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Nice one DB, a harrowing escape!

LOG U-61
(1st Patrol continued...)

6 Sep 39- 0900h Seas calmer, supervised torpedo re-loading which took from 0530 to 0800. Afterward went to 20m depth and had cookie build a good hot breakfast for the boys. KH set the course to resume patrol. WS cmd

7 Sep 39- 1600h FDU informed we're inbound to Wilhelmshaven. Fuel stores low, having consumed more during storms, we've opted to return to port. KH 1stOff

9 Sep 39- 1030h Arrived at port, lines secured. The Lion pinned a couple of medals on us. Total tonnage 10430. Sent my boys to my parents inn, SW of Munchen, for a well deserved holiday. I'll join them after. Prisoners handed over. All is gut. WS cmd

Nice work, Herr Kaleun. The first patrol is in the books, the crew have had a taste, and the boat and captain found ready for the task at hand. Good start!

Your benevolence is admirable, but consider only capturing ships' captains and chief engineers (and aircrew) to maximize your rep, which in turn speeds up your tech, if you care about this at all. I think doing it this way was key to me getting all the gadgets early. But you may not want the same sort of tech trajectory, or have pity on the ratings that gain no rep. Good hunting.

Hi DB, thanks. Good advice re: taking officers for rep and credits.

For me, I take the first boatload I come up against, pull in as many survivors as possible irrespective of status. If I still have space, I'll go to the next boat. The way I see it is that merchant marine often didn't wear uniforms, and in the dark, smokey, oily and fire ridden environment, survivor status would likely not be necessarily recognizable. So I tend to roleplay a lot lol, but that's simply me and what I do when I play simulations...which might explain why I tend to chew through game content much slower (I'm slow@ss terrible in MMO's because I'm not gear driven and like to roleplay lol).

Iirc there was a guy who posted his SHIII experiences where he took vacation, bought sausages and hung them above his desk, bought bread, veg, bottled water, then played real-time SH. I'm probably mis-remembering, but he set shifts for himself, only wet cloth bathed, and wore the same clothes for a month. That might have been over at Subsim. I'm not that RP motivated, but it sounded kinda fun.

I just appreciate how varied play can be.

Yeah, I totally get it, role play vibes. I do some of this myself.

I wouldn't do what that guy did. Some players have done real-time patrols.

U-292 has one year left. Will we make it? Seems the odds are narrowing.

My BE5-BE8 patrol went off splendidly. Chased down a few solo ships, some allied, some neutral and had to let something like 60% of the neutral ones go. Then I got radioed about a very large convoy. Hit it with some other subs. Much easier when the escorts are already distracted. Finished with 12 freighters, a record but with only 58613tons my second best by tonnage, I did one earlier with 11 ships and just over 61k tons. Felt good coming back from that patrol.

The next one was minelaying at Gibraltar. Was actually really easy since they just wanted me to place them to the west of the entrance. Zipped there, placed the mines and zipped back. Piece of cake. So I decided to get into some trouble in the atlantic since I had some torops and plenty of stores and fuel. Ambushed a convoy and got 3. I was chased away and harried by the DDs and I thought I took no damage, but was notified that a flaw was found in my aft torpedo tubes and they'd be prone to flooding if I went deep. I couldn't repair it.
Hydrophones picked up another convoy on the way back to Brest, since I only had 3 kills and still had some torpedoes I moved to intercept. Instead of the convoy I ran into a half a dozen mixed escorts that was about 5-10km in front of the convoy. These guys were eagled eyed and spotted me as I was diving from quite a ways away. I couldn't get away from them. They hit me with some charges that broke a couple bulkheads, my aft torpedo tubes and caused leaks in the hull in both torpedo rooms. They also banged up a couple crewmen, but luckily nothing severe. I got the holes plugged quick, but took on 48m of water total. I sank from 110m to 153m where luckily the seabed was. Pumps only work at 74% at that depth. I also found that it only pumps water from the control room a that depth. I had to plug up half the ship and bail water from the other compartments into the control room. Then repeat with the other side.

