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Blair talks about Buchheim in his U-boat book, and says exactly that. The veterans were thrilled with his war-time photography and art work, but not with his post-war writing and criticisms, veiled and otherwise. Some were incensed that Das Boot begins with the drunken party, and the 'initiation' on the drive in. Oddly, Blair says that was in Lorient, when the film obviously says La Rochelle.

Harpoon is a game I never got in to, but I bet I would have liked it.

I'll read your review when it gets posted on Subsim Viking! I'm Threadfin over there, which may be obvious as I make the same comments sometimes here and there.

Just checking if you guys saw my comments on getting auto sub lights working? No one said anything, which is fine, just making sure it was seen as it works perfectly and it a great quality of life mod.

I'll have to look back for the sub lights discussion. Turns out that boresight works fine *if you first lock a target* but if you miss one step it simply wont work.

1. Ensure you have two officers working - one on attack scope or UZO and one on the TDC.
** this is the step I was missing. WO an officer assigned to TDC you can go there yourself later and change Speed to Zero but the gyro wont be slaved to the targetting station.

2. Lock target. When the solution is set then pull up the torp GUI and ensure you have a tube selected and flooded.

3. Select your TDC officer to access the TDC and set torp speed to zero.
*You may also do this from the little data screen that appears in UZO or Scope view. Be sure to RESEND the data to your TDC officer.

4. Return to your targeting view and the GYRO will be slaved to your view. Apparently its the officer at TDC who has done the slaving by manually setting the lever at the Fire Control Box.

Ha finally solved! Turns out your have to access the Fire Control Station to do a boresight shot, because you have to ensure the TDC is enslaved to the particular targeting station you are working from. No lock required after this, just set the speed to zero (or whatever you want) from the TDC.But you wont get any nice red gyro lines on the map if you fire boresight wo a target lock.

Sounds like you are working it out.

The auto lights post can be read here. Works just like we expected it to. And it's nice too because you only have to set it once in a career, or maybe once per boat if you switch to a new one during the campaign.

Attaching images is working again, so here's the image that failed to post, better late than never I reckon.

U-327 in the pen at La Rochelle after the cruise to Aruba, still wearing her Mediterranean paint. This boat still lives in my on-hold Med in '43 career. long may she live.

Yes, got the lights info- huge help, I meant to thank you for the info! Thanks!

Hey no worries, I just wanted to make sure you guys had the scoop, since we all said it wasn't working. It's a perfect mod.

I'm running the following at the mo, but there are more I plan to get. Going slow just to be sure it all works OK.

-- Realistic Ammo Capacity -- 205 88mm rounds is right, and even if it wasn't, 30 is way too few. The 1500-round limit for 20mm is limiting, but I don't use the flak gun for shooting ships, and once I got the U-flak achievement I don't care about shooting them down either. So in that sense it is fine, but it is a sharp reduction over the stock game. With the Turm IV you have three flak guns including a quad so 1500 rounds can go fast.

-- Grey Wolves Texture Pack -- Looks better and I had to do something about the flags so this one ticks a couple of boxes

-- Auto Sub Lights -- Wouldn't want to play without it now

-- No Auto Alarm -- The skipper should make this call.

-- Sinking Physics Overhaul -- I've used it enough now to properly judge it, and I prefer it over stock. Ships are in the main harder to sink, or take longer to go down. Feels better than stock. Some ships look funny, like destroyers hit in the screws, and they stand on end, which we expect, but this is with too much of the ship sticking out of the water to my eyes. Looks odd. Some freighters hit near the stern start to stand, and then the weight of the bow makes it snap in two, which is cool, but unsure if it is realistic. And sometimes a sunk ship is still afloat, but as long as you see the sunk message it's good. But the overall feel of how the ships flood feels better with this mod. Fire is a big catalyst. No capsizing. Ships list, but I don't think I have seen any roll over in any version, modded or not. Mod is worth a look and decide for yourself

-- HWA Realistic Sounds -- Prefer it to stock. Guns sound better, rain, ASDIC pings and lots more, it's subjective, but worth a look. Or a listen, I suppose. What it doesn't do to my satisfaction is simulate the way I expect a ship getting hit a mile or two away sounds. A somewhat muffled explosion coming some time after the hit. That sort of spatial sound is probably down to how the engine works, so I don't know if it is possible. But overall I like this one.

