U-100 - third patrol

Before going anywhere, I remember that I've been allocated some awards to hand out to the crew - some badges or clasps and a qualification for one of the petty officers. These I dole out, basically at random. Good for morale, I trust.



Seht gut. So, where are we off to, this time? Grid Square BF15 is the answer.



It's half-past five in the evening and daylight is fading as we prepare to get under way.



I give the orders, the diesels rattle into life and the boat creeps out from her berth. The band on the quayside plays, the farewell party waves and the seagulls screech and swoop. For sheer ambience and immersion, not to mention the peerless representation of the experience of operating a U-boat on ops, this is still one heck of a sim. Love it.



We slide slowly out into the harbour basin and come around onto a roughly westerly heading.



The busy quayside slips away astern. The farewell party is probably already heading back to their nice, warm billets. Not for us, for maybe a week or more



The long breakwater is to port as we increase speed and head for open water, with only the seagulls for company now.



The lookouts are already on the ball as we leave Brest behind.



Up ahead are the wide, dangerous expanses of the Atlantic Ocean.



Time to plot a course to get us there - to BF15, to be precise. This is easily done, concluding in a north-south zig-zag search pattern, for when we get there.



I drop into time compression and the night passes quickly. So does the morning - until at nearly half-past ten, the bridge watch spot a ship - and a warship, at that! Action stations!



...to be continued!

I jump up onto the bridge and scan off the starboard bow for the contact. There's not much to be seen with the naked eye, just a faint smudge of smoke on the horizon.



The view with the binos isn't much clearer, but from what I can now see, I've a shrewd idea what it is that I'm looking at.



Tracking the contact through the U-Boat Ziel Optik confirms that it's a USN 4-stack destroyer.



And there she is, obviously now in RN service, although I don't have the luxury of this view from where I'm standing on U-100.



October 1940 is a bit early to be encountering these ships in Lend-Lease service, but there she is. The question is, what am I going to do about her?



My job is to sink merchant shipping. But this ancient destroyer is on a nice course for an interception, just crawling along at about 5 knots for reasons best known to her captain. I decide to stalk her; I can always change my mind later. I slip below the waves so as not to get spotted, and start adjusting speed and course to get within range. I raise the periscope only at intervals, just long enough each time to establish that we're still on a converging course and that the target isn't doing anything radically different. I don't want her lookouts spotting my periscope wake. While I'm doing this, there's an unwelcome intrusion from the crew (micro-) management, which forces me to intervene to keep the electric motors manned. Then it's back to the hunt.



Nothing is changing, so I throw in a little time acceleration to reduce the time spent on creeping towards the even slower-moving target. I plan to fire two torpedoes in quick succession when the range comes down to around 1,500 metres. But suddenly, just as we near this point, bad things start happening. First, I hear several distinct sonar pings, then the hydrophone operator confirms verbally that we're being pinged by what can only be the target's ASDIC. Realising the destroyer is likely to have sprung into action, I drop back into real time and jump to the periscope. Which I might have left raised...



Alarm! The destroyer is steaming towards us at full speed and is less than 500m away! I fire off Tube 1, more in the hope of forcing her to evade than anything else, and crash dive. This is not going to be good!

...to be continued!

We drop away into the depths as quickly as we can manage it. It all seems to be playing out in slow motion. I throw in a change of course as we go. Every little helps.



Here come the inevitable depth charges! They seem to be dropping right onto the stern of our boat.



The first explosions reverberate around us, even as more depth charges splash into the water.



U-100 rocks wildly in the blasts, and the first damage report is anxiously made. I'm heading for 80 metres and throw in another course change, cutting back the speed to minimise the noise as the boat levels out. By some miracle, U-100 is still in business.



My stopwatch counts down to and past the time my torpedo should have struck home. Not that I was expecting a hit. Up above, the destroyer is steaming around and I dare to hope that he's lost us, as we creep away.



Perhaps prematurely in view of the likely noise, I order my damage control team to tackle the electric motor room - I can't afford to lose my only means of underwater propulsion now. The aft torpedo room is also damaged and that will be next. The deck gun and conning tower damage we may have to put up with, unless they can be dealt with if and when we can get back onto the surface.



The destroyer is still up there, hunting for us.