Those DDs didn't leave me either, they kept moving around trying to find me and sometimes just dropping charges on locations I think they though I was at. I also had to stop the pumps when they started getting near. Once I got the water out and the enemy was at the farthest point on their circular patters I turned on the engines and slowly worked my way to the surface. Once I got some distance. Luckily I had just upgraded to accumulators III prior to this mission and went into action with full air and batteries. I had plenty of power because you don't use any with engines off and only running a pump every couple minutes. Air got low, but I I could have turn on the vent and had some tablets that could have kept me down there longer if needed.

It did score me the Fresh Air achievement for surfacing after sinking below 100m. Not many ships sunk, but I did place the mines and count myself lucky that I was able to refloat after that ordeal.




One thing that does annoy me is how much room those spare parts take up and how quickly they get used up. Every repair takes one. Worst of all, I had no aft torpedoes, so what's one of the first thing my engineers do, waste one of the spare parts on the aft torpedo tubes. Dude, we just had two serious leaks, some bulkheads are damaged, I have no torpedoes to fire out of those and they're still hunting us with plenty more depth charges to go. I almost wanted to fire my engineers for that.

Wow! Amazing work skipper. Fresh Air you say? I both hope to get that one and not get it, you know? Congrats on saving your boat.

Spare parts, yeah. I have given the skills to make scrap from repairs, and to make parts from scrap to my officers, which can be the difference in an emergency so you don't run out. But you need a spare storage slot for the scrap to go in to.

Excellent results on your patrols.

As for U-292... Did two more patrols, both anti-shipping in the Pit. Managed to get in on several convoys, sinking 51k and 63k, before running for the barn. It all went according to plan, no drama. Since late '43 I've been working on revised procedures, to counter the sharp increase in the enemy ASW effectiveness. It's been working very well over the past few months. We had a couple patrols where we came home with small bags and tails between our legs. But these last two have been very productive. It's nuts, and in no way close to realistic, but we are closing in on 1,000,000 tons of merchant shipping for the career. Need about 50k more so I've made that a goal.

June, 1944

That scrap and making spare parts skills are of immense value and I always keep a slot open to take on the scrap. It automatically increases your on board spare parts by nearly 50%. I just wish in some cases where things are dire you can declare something not being of critical value and take it off the repair list, at least without micromanaging your crew. Or maybe set a priority of repairs, that would be helpful.

There is s similar skill trait but for the medic- can do first aid without a medkit (they will still use medkits but at reduced length of time, but it's handy if you run out and have a lot of casualties). I've had to jump in and direct order triage because the medic bots (similar to the engineer bots lol) don't seem to prioritize very well lol. As an aside, I elected to try Automatic Headquarters as I want to see if the innovations occur more historically timewise.

U-61Type IID LOG
Patrol No. 2 AN46-82
(summary- left port 01 Oct 39, one new petty officer on board, G. Buchsbaum, as radio op. Weather mainly stormy, SS2-3, reached patrol point 2 Oct 39)

3 Oct 39- 1415h Hydrophone picked up single screw on a south easterly course. Began shadowing as we gained on them, diesels working well at flank in rough seas. Weber Ing informs me we have the fuel. KH 1stOff

3 Oct 39- 1506h smoke on horizon, seas too rough for surface attack. Continue to gain. Rain sweeping across the bow, visibility lowering, we opt for periscope attack before we lose the enemy freighter completely. WS, cmd

3 Oct 39- 1540h torpedo actually struck Empire Storm, screw noise gone. Surfaced. Hulk burning at stern, still afloat. Enemy crew abandoning ship. Elected to try and put one more into her. One miss, then a hit. Managed to rescue 5 crew only. Message sent to FDU.

4 Oct 39- 0630h Message from FDU requesting we rendezvous with U84 who need spare parts for serious engine repairs. Calmer seas, broken cloud, torpedo reloading went on without trouble.

4 Oct 39- 1711h Located U84, sent Weber Ing and two ratings over to aid them. We went to 20m so hydrophone could stand sentry. Picked up single screw, slow, east of us moving towards us. Surfaced and retrieved my crew. Set intercept course in case this was a warship. U84 remains surfaced, affecting repairs. Weber estimated it would take them at least three more hours as their electrics were also being repaired.

