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Yeah, that's a good plan.

In my career I suddenly grew, not bored exactly, but maybe restless, with the action in the Med. I got the urge to do Drumbeat, so in February 1942 we left the Med and transferred to La Rochelle. The conundrum is how to do these patrols without a milk cow in order to get a milk cow. Can I go to Aruba and back on one tank? I'll see about that. Should be able to do around 30,000 km on one tank at the most conservative engine settings. Maybe it can be done?

I've added two more mods. Sinking Physics Overhaul 2 and Realistic Sounds.

Another trick is to travel with electric engines and then run speed one or two on the diesels until the batteries are charged, then swap back and use the electrics as much as possible. The risk is being caught with low batteries. That coupled with the engines and navigation station fully manned should let you do that without much problem.

Yes, good advice, that I will use, and test, at least.

Aruba is pretty far. So my alternative plan that I will assess later tonight, is to see which grids encompass Drumbeat, and then maybe spend a rep point to unlock free patrols, sail to whichever of those grids is closest and try to sink 50k. If done, that will unlock a milk cow. Thinking this is my best plan, especially if the Drumbeat grids include those off Newfoundland and Labrador.

Or if I can get the Labrador weather station mission, do that, which gives the Improved Weather Forecasts bonus for a passive 15% fuel efficiency bonus and knock down 50k while out there, if possible, netting the refueler.

I'll measure out some routes and see if I think I can make it with enough fuel to hunt for a while.

Went on the interweb and asked it how far from Aruba to France. Interweb replied it is 7,600 km, and that is definitely doable right? I see a lot of posts talking about how they needed to alternate with the battery, but I'm thinking maybe that isn't necessary. Guess I will find out.

Can anyone lend me a milk cow for a month or two? I'll fill it back up before I return it.

I get decent fuel economy by using engineers with two helpers assigned. That will reduce fuel use by 30%. If you can have a watch officer on the navigator's table (with a couple of helpers) that will net an extra 20%. Stackable to 50% fuel redux. I have this set with my dive schedule so that any time I'm running on the surface I have at least 30% fuel economy, if not the full 50% for most of that shift. I run a 2/4 dive schedule- 2 hours at periscope depth, 4 hours surface running, then 2 hours submerged, 4 hours running etc. I've toyed with doing 1/5 in the early months of the war (especially in the Type II boat) but find my hydrophone crew seems to not be as effective. As a side note, if you manually select a mode, for ex., submerge to 30 meters to allow hydrophone a better opportunity to pick up enemy screws, you'll need to click on the dive schedule icon (located on the depth selector window, bottom right side) to reinstate the schedule when you're done scanning. I hope that makes sense.

In the Type IIA & D, I set my officers as 2x watch officers (for the navigation bonuses) and 2xchief engineers. I then run them in teams of 1WO+1CE, with as many ratings assigned to the CE as I can, then the WO. The fifth petty officer is my radio/hydrophone guy. Once I get the sixth officer, I add another radio/hydrophone guy. 7th officer is a mechanic and he's made into a torpedo specialist. That works well for me right into the VIIB.

Interesting info, thanks Leaf. I'll have the bonuses for assistants, as usual. I don't run a dive schedule, I do all of that manually

I asked on the Steam forum about the auto-lights mod, which didn't seem to work for me. Was told that putting it higher in your order can fix it, and another guy posted to say you have to click on an interior light and choose automatic mode for it to work. Just a heads up. I'll give it a go later.

Yeah that lights mod doesn't work for me either, I just leave it at Red unless I need it at blue for certain circumstances. Then swap it back. Normal just gives a bonus to morale but that's usually not an issue so I ignore it. It never occurred to me to look for an actual automatic switch either.

With both the engine and navigation assistance, plus swapping to and from electric, you should be able to make it to Aruba. Swapping engines around will just leave you with more wiggle room for hitting ships.

I walked through the boat and saw nothing to flip to turn the lights on and off. Is it there? I re-enabled auto-lights for this cruise and again it didn't work. But then I didn't change anything did I?

