipped with active sonar. Finally a convoy was sighted heading for Russian waters and several ships went to the bottom from this.
Countermeasures so far have proven ineffective, but airplanes are a real threat, and one needs to be ever vigilant and quick on the diving alarm. However I know this will not last for long, and more destroyers are being encountered as we head in to late 1940. In June of 1940 U-47 departed on her fifth war patrol. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I hoped starting at the beginning of the war would allow the crew to gain more experience, and many of the crew have seen promotions and have acquired specialties as I believe that only a highly experienced crew might allow us to survive the war, insofar as that may be possible.
After departing Kiel, U-47 sailed to the north, passing Scapa Flow and entering the Atlantic. We managed to put a 6000 ton passenger/freighter on the bottom near our objective in the northeast quadrant of the AM grid. After several weeks of fruitless searching I decided to move south, in to CG grid off the coast of Spain. This is a common route for ships coming up from Gibraltar and the Med. Eventually a convoy was spotted, and in one of my most successful attacks in German boats, all 5 torpedoes were fired. The stern tube sank a 5000 ton steamer, two bow tubes sank a 7000 ton freighter, and the final two tubes were fired at an 8300 ton tanker in the far column. The first torpedo hit, but the second was a dud and she sailed on, with a slight starboard list and with flames visible near the forecastle. When moving in on this convoy, the lead escort had been too far out to port as we closed from starboard, and the starboard escort too far out of position to the rear and way out on the flank, leaving a yawning gap for us to slip through.
We dove to evade, and after being held down for 5 hours, we surfaced to trace the convoy's route and hopefully find the tanker straggling. After running up their track for 30 kilometers, the tanker was sighted and we made a submerged attack, first firing the stern tube for a dud, then another dud from a bow tube, and finally one the hit near the stack and the ship exploded and sank.
Cleared the area to the south. As the U boat Flotillas were in the midst of shifting to French coast bases, I decided to make this a double-barreled patrol, and put in to Lorient for a reload, with the view to patrol until our new base would be ready in St Nazaire in the middle of September. The we left for the waters west of Gibraltar in the hopes of making contact with heavy men-of-war.
Soon after arriving on station, the bridge watch spotted the tops of warships on the horizon closing from the east. Ordered a flank speed surface dash to close their track, and plotted their speed at 19 knots. If they kept on, the best I could hope for was a shot on a broad angle at around 4000 meters. However, in the clear weather in bright sunshine we were spotted and as the destroyers escorting the heavies showed a zero angle and bones in their teeth I pulled the plug and continued to close, albeit at a much slower speed.
But after being sighted, the big ships, which we now identified as a battleship or battlecruiser and a heavy cruiser, slowed and began that constant helming that alerted ships in Silent Hunter do. Soon our plot showed them at 12 knots along their base course, which would allow us to reach a suitable firing position. As the lead ship's angle broadened slightly we were able to see she was the majestic Hood.
We continued to close the Hood's base course and set up the shot. Here is a water-lapping exposure to check bearing and AoB.
All four bow tubes with steamers loaded were opened, depth 4 meters, impact, fast. AoB 80 starboard, bearing 350, speed 12 knots, range 600. As the Hood crossed the wire, all four tubes were fired at intervals to spread the torpedoes along her length. Firing torpedoes like this is also a fail-safe against speed or range errors, and it virtually ensures that at least three of the four eels hit, unless the data is very far off.
In the event, all four hit and detonated, and Hood exploded.
With the escorts still off depth charging the area where we submerged after being sighted, I lingered to observe our handiwork and watched as she began to slide below the waves. Then we started the descent to 160 meters and began evasion.
Here the fourth and final torpedo strikes Hood near the stern moments before she went under.
It appears to be business as usual for the crew of U-47 despite the sinking of the 48,000 ton battlecruiser.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Yeah Flashburn. SH4 has so many good mods. Real Fleet Boat, Trigger Maru and this Operation Monsun are all excellent. Operation Monsun features the ability to play German boats anywhere... France, Norway, the Med, Germany, Pacific, Indian Ocean. Plus with SH4 you can also play the US boats too of course. I love Type VII's, but US Balao's are my favorite boats of all time.
It's great to have both. With Multi-SH4 you can set up as many installs as you wish, but personally I just use JSGME and play whichever mod/boat strikes my fancy. And at the moment that is a VIIB in the Atlantic. But if I want to patrol the Philipines in an S-Boat, Type IX's around Java, or Truk in a Balao it's just a few clicks of the mouse away.
I've been playing sub sims since Silent Service in the early 90's. SH1 and 2, the Pacific Aces mod for SH2, and of course the past 3 Silent Hunters. Well I have SH5 but I have yet to actually try it, though I have been following your posts. Subsimmers are spoiled for choices no doubt, and it's largely down to the modders whose hard work makes it so much better.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
U-47 was now based in St Nazaire, France. This allowed direct access to the Atlantic, shortening the route, and allowing us to remain on station somewhat longer. However, it also means we have to traverse the Bay of Biscay, which is heavily patrolled by Allied aircraft, and so far we have managed to spot them in time, but it will only take one moment of relaxed vigilance to end the war for us all.
War patrols six and seven were successful, with a number of merchants sunk, and we made several surfaced attacks on convoys. Doing so requires firing from longer range, but we can attempt to escape at high speed on the surface. It is risky, but if the shot can be taken without being spotted it is worth the risk as we aren't subjected to counterattack. I look for overlaps and fire all four bow tubes then get the hell out of there, usually firing off the stern tube as we come around. I will only attempt this in heavy seas, and thus far it has worked very well. But as we move in to late 1941 I will have to consider curtailing surface attacks as I expect the escorts might soon begin to be equipped with radar.
U-47s eighth war patrol left St Nazaire for the AL grid south of Iceland. After several weeks chasing convoy reports without success I made for our old hunting grounds west of Stornoway, as this is the route ships travelling to and from Loch Ewe tend to use. And sure enough, soon after arriving on station, the bridge watch spotted a destroyer standing out in to the Atlantic. Soon after I spotted the faint outline of a battleship and began the plot and ordered flank speed to get in position. A Kaleun needs to be quick and measured in such situations, as ships moving this fast will get by quickly, particularly so when they emerge out of fog, which drastically reduces the range at which they are first spotted. We clocked the force of one battleship and four screening destroyers at 21 knots and closed the track, attempting to get in ahead of the port side screen.
I use what I call a 'steady-wire' firing technique. That is, I plot the target's course and speed, and then attempt to predict the firing point and position. I then dial in the solution for this spot and place the periscope wire on that bearing. As the target crosses the wire, the torpedoes are fired, usually with specific features of the target used as aimpoints, such as leading mast, bridge, stack, after mast, etc. In the 3 attacks shown in this thread, I instead fire all torpedoes considering the size of the targets and the improbability of follow up attacks, and fire them at intervals to spread the eels along the target's length. As mentioned before, this sort of 'single-shot salvo' provides a failsafe against targeting errors. For example if I have the speed too slow, the first 3 should hit with the fourth missing astern, or too fast and the first will miss ahead but the remaining three should hit.
In this case I dialed in an AoB of 80 port, bearing 020, speed 21 knots and range 1200 meters. The AoB was a mistake, as I meant to put it at 70 port which would match the 020 firing bearing since U-47's heading was at a 90 degree angle to the target's course. This introduced a 10 degree AoB error that fortunately didn't come back to haunt me. In such conditions, and with the target moving so fast, there is little time for double checking, and the mistake was mine.
As the battleship, now identified as Queen Elizabeth class, 36000 tons, filled my scope and crossed the wire, all four bow torpedoes were fired, set to run fast, 44 knots, with impact pistols and depth of 2 meters. After a run of about 24 seconds, the torpedoes slammed in to the battleship and she exploded.
As soon as the torpedoes hit the escorts began pinging U-47, and I swung the scope to starboard to see the port screen coming on at zero angle with a bone in her teeth and I ordered crash dive to 160 meters as we performed a corkscrew evasion to hopefully throw off the aim of the charging destroyer. As we passed through 70 meters a string hit close, causing moderate damage and minor flooding that we were able to get under control, but at the expense of silent running. Using the hydrophones (I don't use external cameras), we attempted to evade by reacting to the course changes of the escorts, but this is a real challenge with four of them up there. Eventually we were able to slip off to the northeast and after being held down for three hours we managed to lose them and surfaced and got the hell out of there.
Later in the patrol, with just three fish left and low on fuel, we encountered a group of HMS Repulse (battlecruiser), HMS Argus (escort carrier) and two huge liners northbound in column making 20 or 21 knots in the CG grid off the northwest coast of Portugal. Initial sighting was at 12,000 meters, and the force already showed a fairly large angle. Our flank speed allowed us to close to 9,000 meters before I felt it prudent to dive, less the Repulse open broadsides on us. Able to get no closer than 7,000 meters, the remaining torpedoes were fired at the battlecruiser, but all appeared to miss ahead and we headed for the barn, arriving at St Nazaire after 2 months at sea.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
I'd just like to say I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your war diary, here. I think you have just provided the catalyst needed to get me back into SH, and to try out all these mods. Thanks, and keep them coming!