5 Oct 39- 0200h found the enemy ship hydro was tracking, still slow, course changed to NE, KH surmised they were headed towards Bergen. Battle stations, readying for a surface attack.

5 Oct 39- 0310h Fired last two torpedoes at Empire Record, one dud, one hit. Ship sunk very quickly. Rescued one survivor. Messaged FDU. Patrol completed. Set course for Wilhelmshaven.

Side note: Medals awarded. Given new boat to command, U-46, a Type VIIB. FDU is giving us no rest, ordering us to prepare the new boat for 7 Oct 39 to begin our third patrol at that time.

Congrats on the new command, Herr Kaleun. U-46, a famous boat, Sohler's and Endrass' boat. She survived the war (as a school boat from '43) which I always take as a good omen in sub sims. Good hunting.

And don't wait for Donitz to grant you shore leave. Take that vacation anyway. In my current career through to summer of '44 I have taken a vacation between every patrol, save one. That one was fall of '43 when I could sense the turn in the enemy and wanted to get another 1943 patrol in before things got worse lol.

Doing this -- stretching refits to three weeks or a month or more -- has still resulted in over 40 missions. Players who do not do this, and get to 1945 will be doing a hell of a lot of patrols.

Great reporting captains!

11 April 1941 – U-96 -- XOs Log

We turned over our prisoners as soon as we hit port. Two were captains and so will be held for a more extensive debriefing. But they behaved themselves on our return voyage and are honorable men.
I had only two days leave, then two days overseeing minor repairs and restocking. A problem loading a torpedo damaged the door on Tube 3. We had a welder come in for a special job and then still had work to do to fix it.

Resupply otherwise was without incident. The captain disbanded one of the crew and the other we lost to the SS on charges that he was a Communist. So crew selection took a half day of interviews, but we may have lucked out with a machinist with much experience and also a family history of distinction in the Kriegsmarine. I joined the captain for the final interviews and both our new choices appear very good.
Meanwhile we promoted our second mechanic to Leutnant. Finally we will have reduced shifts on our next patrol with an extra Officer. Leutnant Schmidt likewise has excellent experience and proved able to stand the stress of our first patrols, not an easy thing to do.

Our cook has also proven up to the task, and our stocks look better after our last patrol and our salvage operations. The gold we salvaged brought some stresses of its own, but my careful accounting did not go unnoticed, and nothing was missing. Likewise the sinking of a T2 tanker carried some extra weight. The reputation of U96 will have grown a little larger after this patrol. And the confidence and skill of the crew definitely improved. Our dive times averaged 12 seconds less than on our last patrol.

Our orders are a standard patrol this time, no more spies and shallow harbors. At least not yet. One never knows what BdU will order when we are sea bound.

15 April
We are almost to our patrol zone. So far we have almost 9000 tons and the pickings have been uneventful. One the last sinking we salvaged fresh fruit and machine parts: a real boon to the crew and to our mission.
The third ship we encountered was flying a Spanish flag, so we surfaced and ordered her to stop while we performed an inspection. Her captain seemed tight lipped and wary, so we brought over additional crew to perform a thorough search. If we had found contraband we would not have hesitated to sink her. Something about her papers seemed off; but without any proof we had to release her and continue on our way.

16 April

We were only two hours in our assigned patrol when hydrophone reported multiple screws at bearing 030 and roughly 30 nm. It was 1600 hours. I ordered the intercept course and at full speed we saw smoke on the horizon in two hours. Not long after we spotted three escort destroyers at the rear of the convoy. The funnel smoke we counted gave us at least 25 ships. We plotted an end run and turned ENE. By 2000 hours and dusk, with the excellent work of our navigator and sound man, we turned SSE into the estimated convoy path and waited.

Right on schedule, we sighted a pair of escorts 30 minutes later at the edge of our vision. Flood the tanks and dive to periscope depth and adjusted our position just below the northernmost escort, then waited.