Viking, I sent a PM about that offer.

U-559 has reached 1940. It's all been straightforward to this point. Working up the crew and putting trade ships under, no real drama. Some bad weather, shooting at ghost ships in the fog and heavy seas. Have taken two vacations to this point, so that means quite a few more missions completed than the first time around, piling up the tonnage. Ships in the North Sea in 1940 are smaller on average than what we find in the Atlantic later on, but they are unarmed and sailing alone. Have actually boarded three Norwegian freighters that failed the test and were put down. That's more successful boardings in a few months than I've had in all other careers combined. Each of these were 6000-tonners too.

Soon the Norway campaign will begin. In the first 1939 career I ignored it, as the escort missions don't appeal to me, but maybe this time I'll give it a go and see if I can complete it, then I'll not need to worry about it again in later careers. Same with Southern Routes, I'd like to knock that one out too to strike it from the list. The Southern Routes patrols I did before were dull, few targets, chasing too many neutrals to no payoff.

To muddy the waters further, still talking about solutions being wrong.... I noticed in this career my XO is keen to get on the TDC whenever we find a ship. But his solution is always in error, or rather, he applies the wrong gyro. If I take him off it goes back to correct, and if I put a radio man on the TDC it is correct. But the XO gets it wrong every time. Strange.

20 December 1941 – U-96 -- XOs Log. Scapa Flow

The winds were icy, our boat cold all the time. The sweaters help, of course, but no one is ever really warm unless in their bunk. After our transfer to Bergen we are learning to live with the cold. The change to a wooden deck helped enormously with safety, but no one wants to be on the deck for long. And really there are few chances. The wind and waves are endless here in the North.

After receiving our orders our second patrol from Bergen is east and west of Scapa Flow. The darkness stretches for many hours this far north, making for good hunting and after our first patrol our expectations were set. But after 24 hours we had sighted nothing but icebergs and whales. When we stopped for a minor repair a huge beluga decided he could scratch his itchy hide on our ballast tanks. Entertaining but also somewhat annoying he kept rocking the boat but the Captain wouldn’t let us shoot him.

Finally back on patrol and near the limit of the patrol boundary BdU notified us of an important target south of our patrol zone. Making the best speed we could we proceeded southwest toward the coast. Thankful for the darkness as we were well within the patrol zone of a Navy aircraft. Finally, barely fifty miles from the coast, and roughly 100 miles east of Edinburgh, the hydrophone station picked up multiple targets steaming southeast.

As we closed to visual range we spotted a single escort at the rear. The target we were tasked to hit was an Isles class destroyer, and this one could be it We approached to 1.2km in the darkness and prepared our solution. Moments later our eel was away and made impact in the dead center of the ship. She went down quickly as we turned north and in the general direction of the convoy. Our intention was simply to evade the hunt and pick up the convoy 30km south. As we steamed away we watched the starshells lighting the sky around the first victim.

At 0720 we turned back toward the expected path of the convoy. Hydrophone picked up the propellers to our northwest where we expected them. We dived to two meters and waited. Not 30 minutes later another Isles class destroyer steamed into view. Again we prepared the solution, this time two eels at slightly longer range 1.5km, spaced 20m apart. Loss! The sea would welcome more lost sailors…

The first eel made impact in the engine room, and immediately I called for half speed ahead. We would close slightly on the convoy path. Hydrophones showed another propeller just outside our visual range. The destroyer we hit broke up quickly and was gone. As she was sinking the merchantman hove into view and we quickly composed our solution and released our torpedo. As we counted the second another freighter hove in view, but it was too risky to wait for a good solution. The hounds would be coming quickly. We made a simple visual calculation and released two eels spaced by 30m. As we turned away we called for all possible speed. The escorts were already converging and sending their starshells into the night sky. When we were nearly outside visual range one of the eels made contact and the explosion was spectacular! Again we raced away to the northeast with plans to turn again into the convoys path. An hour later we began our turn south only to receive new orders from BdU. We would join with other hunters at the eastern edge of our patrol zone. So far the hunting had been outstanding. We prayed that our luck might hold.

