U-51 The Cat and the Mouse

[Stryker]

Sit my friends and I shall tell you the tale of the Cat and the Mouse...

A tale of a extemely frustrated Destoyer Captain, a VERY nervous Passenger Liner Captain, a heroic hydrophone operator, and of course myself, the daring, handsome, and couragious Kaptain of the U-51..

The patrol begins with clear skys, something we haven't seen in almost a month



Our orders again send us off the coast of France on the Atlantic side, and of course upon entering the North Atlantic, the weather turns, overcast, fog and rain ..

South of Ireland the weather clears a bit and we make contact with a Covoy travelling SSE at 0200..

The sky is bright and visability good, 2 DD escort noted, the convoy outer ring consist of American C3 Merchants, the inner ring British, and centered is an American Passenger Liner..

With 2 escorts and 1500m visibility I have decided to submerge and enter the convoy ring a plan in mind..

As we enter the ring I target a T3 tanker to the starboard of the liner, she explodes on the first shot..



Down Scope, the Hydrphone operator guides us into the wake of the Liner..



The escorts cross to our stern unable to locate us..

Drop back, scope up, target a C2 to Starboard, one torpedo dead center, the escort comes after us, hard to port , back to the safety of the liner ..





We wait, hide and seek, their Depth Charges are no where near us ..



I can see a T2 Tanker ahead of the Liner but need to move to an open position to get a solution..



Port side of Liner, solution obtained, T2 explodes, and excort makes its run ..



Hard to Port, Hard to Starboard, dive to 20m, avoid the DD by crossing under the Liner..



Periscope Depth as soon as we clear, target C2 and fire, she takes the hit, it's not perfect but she will go down (43 minutes later)..

Dive to 100m, and let them go, we've taken a T3, T2, and 2 C2, it's now time to clear the escorts, surface, reload all tubes, move the reserve torpedos, recharge the batteries and let the men relax..

We resume our patrol course, I wonder what the American passengers were thinking ? terrified they might be next or just out on the deck watching a fireworks show ? They won't be neutral forever..

We have sent a contact report, perhaps another U can hit them again, I'm sure the escorts are about out of Depth Charges..

Turn up the Grammaphone, lets see the French Coast in the moonlight and we still have 10 torpedos left...

[Dom at work]

Cool i used to do that in Aces of the deep but cant manage it in the new game, i find it hard to get under the enemy now lol.

Just a note the passenger liners were used to transport troops so there would not be civilians on it like a cruise ship. Only if you find them on their own and they are neutral. In a convoy it would be full of soldiers or gold, or cargo. Though if this one was flying neutral colours you did well not to sink it lol, mega negative points

[Lane]

Stryker,
Great screenshots Were you leaving St Nazaire?
How many points Renown to get Personalized emblems?
on your conning tower?
what year was your patrol? I have never found any
large convoys yet . I am on second patrol out St Nazaire
Oct 1940 ready to start for home I think I have sunk
three Merch and a tanker. I have some torps left so
I may try the trip home May find something along way.
Again great SS I would have been temped to sink that
Liner
Later
Lane

[Stryker]

This Patrol #8 was out of Wihelmshaven

6-30-40 to 7-9-40 (still don't have French bases)

U-51 is now a VIIC with upgraded engine and batteries

I think I got the flotilla side emblem on the 3rd patrol and the cat on the 4th might have been the 5th

[JagdNeun]

Very well done. I enjoy these write ups, especially with the screen shots. I might use some of these in the flash introduction to Dom's website. I would also be interested in any more such shots, to choose from.

[Dominico Baggio]

Do you know what the x3 stands for on the black cat? Its got 3 lives left? ;D

I will try to get some screenies also if you want.

As a hint stryker if you press number pad del it gets rid of the guages and things, the pictures look more like photos! Sorry if you know this already. Though i often enjoy reading the guages and messages in screenshots lol.

[faamecanic]

Nice story and great pics Stryker! Man that was a b@llsy move. Im going to have to try that.... and it looked like you were in maybe 30m of water!! Wow!


^ Bows to Stryker^ Uber Keptain!

[Stryker]

The Cat x 3 was the emblem of the U-48 (The Uboat that sunk the most ships during WWII - 53 in 12 patrols)

She had 3 commanders during that period (3 tom cats) hence she became 3 Black Cats or Cat X 3

yea I know about the del . just usually the dials and messages help tell a story, some I do use it ..

I'm now using this as my desktop, the Cat leaving Lorient

[Dominico Baggio]

Yeah thats what i thought with the dials, its interesting reading them in context lol.

That is a cool uboat, is it a type IX? Looks pretty massive.