The damage in the motor compartment must have been slight, for it's quickly repaired, and I shift the repair party to the aft torpedo room.



As we creep away, I make sure the hydrophone operator is making frequent verbal reports on the destroyer.



I then put him onto tracking it regularly so that the red line indicating its relative bearing is kept updated on the chart.



Soon the internal damage is fixed. Thankfully, hull integrity never dips below 100%



Every so often, the destroyer drops another pattern of depth charges...



...but they explode far away, the sound still scary but now, somewhat muffled. We continue to creep slowly away.



I've gone a little deeper and steer a little closer to the east, hoping to keep increasing the range.



The destroyer's still up there. By now, her people have probably realised that they had me for the taking, but have now lost me.



Nobody in the control room is relaxing just yet, but the hydrophone reports confirm the warship is gradually steaming away.



We've had a close call, but we got away with it!

...to be continued!

Got away with it? Not quite! Just as I'm coming around in a series of turns to starboard that will circle us around back onto course for BF15, the hydrophone operator reports a new contact. And it's a warship - 'moving fast, closing'!



It's another destroyer - a big, modern two-funnelled one this time, possibly a Tribal class.



I turn away north, keeping the revolutions low and hoping to get away before she comes close enough to detect me on ASDIC.



The newcomer seems to be steering a straight course, but possibly, not straight for me.



Judging our relative positions as best I can from successive reports coming in from the hydrophones, I adjust our course in an effort to slip behind him, as he seems to be on a more northerly heading.



By some great good fortune, this tactic bears fruit. The contact is reported to be getting further away, then to have been lost altogether.



Cautiously, I come back up to periscope depth and have a good look around, scanning the horizon, the second time at full magnification.



All is clear, so up we come, into the fresh sea air!



I'm very glad to be back on my bridge. Next time, I'll be more careful in the final stages of stalking a destroyer target, however old and slow she may appear to be!



...to be continued!

I eventually remember to switch to 'surface cruise mode', noting that my damage control party needs a rest. Well, they've earned it.



Next chore is to send a patrol report to BdU. Not that I've got anything to brag about, but they'll want to know where destroyers are prowling.



From the reply I get, BdU isn't impressed. I can tell these things.



We churn on through the night. In the early hours of the morning, while still very dark, it looks like I'll get a chance to 'be more aggressive'. A contact is reported, close, and on a good course for an interception.



I rush up onto the bridge...



...and grab my binos. There she is, a nice, big, fat freighter. The news that the damage control party has completed repairs on the upper deck is icing on the cake.



I line her up in the UZO and confirm my identification.



Now, this is what I came here for - to stop Mister Churchill from getting his cigars, and his countrymen from getting their breakfasts!



...to be continued!

Great posts 33 Lima kind of getting me in a nautical state of mind,,Time to head to SubSim for some mods

Thanks RW. I'd forgotten just how good SH3 was, even un-modded, until Carrick58's reports got me going again!

After toying with the idea of making a surface torpedo attack, I decide to submerge instead. No point complicating things by risking being spotted. She's coming almost right at me - all I need to do is manoeuvre to one side, then turn into her. So the bridge is quickly cleared and down we go.



At the attack periscope, I'm annoyed to find that my poor micro-management has left Tub 1 unloaded. I quickly order the bow torpedo room fully manned. I also order the hydrophone operator to start tracking the ship and he starts making reports every few seconds. I hardly need to raise the periscope.



At just under a thousand yards I raise the 'scope and track the target. At about 800 metres, I fire Tube 2, then Tube 3.



Torpedotreffe!



The big vessel begins zig-zagging immediately she's hit and my second eel misses. There's a fire in the forward cargo hold but she's not going down yet.

To make matters worse, I somehow manage to miss with the stern tube; either that, or the fuze on the torpedo is a dud.



Now what? I look the ship over carefully. There's no sign of any armament. Decision made. I'm going to finish her off with the deck gun.

...to be continued!

Surface the boat!



I bring us onto a roughly parallel course with the damaged freighter to port. At this point I realise I've completely forgotten how to get the deck gun into action, without having to man it myself. After several seconds struggling with the manual and the keycard sheet, I look up at the screen just in time to see we're about to be run down by the ship, deliberately or not. A burst of speed saves the boat by a matter of a few metres.