Defender of the north. It's a tough existence in Norway. Keep up the good work.

U-559's career made it to February, including sniffing out two more Norwegians carrying contraband to London. That's five I think inside five months. This had never paid off for me before really, and I wonder what the difference is? Maybe just RNG.

Since I have already gotten the achievement for researching everything, now I can ignore stuff, which lets the rep points pile up, and partly too due to the increased operational pace in this run. More missions completed, more points. Having decided to tackle the Norway campaign, I knew that protecting friendly convoys from enemy warships would be part of the requirements. So I sent the crew on vacation and researched both T3s and then T5s. So yeah, we have acoustics in March of 1940. What was I saying before about house rules for the tech? Maybe next career haha

And that made the first escort a snap. I ranged about 30 km out in front of the friendlies, on a route from Wilhelmshaven to Bergen, and half way there a corvette and Black Swan intercepted from the west. Two T5s knocked both down and the rest was a peaceful cruise. The enemy composition is random I think, and I got lucky I guess. The T5s made it easy, but they were just tooling along at 7 knots so I could have used standard fish too. After that escort some regular anti-shipping patrols open up. In all I think six objectives need to be completed between April and June. has anyone finished this campaign?

Once we wrap that up (if we do) I'll look to shift to France, and maybe Brest this time. having gotten Researcher, now I can ignore the aerial recons, if I want. Who cares if there's a pen in Heligoland? Since I'll be in a VIIC/41 before too long (hopefully, don't want to tempt fate) then conning towers can be ignored since the /41 comes with Turm IV. Less points need spending, so getting ahead is that much easier to do. Teching up to T3 and T5 in March 1940 costs seven rep points, but we had them to spare.

Got Destroyed Destroyers (sink 30) on an earlier patrol. I want to get all the achievements, so as I do I can start to ignore or evade these things now. Aircraft too. Acoustics though just make it so tempting.

Hey Viking, you might have missed the message a couple posts back, and the private message, so I'll mention it, about Das Boot. Just seems you might be unaware I've replied to the offer. No worries either way, I could probably find it in other ways.

Interesting observation though.. hmm.. might explain one of the weird thing I have run into on the last patrol. Curious.. what are the differing skills accrued there? I assume your XO has some more advanced skills as an engineer and with torps? I have two different officers I assign to TDC - I'll have to go back now and observe more carefully cause one of the guys on TDC is definitely less accurate and may even explain why I'm having snapshot issues but only SOME times...

Not in front of my gaming PC, but the XO has Focus, Gunner, Ace, Bullseye and ? Yeah, not sure what else I gave him. I can check later. Long day of work ahead of me

U-201 (Type VIIC)
KK Werner Schulz cmd

Patrol 17
LOG (excerpts)

12 Nov 40- assigned sectors BE1 through BE4. Boat provisioned, re-supplied and re-fueled. Crew morale okay despite not having time off. KH 1st Off.

13 Nov 40- 0030h- Slipped lines and left Brest. Surface running with extra conning tower watch due to increasing enemy air activity. KH 1st Off.

14 Nov 40- 1500h- began tracking single merchant at 1240h, hydrophone picked up lone screw to our NW, course plotted to intercept. At 1400, smoke spotted on the horizon some 2700m distance. Heavy seas, rain. Went to periscope depth, ship identified, solution plotted. Two eels launched at range 950m. First torpedo missed, second hit the enemy freighter midships. Vessel sank quickly. Rescued five survivors of the Empire Adventure. Doubtful they would have survived in this storm. Left area after sending message to FDU. Resumed patrol. WS cmd

20 Nov 40- 0600h- while shadowing convoy ON, located straggler. Surface attack set. 1st torpedo hit the stern. Vessel settled, no attempt to abandon ship by merchant crew. Manned the gun myself and holed the enemy hull at the water line, then managed to cause a fire in one of the forward compartments. Lifeboats launched and the enemy freighter sank, stern down, slipping beneath the waves at approximately 0515h. Handed supplies to both lifeboats before leaving. Resumed tracking ON.

