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Dissaray 03-11-10 01:13 PM

I'm a bit cross with the game just now. I was in the middle of a WAW patrol, December of '43, and the pesky distroyer wouldn't leave me alone. I was dodging and evaiding for about an hour, real time, not sure how long it was in the game's time. I would lose him and he would find me again and depth charge me a few times and I would escape and we started the whole thing over agin. I was under doing hydrophone intercept practices so my bateries weren't fresh and I was still a long way out from my asignd PZ and wanted to get a move on. I made one last bid to escape and when that failed I decided that sone one had to die and I didn't think it was going to be me this time.

I ordered parascope depth and saw he was coming around behind me so I set up for a stern shot, a quick and dirty shot from the hip realy. I held my breth as the torpido moved across the just about 500m and to my dismay it missed wide and behind, I guessed wrong on the speed. I had a acustic tracker but it was in the foreard reserve so I had to make room so I made ready for a forward shot. Again I missed the target, not as wide and behind this time but still not a hit, miss judged teh speed again. This gave me a wonderful opertunity to load in my acustic seeker, a type of torpido I haven't had opertunity to use until now. I adjusted the speed again and had what I thought was a good line on the target and let fly, or swim I guess but that dosen't sound as cool. I was a bit woried beacouse the target was close to the 400m mark, the distance the torpido has to travle befor the acustic tracker starts working. This time my estamate was too high on the speed and it missed just forward of the bow.

I was shocked, I thought these things didn't miss! I was sure the target was doing at least ten knots, the minimum engagment speed for the torpido and it was far enuf out, about 450 when I fired it. I was trying to figure it all out when I rememberd that I have to dive or risk geting killed by my own torpido so that is what I did, along with cuting engens befor I fired. Just as I orderd the dive I saw my little torpido marker on the f6 map start to turn, it had found some thing. I was just hoping that it wasn't me by some fluke, the target ship was being much louder than me after all. I made it down to about 35m when I heard a BANG! and I listend for tell tail signs of me dieing and to my delight I did hear any of them. Then I got the report: "She's going down!" I orderd blow balast and roketed up to the tops, I was in a type 7c so it wasn't that fast but still no slouch when coming up. by the time I was up there all I could see of the target was the stern pointing strait up, only the rudder realy left sticking out. I guess the torpido must have struck near the bow and done terrible damage there.

So I wright my sitrep leting the bdu what hapend and that I wasn't dead, I had told them about the contact befor this whole mess, and to rgister my cause for killing the DD, thry froun on wasting torpidos on light ships, and to get my tonage registerd. So the report was all finished and posted and I get back to the game and the damn thing crashes! Now I have to start the patrol over. :cry:

martin1004 03-11-10 02:43 PM

Just finished a patrol near Rockall Banks. On my return journey I recieved a report of a large enemy convoy. Since it was so close to me I had to take a look. Pretty nice convoy with lots of large tankers. Unfortunatley with 5 escort destroyers too, which I all sunk eventually. The last one I had to destroy with my deck gun since I was out of torpedoes. At first I tried to evade it but after I took a severe hit which blew away my stb propeller I decided to surface exactly when it drove over me so I could rape it from the back, mounting my deck gun ASAP and broke it's guns so they were powerless against me. I couldn't go at silent speed anyway so I decided to take the risk - I would have sipmly sunk because my speed was too low to maintain depth thanks to the broken propeller.
It was a great and enjoyable hunt, lucky too I guess. End result:
Merchant tonnage : 45 371 (6 ships)
Warship tonnage: 5490 of which 1 destroyer and 4 corvettes.
Hull integrity 60,94. Suprisingly good because I really took a beating.
Renown per patrol 1705, promotion to Oberleutnant z.S, Iron cross 2nd class, 2 of them for my crewmembers too.

Grim Nigel 03-11-10 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Riley (Post 1308318)
Nice attack :up:
Thats the way I like to attack convoys if possible,from within,like a true wolf!