The mission to attack the oil storage tanks in Aruba is in the books. Without a cow I had to be careful with fuel, but maybe more so, food. Left in mid March, 1942. Sailed to the Azores at one-engine speed, forward 1 on the telegraph. About that time I was thinking I should have swapped out one radio man for the engineer I had put ashore when we got the Cross, so that we could get the 30% bonus all the time. But we pushed on. After this I started running on batteries more often. It took 35 days, and that night we came up on the port and lobbed 88s from about 3 kilometers out. Blew up several tanks, mission complete and we skedaddled for the open Atlantic. I would have hung around, as we only burned 25% of our fuel oil coming out. So we could have patrolled a bit. But three times we got an event on this mission that reduced our food. Spoiled, or sabotaged, or moldy. That was a concern, so I decided to head back to la Rochelle. We could make better time, with how much fuel we had remaining. Tied up in France after 62 days at sea, one day longer than our escape to Argentina at the end of the last war.

On the way home I got quite a few overworked officers, like our schedule got corrupted, but probably something I did. At this point I was glad I hadn't swapped out a radio man, as these are the medics, and two of them went down at the same time. So the other one had to save both of them, one with just a minute left to live.

Total distance round trip was 15,600 km. Had about 35% of the fuel oil still aboard, so burned 25% outbound and 40% inbound. Running on electrics extends it quite nicely indeed.

Didn't see a single ship or aircraft at any time during the two months at sea. Got our cow and now we can beat the Drum with a purpose. Few restrictions to fuel now, so the crossing can be made a lot faster, and food won't be a concern. I'll have to pay Cape May a visit. (where I live. Kriegsmarine grid CA544 :D)

Thanks for the tips

Love this shot. U-327, still with her Mediterranean paint, ties up in the pen at La Rochelle after the patrol to the Americas. May, 1942

This is the first image I've attached since the forum software was upgraded. Not working right. I'll leave it up in case it starts working. Anyone see it?

Took another walk through the boat, this time using alt to make labels pop out. Found the light switch just above the hatch in the rear of the control room leading to crew quarters. If you left click on this you toggle through white/red/blue. If you right click you get a radial menu, and with the mod installed, some automatic ones. I bet this is the ticket. We are off to Labrador to do the weather station and get Improved Weather Forecasts (plus these grids from Newfoundland to the south are all part of Drumbeat) so I'll test if auto-lights works now. The sailing plan is to hit the cow outbound, place the weather station, hit the cow again and patrol south toward Halifax, Maybe Boston and the eastern seaboard. We will see what the traffic looks like, how far we have to go to find targets.

Auto-lights works with the steps above. That's a nice mod.

Weather station got placed, and managed to put under 20k in Drumbeat grids, about 1000 km east of Halifax. I think I got too late of a start to finish all three phases of Drumbeat, assuming there are three, but all the other ones like this all have three (Battle of the Med, Black Pit, Last Stand, Happy Time). Drumbeat starts in December 1941, but by the time we got out of the Med and went to Aruba and back, it was May 1942. these patrols are long, and Drumbeat's over in February 1943. I doubt I can get enough tonnage in time. Need a lot of T2s

Improving Weather Forecasts is good to have for this stuff. Not getting any Drumbeat specific missions in my list, so I'll take Black Pit, travel through the grid to trigger it, then the optional tonnage part can then be sunk anywhere and the mission is complete. I'd like to check out Hatteras. I have visions of lighted tankers sailing along the coast. I doubt there's time left for more than two, maybe three patrols before it ends. So I guess the upshot is anyone looking to do Drumbeat should kick it off soon after it starts at the end of 1941.

Patrol No.11 U-201 (Type VIIC) KK.Werner Schulz

LOG (excerpts)

6 May 40 1745h Boat finally ready, provisioned. Crew present and accounted for. Set sail from Wilhelmshaven. Headed for grid AM 78- BF 14. WS cmd

13 May 40 1600h Tracked and shadowed the lone Polish freighter SS Rozewie headed ENE, likely for Liverpool. In sight at 1531h. Single torpedo, sunk in less than two minutes. 5 crew rescued. Schimmelfennig retrieved a sack of potatoes. WS cmd

14 May 40 0335h Rain squalls. Surface running. Englander destroyers suddenly in view. Engaged both as no way to avoid. All tubes used. 3 duds, 2 hits (Tube 2 and 5) as we swept between them. 1 destroyer sunk, second damaged engines as they did not pursue. KH 1stOff

20 May 40 2030h Arrived back in Wilhelmshaven. Patrol sector teeming with warships and enemy aircraft. WS cmd

Patrol 12 was to be in the Bay of Biscay however BDU tried to send us to recon the port of Oban instead. Failed mission as the inlet was full of enemy warships (glitch?). Spotted a convoy headed west, expended all torpedoes while following alongside, 1 tanker damaged not sunk. The rest were either duds or misses. Seas stormy. Had two discipline incidents- Sailor Walter Koss spreading communist drivel and attempting to incite the crew, and an assault which lead to the victims death. Neither of my medics could save the man. Returned home with two clapped in irons. Oh how I long for yesteryear when kissing the gunners daughter was a good tool...