21 Nov 40- 1945h Attacked rear line of Convoy ON. Six torpedoes launched, all missed/were duds. Seas heavy, rain and ?sleet. Hounded by enemy corvettes. Went to 165m, silent running, withstood about six hours of depth charging before being able to escape. Surfaced to repair but engineering reported some of the damage needed port workshop. Course laid in for Brest. KH 1st Off

26 Nov 40- 2300h tied up at Brest. U-201 will go to the box for needed hull repairs. Addition to conning tower will be added while crew is off on vacation. Total tonnage 7841. WS cmd

one of these officers isn't doing a consistent job on TDC... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y8ywarqNKyEdCjz3c5lGUUlZYUsjBUJ0/view?usp=sharing
I have a test convoy scenario saved which I've run a few times.. I'll do some experimenting I think.

btw curious what others are finding. On normal shots where I let my officers work out the solution I am getting more consistent hits if I add one knot to the speed, but this is usually the difference from 12 to 13 or 14 to 15, not from 7 to 8 which would be a higher percentile change. As someone else suggested, if avoidance maneuvers are happening I subtract 2 knots from the final solution and it generally gets me a hit. So if my TDC guy inputs 14 knots I change it to 12.

My crew solutions are great, unless the XO is on the TDC as mentioned.

My normal arrangement is

Skipper on attack scope
XO on obs scope
Engineer on engines
Engineer on depth keeping
Engineer on torpedoes
Radio man on hydrophones
Radio man on TDC

When I use this setup it all goes as expected with a very high hit probability, cannot recall the last miss when undetected and properly positioned. If I let the XO get on the TDC he wants to add 30 degrees of starboard gyro

Good report Leaf. BE grid is where it's at. Good hunting. I'll be joining you there shortly. Leave some for the rest of us

I've certainly noticed discrepancies in all of the petty officers/officers over the few careers I've run so far- even my boat's commander has had different skills at the start. I've been consistent in picking Wilhelmshaven (only picked Kiel once) early war starts and I've noted minor skill selection differences.

When entering a fight, I tend to take the attack periscope or the UZO, I set the XO on the TDC, one chief engineer on station keeping, one chief engineer and helpers on the engines, one radioman on Hydro, one on radio (one of them always seems to crawl into his bunk as the fun starts...) and I have a mechanic that specializes in torpedo maint. Currently my crew are fairly skilled, and most of my misses can be attributed to the shirty seas we're launching torps in. The duds are just what duds are, and they still hadn't really solved the issue of bad pistols, mag proximity, until a while after the Norwegian campaign, although by my current campaign date, December 1940, fixes were starting to happen.

One of the things that's bothered me a bit is in using the TA. I have no problem using the TA, or anyone else using the TA for that matter. It's just when I use it at 1800+ things start to fubar in the game. It's actually pretty unstable but I note that the devs are starting to address some of the problems using TA. I've noticed, but haven't confirmed yet, problems at other TA settings. I thought running at 12, 48 or 140 was okay, however I've found lately that even running TA at 12 after launching torps I get more misses- which I was attributing to heavy seas or just me taking a snap shot. So now I'm going back to my initial thoughts from a few weeks ago that the TA causes probs to a variety of elements causing the code to 'trip over itself'. If I save and exit the program then come back in, the problems have usually sorted themselves out in that save. I'm imagining that if you're saving and reloading to rectify mistakes etc then you might not notice the fubar-ness occurring. Anyway, just a couple of observations.

Yes, time compression could be a factor hmmmm

This list in the manual is a good reminder p 153.. when you occupy the UZO or Scope..

