Silent Hunter III XXI Scenario

XXI is the tenth and final single player scenario available in the game. It takes place in November 1944 and is based on a hypothetical patrol of a Type XXI U-Boat. These were the first submarines designed to operate submerged instead of on the surface, and in real life only two of these vessels made war patrols (sinking no ships). The U-2522 that I am provided with in the scenario was actually assigned to a training flotilla and eventually scuttled just seven months after having been launched.

Silent Hunter III U505 Scenario

“U505” (as it is titled) is the ninth of 10 single player scenarios available in the game. It takes place in June 1944 and is based on the capture of U-505 by American Task Force 22.3, a Hunter Killer group formed around the USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) that was heading towards Casablanca to refuel. A destroyer had detected the German submarine and made an accurate depth charge attack which caused a significant amount of damage and flooding that panicked the new captain, Oberleutnant Harald Lange.

Silent Hunter III Narvik Scenario

Narvik is the seventh of 10 single player scenarios available in the game. It takes place in April 1940 and is based on The Second Naval Battle of Narvik, where the British battleship HMS Warspite was sent with nine destroyers into the Ofotfjord to engage the Kriegsmarine forces operating off of the coast of Narvik. In the real life operation a catapult plane launched by the Warspite bombed and sank the German submarine U-64 which I have been assigned to captain in this mission. It would prove to be the only instance of the war where a battleship launched aircraft sank a U-Boat.

Silent Hunter III Malta Scenario

Malta is the sixth of 10 single player scenarios available in the game. It takes place in August 1942 and is based on U-Boat operations in the Mediterranean Sea. The boat that I am piloting for this mission is the U-331 that in real life was skippered by Kapitänleutnant Hans-Dietrich von Tiesenhausen who was featured in the first episode of this series Barham. In real life during this period the U-331 was on a number of uneventful patrols in the Med, and would later be attacked and sunk on November 17, 1942 while on her 10th wartime patrol.

Silent Hunter III Courageous Scenario

Courageous is the third of 10 single player scenarios available in the game. It takes place in September 1939 and is based on the sinking of the British carrier HMS Courageous by U-29, a Type VIIA U-Boat captained by Kapitänleutnant Otto Schuhart. The Courageous was originally a cruiser during the First World War, but was decommissioned and later reconfigured as an aircraft carrier during the 1920’s. She was hit on her port side by two torpedoes from Schuhart’s U-Boat, and sank within 20 minutes with a significant loss of life among her crew.

Silent Hunter III Bismarck Scenario

Bismarck is the second of 10 single player scenarios available in the game. It takes place in May 1941 and involves the Home Fleets mission to destroy the German battleship during its sole offensive operation of the war, an effort to break into the Atlantic and conduct raids against Allied shipping from North America to Great Britain. The Bismarck was scuttled by the crew following incapacitating battle damage on May 27, 1941, causing significant loss of life.

Silent Hunter III Barham Scenario

Barham is the first of 10 single player scenarios available in the game. It is based on the sinking of the HMS Barham by U-331 captained by Oberleutnant zur See Freiherr Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen in November 1941 while operating in the Mediterranean. In the real life incident, he had surfaced to periscope depth and observed three British battleships and eight destroyers. Having just missed an optimal solution on the HMS Queen Elizabeth, he fired a salvo of four torpedoes at the second capital ship in the line, the HMS Barham.

Silent Hunter III Career Patrol II

The second patrol of Lieutenant Jr. Klaus Walther begins in Wilhelmshaven, Germany on September 11, 1939. After making it back alive from the first patrol in the U-2, a Type IIA “Duck”, I opt to change out the entire stock of T I (G7a) gas/steam torpedoes for five T II (G7e) electronic propulsion fish which leave no visible wake in the water.

The main drawback to these new torpedoes is they only have one speed setting, 30 knots and a range of 3 km. No Hail Mary shots from over 10 km away can be taken as was with the T I’s, however the tradeoff is more than worth it. The only difficulty is tactical employment: the 3 km maximum range of these fish can put the boat in some tight spots, literally.

Silent Hunter III Career Patrol I

This post marks a new career effort under the guise of Lieutenant Jr. Klaus Walther (I made the name up) starting in 1939 with the 1st Flotilla based in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. I start in port on September 1st having just been issued a Type IIA vessel, the U-2. After staffing up on petty officers and sailors, I am ready to head out to the unknown perils the North Atlantic.

The BDU Commander orders are to depart port and proceed to grid reference AN16 to patrol for 24 hours. The cash in this game is renown, and you gain it for following orders and sinking vessels. When it comes right down to it, everything is a matter of tonnage in the end. When you are down to one fish left to fire, aim for the biggest ship that can be brought down with one torpedo.

Red Hour Wolfpack

Back in late 2005 I spearheaded a collaborative online gaming effort in the group I was in at that time, Red Hour, using UbiSoft’s Silent Hunter III naval combat game. Several of us would get together on a weekly base to sail against escorted convoys while we used Ventrilo voice communications to coordinate tactics.

