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Post by keyboy on Oct 30, 2017 20:34:34 GMT
Patrol Results are due no later than:November 5th 2017 at Midnight your time.1900 January 3rd 1940On PatrolU-39 Geist (IXA) - irishshylock U101 Zitteraal (VIIB) - keyboy U49 Seevergnugen - (VIIB) - ubertreiber Still At SeaU-37 Walküre (IXA) - grendel U-44 Hohenlohe - (IXA) - andy U-42 Ægir - (IXA) - silentwolf In RefitU-74 Beowulf (VIIB) - wsmithjr - February 1940 U-86 Meer Sprite (VIIB) - crushedhat - February 1940 Late Presumed LostNone ===================================================================================================================================Good evening Gentleman, I won't take much of your time, as I know that you have to prepare for tomorrow morning.Special Instructions: If you have been allocated a Special Mission (Mine Laying, Wolfpack Patrol or Abwehr Agent Delivery) please receive instructions from the Executive Officer as early as you can, because you will not be leaving Port until you do. Ensure that your torpedo load has been checked before departure and that the G7a's have been loaded into the tubes where possible.: U-Boat Type | Torpedo Starting Mix | Can Alter Mix By | e.g. Max G7a mix | e.g. Max G7e mix | VIIB | 8 x G7a and 6 x G7e | Maximum of 4 | 12xG7a, 2xG7e | 4xG7a, 10xG7e | IXA | 8 x G7a and 6 x G7e | Maximum of 4 | 12xG7a, 2xG7e
| 4xG7a, 10xG7e |
=================================================================================================================================== Historic Notes : January 1940Atlantic 30th - Attacking Thames-out convoy 0A80 to the west of the English Channel, “U-55” was destroyed in a joint action by an RAF Sunderland of No 228 Squadron, sloop “Fowey“ and destroyer “Whitshed”. This was the first successful air/sea attack which would not be repeated for another five months. Monthly Loss Summary - 9 British, Allied and neutral ships of 36,000 tons in the Atlantic from all causes. - 1 German U-boat. Europe 21st - Searching for a reported U-boat off the Moray Firth, destroyer “EXMOUTH” was torpedoed by “U-22” and lost with all hands. Merchant Shipping War - U-boats were particularly active in the Moray Firth area off the Scottish coast and in the rest of the North Sea through until March 1940. In January alone they sank 14 ships - all neutrals. Monthly Loss Summary 64 British, Allied and neutral ships of 179,000 tons in UK waters. ===================================================================================================================================Assignments[P1] Sep 1939 - Mar 1940Spanish CoastNone British IslesU-39 Geist (IXA) - irishshylock U101 Zitteraal (VIIB) - keyboy U49 Seevergnugen - (VIIB) - ubertreiber British Isles (Mine Laying)None West African CoastNone ===================================================================================================================================NOTE SO THAT WE DO NOT LOSE U-BOAT'S TO THE MEDITERRANEAN AND THE ARCTIC, I AM RE-ROLLING ANY MEDITERRANEAN AND ARCTIC RESULTS! Important Information for Patrol ReportsU-Boat Name and ID Number: Patrol: # Patrol Assignment: Successful Patrol: Number of Freighters Sank: Number of Tankers Sank: Number of Capital Ships Sank: Total Tonnage Destroyed: Refit Time Standard: Award Request:
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Post by Ubertreiber on Nov 1, 2017 3:52:24 GMT
U-Boat Name and ID Number: Seevargnugen U-49 Patrol: #3 Patrol Assignment: British Isles AN51, East of the Firth of Forth Successful Patrol: Yes Number of Freighters Sank: 0 Number of Tankers Sank: 0 Number of Capital Ships Sank: 1 HMS Berwick 9,750 tons Total Tonnage Destroyed: 9,750
Refit Time Standard: Ready For Patrol April 1940
Award Request: NA
Notes: En route to the English coast we were forced under by a patrol plane, getting beneath the waves in time to avoid attack. This causes us to arrive on our station off Scotland only a few hours late, just in time to see a solitary ship with the coming dawn. She was, I think, the Darkdale, a tanker of 8100 tons. I fired four eels into her at close range. The first and second were silent, misses, the third splashed against her without detonation. Only the last exploded! We must improve our triggers. With much annoyance I watched her list, her crew running about on deck, but they did not abandon her and she did not sink. I set a course to follow and order our tubes reloaded. Before the task is complete, however, an aircraft is seen overhead, summoned by our target no doubt.
Reluctantly, I dive the boat and begin to evade, successfully. The Tanker, however, is gone by the time I can return to periscope depth.
We resume our patrol of the Scottish coast, taking up our ordered position in the approaches to the Firth of Forth, grid AN51. Despite the danger of patrols, by sea and air, we are eager to vent our frustration on a new foe. It takes only until the early hours of 10 January to get our chance, and what a chance!