"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
I appreciate the comment. I hope that others might find it interesting or entertaining, and if it causes someone like yourself to get back in to sub sims that makes it worthwhile! When there aren't many comments you wonder if anyone is finding it interesting, so I really appreciate you taking the time to do so.
Operation Monsun is my mod at the moment, but there are so many good ones. If SH4 is what you will play I can strongly recommend it, or Trigger Maru or Real Fleet Boat for the US boats. But there are others of course. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
I am currently in the late stages of U-47's tenth war patrol, and will post an update once (if?) we have docked at St Nazaire, but the Royal Navy's registry just became a bit shorter
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
I hardly touch my flight sims, anymore, since reinstalling both SH4 and SH5. They are all I've been playing. Not trying the Monsun mod because I have SH5, but it looks good.
"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
I played vanilla SH3 a lot when it was fairly new. I had a ton of fun with it. Lost my game copy somewhere, so I got SH4 on steam and enjoyed it for the most part. Unmodded it seems a little buggy and not as well rounded as SH3 had been. I didn't like some of the changes that took place between the two. Bought SH5 on release, played the beginning of one mission and shelved it. It was even more of a departure from what I had expected and hoped for. Lately I have had the sub itch return and have seen a good bit about the mods that have been developed, etc. Really makes me want to give it another shot. There are just a few things that have been holding me back. One is that I am fairly mod ignorant, and two is that I have no idea how to do the manual targeting that seems to be a big part of the mods. It sounds great but would be really frustrating to have to figure out on my own. I guess I am going to go ahead and give it a shot though because what you have written in this thread sounds awesome. I am looking forward to reading your next war diary. Viel Erfolg!
"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
Same here Pooch, except for the SH5 part, but I will get around to playing it eventually. I find submarine warfare and operations exceptionally interesting. Going on patrol in these sims is good fun.
U-47 left St Nazaire on her tenth war patrol in late September 1941, bound for BF24, near Crow Sound in the western end of the English Channel. It did not escape me that this was the exact grid objective that saw the end of my previous career in U-46 as mentioned earlier.
This location is relatively shallow, with depths averaging about 110 meters. In addition, it is heavily patrolled by enemy aircraft. Aircraft have been very dangerous in recent patrols, and we have taken damage on no less than four occasions from near misses. As a result we have been spending more time conducting submerged patrols, which drastically limits our search radius, but spares us the calling cards from above. The hydrophones have good range though, and it is not a terrible disadvantage as we search for targets.
After completing the four days in BF24, we headed west to deeper water and came across a 5000 ton freighter which was sunk in a periscope attack. This is the first patrol in this career I have opted to carry G7e electric torpedoes. Recent patrols have seen the convoys escorted almost entirely by destroyers and Black Swans, replacing the patrol boats and corvettes of the early war. As a result we are making the switch to electrics to hopefully mask our position when making these attacks. The faults of the G7e have not been entirely worked out though, and our dud rate with these torpedoes is noticeably higher than with the G7a steamer. And of course they are slower and have a shorter range, which adds some complication to torpedo attacks. But the 'Happy Times' are over, and survival is the first consideration.
U-47 surfaces after torpedoing a British freighter of 5000 tons in the BF grid
As we have moved in to late 1941, finding lone merchants is proving difficult as the Allies utilize their convoy system more thoroughly. After conducting a mostly submerged patrol for close to a month in the BF grid south of Ireland, we finally detected a merchant heading for the Channel. It proved to be a small 1800 ton mast-stack-mast steamer which we hit with a stern torpedo that proved to be a dud. We extended, surfaced and ran an end around to submerge once again and sank her with a single bow torpedo at first light.
A few minutes after surfacing following this attack, the bridge watch spotted a destroyer closing from the northeast. I quickly plotted it's course and speed and took off ahead on it's track, hoping it may be the screen for a task force and heavy men-of-war. Curiously the destroyer was making just 12 knots by our plot and our flank speed quickly extended the range. After running ahead for five minutes, the watch spotted another ship off our starboard bow. Looking in the direction indicated, I could make out the faint outline of a fighting top in the light fog. We had found another battleship.
I plotted it's course and kept flank speed to pass her by and submerge ahead for an attack. The destroyers escorting were trailing by a considerable distance, effectively leaving the battleship unescorted as far as our approach was concerned. As we drew along her port beam, the battleship suddenly changed course to the south and headed straight for U-47. As she emerged from the fog, there was no mistaking the distinctive features of HMS Rodney with all of her main batteries forward.
As the situation presented itself, I imagined that the task force had encountered one of our kameraden, though there are no AI subs in this mod, but it gave the impression the destroyers were behind searching, and the battleship went ahead, and was zigging at 12 knots along her base course. U-47 submerged and closed the track, which swung from 135 to 160 degrees true.
We were able to close to 700 meters and using the same approach and firing technique outlined in previous posts all four bow electrics were fired on a 075 starboard track. Luck was with us as all four hit and detonated, but unlike other successful attacks on capital ships in this career, Rodney did not explode, but staggered and continued on, down noticeably by the bow and assuming a starboard list.
Ordering flank speed I maneuvered U-47 for a stern shot to finish her off. But I underestimated her speed and this torpedo missed astern. Our highly experienced crew had reloaded tube 1 quickly and we spun around to fire this torpedo before the escorts could close, but as we were ready to fire, Rodney capsized to starboard and slipped below the waves.
It's true that we have encountered and have sunk far too many capital ships in this career (three battleships and a fleet carrier) to be considered realistic in any way, but I must admit I absolutely love it. And for tonnage it's just way over the top, U-47 having surpassed even Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, the top scoring submarine skipper in history, who was credited with 453,000 tons in WW1. I am generally a stickler for realism, but it's just so damn fun to sink ships in sub sims
Here is my view as I relax that evening in the Captain's bunk as the the radioman pulls his shift.
After sinking the Rodney we remained in BF grid to hopefully rid ourselves of the few remaining torpedoes and found a big 9000 ton Panamanian freighter making for England and sank her with two electrics.
The Panamanian freighter, broken in two and sinking (hopefully the night time shots show up well)
U-47 returned to St Nazaire after two months at sea. All in all I am pleased we have survived this far, and we move on in to 1942. Transfers are available, and I am considering a transfer to the 23rd Flotilla in the Mediterranean, out of Salamis.
And this isn't from Operation Monsun, but a screen of my boat, USS Searaven in the South China Sea, in a recent TMO or RFB career. I like the shot so thought I'd share. It's my current wallpaper.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
There are just a few things that have been holding me back. One is that I am fairly mod ignorant, and two is that I have no idea how to do the manual targeting that seems to be a big part of the mods. It sounds great but would be really frustrating to have to figure out on my own. I guess I am going to go ahead and give it a shot though because what you have written in this thread sounds awesome. I am looking forward to reading your next war diary. Viel Erfolg!
Thanks for the kind words. As for manual targeting, I can only encourage you to give it a go. For me, I only find it satisfying to use manual targeting, but of course you should play it however you find it most enjoyable. There are no mods that require you to use it, aside from the KiUB periscope mod you see in my posts. You can only use manual targeting when using the KiUB. It can be disabled in OM though (with a different attack periscope screen), and you can use point and shoot if you prefer.
As for getting the mods installed, of course if OM is what you want to try the steps are outlined in the first post. JSGME is essential in my opinion. If you have any questions about installing any of the mods, fire away. If you aren't a member at subsim.com I encourage you to join, as there is a wealth of knowledge and very helpful members.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Thanks for the advice. I will give it a shot. Concerning manual targeting, it seems that it would be much more satisfying if you hit your target that way. Are there any good tutorials explaining how to do it? I enjoyed your most recent war diary. It sounds like U-47 is the Royal Navy's scourge. You can sense the excitement and tension in your encounters with their warships. It is also apparent that you have a very good grasp of your TTP's. Its almost like reading an historical account. Bravo Zulu.
"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
Manual targeting has been the bane of my life. I want to use it but I suck at it and using automatic doesn't give you much of an achievement. Here is one video that may help you out but there are plenty more on YouTube. In fact check out this guy's channel,he has plenty of other useful SH4 stuff on there.I have found it very helpful to have a laptop running the videos whilst playing the game on the PC,it can be a real bonus if you can do it.
Thanks for the advice. I will give it a shot. Concerning manual targeting, it seems that it would be much more satisfying if you hit your target that way. Are there any good tutorials explaining how to do it? I enjoyed your most recent war diary. It sounds like U-47 is the Royal Navy's scourge. You can sense the excitement and tension in your encounters with their warships. It is also apparent that you have a very good grasp of your TTP's. Its almost like reading an historical account. Bravo Zulu.
Thanks very much. TTPs, Tactics, Techniques and Procedures? It would be ironic if it referenced terminology and I didn't know the acronym lol.
There are many ways to utilize manual targeting. I won't go so far as to say it is easy, but once you understand the principles and develop your procedure, it can be highly accurate. Understanding it is vitally important of course, but the overriding key is positioning.
A quick google will reveal many videos and web pages devoted to it, as Chucky posted, and there are some small differences depending on whether you are using a German or American TDC. And I've even seen some 'manual targeting' videos in which the author isn't using manual targeting at all.
