Carrick58's Silent Hunter III mission reports having encouraged me to reinstall this classic sim, and the author himself having encouraged me to report my results...well, here is the first report in my first SH3 career for more years than I care to remember. This is a bit of an illustrated trip down memory lane and while all of what follows will be old hat to current players it may trigger or rekindle interest in others.

Unlike Carrick, I've no interest in pottering about the North Sea in a little Type II tin can, so I opted to start in 1940 with the 7th U-Boat Flotilla (I changed it from the 1st, after taking the pic below). France has fallen and our ocean-going Type VIIB boats are based in Brest, near the western tip of Brittany peninsula.



So here's the fly-on-the-ceiling view of my office. I take a while to click my way through the various things I can do here, in an effort to stimulate my vague memories of how to play this thing.



OK so here's my boat's crew. I remember that I can review my people's skills and awards in this screen and move them around, and indeed will need to do so on patrol, to rest crewmen who otherwise get tired and put my officers in a role best suited to their skills. IIRC, U-100 was actually Schepke's boat and was lost on the same convoy attack that claimed Prien's U-47 and Kretschmer's U-99. Schepke was reportedly last seen floundering in the water after U-100 had been rammed, legs cut off when the bows of the destroyer (Vanoc?) caught him against the periscope mount. Prien was depth-charged and sunk while Kretschmer was lucky to get to the surface to be rescued with most of his crew before U-99 went down; his biography, The Golden Horseshoe, is one of my favourite U-Boat memoirs.



And here's my boat's equipment. At this stage there are no alternatives available - it's too early in the war for a conning tower with a bigger wintergarten with heavier AA armament, and I'm stuck with torpedoes which leave bubble trails.



This screen I don't recall, but I see that, crystal ball-like, it gives me a preview of the upgrades that will become available as the war progresses...if I live that long.



A click on the big map on the wall gives me my first mission, a patrol out to Grid Square BE61.



Noticing here that the realism level is rather low, I go to the appropriate screen and bump it up a bit. Not too much - I have no interest in manual TDC control or in doing my Erster Wacht Offizier's job for him. I'm a bit disappointed that all the extra ticks here only got me up to 59%, but there it is.



Ok so time to get going! I find myself in the control room. This I think is my 'Eins Wo', my First Watch Officer. I'm a bit rusty on the terminology.



The two ratings sitting on the starboard side operate the fore and aft diving planes, I recall, while astern of them, a senior rating watches the confusing but vital array of valves which control depth-keeping, mainly.



Panning around, I can see behind me is the ladder up to the conning tower, from which I can operate the attack and search periscopes (assuming we have both) and con the boat in action. I'm beginning to remember things here and there. The red pouches swinging gently from the ceiling with the motion of the boat will be hams or suchlike, every bit of available space having to be used to store something on a long Atlantic patrol.



To port, a pair of officers is studying charts in front of the main instrument panel, which includes the all-important depth gauge.



I climb the ladder into the conning tower, then a second one to get my first view outside. the first thing I notice is the sound of the band playing us on our way, and the assembled crowd, including nurses, waving happily and generally giving us a good send-off. At this early stage of the war, we're operating out of normal berths, not the later re-inforced concrete U-Boat pens.



Looking around over the bows as seagulls call and swoop, I seem to recall that west is to our right and that the breakwater I can see ahead has an opening in that direction. Note to self - I have no mods (except for the widescreen one) installed but try to find something which raises those overdone, dangling crane hooks, which I never liked.



No point in keeping our send--off party waiting - it's time to get U-100 moving!



This is where it all went awry. My unfamiliarity with the keyboard commands, combined with having turned off the on-screen gauges and text displays, resulted in me failing to correct an inadvertently-issued steering command before moving off. By the time I noticed and countermanded this, my boat's bow had swung too far right and struck the end of the pier a glancing blow, causing some damage. I had no intention of risking my first patrol in a damaged boat so decided to disappoint the onlookers and scrub the mission.

Sorry about the anticlimax - next time will be different!

Tin Can ?

I'd be surprised if actual U-Boat men didn't call the little Type II boats much worse names!