By the time the escorts were on top of us we had solutions for two large freighters. The captain ordered two eels for the distant one, then waited 40 seconds to release on the closest. The timing was meant to give us two kills at once, meanwhile we would run at 75% speed to a position west of our firing point. Perfectly executed, and only one eel failed to fire. Two ships sinking and we were on our way before the escorts could respond. Our mechanics and crew labored as quickly and quietly as possible to reload tubes 1 and 2.

When we were nearly two miles from our firing position and preparing to surface, one of the escorts from the rear of the convoy approached close enough to get an ASDIC reading. We responded by diving to 200 meters and I ordered silent running. His sonar hit brought a second ship on the hunt, and two minutes later they depth charged us.

The first two rounds were ineffective, no damage to our ship or crew. I could hear the cook praying quietly. We slowed to half speed and continued to zig zag, changing course every two minutes. The third round of charges caused a serious enough leak in the rear torpedo room that we sealed the aft bulkhead while the mechanics worked. One of our seamen reported a broken arm, but nothing worse. The ship drifted downwards to 220 meters.

An hour of this and the strain was telling on all of us. Still they would not leave us alone, and it was another hour before the hydrophone reported the hunters moving away. The flooding in the aft torpedo room was under control so we risked rising to 50 meters to turn on the pumps. We were all drenched in sweat. We increased to maximum speed and made a dash to the west. It worked, and after a half hour with no ships near us we went to periscope depth to confirm we were clear, then surfaced the boat. The fresh air flooding the ship was like heaven. All stop while our able engineers attended to the port diesel, which would not maintain full power. There was nothing more they could do, so we made our report then headed for port.

11 May 1941 for the first time, just as I am leaving port, a massive dive bombing attack by Beaufighters at La Rochelle. Is nowhere safe anymore? Went to decks awash immediately after leaving the lock and then to periscope depth a minute later. Took only minor damage and of course no one in the conning tower after decks awash.

U-46 (Type VIIB) KK Werner Schulz cmd.
LOG Patrol No.3 AM26

7 Oct 39- 2250h Set sail at 2230h, weather blustery and rainy, winds at 19-25. Course set for the Atlantic. WS cmd

10 Oct 39- 0700h reached patrol sector. Stormy. Vis = 0 KH 1st Off

12 Oct 39- 2200h Sea state 4, winds 45+. Boat stable at 20m depth. Hydrophones report zero contact. Only the bootewaffe out today. WS cmd

13 Oct 39 1930h Hydrophone reports single screw but unable to pinpoint. Came up to periscope depth and was promptly pranged by a tommy ship, fore torpedo bay damaged, hull breach. Surfaced as water accumulation too high, ordered crew to wear safety gear and prepare to abandon vessel. WS cmd

13 Oct 39 2050h Afteraction report. Surfaced boat, crew scrambling to repair damage. Pumps ordered on, water in control room ankle deep. Went aloft to see what the hell was happening. British freighter was glued to our starboard side at the bow. Lost one rating due to enemy captain shooting a pistol, man went over board and was crushed between the vessels. Became angry and jumped down to man the 88mm gun. My assigned ratings aided me. I fired 12 rounds into the b@stard. One round smashed their pilot house, another knocked down a mast. The rest holed the enemy hull- I waited until the waves caused her to heel over exposing the underside of the water line. Pumped ten more AP rounds into her. It was enough that she let us go, and I ordered a full reverse until we were 100m clear. By that time the enemy freighter was in flames and listing heavily, finally rolling over to sink. As I had calmed enough to allow my senses to retake ownership, I ordered the rescue of six enemy sailors, and provisioned their life boat for those sailors left. Weber was violently angry, wanting to shoot the enemy commander, as Weber had lost a diligent rating over the side. Cooler heads prevailed after Hoffman waved around his personal Schmeisser machine pistol. Enemy crew behaved, so did mine. Torpedo room damage unrepairable, continuing to take on water. Set course to return to Wilhelmshaven. Message to FDU included the data on the freighter, Empire Adur, 5931 tons. WS cmd.