In the first watch, a miserably cold, foggy and black watch under a new moon, the lookout reports a large vessel on our starboard bow, certain it is a carrier, the Eagle. He has seen her before the war, many times.
As that ship was last reported in the Indian Ocean, I am doubtful, but I ready the boat for battle and peer through my binoculars. In a few moments, I see that I am right, for the contact is not a carrier at all, but a heavy cruiser. It is not alone. Two more cruisers appear in the gloom, all steering for the Firth. Somewhere, closer, there must be destroyers in the fog, but I signal the boat forward to close the range, determined to atone for the lost convoy of our last patrol and the escaped tanker of last week.
As we close I identify the cruisers as County Class. I take them to be the Berwick, Norfolk and Devonshire, all recently reported off the coast of Norway. They must be returning from patrol and making for Rosyth. If I am lucky, one or two of them will not succeed.
I see the first escort, a slim shadow in the fog to port, and edge away while pushing toward the attack point. I want to be as close as possible when I fire all five ready torpedoes. The enemy is too fast for a second chance.
The escort fades into the fog. I complete the firing solution from the bridge. The eels are made ready. But where are the English? The fog has swallowed them.
Just as I am about to despair, the Berwick, I am sure it is her now, comes out of the fog. I fire all of the forward tubes at her, turn to starboard, fire the aft, and steady the rudder to make our exit.
The seconds tick by, too many, the first torpedo has missed or failed to explode. A moment later there is a flash in the fog, the second torpedo hits! But nothing from the third or fourth. Only the aft torpedo finds it mark. Two now in the Englishman, but is it enough? We escape into the black night, undetected, and uncertain.
At dawn, I turn back. By noon, we see the British cruiser, nearly dead in the water, crawling toward land, down by the stern, but afloat. A pair of escorts circle her. The other cruisers are gone. I dive the boat and ready the tubes, reloaded forward with our four electric eels. This will be a submerged attack, from close range, I hope.
Our luck holds, the English destroyers are no help to their charge. I fire.
Four hits. The Berwick is doomed.
But we may be as well, the escort turns toward us, loud in the hydrophone, fast. We are spotted. I turn and dive for the bottom. The hunter has become the hunted.
We taste our first dose of depth bomb attack. It is bitter, and cold, blowing jets of water into the boat as the over pressure finds weak points. The flooding is minor, however. I turn the boat again, reducing speed to a crawl, hoping to escape, diving deeper than I have ever dived before. The hull groans miserably.
It works. The English destroyers wander off, come back, wander off again, and do not return. Perhaps they are rescuing men from the sea, for the Berwick now fills our ears with the noise of its demise. We creep away and make good our escape.
Left with a single torpedo, and aft at that, I set a course for home while the engineer repairs the leaks and pumps the bilge dry. Our return to port is unmolested, and gratifying.
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Post by keyboy on Nov 1, 2017 10:10:44 GMT
January 1940
U-Boat Name and ID Number: U101-Zitteraal Patrol: #3 KptLt: Kurt Speckenheier Patrol Assignment: British Isles Successful Patrol: Yes Number of Freighters Sank: 1 Number of Tankers Sank: 1 Number of Capital Ships Sank: 0 Total Tonnage Destroyed: 10,300 Ships Damaged: None Ships Destroyed: British Motor Tanker of 8,200t - Capulet and Estonian Steam Merchant of 2,100t - Merisaar
Refit Time Standard
Award Requests None crew advancement roll
Crew Names: Crew Status: Trained KptLt Volkhard Schreiber
•1WO: LtzS Cosmas Liesendahl •2WO: ObFhzS Horstmar Neufville •LI (Eng): Lt (Ing) Gerrit Henke •Doctor: Sanitatsmaat Hannibal Schmelzer
U-101 (Zitteraal) enters Wilhelmshaven on 29th January 1940 with two victory pennants flying from her conning tower.
U-101 left Wilhelmshaven on 5th January 1940 and we proceeded to our assigned patrol area off the British Isles. Having enjoyed the festivities of Christmas and New Year and the thoughts of war very much at the backs of our minds, it was a sudden jolt to be back on board the U-Boat. I had been told before leaving that the due to the number of merchant ships that the enemy had been armed and the loss of U-Boats as a result of that policy, that there was no longer any obligation to observe Prize Rules. En route we received confirmation that we now had the order from high command that we could now engage in unrestricted submarine combat .
During the morning of the 10th January, we had a false alarm from the watch crew, which was partly due to eagerness of some of the crew and partly down to expecting an attack from the RAF.