I haven't seen the technique I use in any video, but I'm sure it's out there. We could put together a thread here at SimHQ if anyone thought it might be helpful. I don't consider my technique the best, but it is the best for me, and in this career we have hit for a little better than 85%, which is quite acceptable, but again I put that down more to positioning than to the technique employed.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
This is also a good explanation on manual targeting... LINK
It looks so simple when you follow someone else doing it but when I try it I usually see the torpedoes launch and then go in a completely different direction to the target
This is also a good explanation on manual targeting... LINK
It looks so simple when you follow someone else doing it but when I try it I usually see the torpedoes launch and then go in a completely different direction to the target
Torpedoes traveling in entirely the wrong direction is usually the result of a reversed AoB. That is, you have it set to port when it should be starboard or vice versa. But there are other reasons that could cause it. When my brain is working correctly, the final check I perform before firing is a gyro check. After some experience you will know the approximate gyro angle you expect from your torpedoes. If you look at the gyro and it isn't what you expect you can assume there is an error.
In the post-shot screens I show in this thread the dials remain where they were at the time of firing, even though I have moved the scope to follow the target. In most cases the gyro angle is shown as close to zero, which is what I want. By positioning my boat on a perpendicular heading to the target's course, we want the torpedoes to run straight out to intersect and impact as squarely as possible. Of course, perfect positioning isn't always possible, and some shots will be fired with considerable curve, it all depends on the situation.
Just a few days ago I rushed a shot and fired a stern tube but without changing the bearing to the stern, and the torpedo missed by a mile. A gyro check would have revealed the error in my setup. In the next few days I will run an attack on a lone merchant and snap some screen and put together a guide to the method and methodology I use. I do not claim to use the best method, but it works very well for me.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
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!
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!
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
"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
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
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
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 ).
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 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!
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
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!
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!
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!
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!
"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
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
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!
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
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!
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
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!
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!
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
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!
There were some mods for German voices,here is a link to the page however the links are now dead.You could try googling the individual mod names and see if they are still available anywhere http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=135994
*edit* I tried a few places but got 'file not found'. Good luck with the hunt!
Interesting game but I don't know how much longer I'll play SH4 ...last night i surfaced my submarine in the training mission and was able to defeat a well armed destroyer with my deck gun
"everything lives by a law, a central balance sustains all"
After a lot of frustration I was finally able to get my game modded. I went with RFB 2.0, Its patch, and RSRD for RFB. I must say that I am a fan of this game, modded. It was worth the hassle. Thus far, I am 5 days into a patrol commanding USS Sturgeon in 1941. The combination of these mods has completely transformed the game into a very immersive sim. I can't wait to resume my patrol tonight! By the way, my two main issues with installation were folder location and game version. Reinstalling JSGME by the numbers, purchasing the uboat missions to bring it up to v1.5, and ensuring mods were intended for that version and compatible with one another fixed my issues. Seems straight forward, but it actually wasnt obvious which version I had and which version the mods were intended for. Happy hunting!
"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
The Operation Monsun mod uses German language voices, if that's what you might play.
Are you sure about that? I installed OM and I got "yes sir, ahead one third".
Yes I am certain. Your install may not have gone correctly. If you're using the install I listed in the first post you should definitely have German voices. I don't know if they are included in OM 7.20, patch 7 or OMEGU though. Do you have SH4 version 1.5 and are you seeing an Operation Monsun loading screen when first firing up SH4? As I mentioned in my first post, I had screwed up the install he first time around and ended up with some sort of hybrid between OM and stock, and like you, had English voices.
VMIalpha, I'm happy to hear it. Happy hunting.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
The issue I had it seems was that when extracting the mods from the zips and RARs, was that the file structure in the mod folder had too many 'layers' for example it might be something like OM_v720>OM_v720>Data. This is especially true for any mod you download that has various optional mods contained in it, like for example the KiUB English periscope mod that is part of Patch 7 I believe. Make sure there is only one 'layer' before the Data folder in each mod. When using JSGME, it will appear to install even if this error exists. But you will see an Operation Monsun load screen with a surfaced U-Boat and a burning tanker if it goes correctly.
That said, the install I am using is the only OM I have played. So if you aren't using say OMEGU or patch 7 or some other version this may not be true. If you are, then the load screen will appear, and you will have German language voices if it installs correctly.
And I believe that any of these Supermods require version 1.5 of SH4.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Well, I just reinstalled the whole thing SH4, Uboat missions + OM v705 and... the same. I have no OM loading screen, just the regular "Uboat missions" screen, BUT, I can start the german career in 1939, wouldn't that mean that OM is working? Also, still have the english's voices.
No, since you have the U-Boat missions add-on presumably, you can still do U-Boat missions. Are you installing all of the files I show in the first post?
I recommend the following install order, but check the folder structure after extracting each download into the Mods folder.
The KiUB mod is optional, and OMEGU is too really. I am not sure however whether OMEGU affects the loading screen or the voices. I also use a 'No Plankton' mod, and a larger dials mod but these sorts of mods are optional as well. But I would install each of the others in that order. Links to each component are in the first post in this thread.
Are you using JSGME? And it is in the main root directory for SH4? If you are only using OM v705 then it's possible you are playing OM, but essentially an early version that has fewer features which may not include the voices and loading screens among other things.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
It sounds like,perhaps, he is having a similar issue as I was. What I ended up having to do was 1: clear out all the mod stuff, including JSGME, from your game's root folder. Take just the JSGME.exe and paste it into the game's root folder. Run JSGME. It will create a folder called MODS for you in the correct place. Unzip your mod files to whichever folder the zip files are in. Mine was a folder named SH4 mods in the Downloads folder. Run JSGME. Select import mod. Navigate to that folder, select the mod to import. It will automatically bring over the mod to the correct location. Click the mod in JSGME and move it across to activate. If you follow DBond's install order, your JSGME and mods files are in the correct location, and all the mods you are using are the correct version for your game and compatible with one another, you shouldn't have any more issues. Hopefully that helps.
"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
I don´t know wtf is happening with my JSGME, all is fine until I try to install the OMEGU, which is placed in the SH4 root folder instead of the MODS folder.
Yes, all mods should be in the Mods folder. Once there, run JSGME from within the SH4 directory. I would deactivate all mods, then reactivate in the order I listed earlier. That should do it. There is also the OMEGU Patch 7 that you will want to install after activating OMEGU.
So just cut & paste that OMEGU folder into Mods. I see many more OM mods you have there, so they should all be in the Mods folder too, though they are each optional.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
OK, now I have the screen and the german voices, thank you.
One thing: what's the deal with so many crewmen, I think a Type II should have 20-25 men, and I could double that. The same for the other types, are there any mods that fix this?
25 for a Type II is correct, usually 3 officers and 22 ratings. You may not have read the post I put up earlier when my XO was killed. Watch crew will not be automatically put inside the boat when submerged. They aren't shown on the bridge submerged, but they are considered to still be there from damage and danger perspective. So don't fill open slots with more crew, you will need those empty spots to bring the watch crew inside to ensure they are safe.
That said, I have only sailed a Type VIIB in my OM careers, U-46 that was sunk on the 4th patrol, and U-47 in the current one, so perhaps there is another issue with Type II's that I am not aware of.
There is a thread at subsim that details an issue with conning tower upgrades. As luck would have it, the Type VIIB and the Type II are the only boats I believe that do not get a conning tower upgrade at some point, so it doesn't affect them. And frankly this issue may not always happen, or even may have been corrected at some point. But it's worth knowing about for anyone sailing VIIC's or IX's.
Of course, you don't have to start with a Type II, the 7th Flotilla has VIIB's, and the 2nd Type IX's from the September 1939 start. But by all means you can if you'd like. I'm rather fond of the Type II myself, just wanted to point this out in case you thought the Type II was the only boat available in '39.
And I'm glad you've got it working. Ewigen Jagd!
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
I had a look at the Type IIs and yes, you want to leave the conning tower and crew berth slots open for the watch to come inside the boat. I would imagine this also applies to gun positions. I use torpedo men for gun crew, as they tend to have the best gun ratings, and the obvious fact that if you are at battle stations guns, you probably aren't firing and reloading torpedoes.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Yeah I knew I could select the VII or IX with the other Flotillas, but I like to start with the II.
Good info about the crew damage thingy. About the number of crewmembers, well, even if I did not add any extra crew, I'm still way above the 25 figure (39 I think). Sorry, but no, I did not read the whole thread, just the first post, I wanted to be surprised by the images and experience
No i have not tried to load any mods yet. I was hoping to play the game without having to mess with those. I've found that while good mods enhance the game .... i have limited knowledge of working with files and mod installations are often way over my level of ability in working with moving files around or creating folders or understanding the instructions. Instructions are often written for people who know what they're doing ...which doesn't include me
"everything lives by a law, a central balance sustains all"
You're right. I just checked and starting in a IIB and there are 41 crew! Odd, that.
Also 56 for the type VII, and 59 for the type IX, which are closer but.. oh well. Now, if I manage to cross the Kiel channel the war could finally start
I used the Kiel Kanal once, and that was enough. Unless you mod so that the 'near' land' TC doesn't drop to 4x, it takes a long time. So I used the Kattegat and Skaggerak to get to the North Sea when I was based in Kiel.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
I don't know if I could afford not crossing the channel with a Type II, fuel wise. There was a button in SH3 to cross it, butyeah as you said, a little editing in the TC and shouldn't be a big problem.