Well, I was surprised at the games version of Kriegsmarine punishment. The communist was given 27 days, and the murderer 31 days in the brig. Both were returned to my boat. Say wut!?



Anyway, Patrol 13

Log (excerpts)

26 July 40 2330h slipped lines and made for the North Sea. Objective to patrol AM1-AM4. WS cmd

3 August 40 2117h Had been ordered to rendezvous with U 46. Required spare parts as they'd been damaged by air attack. We set course for WNW to continue patrol after aiding them. KH 1stOff

5 August 40 2200 FDU ordered us to return to U-46 to see what their latest trouble was. No contact with them since the 3rd. Eventually found them. Engineer and 1st Officer reported entire crew of U-46 dead, likely from chlorine gas. Fresh damage in stern area indicated further air attack. Boat is wallowing and not sea worthy. FDU messaged, ordered us to sink U-46. Done. WS cmd

7 August 40 1045h Hydrophone indicated lone freighter making way at full speed towards England. Intercepted the USS Proteus, flying a RCN ensign. Likely lendlease vessel. Ordered the ship to halt and indicated to the crew we were intent on sinking the freighter. 1st torpedo was a dud. Used deck gun, firing fifteen rounds. Vessel settled, then listed, sinking after ten minutes. Some crew taken prisoner, second lifeboat given supplies. 4583 tons to the bottom. WS cmd

7 August 40 Schimmelfennig complained that the sausages were moldy. Given KP duty, in particular, given the task of scraping the mold from each sausage. KH 1stOff

12 August 40 Returned to Wilhelmshaven. U-201 to be upgraded with toilets that actually function. Crew given a special vacation- sent by train the The Eagles Nest, to have a meet and greet with Der Fuhrer. WS cmd

10 May 1941 – U-96 -- XOs Log

Captain Hoffmann put in for a transfer to Wilhelmshaven. It was approved quickly and four days later we were on our way, feeling refreshed after two weeks vacation.
Our standing in the Untersea service has certainly improved, with our boat near the top in tonnage charts. Mind you, we have also taken severe losses. Today our crew is tight and confident. The voyage to Wilhelmshaven we hope will be without incident, but we will be on the watch for opportunities.

12 May 1941 1900 hours
Hydrophone picked up a lone ship making 11 knots and crossing our path. By the time we intercept it will be dusk, and the weather is clear.

2000 hours
It’s a large freighter flying an American flag. There are some propeller noises to the west but they are 30 nm or more. We flood two tubes and engage at 8 cables range. She goes down quickly with a single eel. We retrieve the captain and an officer and four crew, as well as some machine parts. 7500 tons to our credit and we continue north around the west coast of Ireland.

13 May 1941 0400 hours
As we come around the northern tip of Ireland we are located by an Allied aircraft and we dive before he can make a target run. An hour later we surface further north. We pick up a convoy heading west. They are steaming fast, and our sound man believes we have a military convoy of approximately 12 vessels. The captain is inclined to give chase – but the risks are high. We retire together to the stern torpedo room to debate. In the end I give in and we give chase. In just under two hours we are in visual range of the first escort. We can hear but now see two more to each side and somewhere forward of the escort we have in sight. The sea is moderately active and visibility is under 1 nm. The captain’s strategy is simple. We let two eels fly at high speed and turn and run away. We hope for one kill and we will not test the fates.

0420
We are in range and let fly with two eels, 30 seconds apart. Immediately we reduce to dead slow and after 30 seconds we increase to flank and make our turn away. 10 seconds later we get our reward with a massive explosion as the engine room disintegrates and she begins to sink from the rear. Already we are at 10 knots and moving away. Minutes later at 16 knots with no enemies in sight. We continue in this direction for 30 minutes then stop and listen. There are no pursuers and we all breathe easier. The radio sends our report.

15 May 1941 0900 hours
We arrive at Wilhelmshaven in bright sunshine. It’s a large port and a major supplier to our kriegsmarine. There are two other crews in town and our crew will enjoy sharing stories, as well as the good supply of German women and German beer.