I'm astern of the freighter by the time I've got the deck gun into action. As ordered, the gun crew go for the waterline.



I swing the boat around the big ship's stern so firing can continue.



The firing stops. The merchantman is breaking up, racked by explosions.



Her back's completely broken and she's going down rapidly.



I waste no time in sending a patrol report. 'Be more aggressive', the man said! Will that do?



Next move is to order a return to my search pattern.



U-100 curves off into the darkness like the grey wolf in a grey sea that she is.



Well that's a few more lessons re-learned, then. Be patient. Get in a bit closer, but not too close. Don't attack from acute angles if you can avoid it. Keep a better watch on the crew and ensure we've got the right people in the right place at the right time. And remember how to get that gun into action!

...to be continued!

Another good post 33Lima sometimes a good AAR gets people like me to revisit old sims and rediscover the good in them

This time, BdU's response to my report is more appreciative.



It's the following night when we make our next sighting. A ship is spotted, fine off the starboard bow.



Even as I'm picking up and following a small merchantman in the UZO, more sightings are reported.



Yes - it's a convoy!



Suspicious of the single contacts ahead and to the near side of the herd, I ask the sonar operator to report any warship contacts. Their turbine-driven, fast-threshing screws can readily be distinguished from those of steamers. He tells me he's not picking up any warships, but I'm not convinced.



In fact I'm quite sure the single contacts - three of them, slipping in and out of sight - are all escorts. I start making some measurements, with a view to coming up with a plan. In short, it seems I have two broad choices. Either I take my time and try to work around to the far side of the convoy without being spotted, in the hope there are fewer escorts over there. Or I try to sneak past the escorts and attack from this side, either on the surface or submerged.



I decide to attack now, submerged. The convoy is practically steaming into my sights - it's just too tempting a target to pass up. It's a clear, cloudless night so I decide to go in submerged. Even under electric power, I'll be able to get within range. I put the sonar man onto tracking and reporting the nearest of the warships - which he now concedes are present.



Here we go - this is it! A solo convoy attack - Knight's Cross or bust!

...to be continued!

The escort ahead of the convoy is a destroyer, a V&W Class possibly. Getting deliberately into a fight with multiple escorts seems to me to be a good way to waste torpedoes and likely, get sunk. I'm going to go for my priority targets, the merchant ships.



In between taking sightings with the periscope, I do some more plotting at the map as the range winds down. It becomes apparent that the leading destroyer is turning round. In fact all three escorts could be coming onto courses towards me. To cap it all, I start hearing sonar pings.



If I put off evasive action much longer, I fear I'll leave it too late. As it is, it looks like I'm the meat in an escort sandwich. I line up the nearest merchantmen as quickly as I can and fire off my bow torpedoes. I should have started with the furthest ones so as not to give the more distant ones to evade once the first eel explodes, but I've no time for niceties.



The last torpedo is soon on the way...



...and I dive away, hoping to pass under the convoy and come up on the other side. This means I don't see the results of my attack, but it looks like we've sunk one ship, from the reports coming in...and got well inside the escort screen, in doing so.



Up topside, the destroyer is scuttling about looking for me, but I'm dropping fast into the depths and have gone onto silent running.



There's a torpedo strike on a merchantman. It's not clear whether this is on a second ship, or a second hit on the one we believe we've sunk.



Either way, it's not a great result but considering the strength and alertness of the escorts, I don't think we've done too badly. Now, we just need to survive the counterattack.

...to be continued!

By now, the convoy is zig-zagging. In fact, I think this started earlier, at the point the escorts seemed to be reacting to me. Maybe this contributed to my misses.



Meanwhile, I'm still diving slowly to the north. I can hear occasional depth charge explosions, but nothing is coming close to us.



The reason for this is that the escorts are searching for me in the area from which my attack originated, on the other, southern side of the convoy.



As well as the destroyer, there's two of the little but handy Flower Class corvettes. A third corvette is sticking with the retreating convoy. The ones hunting me seem to be keen to use their searchlights, perhaps suspecting I'm on the surface.



Down in U-100's control room, everybody is fully occupied but calm, outwardly at least.