Thanks :salute: although this must of been only the 3rd time I've attempted this style of attack... I suspect It'll become near impossible as the war progresses. Been a highly successful strategy so far though. Being in the middle of all those merchants buys the boat extra time before the DD's can find a path through and start dropping the charges.

Almost all of my strategic desisions are based on what I have learned from the wise advice of the good people of subsim :DL

Paul Riley 03-11-10 07:31 PM

Great first patrol of my new career with GWX3
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Riley (Post 1305067)
Tonight's events so far

4th Sept '39
19:19
Ran into a filthy storm moving through AN46-AN42,waves coming right over the top,visibility poor
20:00
Forced to dive for the duration of the night,will surface when light to recharge

Day 5
08:31
Recieved an SOS from SS Bosnia,45 deg 29' North / 09 deg 45' West.Continued on to PZ
13:01
SOS signal,SS Pluvoise stopped by German UBoat operating from 39 deg 42' North / 09 deg 10' West
14:01
SOS Royal Sceptre,no further information
15:10
Picked up a sound contact bearing 36 deg heading roughly NNE,broke out at max speed to investigate.Sound checks every 15 mins until target aqquisition.If hostile I plan to shadow target until nightfall then commence attack surfaced from a range of approx 1000-1500m,depending on immediate visibility.Attack will be made facing away from the strong SE winds.No mag tips to be used.If attack fails due to poor conditions will break off and report contact in to base.Torps must be conserved as much as possible,we have only 4 left.

Tonight's report

After getting some of my patrol details on paper mixed up,mainly with the dates and other details I will just say that we managed to sink a total of 3 ships on our first patrol,1 Granville,1 Med Cargo,1 Small Merch for a total of 11.961 tonnes.
Tonight's attack on the small merchant just off the Orkneys was conducted on a very dark night with 11mps winds.She was doing 9 kts and we battled to keep up with her for the good part of 2 hrs.I managed to eventually draw up from behind her on the surface and move up alongside for a 80 deg bearing shot ( slightly behind and not bang level to minimize detection at such short range on the surface) from a range of exactly 1000m.We remained undetected the whole time and after confirming all settings were true aimed at the foremast.Our torp slammed into her at the exact spot I aimed for and she struggled to stay afloat in the choppy sea,finally sinking heavily to port after 28 mins.
Heading back to base now after a gruelling 1st patrol of my new career,in some very testing conditions,mainly the bloody weather and slow speed of the IIA.I am very pleased with my performance as every torpedo fired has hit its mark,and we have been promised a free round of beer when we get back (really,we actually got a radio report saying 'first rounds are on high command' ) :woot:

End of report.

Kapt Franz Weber of U-16

frau kaleun 03-12-10 12:18 AM

Well Patrol 5 is turning out to be interesting. After bagging 4 very small fry coming around the Orkneys and Hebrides, we spotted a lone Tribal class NW of the latter and were able to sneak up on it at periscope depth. Close enough to have the 'scope spotted the last time I popped it up for a looksee - turned around and headed off veeeeeery slowly as it was still over 4000m away when it started to give chase, and much to my surprise kept my nerves intact while preparing the stern tube until it caught up with us. Fired from about 500m out and then cranked it to flank speed and dropped to 60m down.

Scored a hit after which I heard a few seconds of frantic pinging and thought "oh great" but then she went down before I had to worry about it.

Coming down off the west coast of the Hebrides and making for my patrol grid, spotted two more destroyers also cruising S in between us and the isles and was able to turn into an intercept course at periscope depth. Realized I was soon gonna lose any chance at them running on the e-machines, even at flank speed - so I took a shot at one from about 4000m out, and followed with a shot at the second in line from about 35000m distance. The second shot was a hit, a V&W class which went down without further ado. The other ship started looking for me and I hung around for a bit to see if I could line up another closer shot whilst keeping my periscope in plain view. I don't think she spotted me as she seemed to be coming in our direction but then started zigzagging around and eventually turned off to search another area. Decided to leave well enough alone and headed back on course towards our patrol grid.