My cruise speed in the Type VIIB is 6 knots, which is slow, but gives me massive range and endurance. The equivalent in a Type II I suppose would be about 4 knots. I'd imagine you could get a range in excess of 6000 kilometers or more. I took a Type IIB out of Kiel and ran the 'max range at current speed' thing, but for whatever reason it said unavailable so I have no idea what the max range is at ahead slow for example.
If you want to avoid the canal, you can opt for the 'start outside of base' option which puts you at the western end of the canal, which doesn't help on the return trip of course. Good luck on your patrols.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
I wish i didn't have to mess with crew management. That's what i liked about SH2 - no crew to have to mess around with. They appeared on deck when asked, the could shoot and keep a close watch for ships and aircraft yet didn't have to be baby sit.
"everything lives by a law, a central balance sustains all"
Haggart,I would encourage you to explore JSGME,it's quite easy to understand,honest!
All I would suggest to you is that before you install it that you make a back-up of your SH folder.In the event that things go wrong you can delete the mess you made and just copy the SH folder back in.
There are plenty of tutorials out there,not all for SH but the principles are the same for modding any game.
U-47 continued to patrol out of La Spezia in the Mediterranean through the summer of 1943. Unless we sail east of Crete we are finding no lone merchants. But convoys come along frequently, and maybe I was fortunate, or maybe I've learned how to attack convoys in Operation Monsun. Regardless of the reason, U-47 had great success in getting inside the screens and putting torpedoes on target during patrols sixteen and seventeen. Our Biscay Cross continued to be the most valuable installation on our boat. Time and again, it's warnings were quickly heeded, and we managed to avoid attacks by the many air patrols that were encountered. On one or two occasions the aircraft dropped their ordnance, but we were already heading deep and their attacks were ineffectual. On the whole though, the Cross allowed us to avoid detection.
In addition to aircraft, it also gives bearing to radar equipped escorts, which allowed us to essentially home in on the signal, and get below the surface before we can be detected. For whatever reason, the dive time upon ordering periscope depth in OM is excessively long. And this is with a highly experienced crew, and with quite a few diving experts, crewman who have attained that special ability. So my procedure is to order crash dive, then order periscope depth upon reaching 10 meters. This has the effect of leveling off right at the proper depth and we can get under in very short order.
Patrol 16 left La Spezia in the early hours of May 9, 1943, loaded with a full complement of TIII electrics. I had hoped to have available some G7e/T4 'Falke' acoustic homing torpedoes by now, but none were available. I would like to load all forward slots with TIIIs and all after slots with Falke for defense against searching escorts, but that will have to wait. This was my preferred late-war loadout in SH3, and proved very successful.
Our patrol grid was once again off the Algerian coast, and for what it's worth, every Med objective in this career has been off the Algerian or Moroccan coasts. Several contacs with convoys were developed, and we were able to create enough of an advantage to get in on two of them. The first was found with the help of aerial scouts running the route from Alexandria to Malta. Slipping inside the portside screen in very heavy seas, U-47 torpedoed the first Liberty ship we have seen from the point-blank range of 400 meters.
Here the first of the two torpedoes fired at this ship strikes MOT, below the stack
As we pass astern in search of the next target, a quick look at the Liberty shows her with a severe down-angle with her ensign flying.
These shots hint as to the challenge of attacking targets in heavy seas. Those who have followed any of my posts know I play without external cameras. And it's not just to blow my horn, but to emphasize the fact that playing Silent Hunter this way fundamentally changes the way the sim is played. The first screenshot above shows what was probably my clearest look at this target. When the seas are rolling, and your view is restricted to 6 inches above the water, you are presented with very brief snapshots of the target ships as they appear and disappear through the swells. And moreover, riding out evasions from within the control room or conning tower is far more challenging than when you can watch the escorts from above the water and react to what they do. Once your scope goes below the surface, you are blind, and it changes the way you think, what you know, and the decisions and actions you take. Something as simple as checking a box in the difficulty menu has a profound effect on how you approach the game and the decisions you will have to make.
After sinking the Liberty, U-47 continued at ahead slow looking for another target to appear in the glimpses through the troughs. But what we saw was a destroyer coming on with a bone in her teeth and I ordered crash dive as she began a short-scale ping. As we passed through 70 meters, a string of depth charges landed close aboard, causing moderate damage and U-47 sprung a few leaks.
Here you see the control room of U-47 with some leaks that have not been fixed.
As mentioned in earlier posts, the crew of U-47 is highly experienced. Every crew member has been promoted several times, and all have specialties, and many have Special Abilities. With such a crew, repairs are often quickly made, and here too, and we sought safety in the depths, hoping we would be lost in the many merchant screws above. We kept going down to 160 meters, and the combination of this depth, the sea state and the many screws in the area all allowed U-47 to slip off to the north and evade successfully as the destroyers lost track. After all screws were lost on the hydrophones to the west, we returned to periscope depth. A quick look revealed nothing in sight, and we surfaced and headed north to the waters between Crete and Cyprus that proved so lucrative in our early forays in the Med.
Over the next 2 or 3 weeks, we made contact with several merchants steaming alone. We managed to put five on the bottom, 2 of the small 1800-ton M-KF-F freighters, and three of the medium M-KF-M (E) freighters of 5000 tons, all of which flew Turkish flags.
With fuel dwindling and torpedoes running low, U-47 set course back to the west to patrol the bottleneck between Sardinia and Tunisia. Only July 3, we again contacted a convoy with the help of the Cross, and managed to slip inside the screen of very modern DDs and DEs. Once inside, we torpedoed two more freighters of 9000 and 5900 tons and evaded the searching escorts. Out of torpedoes, U-47 ran for the barn and put in to La Spezia on July 9, after exactly two months at sea, having sunk 7 ships for 35,745 tons.
During refit, U-47 saw the installation of a new decoy, Bold 1, which is a canister of calcium hydride that can be ejected from the submarine, and when mixing with seawater, produces a large cloud of hydrogen bubbles to provide a false sonar target for searching enemy ships.
U-47 left La Spezia for the last time on August 15, 1943 on her seventeenth war patrol, again bound for the waters off the Algerian coast. Soon after departure, we received a radio message to shift base to Toulon, located a short distance to the west on the French coast.
Several days after arriving on station, and having dived many times to avoid prowling aircraft, the Cross once again alerted us to the presence of a radar-equipped enemy warship. We homed in and dove in a raging storm, heavy fog, 15 m/s winds and heavy seas. Visibility was around 1500 meters. In what would become on of my most successful convoy attacks ever, U-47 sank 5 good ships in 30 minutes. The storm and the sea state seemed to prevent the enemy escorts from being able to find our boat as we fired torpedo after torpedo at ships that emerged from the fog. The first two fish were fired at an 8300 ton tanker. But something wasn't right with my setup, and the first torpedo missed ahead, and the second struck the tanker, damaging it, but she kept on. Fortune was with us, as the torpedo that missed continued on to strike a ship in a far column, a 4100 ton freighter that blew up and sank. Because of the fog, this was out of our view. Two 5100 ton cargo ships went down in short order, as we fired torpedoes as soon as they were reloaded as the convoy paraded past, seemingly unable to determine where the attacks were coming from.
Another big tanker of 8500 tons hove in to view and this ship too was sent to the bottom, having broken in two after being struck by our second torpedo. Soon after, the tanker that was the first target went down. In a half hour, five enemy ships for 32,860 tons went to the bottom of the Mediterranean.
Here the second tanker settles having broken in two
After the two tankers went down, we dove deep and slipped away, with distant pinging heard for a long while afterwards. Finally clear of the screws, U-47 surfaced to exchange the air and recharge the batteries. Several weeks went by, and the weather turned clear and very calm. Again and again, we dove to avoid aircraft. Two more convoys were contacted, but experience has proven that attacking in calm seas hands the initiative and advantage over to the enemy escorts. Unable to find a clear opening, I elected to run away. Keywords discretion/valor. In the second of these convoys, I had noticed a Bogue Escort Carrier sailing in it.
I've now done 17 patrols in OM. If there is one key I have found to success, it is sea state, sea state, sea state. For anyone else playing this mod, all I can say is that sea state is the most important factor in getting in on escorted enemy formations. From the surface attacks I was doing in '41, to getting in submerged on the convoys in this post, heavy sea state is the key. Attacking escorted formations in calm seas is asking to be sunk. Bide your time, and take advantage of heavy weather when the opportunity arises.
On September 5, with the weather having turned once again, U-47 made contact with a convoy about 100 kilometers east of Algiers. I attempted to home in on the radar signals, but by the time I was able to sight the convoy, it was evident we were trailing, and they had gotten by. We surfaced , extended away to the south at flank speed. I plotted the convoy's course, and made a flank speed dash for 150 kilometers to the west, turning back in on the course after having dived for aircraft many more times. I would like some stock in the Metox company
Once positioned near where I expected the convoy to come on, we waited. Before too long, the convoy was detected on the Cross and then on hydrophones, but tracking the hydrophone bearings revealed I had dived a little too far to the north of their present track. Turning around, we moved cautiously at ahead full to close the track and get a shot in. Again, we were able to penetrate the screen and get inside the enemy formation.