We level out at 90 metres, still on silent running and heading slowly north, away from the hue and cry.



I make sure the hydrophone operator is tracking the nearest warship. The picture that's emerging is that the convoy is drifting off to the west, while the escorts are still searching me to the south.



My 'escape and evasion' plan seems to be playing out quite well. It's tempting to come up to periscope depth to get a better picture of what's happening. But that will come later, when the risk level is a lot lower. In the meantime, I start edging around to port. My intention is to come around eventually onto a westerly course, so I can resume the chase of the convoy.



SH3 does a marvellous job of recreating the felling you get from the U-Boat memoirs of playing this unique, slow-motion, half-blind game of cat and mouse. One moment you're the cat, the next, the mouse. There's nothing quite like it, at least if you don't face the penalty for failure that the real U-boatmen did, immersion in a quite different sense. Lest we forget...

...to be continued!

A brief check of torpedo availability establishes that Tubes 1, 2 and 3 are ready to be reloaded once I decide to secure from silent running, and I have an eel already in the stern tube. We're out of reloads after that, apart from the two stowed under the deck casing which can only be reloaded on the surface in calm conditions, if I recall right.



By now, I'm turning around the rear of the convoy, preparatory to resuming the chase, underwater until it's safe. After a few minutes, I decide to risk returning to periscope depth, to get a clearer picture of what's going on.



As we near the surface, it becomes clear that impatience has probably got the better of me again. The hydrophone operator warns me of a warship closing in.



He's not close nor moving fast, so I chance a quick sweep of the periscope, having gone to the time and trouble of getting up here. I get a brief view of a convoy in retreat...



...then crash dive to get away. As I do so, the enemy's ASDIC picks us up and his searchlight sweeps the water above us. Was our periscope spotted?



More to the point, have I left the crash dive too late? I'm about to find out!

...to be continued!

33Lima do you have any mods installed to your sim ?? Got my SH III ready to install

Hi Russ

The only mod I've installed so far is a widescreen one by Rubini, which may or may not be the best one now available. It supports 1920x1080 but I went with its default (1380x768) as the former works in 3d but makes the 2d screens unusable. I still have my original chosen SH3 mods on a CD somewhere but can't recall which ones I favoured. I've recently downloaded Grey Wolves Gold so may end up using that. The stock crew fatigue system is the thing I'd like to see turned off; I've done a hand-edit in basic.cfg but that doesn't seem to have worked - at least, it's not affecting the current campaign. Escorts at night firing starshell instead of using searchlights would be good, too.

Rather than have to go through whatever is needed to get my Ubisoft SH3 version installed and working, I just bought the Steam version, which comes patched. I gather from posts on the Doenitz Elite Flotilla forum...

http://www.donitzeliteflotilla.com/forum/index.php?topic=2838

...that use of a utility is recommended before applying mods to the Steam version.

I've narrowly missed being run down by my attacker, as you can see.



There's no escaping the depth charges, though. By some miracle, they fail to crush my hull.



I go deep and as I get there, order silent running.



Now I'm the mouse again, playing the deadly game of hide and seek, relying on information from the hydrophone operator for an imperfect picture about what's going on up there.



And there's plenty going on.



The destroyer that only just failed to send me to the bottom is scouring the sea with at least two of the corvettes.



My premature return to the surface - and use of the periscope - very nearly got us all killed! Now, I need to make amends and escape all over again - and this time, stay escaped!

...to be continued!

Thanks for the reply 33 Lima..I guess I'll just go with a stock patched version..i think when I played it before I had the Grey wolves mod in..I might just grab a few others and use JSGME..

I think there are actually two destroyers hunting for us, judging from the second pair of searchlights on the horizon in the pic below. The only things they are picking out are each other. In real life I think they'd have fired starshell, except for a target at close range.



One of the corvettes makes a depth charge run.



Unrealistic these external views may be, but I for one would not be without them.



One of the destroyers starts depth charging, too. Down below I hear the explosions, but they don't rock my boat...literally.



It begins to look like the cat has lost the mouse, again.



However, the escorts have succeeded in forcing me to abandon my attempt to maintain touch with the convoy. You can see it steaming off into the darkness in the pic below.



I don't know what the escorts are depth charging now, but it isn't me.