18 Oct 39- Limped into Wilhelmshaven. Medals and honors given out. I sent my boys off on the train east to Bavaria. 21 days of relaxation ahead. WS cmd

Holy smokes, rammed out of the blue!

Kinda like me ramming a tanker, now that I think about it. MP 40 imagery is a nice touch

Vacation was due. Congrats on your survival.

Good attack Combat 99. Timing torpedo strikes at varying ranges is an art. But it's so important because as soon as the first fish hits, all other ships start constant helming (Silent Hunter was exactly the same), slowing them down, but still on the same base course. And of course the slower speed means any fish already fired will probably miss ahead. So getting them all on target in the same short window is key. Good shooting.

If I had one real criticism of UBOAT it is the boat's, and other ships by extension, inertia qualities. The boat accelerates too quickly and slows down way too quickly, a trait seemingly shared by the other ships on the sea. Like when I am docking, which I usually do real time from the bridge, just because seamanship is so cool, conning it in past the lighthouses from the bridge is one of the best parts of this game. Anyway as I approach the spot where we tie up I should have to artfully apply reverse screw and ease up to the dock. But here I can come in at ten knots, kill the motor and she just sits right down. I'm sure a mod will offer an alternative before too long, if not already. Brought it up because talking about target ships I think they probably change speeds too smoothly, complicating some torpedo attacks more than was probably necessary. It also seems to help them avoid ramming each other in confusion, which I guess could be a good thing or a bad thing.

U-292 set sail in mid July 1944. I rearranged the milk cow arc, with one way up in the arctic, and took a weather station mission to Bear Island, which is in the Barents Sea?, north of Norway. Long haul from the coast of France, but I thought we have been not shying away from combat over the past year as things have intensified, so the crew have earned a mission like this. It would be long and the war would be shorter when we get back. And we would try to sink some ships along the way. Have gone all the way to Bear Island, took about 18 days at ahead standard (speed 3) with one refueling north of the Azores. In all that time we saw no enemy at all aside from picking up a small formation west of Rockall Bank. Went to investigate and it proved to be a tight formation of corvettes and fleet destroyers. Only one reason they are out here, and it is to hunt submarines. I checked them out with long range external camera, a thing I disabled when I played SH. Without it here, I might have gone closer and got boxed in. Eight warships with no convoy to shepherd would be serious trouble. We turned on our heels and ran off at 19 knots before they spotted us.

Now we are submerged close inshore off Bear Island and warships have been spotted approaching from the west. You might recall me describing our weather station mission in Labrador, and how warships showed up during the long time the party is ashore. So this time I backed the boat in to shore, so if any warships showed up our four bow tubes would already be pointing in the right direction. Here they come, but too far to identify. I'll wait to see what develops and will just stay hidden I think if they don't sniff us out. Have three acoustics in the five tubes. Three officers are ashore so we are shorthanded for a battle.

My universal power supply then started beeping so I shut everything down and came back to read the great posts you guys put up. We will go see what those warships are up to.

Good hunting.

Must say too its impressive just how much first person animation there is to observe. Loading salvaged goods down into the hold. Returning from vacation time mostly in pairs. Up and down the ladders to the conn. Greeting the spy who will come aboard etc. I could wish for more variety for the cut scene guys.. the same Officer forever bringing the orders from BdU, same dull eyed supply guy.. But these are small complaints.

Saw your post on the gyro problem.. I have seen this several times on my last patrol, I think it first appeared around patch 7..


>>>Since one of the recent patches I've had an issue with the gyro settling in the wrong place, some of the time, so that the torpedo course line is clearly in error. I know where it should be based on target range and speed, and sometimes it stabilizes well off the correct course.

Hope you made a bug report!

Well done peoples! Enjoying the reads very much ^.^


I wonder how far up the St. Lawrence a sub could go? Just curious.

If I have a nitpick it would be the inability to 'choose/or not' crew and officer names...but I suppose the devs did it to lessen the chance of names like Kaptin Krunch, or Leutnant Bol Shivek, Seaman P. Ness etc. showing in screen shots. I'm just tired at the three Meyer brothers and their two Meyer cousins...