As the ships came on, I began identifying them and looking for big ships. After choosing a likely target and plotting the convoy's 6 knot speed, I prepared to fire. Just before pushing the plunger, I saw a carrier emerge from the fog.
Here is the convoy and U-47's position relative to the Escort Carrier when first sighted.
This convoy is scattered I think in part due to the heavy seas, and in part I believe due to the fact that the escorts had detected me on radar a few times as we made the 150km flank speed end around, causing the ships to zig and as a result, their station keeping went astray.
Here is another shot that shows how heavy seas affect the ability to track targets.
Here is a good look at the Bogue 10 degrees before firing
That screen shows the setup just before firing. The solution has been dialed in. Looking at those dials, we can see a perfect setup, assuming I have the speed and range correct. You can see the speed at 6 knots. The 'Impact A' dial, shows the expected impact angle of the torpedoes, which is an ideal 90 degrees starboard. AoB is set to 80 starboard, since U-47 is on a course 90 degrees to the target's course and the bearing is set to 350, which subtracts those 10 degrees from the 360 degree bearing which intersects the target's course at 90 degrees (when precisely heading on a 90 angle heading to the target's course, AoB and scope bearing are easy to determine. If you place the scope 20 degrees from 360/180, you know the AoB is 70. If at 10 degrees from 360/180, AoB is 80 and so on). Range is 1400 meters. And the gyro angle is 000, which all adds up to a perfect torpedo shot.
As the carrier crossed the wire, three torpedoes were fired, at intervals to spread the torpedoes along the length of the target. Looking at the left side of that screenshot you can see the torpedo settings. I have all four bow tubes opened and depth set very shallow, 1.5 meters. I have set the pistols to impact to eliminate the chance of prematures in the rough seas. Each fish is fired single in accordance with the procedures and thinking outlined in previous posts, so the salvo options are unused.
All three torpedoes hit the carrier and detonated. Fires were visible, but she didn't immediately appear to be sinking.
Here the second of the three torpedoes strikes below the superstructure.
I suspected that the three hits would be enough to cause this carrier to eventually sink, but taking no chances I fired the 4th bow tube on a 010 track, which would cause the torpedo to approach abaft the beam, but this torpedo hit and exploded, and so did the carrier. You can see I adjusted the speed and range down slightly due to expected slowing of target after hits and having closed somewhat since the last shots. Note the change in the 'Impact A' dial.
I fired the last bow tube and the last stern tube at two more ships, but both of these torpedoes missed, probably due to the ships turning away after being alerted by the demise of the Bogue, or perhaps I just got it wrong.
Out of torpedoes, U-47 headed for the barn, putting in to Toulon on September 7, having sunk 6 ships for 46,915, after a relatively short three weeks at sea.
I am very pleased with these two patrols. Making that many successful attacks on convoys well-escorted by the latest in American destroyer hardware is very satisfying indeed. The success is due, I think, in large part to choosing to attack when the conditions were relatively favorable, and knowing when the setup wasn't right and sailing away to fight another day.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
These shots hint as to the challenge of attacking targets in heavy seas. Those who have followed any of my posts know I play without external cameras. And it's not just to blow my horn, but to emphasize the fact that playing Silent Hunter this way fundamentally changes the way the sim is played. The first screenshot above shows what was probably my clearest look at this target. When the seas are rolling, and your view is restricted to 6 inches above the water, you are presented with very brief snapshots of the target ships as they appear and disappear through the swells. And moreover, riding out evasions from within the control room or conning tower is far more challenging than when you can watch the escorts from above the water and react to what they do. Once your scope goes below the surface, you are blind, and it changes the way you think, what you know, and the decisions and actions you take. Something as simple as checking a box in the difficulty menu has a profound effect on how you approach the game and the decisions you will have to make.
+1
Bravo Zulu, DBond. Two more excellent patrols for the U-47. I wonder if the preponderance of aircraft in your patrol area had anything to do with the CVEs? I know that the Allies began using hunter/killer tactics against the U-Boat threat sometime mid-war, which were centered around Escort Carriers. Perhaps that was some of what you were experiencing? If so, then, you should take extra satisfaction in having sunk that Bogue.
"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
Thanks. Yes you're right. In SH3 Hunter-Killer groups existed, and would patrol Biscay Bay and the BF and BE grids. Usually, they were a Bogue with 4 capable escorts, modern destroyers like Fletchers and Black Swan Frigates. I haven't seen them yet in OM, because I'm in the Med, but I keep getting Task Force notifications in BF grid, and I will bet that's what's there.
Back in my SH3 days, I played a career where the premise was that I was assigned to a special U-Boat force that would attack only warships. It was an interesting experience, and I detailed the patrols, which included encounters with the Hunter-Killer groups. The reports can be read in this thread
Sadly, the screenshots are no longer up, but it was mostly exploding destroyers and sinking battleships, ho-hum.
As for my last patrol, I can't say if the aircraft were land or carrier based, as I never stick around long enough to identify them. But what you say makes sense. I know this feature is in SH4, so probably in OM by extension.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Haggart,I would encourage you to explore JSGME,it's quite easy to understand,honest!
All I would suggest to you is that before you install it that you make a back-up of your SH folder.In the event that things go wrong you can delete the mess you made and just copy the SH folder back in.
There are plenty of tutorials out there,not all for SH but the principles are the same for modding any game.
Ok, I'm a member of Subsim.com from a few years ago ...I'll go find it and see if i can make heads or tails out of it. Also ill download that other file ..... Tigger Maru 2.5 ....but that sounds like the program that sunk my sub last time
A few years ago i paid $25.00 to Subsim to be a member so maybe i won't have to pay again. Silent Hunter is for someone my age cause i can't keep up with the young folks in Battlefield whatever anymore ...they're too quick on the draw
"everything lives by a law, a central balance sustains all"
I was also a paid member once but that expired. As an ordinary member I think you can have 3 downloads a day. Get JSGME from elsewhere and save yourself a download slot if you want to download multiple files.
Hag, theres nothing to make heads or tails of, really. JSGME has been around for years and is a brilliant little app. You can use it for just about any game. You shouldn't even use mods without it. You stick the mod file in the mod folder, and hit the apply button. The mod messes something up, or you just don't like it, you take it out. Simple. And I donated only five dollars to subsim to get their donationware Narwhal model. I think I have unlimited downloads, now.
"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
Downloads for non-subscribers are currently on hold. Neal is running the annual fundraiser, and until the goal is met, I believe the downloads section is not available if you have not donated. Subscriptions last two years, so if you haven't done so in that time you'll have to wait a bit. Or just make a donation! For me it's worth it to contribute a few bucks. Join the Subsim Navy
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
U-47 left Toulon on her eighteenth war patrol on October 9, 1943. Acoustic torpedoes were finally available, and we loaded all forward tubes and reserves with T III electrics, and the stern tube and reserves with three of the G7es (TV) Zaunkönig second generation homing torpedoes, for use against escorts. The objective was once again off the coast of Algeria. Just two days out of Toulon enroute to our patrol grid, a convoy was contacted in heavy seas. U-47 was able to penetrate the screen and sent two big ships to the bottom before slipping away from the pinging escorts. Having fired half of our torpedo load, we set sail back to Toulon for a reload, then set course once again for the Algerian coast.
After running a search pattern for several days, another convoy was contacted, but had gotten by, so an end run was conducted and after a 200-km dash, U-47 dove on the expected track. Two more big ships were sunk from this convoy. As we ran the end around, many airplane contacts were made, and for the first time that we had seen in this career, they were flying in pairs. At this stage of the war, the Allies had taken Sardinia, and were approaching Rome in Italy. What had been a largely German controlled Sea upon our arrival in the spring of 1942, was now dominated by the Allies.
A big tanker explodes after being struck by U-47's torpedoes
Afer completing our objective, we set sail to the east, hoping that perhaps we could find a gap where air coverage was not so thick. Near Tunis, another convoy was encountered. This time however, the seas were dead flat, with clear weather and blue skies. I considered avoiding, but as were were already in near perfect position, U-47 submerged and closed the convoy's track. As luck would have it, there was no screen on the starboard side of the formation, and we exploited this gap and slipped inside the starboard wing colum.
This convoy was another with a Bogue escort carrier sailing in it, and we selected this ship as our first target. Somewhat astern of the carrier was a T3 tanker. I planned to fire three torpedoes at the carrier, and the fourth at the T3, with the hope that tube one could be reloaded quickly and also used against the tanker. In the dead calm sea, periscope exposures were kept to an absolute minimum, and very brief, just long enough to check bearings and AoB, as well as mark those bearings for the speed calculation. To determine speed I make bearing marks on the navigation map. At intervals, the distance between marks is measured with the compass. Once you know the distance the ship has travelled over a certain amount of time, the nomograph is used to determine the speed of the ship. This convoy was making 6 knots. Ships travelling so slowly do not present much of a challenge to targeting, but do test one's patience as they plod on. The longer we wait, the more likley we will be detected by the escort, and I was a bit nervous as I took brief looks at the destroyers, but none detected us. The Bogue sailed past our scope at a range of just 500 meters. Three torpedoes were fired along her length and the reload on tube one began immediately. The first torpedo hit below the bridge and the carrier exploded. The other two also hit but were not needed. I always have a sense of regret at firing multiple torpedoes at a ship when the first one destroys it. But you can never know how many it will take, so you try to fire enough to ensure the job gets done.