Am now finishing up a Beck's in celebration of my first career warship kills!

:D:D:D:rock:

Paul Riley 03-12-10 04:51 AM

Turns out our 3 sinkings were neutral shipping
 
Upon returning to base it was later discovered that our 3 sinkings were neutral ships :nope:
I could have swore they bore the British flag,in fact I KNOW I saw the British flag,and the 3rd ship sailed with no lights,adding to our suspicion they may have been hostile.I think we got hit pretty hard with our renown bonus,we were awarded a measly 347.80 points,does this sound about right for what we achieved on that patrol?
BDU was a bit unhappy,but told us not to think too much about it as the weather conditions were tough and ships sailing with no lights would seem viable targets in hostile waters.This international incident has successfully been covered up,blaming the rough seas on the capsizing and sinking of these ships.

Grim Nigel 03-12-10 05:38 AM

U-969 (VIIC) 5th March 1941 Patrol 6. (87% realism with manual targeting)

After our previous success morale on the boat was high, we had only been at sea for six days and had expended all but 3 forward and 1 rear torpedo's. We had just sunk a lone coastal freighter when to our suprise a contact report came through.
According to the report a large convoy was making its way NNE about 120nm to our SW doing 7 knots. I rushed to the plotting table and began to make calculations, hoping we could make it before the convoy changed course or left us too far behind.

Lady luck was once again with us. We had a good chance of making it to an intercept point about 20nm ahead of the convoy in only 4 hours.
Ordering ahead full we turned and headed along the intercept course.
When we arrived at the determined point, we submerged to check the convoy was still heading along its expected course. We should only have been roughly 20nm ahead and easily within hydrophone range. The calculations paid off, we picked up the escorts first and over the next few minutes bagan to acquire many merchant contacts.

Again I decided to test the boats chances and try another attack from the inside of the convoy. As the convoy drew closer we went to silent and dropped to 30m depth (I heard stories of boats loosing their towers to the keel of merchants passing overhead, so tend to be cautious in close proximities)
All was going well, the convoy drew closer, the escorts seemed to be oblivious to our presence, untill only 6 or 7 hundred metres from the convoy... the pings started.
I cursed to myself, somone must of dropped a spanner in the engine room again, one of the escorts must of been a little closer than we expected and heard our boat. Ordering a crash drive we headed for 120m depth, dropped a Bold and changed course slightly as we made our way down into the dark murkeyness.

I was praying that our luck hadnt run out, maybe we had tempted fate too many times and was trying to work out what I did wrong on this approach, perhaps 2 knots was too fast considering how close the escorts were to us. Depth charges rained down, but it seems the Bold saved our necks and confused the DD's allowing us to slip away.

The zig-zagging convoy began to pass above us. We were running deep and silent, we had at least 2 DD's frantically searching for us. There wasnt much time to decide. At this speed we couldnt make it to PD in time to target any ships before they passed our position. I had 2 choices, let the convoy go and sneak away, or say to hell with it, order flank speed and fire everything we had at whatever we could find and worry about the escorts later.

I carefully noticed the positions and distances of nearby escorts and made some mental calculations. Could we make it up to PD before the DD's were on top of us? The chances were slim.. but even a slim chance is better than no chance.
Yelling like a madman to boat was put into action, blowing ballast and going to flank... damage crews manned their stations and I set the TDC for the first probable shot using what data I had available.

Our soundman tracked the nearest DD as we made our way to PD at a good 7-8 knots. I was nervous and knew this would be risky, the boat was screaming out its position to all listening hostiles and we were along for the ride. By the time we had reached PD, I raised the scope and turned it sternward... sure enough the nearest DD was hot on out tail and closing fast. Every second counted, I estimated we had only 1 minute at the most before that damned escort would send us to Hades.