−
Please note:
o
As long as you occupy the target device, officers cannot determine a firing solution
o
Values determined by you are not updated by officers when you leave the target device again
−

U-559 has reached Brest, July 1940.

Completed the Norway campaign, and of all the main objectives in UBOAT, this is my least favorite. Glad it is over and I've done it, but not sure I'll give it another look in any subsequent careers.

It starts March 5, 1940 and runs through June 10th. During that time you must complete six objectives. In my run that was two escorts and four area patrols. That's not a lot of time, and meant I could not muck around looking to add to my totals. Complete the objective, get back to port and start the next one. Even so, we finished on June 9th, one day left. But I would guess the final one only has to be undertaken by June 10th, not completed, but I don't know. The first escort mission doesn't start until April, and if you pick it before that, the game just goes time lapse until the right date. Leaving you with about two months to complete everything. The missions were easy, and the escort missions I worried about were no problem at all. T-5s made it simple, but it would have been so without them too. Opposition in each of my escort missions was one destroyer and one corvette. And they appeared in the same spot along the route

The reward is the Torpedo Crisis Veteran skill for your engineers, which reduces dud rate by 20%. That's OK, but by this stage most players will have gotten improved pistols done, and probably T3s, so the dud rate is already getting better. But still, as I said before, these skills all add up to make the crew smoother, faster and more effective.

When I was deciding on which French base to transfer to, I ruled Brest out and said La Rochelle is the right choice, but then waffled, since I wanted to see what Brest is like. It's summer 1940 so I think I'll hang here for a patrol or two, then shift down the coast a bit. Staring at the map deciding it's just so obvious I should not go to Brest, but so what. Don't like how the boat ties up to that floating barge looking dock. Pens will need to be built soon anyway.

Doing the Norway campaign and refits meant that from February to July we sank very little, maybe 40k in trade ships and a number of warships, which don't count for your tonnage totals. In nine months of war therefore we have put under about 300k in merchant shipping, and skipper Joachim Muncheberg has won the swords to his Ritterkreuz. The XO has Oak Leaves lol. I always say XO, but 1WO would be more correct, wouldn't it?

U-559 has reached October of 1940. After shifting to France, we have done a couple special missions, in order to get the blueprint from Atlantic Theater Operations and upgrade to a VIIC/41.

The first of these was an agent insertion in Ireland. Dropped the spy without issue, and got the hunted event of course upon clearing the drop site. This is probably the tenth of these I've gotten, but this time it was hard. A plane found me quickly and called in the warships. I could detect them on hydrophone to the west, a pair of screws and the info said 80km+. But I could not shake the aircraft. I submerged and ran at 90 meters for two hours, came up to periscope depth and there's the plane. Did it again and changed course several times, came up and there he is. This went on so long those warships caught up. I had to turn to face them and got them both with acoustics, but the plane stayed.

Finally, nearly out of air, I had to surface. Did so and manned the flak gun, and my XO took shots, but the Wellington stayed so high that it was ineffective fire. So I was like screw it and went TC with this plane circling the entire time. After ten hours or so it suddenly was gone. Not sure if it ran out of gas, got shot down or just returned to base. Finally made it back to Brest. That was harrowing

The other special was the Bear island weather station which all went without a hitch. Hopen island came up in the next list and I'm like, I was just there! I could have knocked them out together dammit. I'll try to shuffle to a new one for ATO, and then, if completed, we will have the blueprint and maybe the VIIC/41 in 1940.

I bought Das Boot from Amazon for twelve bucks and watched it yesterday. Such a cool movie for squids like us.

So many choices so little time! I'm back to flying for a few days for a change, I've spent a lot of time in IL2 Normandy but now I'm fighting for the Luftwaffe in the Bodenplatte offensive. Although I have to admit the P51-D is an amazing ride!

Taking a short break myself and running trains in the sim 'Run 8' this weekend. My son's also dragged me back into the new WoW expansion (terrible story writing again -_-) so will be back under way soon I'm sure.