U-46 Patrol No. 4 AN73-88
LOG

8 Nov 39- 1400h U-46 with full compliment, slipped lines and left Wilhelmshaven. Course set for AN73. Crew in good spirits. Schnurrbart set up a spindly tannenbaum early and some of the men hung crabapples on the branches. New petty officer, Walter Meyer, will operate the radio. I've re-assigned P.O Buchsbaum to mechanic duties and put him in charge of the torpedo guidance systems. WS cmd

8 Nov 39- 1540h Weather turning foul. Winds 45+, sea state 3+, bilge pump running with sea water crashing through conning tower hatch from time-to-time. KKSchulz ordered it kept open for fresh air purposes. Course adjusted, entered North Sea. KH 1stOff

9 Nov 39- 0600h Reached beginning of patrol sector, sextant went missing but unusable anyway. Weather remains a witches arse. WS cmd

9 Nov 39- 2111h Storm seems to have blown out, winds 12, broken cloud, stars out. Sextant found. Hydrophone picked up screws south and east, towards the Englander coast. Marked signal course vectors and surfaced, flank speed. Caught the enemy ship close to the surmised track. Slowed to half speed, torpedo maintenance completed, target data entered tdc. I've got the UZO, Lt. Hoffmann operating the TDC. Tube 1 flooded, range a nice thousand yards. Angled shot. Empire Candida (3028 grt) sunk. No survivors. Course set northerly at full speed. WS cmd

9 Nov 39- 2330h Encrypted message from BDU, ordering U-46 to find and sink Empire Zephyr apparently carrying some top secret technology. General idea of location, based on spy reports I'm assuming, given The hunt is on. Will inform KK Schulz shortly. KH 1st Off

10 Nov 39- 0600h Making way towards the inner shipping lane along the Englander coast, hydrophone picked up several screws running medium towards our position. Our plan is to lay at periscope depth, attempt to locate the E.Zephyr and attack. KH 1stOff

10 Nov 39- 0920h Small convoy of ships bearing down on us, probably six vessels. Leading freighter identified as the Zephyr, I have the attack scope, Hoffmann the TDC. Flooded tubes 1 and 2. Can't afford to miss and launched two eels. Quickly brought scope over to next vessel. It was a tanker. Identified as the Denbydale. Largest target we've seen yet. Flooded tubes 3 and four, launched at the tanker. The last four ships appeared to be destroyers. First torpedo was a dud on Zephyr, second was an impact. The 3rd and fourth eels gutted the tanker. Given all the noise we made our depth 15m and ran at flank to clear 3 km distance, then surfaced and remained at flank for the next 15 km. No pursuit. Messaged BDU. Mission completed. Zephyr (2932grt, plus top sec. tech) Tanker Denbydale (11697grt).

12 Nov 39- 1930h Tie up in Wilhelmshaven. WS awarded German Cross (Gold), KH IC1st, Uboot medals for three crew. Orders from FDU to replenish and head back out. WS cmd.

Good shooting. Textbook attack. Those Dale class tankers are the largest merchants aside from T2 tankers, which I didn't see until late 1940 in the western approaches to the Channel. Good kill Leaf.

The warships seen on the western horizon at Bear Island proved to be three destroyers, which sailed in a tight line astern, passing about 5000 meters off our submerged bow. One of them suddenly turned out of formation and headed straight for us. It narrowed the distance by 2000 meters, and then turned and returned to formation and they sailed on. Sure seemed like they are scripted to look for you, and their appearance is surely scripted as well. But since we were at periscope depth and silent, they detected nothing and moved on. Tucking in so tight to the shoreline (we were about 1100 meters offshore) was a good decision, as the farther out to sea you are while waiting for your shore party, the closer you will be to these patrols. The downside is we were essentially tucked in to a cove, so no sea room, and couldn't have had more than fifteen feet under the keel at periscope depth. Acoustics are the perfect defensive weapon for this situation, but without them it's important I think not to get detected on these missions. A depth charge attack in water this shallow would be savage.