The carrier explodes after being struck by the first torpedo
As the carrier was sinking, the rest of the ships began the Silent Hunter Shuffle, constant helming which slows them even more along their base course. As the escorts were now looking for us, it was nerve wracking waiting for the T3 to come on, and it was evident it would be a close run thing on whether the escorts or the tanker would arrive first. In the event it was a draw, and two destroyers came on pinging just as tube one was reloaded and two torpedoes were fired at the T3 from 400 meters. I quickly dialed in a high-gyro solution to fire one of the acoustics at one of the charging destroyers. Both bow torpedoes hit the tanker and it blew up, aflame from stem to stern. U-47 was now making flank speed on the way down to try and lose the escorts below the ships on the convoy. The Zaunkönig I believe missed the escort and locked on to another merchant in the convoy and exploded, but whatever it hit did not go down.
The T3 tanker looks huge as she sails to her demise
U-47 successfully evaded to the northwest. After all merchant screws were lost, we returned to periscope depth to have a look at the single destroyer that was left behind to search for us and hold us down. As it circled the area where the ships went down, I thought it would make a good target for a homing torpedo. I dialed in a solution, but with these torpedoes precision isn't needed, and it was fired from a range of 3200 meters. I had set the depth to 5 meters against the 4.2 meters draft of the Buckley. I beleive the torpedo made multiple passes under the ship, but never exploded. It's possible it was fired with an impact pistol, which would explain it, but I was certain I checked to make sure it was magnetic. Regardless, it did not detonate and we cleared the area content to call it a draw.
U-47 continued to the east, and closed in on an area south of Malta where we had gotten several task force radio reports over the past two weeks. Soon after arriving we made contact with the Cross of radar emmissions. In heavy seas at night we made a flank speed dash to get ahead an close the track. We dove and turned in, and soon several destroyers were in sight. I searched in vain for any capital ships they might be escorting, and seeing none, prepared to dive to evade when suddenly the closest destroyers began pinging. Before going deep I fired the last Zaunkönig which found a Clemson Class flush-decker and blew it up. We managed to evade toward Malta, but it seemed the other warships did not look for us for long. This was the third or fourth such group we had found on this patrol. It is possible that I just never saw what they were escorting, but I believe these were hunter groups of 5 or 6 destroyers out searching for enemy submarines.
I decided to head to Malta to have a look in to Valetta and see if we could torpedo any ships we found at anchor. But as we approached from the southeast a convoy came bearing down. This convoy seemed especially well escorted, and I believed we would be hard-pressed to avoid detection by the leading escort so went deep to 150 meters. This worked and the convoy plowed on.
After clearing the formation we returned to periscope depth and turned back in, sinking two medium freighters with four bow tubes. The first two missed my target, but continued all the way through the formation to sink a ship in the far column. The target was 1200 meters away, but they hit a target 4000 meters away. Sometimes you get lucky. Again we dove deep and evaded, using our decoys, but I cannot say whether they actually helped. With just two torpedoes left forward, U-47 set sail towards home. As we neared the southern tip of Sardinia, I saw some radio reports of lone ships sailing close to the coast and thought we might be able to get one.
On the night of November 21, as we neared the island, the Cross detected radar. Soon more destroyers came on and we began a deep dive to avoid. We had gotten past the first three, but the fourth found us as we passed 140 meters and delivered a perfect string right on target. This time, the crew of U-47 could not overcome the damage. I stood in the control room and watched as the depth gauge soared past 200 meters, then pegged. Lights started popping, and then darkness. At around 390 meters, U-47 succumbed to the overwhelming pressure and was lost with all hands.
The depth guage has long since pegged as we pass 350 meters in the final moments of U-47
U-47 was lost on her eighteenth patrol, having sunk 123 ships for 887,517 tons, including 7 merchants, a carrier and an old four-pipe destroyer for 66,285 on her final patrol.
The Aces Board before patrol eighteen
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Household goods in Storage back in the states. I am on an unaccompanied tour overseas so could only bring about 5 lbs of stuff. Debating buying it on Steam, if available.
Update, available on Steam, about $20.oo for base and add on.
Depends on what mods you mean. It is compatible with plenty of submods, such as the 'No Plankton' mod I use. But as far as supermods like Trigger Maru it is not. But that's where JSGME comes in. After completing the last patrol report in this thread last night, a few clicks of the mouse in JSGME and I had changed my SH4 from OM to TMO in less than 3 minutes.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Yeah, you've convinced me it's a worthy investment. I am curious if it will work on my tablet so I can play while on long flights? I'll have to look more into this before buying in hopes of using on the tablet.
Thanks for the info on the mods. Looking here and at Subsim, there's a huge wealth of downloads for all the Silent Hunter series.
I'd be surprised if it worked on a tablet. There are a couple tablet sub titles that are in various states of development. Crash Dive and Wolves of the Atlantic are two I know of.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
I'd be surprised if it worked on a tablet. There are a couple tablet sub titles that are in various states of development. Crash Dive and Wolves of the Atlantic are two I know of.
Sorry, I wasn't more specific, it's a Surface Pro with Windows 8.1 and readily handles most games I've installed. The exception are some older titles, but I suspect SH4 isn't that old that it wouldn't like 8.1. You haven't seen any issues regarding 8.1 have you? If so, please let me know soonest.
Dbond, not your mistake, all mine I ensure you. Thanks for the link. I probably would have installed in the default C drive, but since I have 2 smallish SSD drives, I have some of the Steam titles on my D drive. Thanks for the thread and the cure. Off to Steam for a purchase.
Hope all went well. I would love to be playing Silent Hunter on long flights!
Back in the Pacific now, in command of the good boat Grayling using TMO and a number of other mods. I am considering doing another patrol report series, but it takes a lot of time lol.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Ah, so sorry to hear U-47 went down. I hope you will do another AAR thread. I really enjoyed reading it. I actually tried writing one but I don't quite have the flair for it.
"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
Posted my first AAR in the AAR forum. It is a little dry but oh well. I just completed my 4th war patrol last night, so I will post more as I have time. I took some screenshots and more detailed logs for my last two patrols so they should be a little more pleasant to read. Thanks for all your help, DBond. I have finally gotten the hang of the manual targeting, at least from around a 90* angle. Getting better every time. Also, your suggestion for the large address fix has saved me a lot of frustration stemming from CTDs. I lost a good kill by trying to take a screenshot through the periscope of the ship sinking. My last patrol was a doozie, and I will post it soon. I somehow sunk a 10,000T tanker and it didnt register. Even so, it was a fruitful patrol.
"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
Hey, my pleasure. As I mentioned somewhere here recently, for me, positioning is the single most important factor in successful torpedo attacks. So if you're hitting from abeam, all you need to do is put your boat there
And yes, the memory fix is a must with RFB or TMO. I wasn't using it my first RFB career, and was very disappointed when I couldn't end the first patrol, it kept crashing as I put in to Surabaya. But then I did the fix and it worked perfectly fine. These big mods require more memory than the stock game does, so I'm glad to he of help and that you've got it sorted.
Off to read your report!
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
"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
If you have the UBoat itch, but SH3 isn't doing it any longer for whatever reason, or if like me you just don't feel like fooling with resolution fixes, Starforce, and many hoops to get a good mod, Operation Monsun is a fantastic choice.
Well I got the itch of late and I remembered this thread. The thing is I could not find my SH3 CDs so I just bought a digital copy from Steam along with SH4. They are pretty cheap now.
That said, installation of SH3 via Steam was very straightforward and identical to any other Steam game with absolutely none of that STarforce garbage.
The requisite resolution fix was also very straightforward. All I had to do was download this tiny file from subsim and edit two lines in the included cfg file. It works even on my Windows 7 (64 bit) 1920x1080 res. Nothing could be simpler :-
I can't stay away from subsims for too long I suppose. I recently finished re-reading the book Turning the Tide: How a Small Band of Allied Sailors Defeated the U-Boats and Won the Battle of the Atlantic and am now re-reading Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters, 1939-1942. I've been reading nothing but naval books this summer. Got the itch to resume patrol. So I reconfigured my install for Operation Monsun, had a quick bash about the nav training to re-acclimate and set sail from Kiel in U-49.
Hadn't fired a torpedo in close to 2 years, and I was surprised at just how rusty I was. I clumsily went about the business of getting my plot and attack on a lone 4,000 ton freighter in the southern North Sea. But I was pleasantly surprised when the first two shots hit close to the aimpoints and I declared myself re-qualified for command lol. This ship was making 11 knots so not too shabby.
While the torpedo shooting was satisfactory, my recognition perhaps less so, as it turned out to be flying a Norwegian or Danish flag, couldn't tell in the low light, and I don't know that we are actually at war with either nation. No apparent repercussions anyway.
I recall there is a way to click something and have it go right to the corresponding page in the recognition manual for a ship that you have identified. But I can't remember how. It's so simple, but I just forget. 'Little help?
