I had this game back in the day and I remember being stuck on the 'Fortress Europe' mission in career mode, mostly because it was f**king difficult and probably also buggy.

Anyway, here I am 12 years later and I've made it up to the same mission, but the game crashes to a black screen (no error message) everytime it gets up to 6:00 am on June 9th, 1944! Really annoying because it's been pretty stable up until now. Anyone else made it past there?

No, but I'm running into the same problem (black screen) much earlier on in the Bergen mission. At first I thought I was probably torpedoed by an allied submarine, but it happens even when I'm submerged with no periscope up.

Do you start from a saved game or clean? I'm now going to start the mission all over, hoping that there is only something wrong with the save file ...

Did you ever fix it? I'm stuck with the same thing.

Hello everyone!

I did some research on this (known) error in the campaign mission "Fortress Europe" ("Festung Europa" in German).


First, the "Silent Hunter II" / "Destroyer Command" interoperability patch version 1.1 (SH2-DC INTEROP v1.1 PATCH, e.g. available here at SUBSIM forum) by Ubi-Soft/Ultimation should have addressed one issue regarding this mission!
The patch readme mentions under "3. FIXES":
* Fixed problem involving the "spawning" of surface ships in scenarios. This fixes a crash in the "Fortress Europe" mission.

Hence, I did a comparison on my German patched version of "Silent Hunter II" and its campaign files with the vanilla install of "Silent Hunter II" from GOG.COM.
At least with respect to the campaign & scenario missions' script files (*sdf) the patch 1.1 seems to be applied, but it could be possible that the patch integration in GOG.COM's release might be incomplete in other regards. (I do not know for sure.)


Secondly, there is a user mod which aims to increase the realism in "Silent Hunter II" named "Fletcher's SH2 Realism Mod v.2.1" / "Fletcher's Enhancement Mod v2.1" which mentions in the description:
* Included are the two fixed campaign scenarios: "2BSubhunt" and "8Bfestung"
This mod is still downloadable at SUBSIM forum: old legacy download section (scroll down)


Thirdly, I analysed the mission objectives and time stamps in the corresponding campaign mission script file ("8Bfestung.sdf"). And here, it gets curious:
According to the mission's introductory text it should occur on D-Day, 6th of June 1944. But the whole mission is scripted for a start on 7th of June 1944!

Furthermore, I believe that there is an error in the time constraints for the final mission goal ("Return to Base"). That could explain your reoccurring issue.
Well, in my case, I could only achive all goals and finish the mission successfully, when manually removing the time constraints in the script, for instance by commenting out the corresponding lines in [OBJECTIVE3].
By the way, the same change has been applied to the included modified campaign missions' script files in Fletcher's mod, as well.

=> Potential fix:

So, in order to try to fix your problem with not being able to continue the mission "Fortress Europe" without it crashing to desktop or to a black screen, download the above mentioned modification (zip-archive) "Fletcher's SH2 Realism/Enhancement mod v2.1" and copy the modified campaign mission script file to your install (do not forget to backup your original file(s)). However this applies Fletcher's other changes, too!

OR simply edit your campaign mission script file manually to lift the time constraints on objective 3:

fletchersSH2RealismModv2.1.zip
-> \6) Install Sixth Campaign - Scenario and Weather Files for Fletcher and Seeadler\B) Compatability Files For Seeadler's Sky Mod Graphics\CampaignFiles\8Bfestung.sdf

Your original campaign mission script is located in:
-> [YOUR-INSTALL-LOCATION]\Silent Hunter II\Shell\CampaignFiles\8Bfestung.sdf

Your vanilla one should read in the objectives section like this:

;;; Objectives ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[OBJECTIVE1]
Objective = TONNAGE
Tonnage = 4000
Type = CARGO
Primary = TRUE
Score = 100

[OBJECTIVE2]
Objective = TONNAGE
;Type = CARGO ; n/a
Tonnage = 20000
Primary = FALSE
Score = 100

[OBJECTIVE3]
Objective = RETURN_TO_BASE
Home = Lorient
Date = 19440608
Time = 1050
Primary = FALSE
Score = 20
Trigger = TIME
DateTrigger = 19440608
TimeTrigger = 0100

Either comment out by using ; (a semicolon) in front of the questionable lines (see as it is already done in line 2 of objective 2--consequently, tonnage type not limited to CARGO ships) under objective number 3,
or remove the corresponding lines entirely.

Your edited "8Bfestung.sdf" file should read in the objectives sections for the objective number 3 only:

[OBJECTIVE3]
Objective = RETURN_TO_BASE
Home = Lorient
Score = 20

Or commented out like this:

[OBJECTIVE3]
Objective = RETURN_TO_BASE
Home = Lorient
Score = 20
;Date = 19440608
;Time = 1050
;Primary = FALSE
;Score = 20
;Trigger = TIME
;DateTrigger = 19440608
;TimeTrigger = 0100

(Careful though, Fletcher introduced additional ship units/groups and therefore also increased the minimal tonnage requirement in objective number 1 from 4000 to 8000, and modified rules of engagement for all present units, making them more aggressive!)

Please, try out this little objective change (or Fletcher's mod), then start the campaign mission from its beginning, because it does not function with resuming from an in-mission savegame!
And tell us, if it now worked for you to finally progress in the campaign.

Kind regards,
foxgog