All that is speculation for the ward room, as in the event we remained undetected and the destroyers sailed over the hill to the northeast, while we recovered our shore party, retrieved the weather station radio data and left at high speed to the southwest. Mission complete. It was August but it was snowing, so far to the north we were.

Headed southwest and met our re-positioned tanker, topped off the fuel and took on some provisions.

About three weeks after setting sail we made contact with a convoy in the BE grid and moved in to attack. Put a Liberty ship and C3 under for exactly 15,000 tons, plus a destroyer and corvette, and returned to La Rochelle. Overlord had occurred a month ago, and the Allies had taken Brest and were at the gates of our base, so we left France in mid September, bound for our new home of Bergen, completing the circle back to the North Sea. Just three days out we came across a big convoy, inbound and northbound, in BE99. We were joined by U-975 who drew off some escorts, though some remained with the convoy as our boat got out ahead to submerge and let the formation overtake us.

Got everyone hushed up, machinery down, quiet as can be, and manned the attack scope to look over the composition and plan our attack. And then finally, after five years and two weeks since the war began, we found a flattop. Whatever attack I might have come up with was thrown out and this carrier, Victorious, was the focus. But they snookered us a bit because when they were hunting U-975 the aircraft carrier slowed as if conducting air operations, but I saw no planes in the air. Anyway, it hadn't kept on in formation but now lagged at the rear of the convoy. So to get at it we conned U-292 down the center of the formation and as we closed I started shooting off acoustics. With these in the water, we turned in on the carrier, now about 1500 meters off and fired another T5 which hit the carrier on the ass and it caught fire and started to settle by the stern.


The awkwardly named Victorious just before going under






U-975 eventually was sunk, but with all this action the convoy got pretty broken up and several escorts went down, to both boats. So we hung on for a while, shadowing for two days because heavy weather set in and it's too risky to try to attack a convoy with radar-equipped escorts in the soup I think. When the weather finally cleared so we could see we got back in and did a second attack, on a lone freighter escorted by three destroyers. Picked him off and slipped away, though the escort gave it a good look. When the weather broke it was just bad luck that the main body was far on the horizon, and this little group was close. Again I credit the VIIC/41 since we can get so deep. It doesn't prevent the enemy from picking you up and attacking, but reduces the range at which they will.

About 24 days after leaving France, U-292 tied up at our new pen in Norway, having sunk Victorious, 30k tons of freighters plus a couple escorts. Skipper Kurt Hoffman won the Diamonds to his Knight's Cross

October 1944

Congratulations Herr Kaleun! The newspapers will be blazing with your glorious exploits!

Very well done indeed! Congratulations Sir. I think a '36 Moselle is called for. Excellent work!

Soon after setting sail on our next patrol I suddenly remembered the champagne Donitz sent us a couple years back. It's been sitting in a cabinet ever since. Could have used it to celebrate the carrier. Never remember that. No matter, I plan to scuttle off the coast of Argentina when the war ends, so will drink a toast before floating free.

First patrol out of Bergen in October was a Arctic Convoys objective patrol, but we saw virtually nothing. Found one 2,000 ton coaster in the Norwegian Sea and put her under with a single torpedo. Found nothing else in our designated area, then ranged west and found a convoy between the Shetlands and the Orkneys. Got in and sank a few ships, for 18k and tied up back at Bergen after a month at sea. Passed 1 million trade ship tonnage for this career. That coaster was the first ship sailing alone (other than U-boats and fishing boats) we have encountered in a year and a half, including hydrophone contacts. Summer of '43 is a big shift. It's convoys or bust after that. There should still be some single traffic, especially very fast ships, but we don't have much of that yet, like liners, merchant cruisers. Some big tankers maybe. The Allies did indeed put as many ships as possible in to convoys by this stage, but not all. The challenge goes up several notches when every sinking requires penetrating or shooting around defenses.

The shift to Norway feels like a vacation, and with the end so near I guess that is OK. Still lots of aircraft about, but weeks spent at sea with nothing in sight evades most of the peril

U-292's conning tower now sports a polar bear emblem

Still alive, January 1945