Panning the scope I saw that the convoy had almost passed us completely, only the rear-most merchant were still ahead of us but closing fast toward our 90 degree limits. I wasnt going to loose any speed to slow down to buy more time, we would need that speed in the next few seconds. Panning the scope starboard I picked out a good target, a nice fat ore carrier ( 3rd one this patrol! ) and fired 2 torpedo's the moment it reached our firing mark.

I turned and checked on the position of the DD chasing us... we still had a good 30 seconds. Panning the scope to port, the only target available, a tramp steamer and I only had 1 forward torpedo left. In the race against the DD on our tail I set the TDC up for another shot and fired.
Checking again the position of the DD, all I could see was bow spray and a large pointy chunk of metal heading right toward us.

Ok, it was time to quit laughing in the face of doom and crash dived. Heading down to the usual 120m depth, dropping a Bold on the way and going silent when levelled. There follwed a few depth charges, but it seemed like the escorts were captained by rookies, they circled near where I deployed the bold, not once did they even re-aquire our position and allowed us to slip away. All of our torpedo's had found their mark and sent both the ore carrier and steamer to davy jones.

So once the convoy and its escorts had passed into the distance less than 2 hours later, we surfaced and decided to head back home after only 6 days at sea!
Although I had one torpedo left in the rear tube, I always keep one just incase we run into something on the way home.

End of patrol 6 :
Patrol results|Crew losses: 0|Ships sunk: 6|Aircraft destroyed: 0|Patrol tonnage: 29985 tons

Total ships : 28 for 156437 tons

Paul Riley 03-12-10 05:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grim Nigel (Post 1310231)
U-969 (VIIC) 5th March 1941 Patrol 6. (87% realism with manual targeting)

After our previous success morale on the boat was high, we had only been at sea for six days and had expended all but 3 forward and 1 rear torpedo's. We had just sunk a lone coastal freighter when to our suprise a contact report came through.
According to the report a large convoy was making its way NNE about 120nm to our SW doing 7 knots. I rushed to the plotting table and began to make calculations, hoping we could make it before the convoy changed course or left us too far behind.

Lady luck was once again with us. We had a good chance of making it to an intercept point about 20nm ahead of the convoy in only 4 hours.
Ordering ahead full we turned and headed along the intercept course.
When we arrived at the determined point, we submerged to check the convoy was still heading along its expected course. We should only have been roughly 20nm ahead and easily within hydrophone range. The calculations paid off, we picked up the escorts first and over the next few minutes bagan to acquire many merchant contacts.

Again I decided to test the boats chances and try another attack from the inside of the convoy. As the convoy drew closer we went to silent and dropped to 30m depth (I heard stories of boats loosing their towers to the keel of merchants passing overhead, so tend to be cautious in close proximities)
All was going well, the convoy drew closer, the escorts seemed to be oblivious to our presence, untill only 6 or 7 hundred metres from the convoy... the pings started.
I cursed to myself, somone must of dropped a spanner in the engine room again, one of the escorts must of been a little closer than we expected and heard our boat. Ordering a crash drive we headed for 120m depth, dropped a Bold and changed course slightly as we made our way down into the dark murkeyness.

I was praying that our luck hadnt run out, maybe we had tempted fate too many times and was trying to work out what I did wrong on this approach, perhaps 2 knots was too fast considering how close the escorts were to us. Depth charges rained down, but it seems the Bold saved our necks and confused the DD's allowing us to slip away.

The zig-zagging convoy began to pass above us. We were running deep and silent, we had at least 2 DD's frantically searching for us. There wasnt much time to decide. At this speed we couldnt make it to PD in time to target any ships before they passed our position. I had 2 choices, let the convoy go and sneak away, or say to hell with it, order flank speed and fire everything we had at whatever we could find and worry about the escorts later.

I carefully noticed the positions and distances of nearby escorts and made some mental calculations. Could we make it up to PD before the DD's were on top of us? The chances were slim.. but even a slim chance is better than no chance.
Yelling like a madman to boat was put into action, blowing ballast and going to flank... damage crews manned their stations and I set the TDC for the first probable shot using what data I had available.

