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#4566481 - 04/29/21 10:47 AM Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’  
Joined: Sep 2010
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33lima Offline
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33lima  Offline
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Belfast, NI
My first Silent Hunter 3 patrol with the Doenitz Elite Flotilla

‘’Iron Coffins’ is the apt title of one of the most famous U-boat memoirs of WW2, by Herbert A Werner. Perhaps the best, too, despite some criticism for errors of fact, some of it well-informed, some of it not. This report is an account of a long, two part ‘feindfarht’ or war patrol in Silent Hunter 3, during which my boat several times came close to being my own, virtual iron coffin.

Like previous SH3 patrols reported here, my boat was a long-ranged Type IX and I was using the excellent and popular ‘mega-mod’ Grey Wolves Expansion 3 Gold (Aka GWX3), on top of ARB’s widescreen GUI (with Tycho’s patch for the map), the H-Sie realism mod, FM’s New Interiors 2 and the Compulsory Headdress mod - stock SH3s often bare-headed crew on watch I will not have, not on my boat!

[Linked Image]

For this, I'm using Steam’s Silent Hunter 3, in a second install (F:SHX) created with the Doenitz Elite Flotilla’s SH3 Front End tool - which also applied the necessary ‘Steam fix’ and 4GB patch. This tool can also apply a fix to get the original Starforce DRM SH3 DVD working.

[Linked Image]

My commander is Richard Schepke, possibly a relative of U-Boat ace Joachim, killed when Vanoc rammed U-100 in March 1941. I used SH3 Commander (SH3C) to create Richard, choose my boat and Flotilla, and to launch SH3 for every career session. It's interface includes a neat facsimile of an historical Wehrpass.

[Linked Image]

SH3C generates a really neat ‘personnel record’ for your career. Its other neat features include the option to allocate real names to the ships you sink, as well as recording the fate of its crew. We will see Richard Schepke's personnel record at the end of this mission report.

Like many classic or vintage sims, it can take a bit of time and effort to set up SH3 to best effect with mods and utilities. This I found VERY worthwhile. While vanilla SH3 is a superb U-boat sim (still much the best, in my experience), the extras add to it hugely.

The big innovation with this career is that I’m playing as a member of the Doenitz Elite Flotilla. I used to think that online flotillas were for the multi-player fraternity. But for a single-player career, DEF gives me:

· a thread where I can record my career in full on the DEF forums;

· access to a Mediafire account for my patrol screenshots;

· a human representing my commander at base (using the identity of a real-life historical commander) who gives me my orders in writing, who may revise these or otherwise respond to my reports, and who will welcome me back to base;

· a tool (S3Q) for (amongst other things) making realistic reports, to be posted on the forum career thread;

· another tool (Op Spinninetz) which enables any U-boat sim player to record status and contact reports on an online map all can see;

· a tool which enables me to use a simulated Enigma coding machine to encrypt messages sent and received, if I wish.

All in all, I’m delighted with the extra level of immersion, role-playing and realism playing with DEF has added. For one thing, I feel much more invested in my boat and my mission.

With screenies stored on my DEF Mediafire slot, I used my DEF career thread to record illustrated extracts from my boat’s Kreigstagebuch (KTB, or war diary). About half-way through, I realised I should also record my radio reports there too, not just on the Spinninetz map. This SimHQ AAR is a summary of what turned out to be a very long patrol, played over more than a week of real time, which included a refuelling stop at a covert supply ship. You can read the full DEF report of the patrol, which includes many more pictures, here: http://www.donitzeliteflotilla.com/forum/index.php?topic=3368.0

I chose to start my career on 1 June 1941, operating out of Lorient in Brittany with the 2nd Unterseeboote Flotille. 2.U-Flotille was the major operator of the big Type IX boats. This start date means I won’t have the SH3 anachronism of seeing concrete U-boat pens months before their construction actually started.