In the hope of finally breaking contact, I swing around to the east.



This does the trick, and at last I'm in the clear again! I don't want to have a closer shave than the one I've just had!

...to be continued!

I come around from an easterly onto a more northerly heading, intending to loop around and resume the chase on the surface, at a safe distance



I wait longer this time before gradually coming back up to periscope depth.



The convoy and its escorts are no-where to be seen; they are as expected well to the west.



Instead, also to the west and but steaming north, away from the convoy, I can see a solitary four-stack destroyer.



From my first encounter with this type of warship, I know not to underestimate them. I steer to pass well astern of him and as the range begins to lengthen, come to the surface. I want to catch that convoy and put in another attack before daylight.



Back on the surface, I increase speed and waste no time in sending a patrol report. I don't think SH3 will use this to task other U-Boats to converge on the convoy, but it's the right thing to do.



In the log, we're claiming only a small merchantman sunk.



I think I may have got another hit too, so there might be a straggler to catch or a damaged ship to pluck from the convoy...but first, I'll have to catch it again.

...to be continued!

With the UZO, I keep a watchful eye on the destroyer as we race along. Suddenly, I realise that he's changing course...in our direction. It's not just a zig-zag.



Has he spotted me? Escorts have no radar, at this point in the war...



...but I'm not disposed to take any chances. Down we go!



I creep away to the south at periscope depth. And this time, I keep going. If nothing else, it'll give the crew a break from all the recent tension. Secured from silent running, the remaining reserve torpedoes can now be loaded into Tubes 1, 2 and 3.



After daylight, I check with the hydrophone operator that he can hear no contacts. Then I make a couple of sweeps of the horizon with the periscope.



All is clear, so up we come into the clear, fresh air, at last.



The convoy, of course, is long gone. Nothing else for it but to resume my search pattern.



I'll be quite happy if we pick up another ship sailing independently. These well-escorted convoys seem hard nuts to crack!

...to be continued!

We plough on up to the north-north-west, back onto our search pattern.



It's mid-morning when we get lucky. One of the look-outs spots a merchantman, off the port quarter.



I order course changed towards the sighting and study her through my binoculars.



Time to pick up the target in the U-boat Zeil Optik. Small fry, I can see, but unescorted and almost certainly unarmed.



She's soon fine off the starboard bow and I decide this is going to be a gun action. Best not to use up any of my few remaining torpedoes.



The orders are given and the deck gun quickly manned.



The steamer maintains her speed and course, seemingly oblivious to our approach. Not for much longer!

...to be continued!

The gun crew is soon pumping rounds into the oncoming ship, which just continues to hold her course.



The odd round goes wide, but most are on target. The freighter is starting to burn as she comes up on our port bow, making no attempt to ram us, in fact turning slightly away.



The gun crew ceases fire and trains their weapon forward.



Sure enough, the steamer is going down, and quickly. It's at this point that I notice the flag she's flying. Isn't that the Stars and Stripes? Oh dear - I've sunk a neutral!



Soon all that's left is some flotsam and fading wisps of smoke.



I quickly remember seeing earlier on the map a green-marked neutral ship, but I thought that we were well clear of her and didn't check. Evidently, my victim was that ship. And now, she's gone.



This time, embarrassed, I don't make a report to BdU. That can come later, if I can report some success at the same time.

It seems I might soon have my chance, for a nice, red enemy contact is reported to the west-north-west.



I plot a dog-leg interception course, aiming to get onto her track well ahead of her, then turn back towards her on a reciprocal course. I reckon this works better for me than trying to plot a directly intersecting course.



And sure enough, early in the afternoon, our prey is spotted, within one degree of straight ahead!



Now's my chance to make amends!

...to be continued!

There she is!



She's coming pretty well straight at us, which will save me a certain amount of bother.



A tanker, this time! A perfect target! A better contribution to denting Mister Churchill's war efforts would be hard to imagine.



Another job for the deck gun, this one. The gun crew is soon in position.



The first shells are soon on their way, the trajectory high at this range. Through the binos, I can see the tanker is starting to turn across our bows.



Something doesn't look quite right. As the tanker slides to my right, I see what it is. There's a second ship close behind her, a freighter!