Our soundman tracked the nearest DD as we made our way to PD at a good 7-8 knots. I was nervous and knew this would be risky, the boat was screaming out its position to all listening hostiles and we were along for the ride. By the time we had reached PD, I raised the scope and turned it sternward... sure enough the nearest DD was hot on out tail and closing fast. Every second counted, I estimated we had only 1 minute at the most before that damned escort would send us to Hades.

Panning the scope I saw that the convoy had almost passed us completely, only the rear-most merchant were still ahead of us but closing fast toward our 90 degree limits. I wasnt going to loose any speed to slow down to buy more time, we would need that speed in the next few seconds. Panning the scope starboard I picked out a good target, a nice fat ore carrier ( 3rd one this patrol! ) and fired 2 torpedo's the moment it reached our firing mark.

I turned and checked on the position of the DD chasing us... we still had a good 30 seconds. Panning the scope to port, the only target available, a tramp steamer and I only had 1 forward torpedo left. In the race against the DD on our tail I set the TDC up for another shot and fired.
Checking again the position of the DD, all I could see was bow spray and a large pointy chunk of metal heading right toward us.

Ok, it was time to quit laughing in the face of doom and crash dived. Heading down to the usual 120m depth, dropping a Bold on the way and going silent when levelled. There follwed a few depth charges, but it seemed like the escorts were captained by rookies, they circled near where I deployed the bold, not once did they even re-aquire our position and allowed us to slip away. All of our torpedo's had found their mark and sent both the ore carrier and steamer to davy jones.

So once the convoy and its escorts had passed into the distance less than 2 hours later, we surfaced and decided to head back home after only 6 days at sea!
Although I had one torpedo left in the rear tube, I always keep one just incase we run into something on the way home.

End of patrol 6 :
Patrol results|Crew losses: 0|Ships sunk: 6|Aircraft destroyed: 0|Patrol tonnage: 29985 tons

Total ships : 28 for 156437 tons

Nice little read that ,good work.

YukonJack_AK 03-12-10 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frau kaleun (Post 1308724)
I just wish I could find some warships to sink! I get contact reports and occasionally one shows up on the hydrophones, but always too far away and going too fast in the wrong direction for me to catch up to.

Had the same problem... Found by sheer chance a wonderful place to hunt the "Big Boys". The deep water just west of the Straits of Gibraltar is the place to go as it's a major choke point for all traffic coming and going from the Med. I simply murder them there!:D I will spend several days just patroling in a circle there and LOTS of convoys come through for starters, but every so often a TF comes through with a truely juicy target or two! :arrgh!:

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/8...oneflattop.jpg

Thats the HMS Arc Royal going "bottoms up" after taking 4 to the front quarter! Unfortunately couldn't reload fast enough for the BB there and the 6 tin can escorts sent me deep to hide... but man that was awesome! :rock: I love getting Patrol Orders that send me South - I never miss an opportunity to stop by the Straits!

Paul Riley 03-12-10 06:15 AM

Look forward to heading down there sometime in my career ,good screenshot :yeah:
I used to enjoy that spot in the stock game,but using GWX3 I expect the area to be even more interesting.
Its always a shame to see one of Britain's finest battleships in such peril though :nope:;)

YukonJack_AK 03-12-10 06:19 AM

Just watch out once you've had a few go down... I swear the AI comes looking for the pest at the back door. :arrgh!: I've noticed pairs of ASW Tugs, DD's and heavier air cover intently looking for me after a few good sinkings... GWX IS GREAT!!! :rock:

Paul Riley 03-12-10 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YukonJack_AK (Post 1310276)
... GWX IS GREAT!!! :rock:

Amen to that.

Grim Nigel 03-12-10 07:17 AM

Retiring my current carreer after 6 patrols.