It also means that I will face from the outset some radar-equipped escorts (with the non-trainable Type 286) and aircraft (with the ASV Mk I & II). While my boat will take about ten second longer to dive than the 25 seconds or so the Type VII was reputed to manage, it will have 22 torpedoes rather than 14, and 10.5cm and 3.7cm deck guns instead of an 8.8cm. Here she is, U-105, ready to leave her berth.

[Linked Image]

Naturally, the longer-range Type IXs tended to be sent further afield and my first mission is no exception. My assigned patrol area is in the central Atlantic, off Freetown, Sierra Leone, a major hub for shipping including convoys. I’ve to patrol there for three weeks, not the mere 24 hours SH3 uses.

Here are my orders from Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU), as relayed down the chain of command by the human boss on my DEF forum career thread, role-playing the real-life commander of 2.U-Flottille, Viktor Schuetze:

[Linked Image]

I have a long way to go. For a while, I make daily trim dives combined with a hydrophone check.

[Linked Image]

Much of the way, I can't resist resorting to stock maximum 1024x time acceleration, but dropping to 128x when crossing the Bay of Biscay, when west of Gibraltar, and for the final leg into my patrol area.

There’s a covert supply ship (SS Corrienties) at Palma in the Canary Islands but I reckon I can top up fuel and torpedoes on the way home, rather than fuel only on the way out. To err on the side of economy, I transit at relatively low speed, but don’t bother submerging during daylight. Instead, I increase speed to get across Biscay and past Gib.

The first excitement of the patrol comes just two days into the patrol, on June 3rd.

...to be continued!

Last edited by 33lima; 04/30/21 05:31 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#4566485 - 04/29/21 11:45 AM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
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33lima Offline
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33lima  Offline
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Joined: Sep 2010
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Belfast, NI
On that day, the bridge watch spots a single steamer, easy prey. But there'll be no attack - I recognise her as a Great Lakes freighter and soon after, confirm she's flying the Stars and Stripes - a neutral, and strictly out of bounds!

[Linked Image]

Just over a week later and by now off the west African coast near Dakar, we spot two steamers in line astern and a stern chase develops. This comes to a sudden end when an escort charges out of the murk, firing as she comes. Down 'into the cellar' we go.

[Linked Image]

There follows the first of many depth-chargings, but we escape by going deep and staying there while we creep away from the enemy. The crew are obviously tense but pull together well.

[Linked Image]

Payback has to wait until 13th June. We almost run into a large steamer sailing independently. Heavy weather and unreliable torpedoes don't help, but she finally goes down.

[Linked Image]

Later that day, we crash dive to avoid a Catalina, escaping without damage strafing followed by some bombs.

[Linked Image]

This has an unexpected bonus when a hydrophone check, while we're submerged, reveals the screw sounds of a small convoy. We close on the surface but have to crash dive when an escort spots us.

[Linked Image]

Yet more cans are thrown at us. But again, going deep and creeping away slowly and quietly saves us from the nasty people up above.

[Linked Image]

We exact retribution early the next day, torpedoing and sinking one of the steamers before we're forced down again.

[Linked Image]

Later that day, trying to pick up the small convoy again, instead we run into another single freighter. Again, we suffer from defective torpedoes but finally get the second hit needed to send her down.

[Linked Image]

We finally reach our patrol area on16 June, over two weeks out from St Nazaire, and find...nothing...

[Linked Image]

All that changes five days later.

...to be continued!

Last edited by 33lima; 04/29/21 11:48 AM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

#4566487 - 04/29/21 11:58 AM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 2,808
Adger Offline
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Adger  Offline
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Absolutely brilliant and thrilling stuff mate, can’t wait to read more..il certainly be having a nosy at your posts over on DEF.


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
#4566498 - 04/29/21 02:48 PM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
33lima Offline
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33lima  Offline
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Belfast, NI
Thanks mate!

On June 21st, we sight another lone steamer coming our way. We have plenty of time to line her up for a decent submerged surprise attack from abeam. A diplomatic incident is narrowly avoided when I identify her as a neutral, flying the Japanese hinomaru flag.

[Linked Image]

The next little excitement comes on 30 June, when we spot two steamers in line ahead. They see us too, and stern guns are trained our way.