With the captain I meet the base Quartermaster, who is accompanied by another officer. It seems we will be given the opportunity to upgrade our electric motors! We jump at the chance, and the additional down time for the crew will help with morale. We also need to talk to the base engineer about some new decoy technologies they call BOLD. These were new ideas to me, although the captain seemed well informed.

The Supply office has offered us wood planking to our deck. This is a good idea for running in colder seas; the wood planking should eliminate icing problems in the frequent northern storms. Who knows how long we will be stationed in Germany? But the war is changing and we all know the Allies we improve their location technologies. We are confident that our own scientists will give us the edge we need.

One puzzle you guys can probably solve for me. If I want to send 4 eels into a convoy WITHOUT any solution (crowded convoy I dont need one).. how do I do it? It doesnt seem to be obvious... The manual lever at the bow tube just sends the torp on whatever solution (or non solution) is in the TDC. Also whats the earliest date supply ships become available?

I had to register a new account for some reason after the forum reset my COMBAT99 account would not let me post..

I'm not sure what techniques the others use but I target a single ship, shoot, then flood the other three tubes, widen the spread a bit then launch. It's kind of a gamey way since second third and fourth eels tend to slip right past the wreck (I've yet to have a second torp fired at the same target as the first detonate at the original target-- unless the first eel was a dud or missed) and carry on until they run out of range or hit something else. DB or Worm probably have something better.

There's a lever on the right side of the TDC to send the torpedoes to the bearing the UDC or attack scope is looking at. Hit that and they should go where you're looking.

Well that sucks. Glad you're back.

Good patrol reports Kaleunen. Is that plural for kaleun?

Supply ships in this game are Type XIV U-tankers which have the ability to also supply torpedoes, which were only Type VIIF, so the game makes a concession. To get one you have to complete an objective that rewards a milk cow. Not sure which will be the earliest. Probably December 1941 when Drumbeat starts. But whatever task you undertake to get it would be a long one, before you have gotten a milk cow, so probably looking at February 1942 or thereabouts. In my current career my first came from the Aruba bombardment mission May 1942. In my first career it came from Black Pit, but that was later on, January 1943 I think.

For the current run in U-327 we used the Aruba cow to good effect. Time was ticking and I wanted to complete Drumbeat for the achievement. In one patrol to the Americas, I did indeed visit Hatteras and it was a total bust. Didn't see anything over a week. It's a shame because it's the perfect spot, with the continental shelf at it's narrowest on the eastern seaboard. But we found no targets and returned to the waters east of Halifax. Came home with 110,000 Drumbeat tons over a couple sorties, and was relieved to see you only need 200k to finish. The others are 250k, and that might not seem like much difference, but it made getting it done before February 1943 easier. Had three milks cows by now (each phase of Drumbeat gives another cow) and we just stayed out there until we had sunk the 90k we needed, topping off and resupplying from the cows as needed. Total time at sea 66 days, my longest time at sea yet, and tied up January 1, 1943 so would not have had time to run another patrol to the Americas. That was a tough one for the crew but they took it with grim determination and now get a few weeks at the French chalet.

It's now January 1943 and we have completed Battle of the Med and Drumbeat. Undecided if I should head back to the Med (I do want to see what it is like in '43 and later), transfer to Bergen ad try to complete Arctic Convoys (and those are no joke, heavily escorted) or stay in France for a while.

For the question about shooting a full salvo at a convoy without a solution, you can quickly dial up TDC data by locking any ship you can see through the UZO or scope. At least with the settings I use, this brings up a panel where you can manually input speed, AoB and range. So let's say you want to just shoot straight out boresight. Put a speed of zero in and whatever you want for AoB and range (a shot taken with speed zero will go straight on the scope bearing). Using the solution on the map (if enabled) you can see how the path the torpedo will take can be moved by moving the optics. Place the UZO/scope on 0/360 for a straight shot off the bow. Of course you can also enter a speed other than zero, so that the gyros provide any lead you need. Or you can shoot 'by eye'.

You can shoot singles, flooding them one by one, or use the salvo option of course if you want a fan. This is just one way to do it, but I like it because I can do it from the UZO/scope view rather than go to the TDC in the conning tower and twisting the dials and flipping the switches.

I got the resupply in early 41 by doing 3 minelaying missions in Africa.

That's very early and wormfood's way is probably the fastest, if you are keen to run that many mining missions, and so far away. But all of the milk cow reward options require some long patrols to get.

thanks guys. I'll experiment with the UZO and attack scope and the levers in the torp room. Would be really handy to be able to take snap shots when the sardines are all swimming together.