Just discovered I shouldnt even have the radar detector or decoys yet! Not entirely sure how I managed to get them. I suspect a previous mod I was test driving had changed equipment availability dates.

Kinda feels like cheating so I'm going to start a new career :DL

Paul Riley 03-12-10 07:28 AM

I wouldnt retire just because of that mate,if it bothers you that much why not remove the radio man from his post?,it may disable the equipment for a time? :hmmm:
I certainly wouldnt retire,I would consider it a gift from the gods.
Still,I can see what you mean though from YOUR perspective,it would give you an advantage where in real life you wouldnt have that luxury?,at least not yet.

Grim Nigel 03-12-10 07:53 AM

I'd already deleted the career when I suddenly realisted I could of edited the equipment out in the config file lol.
Doesnt matter though, I'd already earned promotions and iron crosses second and first class so I think my captain would of been "requested" to volunteer for training instructor duty, he was one hell of a lucky chap. Lets hope U-707 shares some of that luck as well :yeah:

Paul Riley 03-12-10 08:25 AM

Well,good luck with U-707 :)

Gilbou 03-12-10 08:30 AM

Playing with all realism options set except map contacts (I like to draw interception things and etc. but I have to have to keep drawing where the ship is once spotted.) and I also have manual targetting off (tried once, ended in 1944 still with my type-II and almost 95 % of patrols without ever sinking anything).

type IIA
March 1940
Done 7 patrols, 8th underway
Started with 500 renown, actually got 1000
Trying to reach 2500 for a type VIIB

Writing my patrols logs in the blog in my signature.

Pappy55 03-12-10 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YukonJack_AK (Post 1310276)
Just watch out once you've had a few go down... I swear the AI comes looking for the pest at the back door. :arrgh!: I've noticed pairs of ASW Tugs, DD's and heavier air cover intently looking for me after a few good sinkings... GWX IS GREAT!!! :rock:

I might take my sub down there after my 24 hours are up in this area.. I have not found much so far..

To be honest I have never spotted a capitol ship in a campaign ever in sh3. I spotted a cruise liner in the stock game once and sunk her but thats about it.

So here's hopeing.. Will make a great christmas present (currently late nov 39) to the crew

Paul Riley 03-12-10 09:40 AM

Strait of Gibraltar (more so inside and on towards the Med) was/still is a hive of activity,it was once a major trade hub for the British Empire and I reckon some very juicy targets could be found there,if one is brave and skillful enough to cope with the increased patrol craft in that area.
I wonder how GWX3 simulated this area?,only time will tell :arrgh!: *NO SPOILERS PLEASE*

frau kaleun 03-12-10 03:15 PM

Patrol 5

U-35, 2 U-Boat Flotilla Saltzwedel
ObltzS Peter Schmidt, Commander

January 14, 1940, 02:42
Departed: Wilhelmshaven
Mission Orders: Patrol grid BE59

January 17, 1940, 15:08
Grid AN 14
Ship sunk: MV Agate (Small Trawler), 98 tons
Crew: 23
Crew lost: 18

January 18, 1940, 09:38
Grid AN 13
Ship sunk: SS Bradfyne (Granville-type Freighter), 4707 tons
Cargo: Paper Products
Crew: 84
Crew lost: 62

January 18, 1940, 11:32
Grid AN 13
Ship sunk: MV Chestnut (Small Trawler), 99 tons
Crew: 13
Crew lost: 2

January 18, 1940, 18:14
Grid AN 13
Ship sunk: MV Crista (Small Merchant), 2229 tons
Cargo: Mail/Packages
Crew: 27
Crew lost: 11

January 20, 1940, 11:40
Grid AM 35
Ship sunk: HMS Ashanti (Tribal class), 1850 tons
Crew: 191
Crew lost: 1

January 22, 1940, 09:57
Grid AM 39
Ship sunk: HMS Woolston (V&W class), 1188 tons
Crew: 104
Crew lost: 4