[Linked Image]

I dive and pursue them for a while towards Freetown, but give up when we find ourselves unable to get any closer and in the shallows, with 3-4 metres of water under our keel.

[Linked Image]

On 3 July, after a brief but fruitless search for a single vessel reported in the vicinity, a large, slow convoy is reported to our south, heading WNW.

[Linked Image]

We make contact in daylight, but are detected, shelled and forced down by an alert escort. Fortunately we are now in deep water and can escape the inevitable depth charges by creeping away at 140m.

[Linked Image]

After several hours, we are finally free of the blasting. The strain is visible on the faces in the control room.

[Linked Image]

As if it isn't bad enough being driven away from the convoy, after surfacing again we're strafed and bombed by a Hudson!

[Linked Image]

We escape into the cellar, but radio antenna, flak gun and the casing near the deck gun are all damaged and need repairing. We're unable to relocate the convoy and after over a month at sea and with fuel down to about 35%, I decide it's time to head north to the Canaries. There, in officially neutral Spanish waters, we will refuel, re-provision and re-arm from the covert supply ship Corrienties.

[Linked Image]

to be continued!

Last edited by 33lima; 04/29/21 02:53 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

#4566506 - 04/29/21 03:52 PM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
33lima Offline
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33lima  Offline
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Belfast, NI
11th July. In darkness, we come alongside SS Corienties, anchored outside of the main harbour at Palma in the Canaries. It's still dark when, restocking complete, we cast off and slip away...

[Linked Image]

...dodging traffic which includes Spanish fishing boats. The GWX mod really does bring ports to life!

[Linked Image]

New orders are now received, from my human role-playing commander from DEF. Luckily for me, my decision to refuel is not contested!

19410711, 23:58
VON: FdU
AN: U-105
REPORT RECEIVED. TOUCH UP AND MEET WITH CORRIENTES HAS BEEN GRANTED.
USE COVER OF DARKNESS TO LEAVE PORT UNDETECTEDLY AND RELOCATE TO YOUR NEW PATROL AREA: ET26, 34, 29, 37, 53, 61
KEEP RADIO SILENCE AND AVOID DETECTION UNTIL YOU ARRIVE. REPORT IN STATUS, LOCATION AND WEATHER WHEN YOU DO.
GOOD LUCK!
FdU Heinz Fischer / Viktor Schuetze


I'm being sent back down to waters off Freetown, which seem infested by alert and aggressive escorts and anti-submarine aircraft. Not to mention dangerous shallows, which extend quite a way out from the coast.

On arrival, I report in (using the DEF S3Q tool to format the report).

19410714, 20:20
VON: U-105
AN: BdU
POS: ET2612
TORPs: 22
HULL: 100%
FUEL: 80%

Arrived in assigned area and commencing patrol. Wind ENE 1 m/s, no rain, visibility very good. No air or sea contacts en route, alles in ordnung.

The first excitement comes on 17 July, when, searching for a reported large convoy, we stumble across a large freighter and a tanker. A destroyer is spotted coming down as if to meet them so into the cellar we go.

[Linked Image]

The destroyer leads the merchantmen east, towards Freetown. He looks very American, and I soon confirm it's a USN Somers class escorting two US-flagged ships. Neutrals!

[Linked Image]

My next radio report tersely records what happened later that same day.

19410717, 14:45
VON: U-105
AN: BdU
POS: ET2865
TORPs: 22
HULL: 100%
FUEL: 80%

Contact - British convoy. Shelled by escort. At least 20 freighters. Crash dived!


[Linked Image]

...to be continued!

Last edited by 33lima; 04/29/21 06:22 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

#4566517 - 04/29/21 05:05 PM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
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33lima Offline
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33lima  Offline
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Belfast, NI
Once again, we have to dive deep and creep away from the convoy for hours, to escape the relentless depth-charging which follows.

[Linked Image]

It's getting dark by the time we're closing again with the convoy, guided by diving at intervals for hydrophone contacts.