This should be interesting!

...to be continued!

The deck gun pounds the tanker, which is soon starting to burn and won't last much longer.



From this point, I'm more concerned about the other ship. Is she armed? That's the question.



Out of the corner of my eye, I see a brief red glow on the sea, just to port. No-one says anything, and in retrospect it could have been a reflection from the deck-gun's muzzle flash. But I am taking absolutely no chances, and down we go, just as the tanker also slips beneath the waves.



I realise fairly quickly that I've been over-cautions. There's no sign of a gun on the big freighter. But while I'm here I may as well use a torpedo, I decide. I can surface to finish her off later.



If it only it turned out that simple!

...to be continued!

[Normal service is resumed after waiting for a replacement CPU fan]

Safe at periscope from any guns real or imagined, I line up the freighter and let her have it. I have only three forward tubes loaded, but reckon that two will be enough.



Nothing! Not a single explosion. Was I too close? Was the gyro angle excessive? Were one or both eels duds? What did forget to do? Whatever the problem, it repeats itself with both Tube 3 and the stern tube, more careful though I try to be.



So it's to be the deck gun after all. Up we go...



The gun is soon in action and pumping rounds into the freighter, with nothing coming our way in reply.



We're soon seeing results.



Strange that the bridge watch mans the deck gun. Perhaps there's a way of ensuring both are manned at the same time.



Anyway I'll worry about that later.



Looks like she's going down by the stern!



Before she can sink, explosions wrack the ship and her back breaks.



Well, that worked.



I've wasted my remaining torpedoes though, apart from a couple I want to keep for self-defence or opportunity targets on the way home. Which is where I'm going next, I decide. But again, it's not going to be that simple.

...to be continued!

I set a course to the south-east, to give me lots of sea room for a final more easterly leg back to St Nazaire. And I have a patrol report sent. BdU likes to be kept informed.



He seems pleased enough, from the reply.



This is where it all begins to go wrong. I find I'm stuck. Time won't accelerate and the boat refuses to come onto the new course. Orders for fresh course changes are ignored.



Hours later, and while contacts are popping up on the map and time is definitely passing, I'm still stuck.



I'm forced to save the patrol and exit. If the problem recurs, I can always revert to the previous save. I'm not sure whether I've fallen victim to something getting corrupted, maybe even due to my CPU fan failing and overheating, confusing the CPU. Maybe the torpedo misses were also a symptom. It's a frustrating way to end the patrol, but better than being sunk I suppose. Which is what happened on a patrol I started after loading SH3 onto a laptop to keep me busy while waiting for the new CPU fan, this time in April 1943. First patrol, I sank two ships from a large, heavily-defended convoy in daylight, drifting deep under the escorts' depth charges until the convoy caught me up, then popping up to periscope depth and creeping away after the attack. Tried something similar on the second patrol, but only after getting shelled and hit by the leading escorts when I ran into them at full time acceleration on the surface in daylight. I nearly drifted under the convoy but despite ample use of the Bold 'Submarine Bubble Target', a huge pattern of depth charges from the three escorts which were hunting me sent me to the bottom. I think I'll load the previous save onto my repaired desktop, so I can have the challenge of a more dangerous, later career in parallel. It's a fantastic sim, SH3, even out of the box, and the Steam version was a good investment.

Well, the saved mission re-loaded and I could play on. At this point, short on torpedoes, I have no particular ambition other than to get home safely.



However, I abandon my course back to Brest when several contacts are reported. Instead, I plot a dog leg course to intercept the one to the south-west, which won't take me back out into the Atlantic.



While en route, another contact is reported a short distance to the east, so I go for him instead. I just hope it's not a warship! Either way, I should be able to reach him before daylight.



The run-in towards where the contact should be is always nerve-wracking!



I make the sighting myself with my binos. It's a merchantman, coming nearly straight at us! She might be armed, so before she spots us, I dive to periscope depth for a submerged attack.



The problem I have is that only my stern tube is loaded. Try as I might, I haven't been able to persuade the crew to load the reserve eel under the foredeck casing into one of the forward tubes!

...to be continued!

U-100's electric motors whine gently as we slip slowly towards our intended victim.