Although we each picked out a U-Boat number from real life (with mine being U-181, a Type IXD2 vessel of the Kriegsmarine), we actually sailed each patrol with the realistically available vessel during that time period. So the Flotilla got underway back in September 1939 in VIIC’s for the most part with a few members going Burger King on us by choosing IXB’s.

Helmut Grimm, Patrol 5 (Repost)

Wilhelmshaven, Germany: After having the torpedoes replaced per my standing orders, U-24 set sail from Wilhelmshaven for the assigned patrol grid of AN-49 at 15:03 on 12/29/39. The mission would be a long and fruitless patrol with little to write home about other than spending the New Year at sea in an Iron Coffin.

The patrol grid objective was successfully concluded after having reached it around 23:00 on 12/31/39 and maneuvering around for the required 24 hours. I wanted to save my fish for actual cargo ships and did not pay too much mind to coastal merchants at first.

Helmut Grimm, Patrol 6

Wilhelmshaven, Germany: My standard refit to electric torpedoes would cost me a C3 Cargo this trip. I had one at 5,903 meters but it was broad daylight and by that point of the patrol I had already been attacked by antisubmarine aircraft once with depth charges that damaged my U-Boat, and buzzed two more times because my conning tower was visibly breaking the surface in rough seas while running at periscope depth.

My patrol assignment of AN-41 produced nothing of note, and I plotted a course for AN-16 once I had completed the mission objective of a 24-hour patrol and was free to roam the seas to the limit of my fuel and batteries. Due to previous air engagements en route, I decided to run at 15 meters depth when submerged instead of standard periscope depth.

Helmut Grimm, Patrol 5

Wilhelmshaven, Germany: After having the torpedoes replaced per my standing orders, U-24 set sail from Wilhelmshaven for the assigned patrol grid of AN-49 at 15:03 on 12/29/39. The mission would be a long and fruitless patrol with little to write home about other than spending the New Year at sea in an Iron Coffin.

The patrol grid objective was successfully concluded after having reached it around 23:00 on 12/31/39 and maneuvering around for the required 24 hours. I wanted to save my fish for actual cargo ships and did not pay too much mind to coastal merchants at first.

Helmut Grimm, Patrol 4

Wilhelmshaven, Germany: After ordering the standard refit of T II G7e’s, I pulled out of Wilhelmshaven on 11/28/39 at 07:03 for my assigned patrol grid of AN-51, which is just off the coast of Firth of Forth. This particular patrol was chock full of mishaps and great danger to the crew of the U-24.

En route to the assigned patrol grid, I attempt to do an ALT+Enter on my keyboard to see if that has any affect with the game resolution. Stupid is as stupid does, even back in 2011 AKA 1939. The result was my expending a fish fired off into nevermore.

Helmut Grimm, Patrol 3

Wilhelmshaven, Germany: After ordering the standard refit of T II G7e’s, I pulled out of Wilhelmshaven on 10/26/39 at 0:53 for my assigned patrol grid of AN-56, which is just off the coast of Hartlepool. This could prove to be a promising cruise if I can come across enough cargo ships or even a tanker.

There were a couple of medium speed contacts on the map that were out of position to prosecute, so we proceeded on towards our assignment and took out a coastal merchant along the way for 1,953 tons on 10/28 at 23:15, the SS Watsonville which was carrying aircraft cargo.

Helmut Grimm, Patrol 2

Wilhelmshaven, Germany: When I arrived at BDU for my next patrol assignment, I was informed that Warrant Officer Jurgen Schultze transferred to another U-Boat, and I received a replace Warrant Officer via transfer, one August Zierau. Having received my grid assignment of AN-81 (a promising little nugget off the coast of St. Peters on the east coast of England in the North Sea, I had my U-24 fitting with the electric T II G7e’s before heading out to sea from Wilhelmshaven on 9/19/39 at 19:52.

The route to AN-81 was essentially straight across the map and down after coming out of the base. The grid assignment is deep within Allied air cover, which comes out to about halfway of grid AN-82 during 1939 as modeled in the game. Once reaching this halfway spot in AN-82, I begin a series of dives in the early morning to run at ahead slow (3 knots underwater speed) and surfaces in the late evening to run at ahead 1/3 (5 knots surface speed). This was to minimize the detection and attack from Allied aircraft.

Helmut Grimm, Patrol 1

Wilhelmshaven, Germany: Today I started a new career in Silent Hunter III using 51% realism and SH3 Commander from JoneSoft to alter the fatigue model to GW/GWX 8 Hour (I am the Captain of this freaking boat, I have an XO to set watch schedules and make sure they are adhered to!) I was assigned to U-24, a Type II coastal boat out of the 1st Flotilla Weddigen based in Wilhelmshaven.

The first order of business was to round out the crew by adding a Chief Petty Officer and three additional sailors. When making these selections, I always pick the first ones that have zero renown cost as the game and all you can do with it is grounded in your renown score, so why waste it on mop pushers?