[Linked Image]

Night has fallen by the time we sight the first ships.

[Linked Image]

We try for a night surface attack, but are detected, forced to dive and depth-charged. But we've got close enough to shoot. This time, before running away, I come up to periscope depth and fire off all six eels, before making a run for it...or rather, making a creep for it. Hits are heard, followed by sinking sounds from two ships.

[Linked Image]

The next day - July 18th - finds us in stormy conditions, chasing down hydrophone contacts in an effort to regain contact.

[Linked Image]

Twice, we're forced down to avoid marauding aircraft.

[Linked Image]

Our first sight of the convoy is an escort, who spots us too despite the sea state. We're driven down by a salvo which falls short.

[Linked Image]

Once more, escorts hunt us down. We're depth-charged for hours, finally diving to 180 meters to get away.

[Linked Image]

By the time we're free of them at last and able to resurface, it's the evening of the 18th. We're relieved at having avoided being 'hunted to exhaustion' and forced to come up under the guns of our tormentors. Instead, we have lived to fight another day!

[Linked Image]

...to be continued!

Last edited by 33lima; 04/29/21 05:13 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

#4566538 - 04/29/21 09:42 PM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
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carrick58 Offline
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carrick58  Offline
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Amazing.

#4566542 - 04/29/21 09:59 PM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
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BuckeyeBob Offline
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An epic tale, well told!

Very immersive, 33Lima!


“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
#4566547 - 04/29/21 10:47 PM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
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33lima Offline
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33lima  Offline
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Belfast, NI
CONTACT REPORT

19410724, 10:37
VON: U-105
AN: BdU
POS: ET2950
TORPs: 16
HULL: 100%
FUEL: 70%

British convoy, 20-30 freighters escorted by five small escorts, course WNW. Shelled, depth-charged and forced down. No damage. Visual contact lost but pursuing on surface from bearings taken during hydrophone checks. Enemy aircraft also active, two attacks since reaching patrol area again.


We fail to regain touch with the convoy, but the next day, hydrophones lead us back into the fray. Again, despite foul weather, the escorts spot us as we try to run around the convoy on the surface, forcing us down. Before going deep, I fire off the bow tubes at the nearest freighters, then it's down we go, deep and away.

[Linked Image]

We escape with a damaged starboard diesel from yet more depth-charging, but without any success to show for it. By now, my internal torpedoes have gone, leaving two in the stern tubes and two reloads. My remaining eels are the external reserves, stored under the deck, but I won't be able to bring them inside except at low speed in calm conditions. Unable to dive quickly, and this at the mercy of aircraft. I'll continue to shadow the convoy until conditions enable me to transfer in the torpedoes.

In the early hours of 25 July, we run into a straggler who's plodding ahead slowly in the gale. He doesn't react to my presence so I manoeuvre for stern shots, surfaced, and get one hit from two eels. He slows but doesn't go down. I turn away onto a parallel course before submerging to reload - it's just too rough to do so on the surface.

[Linked Image]

We get another hit but instead of sinking, the plucky freighter comes alive, illuminates us with searchlights, and starts shooting! Alaaarm!

[Linked Image]

STATUS REPORT

19410725, 06:30
VON: U-105
AN: BdU
POS: ET1992
TORPs: 5
HULL: ?%
FUEL: 65%

Status: Still shadowing large convoy, course W to WNW. Straggler torpedoed overnight, likely sinking. Repairing earlier depth charge damage to stbd diesel. Hull believed damaged, no leaks even at depth but unable to repair. Also unable to bring in last 5 eels due to persistent heavy weather. Pursuit continues till then or fuel, now 65%, is short.


We regain hydrophone contact with the convoy and the rest of the day is spent speeding along on the surface to hook around it, just out of sight. I take a chance on the aircraft and bring in my last external reloads.

[Linked Image]

As it happens, my last torpedoes are expended on another straggler, who sees me coming, starts shooting and forces me down. He's moving fast so I can't close the range. I only manage one torpedo hit; one eel explodes well short of the target, goodness knows where the others went.