Edit: Sorted, I was sure it was simply a matter of clicking the ship name in the KiUB, and for whatever reason it didn't work yesterday. Reloaded the save and works as it should.
Last edited by DBond; 08/18/1610:17 PM.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
So here we go again... It was a mediocre first patrol. My shooting wasn't the best. Later in the patrol I fired 3 torpedos at a tanker which we plotted at 11 knots, but only one hit, end of run detonations proved the other two missed, probably astern. Fired several more including a couple of duds before she went under. Much later sank a merchant in the North Sea and returned to port with just 3 ships sunk for 16k after about 6 weeks at sea.
In Operation Monsun the T I and T II torpedos look identical, and I ended up sailing with half a load of each. Forgot to check, and they all look like steamers. The T IIs are quite poor, with frequent duds and prematures. T IIIs on the other hand are excellent, but they won't be available for a while (it was May of '42 in my previous OM career), so we'll use steamers until which time I am forced to go electric as the enemy ASW effort gets up to speed.
But as the calendar moves in to 1940 they don't have their act together and only the odd aircraft is giving us any trouble. I don't think I will transfer to the Med this time around, so let's see how long we can survive in the Atlantic.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
And just in case someone here might be able to help me. I am looking for the nomograph in this thread. I would be forever grateful if someone knows a link or could even send me the files. Please help this old submariner
So I haven't posted in this thread for 2 years, I go out on one stinkin' patrol, and now I can't shut up, so....
What's a nomograph? Glad you asked. (And see previous post for graphical representation. It's the thing on the right)
A nomograph is a gift from the undersea gods. We use it to determine a ship's speed when we know two other crucial bits of info-- time and distance.
So let's determine time and distance.
Let's say we've just made contact with a ship. Using the pencil, make a mark on the map at the current position of that ship, while simultaneously starting the chronometer (stopwatch, but hey, we are trained and experienced submarine skippers, so we say chronometer since it sounds much more technical and erudite). The idea here is to measure the ship's distance travelled over a known length of time. You can use any length of time, but in general the longer the interval, the more accurate your resulting speed reading will be.
I will vary that time based on circumstances, but as a rule of thumb I take 5-minute readings. So we wait until the stopwa,,,er chronometer, has ticked off 5 minutes and then place a second pencil mark at the ship's new location. Now, using the compass, we measure the distance between the two position marks we just made.
Last step to determine the target's speed is to grab the ruler and place one end of the ruler on the time column (5 minutes for our example) and draw a line through the measured distance travelled value in the center 'km' column. The ship's speed therefore is the value where the extended ruler line intersects the 'knots' column. Voila!, we have our speed.
It is highly advisable to take mutliple speed readings prior to any attack as a failsafe against errors. I cited a few examples in the patrol reports earlier in this thread where multiple readings were not possible (due to sudden sighting and/or high target speed), or my laziness or arrogance prevented more than one reading, and introduced avoidable error in to the solution.
One myth I see repeated again and again is people saying they don't want to do the math in manual solutions. What math? There is no math. Geometry sure, but no math. It's far less complicated than some make it out to be. This post I think helps to dispell that myth. Speed determined with a watch, a compass, a ruler and a nomograph. No math at all
Edit: Oh yeah, and a pencil
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Just got back into SH4 DBond. Found your thread here and now I'm spending hours after midnight...when the wife falls asleep....lol.
Wish I could find some good 'tools'....I remember a compass or some such tool, that would let me know the angle off the bow, but in actual compass degrees, relative to North. Don't know how to explain it, but the same as the compass is when you click on setting your course....I seem to remember a download. I have the 'small tools' download.
Also, can I get the picture you have, the dials and lights next to your periscope....I'm liking that But I don't need the whole 'maru' download...just the dials, is that possible?
Good thread DBond....but what's new....always did like reading your stuff
Hey Murph, thanks for the kind words. Which mod or version are you playing, and do you use the map contacts or is it disabled? I know the tool you're referring to. But not sure where to get it, probably at subsim though.
My firing method, which I call D Bond's Steady Wire Firing Technique™ (DBSWiFT), doesn't require a single AoB estimate, but does sort of require that map contact updates is on for the plot. I've been meaning to do a write-up on this method, but never got around to it. If you think you might find it useful I can do so, since knowing at least one person would find it useful would be incentive enough to put it together.
I view my method as sort of a shorthand manual method that combines the true role of the skipper along with the info from the tracking party which isn't present in the sim, but would have been on a real boat.
If you're content with your own method no worries.
As to the periscope mod I am using, it is called KiUB (English) and is for the Operation Monsun mod, and it is truely excellent. What I don't know is if it's compatible with other versions of SH4. It was included in the OM package. I could probably email it to you, but no guarantee it would work outside of German boats in OM.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
That's the problem with my game, I'm playing the U.S. sub role, of version 1.5 of SH4. I used to plot my shots by hand when playing SH3 and using a German sub. I could pop out a course and shoot pretty fast, but I've forgotten how I did it now that I'm using the American sub. It has it's own TDC, and you just lock on and shoot. But....it doesn't always give you the proper shot...you might end up shooting wayyyyy off. I found if I check with the attack map, and make sure the plot is right just before I shoot, it works fine. I sometimes have to keep locking on and off, or turn off the 'position keeper' and turn it back on again.
A glitch in the game I believe.
But it works well enough.
I tried to click the option to manually shoot, but it won't let me, with the American Gato sub, it has the 'computer'. Which doesn't work as well as I did.....lol.....
Great game, good break from flying. Gotta mix it up.
It's still possible to enter manually in the US boats. I'll have to get back in to one to refresh the old noggin, and will likely do so once this OM career in U-49 is complete or comes to an untimely end. We have reached November of 1940 with little difficulty, but sterner stuff lies ahead. As I mentioned earlier, this time I'm going to stay an Atlantic boat, no hiding in the Med. So I probably won't survive, but hey, worth a shot haha.
That gets me thinking about past careers.... I've played the Silent Hunter series, alot. Between SH3 and SH4 alone I've probably logged something in the neighborhood of a hundred careers. Of all of the careers I've begun in German boats, surely more than half the total, I've survived the war exactly once. Those are slim odds, I'd wager.
Nothing of particular interest has happened in this career (U-49, Type VIIB, 7th Flotilla). We've transferred to St Nazaire, and it's all gone rather smoothly. But of course it should at this stage. But things will shortly change, and we should experience a sharp spike in peril.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Does any one know how to take a photo ( with in the preiscope ) to satisfy a mission requirments.
I am using SH4 Gold Edition Wolves of the Pacific.
Thanks
Origin made- silverstone case,ASUS Max VI Extreme , CPU intel Core i7 4770k, cooling asotex 570LC, NVIDA 3G GTX 780 Ti , Mem 16GB Kingston Hyper X DDR3 ,game drive 120GB INTEL X25 SS, OS drive 1TB, Win 7 home Prem.Logitech G105 key board,BenQ XL2430 Gaming Monitor. All pilots owe me a beer. Retired USAF Rescue/Survival, Special Forces, and MI (after I got old and grey).
It should be as simple as locking the periscope on the 'target' ship and clicking the camera button. The camera button will light up (not greyed out) when it is locked and within range.
IIRC, the range must be within 8 nautical miles, and you may need to take multiple shots, and the objective may call for photgraphs of more than one ship.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
For all those desperately searching for the nomograph I had been looking for you can stand down. Max-peck over at subsim.com has hooked me up by converting the nomograph from TMO to use in OM. So much better for these old eyes and I can now plot a speed without leaning in on the monitor.
The career of U-49 has entered 1941. We have set out on war patrol 6 headed for the Western Approaches. Have not encountered a single significant warship so far in this career, aside from a group of Auxiliary Merchant Cruisers in the Denmark Strait, one of which fell to U-49s torpedoes. Still firing steamers, but soon I will transition to electrics. But I despise the TII and look forward to the TIII, but that's not until spring of '42.
Just four more years of war left!
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Well, another career fails to make it to the end. U-49 was sunk by aircraft while on the surface during her eighth war patrol, southwest of Rockall Bank in August of '41. It was evening twilight and the attack came out of time compression, my watch failed to spot the plane. I would have abandoned ship and scuttled if that were possible. We remained on the surface for several minutes before the flooding overcame the bouyancy and U-49 plummeted to the bottom.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
So, having been sunk and another career ended, I debated about what to do next. I was going to bust out JSGME and reconfigure for a TMO run. But in the end decided to give U-bootens another go.
A few years back I read a thread at subsim that mentioned an issue with OM and conning tower upgrades, and how said upgrade could bring your career to a screeching halt.
So consequently, I have done all of my OM careers in a VIIB, since as luck would have it, it gets no conning tower upgrade.
But for this new career I thought what the hell, and have started a new career in the 7th out of St Nazaire in February of 1941, in a shiny new VIIC, U-201 (Aldabert Schnee's boat)
I've always started in September '39, so this is a bit different. First patrol was to the AL grid, sank one medium freighter enroute, then later found an inbound convoy that had just departed Reykjavik and managed to sink four and damage two before running out of torpedoes and returning to St Nazaire after one month at sea. I made repeated surface attacks from the port side of the convoy, and each time ran off to reload, and then came back in to shoot again using TII electrics (several duds, hate these torpedoes). The only escort on that side was an armed trawler, and he didn't have the speed to intervene. Leading the formation was a Black Swan, which I've commented on before, because they scare me, and have ended many of my careers. But he was never able to get a bead and we we never counterattacked.