Arrived at assigned patrol area on 11th January and was presented with our first target during the following evening of the 12th. A lone British Motor Tanker had been spotted and once identified, we got to within close range and surfaced. I hailed the tanker and gave the crew a warning and when nobody appeared on deck, I gave the instruction to attack. The gun crew sprang into action and fired off two full salvoes. The tanker had been hit and its cargo had been spilt. We retreated to long range and submerged and I monitored the listing of the tanker from a safe position. It took an hour for the tanker to finally sink at which point we continued on with the patrol and surfaced once again during the night.
On the afternoon of the 16th, a small Estonian Steam Merchant was spotted, laden with lumber. We surfaced close to the tanker and this time we just got on with the attack. The gun crew let loose with full salvoes, which resulted in the Merchant suffering multiple explosions and its load catching fire, before beginning to list and shedding its ignited contents into the North Sea. We waited until the Merisaar had finally sunk, before leaving the area.
We completed our patrol a week later; as the food and fuel situation was borderline and after the brace of tankers sunk, we all wanted to get back and so on 23rd January we headed east.
The rest of the passage to Wilhelmshaven was uneventful and we arrived back at base during the afternoon of 29th January 1940
After shore leave, repair and re-supply, U-101 will be ready to resume patrol in March 1940
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Post by irishshylock on Nov 2, 2017 22:25:14 GMT
U-Boat Name and ID Number: U-39 Geist Patrol: #2
Patrol Assignment: British Isles
Successful Patrol: Yes
Number of Freighters Sunk: 1 Number of Tankers Sunk: 0 Number of Capital Ships Sunk: 0
Total Tonnage Destroyed: 8,500 GRT
Ships Damaged: None
Ships Destroyed: 8,500 large freighter Nottingham Refit Time: Standard
KptLt Matthias Kaplan
Crew Status: Trained
2nd January 1940 (Wilhelmshaven)
It has been months since we returned and today we set out on patrol again. A peaceful Christmas with Gisela has ended and we go out to do our duty once again. Weather is bitterly cold, wet with some light snow.
16th January 1940 (North Sea)
Nothing sited so far, temperatures very cold, rain squalls hamper visibility and dampen moods.
27th January 1940 (North West Scottish coast)
Large freighter sighted, identified as 8.5k Nottingham, travelling along with destroyer escort at night. We remain submerged and attempt to get closer to the the ship to unleash our eels, we succeed without detection. We fire all forward tubes, one misses, one appears to make conduct but doesnt detonate and two make contact and sink the freighter. Taking no chances, we exceed test depth to avoid the escort and make our escape into the dark depths, the crew congratulate each other.
12th February 1940 (Off Irish coast)
No ships sighted since the Nottingham. Weather continues to hamper sightings and flurries of snow are heavy at times.
25th Febraury 1940 (North Sea)
Heading for home, this has been a long patrol with little for us to see and given us no opportunity to engage the enemy
27th February 1940 (Wilhelmshaven)
Safely home, flying a single pennant. The boat is as good as she was leaving, something to be thankful for I suppose but the mood on the boat has been deflated. Ive ordered Feit and Seppelt to take the crew out for celebratory brandys on me to lift their spirits. Our next patrol may not be as quiet
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Post by keyboy on Nov 6, 2017 10:41:22 GMT
30th January 1940To: Admiral und Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote Burkhard Dörflinger15th Flotilla Report:Three German U-Boats set sail from Wilhelmshaven from the 4th January 1940 onwards. I submit the following results U-Boat | Freighters Sunk | Tankers Sunk | Capital Ship Sunk | Total Sunk | Status | U49 Seevergnugen
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 9,750 tons
| Refit | U-39 Geist
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 8,500 tons | At Sea | U101 Zitteraal
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 10,300 tons | Refit | U-37 Walküre
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 54,500 tons | Refit | U44 Hohenlohe
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 30,400 tons | Refit | U-42 Ægir
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 29,000 tons | At Sea | Totals | 8 | 5 | 1 | 104,950 tons |
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Four of the six Captains and their U-Boats and crew completed a successful patrol
Two of the six Captains and their U-Boats and crew remain at Sea on patrol German U-Boats Lost: 0PROMOTIONS
None
AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
KNIGHTS CROSS WITH OAK LEAVES, SWORDS AND DIAMONDSNone------------------------------- KNIGHTS CROSS WITH OAK LEAVES AND SWORDS None------------------------------- KNIGHTS CROSS WITH OAK LEAVES None------------------------------- KNIGHTS CROSS None------------------------------- IRON CROSS 1ST CLASSKptLt Kurt Richter of the U-37 Walküre KptLt Klaus Vorfaul of the U-44 Hohenlohe ------------------------------- IRON CROSS 2ND CLASS None
------------------------------- U-BOAT WAR BADGEKptLt Kurt Richter of the U-37 Walküre KptLt Klaus Vorfaul of the U-44 Hohenlohe------------------------------- BLACK WOUNDED BADGENone------------------------------- Sincerely yours
Konteradmiral Berndt Lange, 15th Unterseebootsflottille Commanding
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