[Linked Image]

In sheer frustration I break all the rules and surface to shoot it out. He's damaged so will hopefully go down before he finds my range, which I make harder by zig-zagging unpredictably towards him.

Despite this, he manages a very near miss just before his gunners are finally forced to give up defending their blazing ship.

[Linked Image]

Got him! Shortly after this picture was taken, he was wracked by secondary explosions, broke up and slipped beneath the waves.

[Linked Image]

Time to go home! I take a chance and tell BdU I'm returning, rather than asking. I don't get any arguments. The crew has been continuously at sea for over two months and we have a long way to go, back to Lorient. The response approves my return and tells me to report again when I'm 12 hours out, so that an escort can be laid on to chaperone me on the last leg into port. Which I do.

STATUS REPORT

19410804, 21:06
VON: U-105
AN: BdU
POS: BF9113
TORPs: 0
HULL: 100%?
FUEL: 20%

ETA home port in 12 hours, repeat 12 hours. Request escort and reservation at usual establishment for all hands.


It's 5th August wen we finally slip back into our berth. A recent air raid has left several ships in the roadstead burning and we man the flak guns for a while, but it's all clear and the reception committee has come out of the shelters and is in full swing on the quayside as we come alongside.

[Linked Image]

As required of any DEF Kommandant upon his return, I lose no time in submitting my report, from my SH3 Commander personnel file.

SH2 treats refuelling stops as breaks in a patrol, so the report looks like this. I've activated the SH3C option to give real ship names, not the stock types or classes.

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

That's seven freighters sunk, 32,345 BRT, plus one Black Swan class sloop, in 66 days at sea. I was hoping to run into preferably unarmed ships travelling independently in decent weather, but got pretty well the reverse - a lot of foul weather, alert, persistent and aggressive escorts and aircraft defending large convoys. Even the freighters were well-armed. The thing that saved me was that their depth charges couldn't seem to reach me at around 140 metres. Frankly, I'm just glad to have survived.

As I said at the start, you can read the fuller, KTB-based account of this patrol on the DEF forums, here: http://www.donitzeliteflotilla.com/forum/index.php?topic=3368.msg19055#msg19055

What can I say, except what an experience! I'm very glad I signed up with the Flotilla!

I'll leave the last word to my role-played Flotillenchef, Korvettenkapitaen Viktor Schuetze:


19410805, 10:21
VON: FdU
AN: U-105

WELCOME BACK HOME, KOMMANDANT! GLAD TO SEE YOU AND YOUR CREW UNHARMED!

UNFORTUNATELY WE WERE UNDER AN AIR ATTACK CONDUCTED BY THE RAF BRIEFLY BEFORE YOUR ARRIVAL.

TONIGHT, PLEASE JOIN ME FOR A MEAL AND DRINKS AT SCHEHERAZADE NIGHT CLUB.

YOUR U-BOOT WILL UNDERGO INSPECTION FOR REPAIRS AND REFIT, AND THEN INTO DRYDOCK. DUE TO MINOR DAMAGE
HAFENMEISTER EXPECTS A STAY OF 26 DAYS IN PORT*. IN THE MEANTIME, YOU ARE CLEARED TO SEND YOUR MEN ON LEAVE.
REPORT BACK WHEN YOUR U-BOOT IS READY FOR ITS NEXT PATROL.

SCHUETZE



Last edited by 33lima; 04/30/21 05:44 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

#4567563 - 05/07/21 08:23 AM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
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Wodin Offline
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Highest rate of casualties during WW2 for the German armed forces. The amount of times you dodged the bullet shows the danger! Great AAR.

Last edited by Wodin; 05/07/21 08:25 AM.
#4568130 - 05/12/21 12:27 AM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Jul 2012
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Adger Offline
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Absolutely fantastic stuff mate. thumbsup


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
#4572894 - 06/26/21 10:14 PM Re: Sixty-six days in an ‘iron coffin’ [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,301
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Living with the Trees
Interesting read. Thanks.


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