So, here we go again. This time we will survive the war!
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
The U-201 career is on hold, in late 1941. Still reading Blair's Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunters, I was inspired by the accounts to run some long-range patrols, get away from the North Atlantic. So, for the first time since like 2006, I took command of a Type IXC, U-502. The first patrol, July '41, was to BD grid in the central Atlantic. Finding nothing out in mid-ocean, we patrolled back toward Spain, where we refueled in one of the 'clandestine' Spanish ports. Then resumed patrolling off the coast of Portugal where we found good hunting.
Making extensive use of scout planes, essentially sending one up everyday, we managed to put 9 ships for 60k on the bottom, despite many duds. Did I mention that I hate TII electrics? Yes, I believe I did. But the fact we carry 26 freakin' torpedoes helps to mask the dud rate. The final ship sunk on this maiden patrol was a CAMS merchant, a large freighter with a catapult launched Seafire, Hurricat or Martlet (couldn't tell) on the forecastle, which was sailing alone. I hit this ship with four torpedoes, three of which were duds, and she sailed on. We surfaced and put her down with the gun and ran for the barn, putting in to Lorient in September. Damn the torpedoes, literally. And it appears the Seafire is not operational.
The scout planes are very useful, in some cases spotting ships that we were able to intercept and get a shot on, and in other cases helping me to maintain contact with convoys. The Operation Monsun mod has taught me patience and caution. At this stage of the war, I will not go right to the attack against escorted formations. I look for two things, darkness and heavy sea state. So I will shadow the convoy, waiting for the right conditions, and if I can't get them I disengage. The scout plane helps me keep track of the formation, and is especially helpful if the convoy changes course, which can often leave the submarine out in left field as course changes are difficult to detect quickly, and by the time you do your approach is foiled or you're way out of range or position and need to do it all over again.
I've never seen anyone else ever mention scout planes in SH4, so I wonder how many know this feature exists. The areas where they are available is limited, but they are very useful in those areas that they can reach. The central Med and Black Sea, the North Sea, the English Channel and the grids just to the west (BF/BE), and off the Iberian coast.
Patrol Two will be to the AK grid way out in the blue water of the North Atlantic. I intend to spend most of my patrol time in this career in West African and Caribbean waters, but you have to patrol the grid you're assigned, then patrol where you like. I hope that in '42 we will get assignments accordingly. The US will join the war in a couple of months, though we can't know that yet. And eventually there will be some resupply boats in the western Atlantic which will help extend these patrols and allow us to penetrate the Gulf of Mexico. If we survive that long that is! The good boat U-502 does not get under quickly so I will hope to avoid airborne ASW patrols as much as possible.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
The career of U-502 continues, having entered 1943. We have conducted 5 patrols, mostly to the American eastern seaboard and the Caribbean. The past few patrols have been supported by U-tankers in the mid-Atlantic. The first patrol to Norfolk Virginia was done without their assistance, and it left us little time on station. But since the U-tankers arrived we are able to stay a long time, and each patrol is lasting at least 3 months.
We have found unhappy hunting in North America though, and heavy airborne ASW patrols that harass continually. Type IXCs are slow to dive and we barely escaped most of the time, and took some fairly serious damage on several occasions, but we were able to repair the worst of it and make it to port. Most successes we have had were off the Atlantic Iberian coast and in the western approaches to Gibraltar, often assisted by scout aircraft.
If you read this thread and the reports of U-47s patrols you'll know that in that career we found an unusual number of capital ships. Since then, we have found none. Patrol after patrol and none sighted, let alone fired upon. But that changed on patrol number 5.
We left Lorient in late October 1942 and were assigned a patrol grid south of Puerto Rico. I decided to sail south past the Canaries toward Freetown, then cross the narrow neck of the Atlantic and patrol the north coast of Brazil on the way to the assigned grid.
On the night of November 7th, 1942, U-502 was heading south about 700 kilometers west of Casablanca, Morocco. This was the first patrol of this career where we had T III electric torpedoes (finally!) and the Metox detector. As we headed south at 7 knots we detected radar signals off the starboard bow. Closing the track we saw a destroyer leading a pair of cruisers, a Northampton CA, followed by a Brooklyn CL (interestingly, the 'CL' is actually heavier than the CA). Our plot tracked them at 10 knots, which is unusually slow for a task force. This slow speed allowed us plenty of time to get in position, and we shot from 2000 meters port, two torpedoes at each cruiser. Then we went deep.
All four torpedoes hit, but only three detonated. Since we were already in the cellar I don't know how badly damaged the cruisers were, but neither sank. That was disappointing, but those ships would probably tie up a couple drydocks for a few months anyway.
As we attempted to evade the searching escorts at 160 meters, a convoy of 'merchant' ships ran us over. We had stumbled right in to the Torch invasion fleet, and those merchant ships were undoubtedly troopships. We reloaded and evaded to the south, then came up to periscope depth and in perfect position to close what was evidently another task force sailing on the formation's starboard flank as they headed east. We were able to make out another Northampton class CA, which was followed by the battleship North Carolina. Neither of the North Carolina class Battleships were present during Torch, they were in the Pacific, so we have to allow the game a little license here. The American BB's taking part were Massachusetts, Texas and New York.
Again the shots were taken from 2000 meters, three at the trailing BB and a fourth at the CA. All torpedoes hit, but only the cruiser shot and one of the BB fish detonated. But that one hit a magazine evidently as the battleship was instantly destroyed, and the CA plowed on. Already deep, we couldn't see any of this.
We evaded to the south and after about 15 minutes the Northampton joined the North Carolina on the bottom of the sea.
Soon after, another scout plane arrived near the scene and revealed the true extent of the invasion fleet, three task forces and two large convoys. We set a course to run an end around, but it was wishful thinking. Daybreak soon followed and with it the first aircraft, which forced us under and me to change plans and U-502 turned to the south and continued on her way to the Caribbean.
So we had stumbled in to them at the ideal time and position, damaging two cruisers from the port screen, passing under the main body, and popping up on the other side to sink a battleship and cruiser from the starboard screen.
It was just one of those moments in a subsim where stars align. If I had left port a few hours earlier, or if one more plane had held us down enroute, we would have missed this invasion fleet completely. Right place, right time. You just never know what will happen when you cast the lines for another patrol.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
This patrol has turned out to be one of the best I've had. The previous patrol was frustrating. U-502 returned to Lorient damaged, and with only about 21k tons sunk after many months at sea. We were unable to score any successes in the Caribbean aside from a pair of destroyers sunk at anchor in the Key West harbor and a lone medium freighter near Trinidad.
But this patrol has been quite productive. As mentioned, we sank the battleship and cruiser off Casablanca, then proceeded on toward Freetown, then turned west toward the Caribbean, meeting the tanker U-460 along the way, refueling, and replacing the eight torpedoes fired in the attacks on the Torch invasion fleet.
Our patrol grid was at the southern entrance to the Windward Passage. Airborne ASW patrols were everywhere, but now we have the Metox, and all were easily avoided by diving. Not a single attack was made on us, a nice change!
After completing the objective, and vainly chasing a reported convoy we sailed south to have a look around Curacao and Aruba. During the war Curacao was an important refinery and oil hub so I thought we might find some tanker traffic. No traffic developed but we closed the port at night and found several T3 tankers are anchor. Two of these were sunk at Curacao and two more at Aruba. T3 tankers are among the largest merchant ships in the game, at 11000 tons.
Way too easy to slip in to enemy ports, but it is what it is and I can't well pass up such inviting targets now can I? After that we set course back to the east. Plenty of fuel on board, but no word of any sheduled U-tankers, so better to err on the side of caution until word from Control.
U-502 headed for Trinidad, with a view to patrol along the Trinidad-Freetown route, a commonly used convoy route (in real life anyway, didn't know about in SH4). After many more planes avoided, we made contact with a convoy inbound to Trinidad, unescorted.
Making repeated submerged and surface night attacks we hit the convoy hard.
Here's where I was going to post some screens but the site doesn't upload bmp's.
Anyhow, 5 or 6 ships went down from this convoy. Without escorts, and at night, there's little they can hope for other than the periscope doesn't fall on them. At present we are on the way home having sunk over 120,000 tons (with one reload of 8 fish as mentioned). What a contrast to the previous patrol, and I love the 'Biscay Cross'. I guess the game doesn't model centrimetric radar, which the Cross can't detect, so we have it far easier than the real skippers did. But as long as I don't get trapped submerged, the Cross is enough to give us hope of surviving the war. But there is still a long way to go.
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
I'm going to bump this up. Before you could attach pics here, I had put them on photobucket, then photobucket killed my account and I thought these shot were lost forever. But recently they must have done an about face (probably because everyone stopped using it) and the shots are once again displayed, but with their tag on them, which is OK by me.
This is one of my favorite AARs I've done and just a bump for posterity's sake
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
Even so, it was a fruitful patrol.