As we near the target, I alter course out to port so as to bring the stern tube to bear at reasonably close range and without an excessive angle.



To avoid being spotted and triggering a zig-zag, I'm raising and lowering the scope while the hydrophone operator tracks the target, Finally I raise the scope again so I can track the target long enough to get a decent firing solution.



Torpedo los!



The stopwatch ticks down to the impact point and then beyond it. Another miss!



There's no sign that the freighter is armed so I've one last chance - the deck gun. Surface the boat!



...to be continued!

The 8.8cm gun is soon hammering rounds at the fleeing freighter.



Our boat is rolling in the swell and we have some misses, but also some hits.



I increase speed and the range drops. The ship is soon burning astern.



I slow right down as we come abeam of her. Every shell is now a hit.



Boom! There she goes!



Back broken, my victim is soon slipping beneath the waves.



That was well worth the detour! Now, to get home!

...to be continued!

A fresh course for Brest is soon plotted. I come out of maximum time acceleration just to check that crew fatigue isn't building up, but all seems well.



By time we're running in towards base with land in sight to port and starboard, it's dark again.



Up ahead there somewhere is our berth.



Those large yellow dockside cranes conveniently mark out where we're going. By now, I've cut the speed right back and just need a sharp turn to port to take us in.



Dark though it is, the quayside is crowded with well-wishers, including the band whose strains I can hear as I stop engines and let U-100 drift gently into her berth.



Not a bad trip! Six merchantmen sunk and despite one being a neutral, I've been awarded an EK1 and a coupe of U-Boat awards. I also have some awards to distribute to the crew, not to mention additional renown which I can use to get some improvements made to the boat.



I've still plenty of space for more medals, and I'm looking forward to earning them!



So far, so good!

I've been following your patrol reports mate and good work. Keep it up.

The only things that should prevent you downloading the topside torpedoes are sea state, silent running and insufficient or exhausted crew. You must also download them to a reserve slot, not straight to an empty tube. If none of these things are the case I can't say what is preventing it.

I like the fact you know your uboat history, like the comments you made about the losses of Shepke, Prien and Kretschmer. The convoy was Halifax 112. Vanoc had depth charged U-100 and -- heavily damaged -- Shepke decided to surface and fire his stern torpedo. He mistakenly ordered full speed ahead rather than astern on the starboard motor as he attempted to maneuver the boat to bring the tube to bear, fouling his shot and Vanoc rammed the boat squarely on the bridge, the bow killing Shepke as you noted. Just six men survived the sinking of U-100, which interestingly is the same boat you are in. Vanoc's detection of the surfaced U-100 was the first verifiable example of shipborne radar detecting a uboat in the war. The loss of these three Ritterkreuz holders in such a short time was a massive shock to the uboat arm. I'm sure you know this, more for the general audience.

Good luck in your patrols, I do wish you had opted for manual targeting, but it's a great AAR all the same

Good hunting Herr Kaleun.

Thanks for the tips and the encouragement! One possible cause for my useless eels may have been that the weapons officer slot was left vacant, resulting in nobody setting up the firing data from the scope (there seems only one in SH3, a sort of dual sky periscope and attack periscope, both available only in the control room; maybe later boats to the VIIB are different). So maybe manual TDC is better after all!

Been working my way through my small stock of mostly 1970s U-boat paperbacks. Just finished Hirschfeld (one of the best by any standard) and before that Ali Cremer's U-333. Next up I think is Grey Wolves, Grey Sea, about U-109, not autobiographical and said by Jurgen Rohwer to have factual errors but still one of the classics IIRC.

This past spring I also posted an AAR, using SH4's Operation Monsun mod. I tried to describe my torpedo firing method in this post

I think it's not as difficult as some may imagine, but that's down to expectations perhaps and each individual skipper. My method does require map contact updates and benefits from the unfailing accuracy. That however is the only realism setting I leave unchecked. WW2 boats had a tracking party, and the sim does not, so I don't mind using this. I do wish it had some variability perhaps due to the crew's ratings or the skipper's observations, but it's all we have so I make the best of it.

If you do determine the reason why your topside fish wouldn't download I'd be interested to know the cause. Good luck on patrol four.

Speaking of sub books, do you have Blair's Hitler's U Boat War (two volumes)?