January 24, 1940, 03:55
Grid AM 51
Ship sunk: SS Sea Tarpon (Large Cargo), 6897 tons
Cargo: Phosphates
Crew: 51
Crew lost: 15

January 24, 1940, 04:01
Grid AM 51
Ship sunk: SS Grafton (Large Cargo), 6898 tons
Cargo: Tobacco
Crew: 55
Crew lost: 26

January 24, 1940, 18:15
Grid AM 46
Ship sunk: SS Adrian (Coastal Freighter), 1873 tons
Cargo: General Cargo
Crew: 21
Crew lost: 12

January 25, 1940, 00:37
Grid AM 49
Ship sunk: SS Port Adelaide (Ore Carrier), 6449 tons
Cargo: Coal
Crew: 67
Crew lost: 32

January 26, 1940, 19:06
Grid BE 35
Ship sunk: SS Thistleglen (Granville-type Freighter), 4709 tons
Cargo: Military Vehicles
Crew: 105
Crew lost: 23

February 8, 1840, 11:48
Returned: Wilhelmshaven
Crew losses: 0
Ships sunk: 11
Aircraft destroyed: 0
Merchant tonnage: 33959 tons
Warship tonnage: 3038 tons
Patrol tonnage: 36997 tons
Career Tonnage: 120484

On return to base I was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class as was my veteran Mechanikerhauptgefreiter, Johann-Walter Lind. The Iron Cross, Second Class was awarded to my 1WO, LtzS Kurt Myke, and to Mechanikermaat Willibald Mühlhaber. Funkmaat Gunter Domke and Sanitätsmaat Wilhelm Honsberg were both promoted from Bootsmann to Stabsbootsmann.

I think I'm officially addicted now, as the thrill of bagging my first warships led to an all-nighter. Fortunately I can afford the loss of sleep today as I'd taken the whole week off work! (Actually it's probably a good thing, I've been sleeping in all week and have to be up early tomorrow for a very long day - so I need to be dead tired tonight in order to get to sleep early.)

Anyway, the determination to stay up and continue the patrol paid off as I hadn't proceeded too far south and west after sinking the second destroyer when I got a report of a large convoy heading ENE towards the upper Western Approaches. Turned north for grid AM51 and was able to intercept at the front starboard corner of the four-column procession; a combination of darkness, rough seas and silent running at periscope depth allowed me to sneak in behind the Swan class patrolling ahead of the merchants and slip into position between the two nearest columns. At least two other escorts were patrolling at the rear of the formation, leaving the flanks largely unprotected.

I had my eye on the third ships in the two middle columns, the two biggest ships in the convoy. I set up a fast two eel spread for each; fired on the first one from about 1800m out, and the second from maybe 2300m; honestly I'm not sure because my nerves were so on edge! Trying to keep track of the two ships I was after; trying to keep track of all the other unsuspecting merchants as they sailed ever closer to pass fore and aft of us; trying to follow the movements of the head escort from the whispers being passed up from the hydrophone station; nerve-wracking, I tell you, absolutely nerve-wracking! But OMG the adrenalin!

But I got off all four torpedoes and all four hit, two per ship, as I ordered an immediate dive, then hard to port, and quickly lowered the 'scope. It seemed like only seconds later that we heard the distinct sounds of both merchants sinking into the abyss. Set course WSW, and off we went, dropping deeper and deeper as we slid through the water beneath the rest of the oncoming convoy. By the time they'd all passed over and around us, we were at 150m; the lead escort had given up looking for us, and the ones who stayed behind to patrol the area never even came close to guessing our location. Eventually they had to return to the flock and we were clear to resurface with almost 14000 tons of unlucky English shipping added to our tally.

We returned to base with one lonely torpedo sitting patiently in the stern tube, having saved that and one in the fore tubes for our journey home, during which we'd been ordered to patrol just east of Scapa Flow for 24 hours if our fuel reserves were sufficient. They were, but the weather refused to cooperate. A fierce winter storm lashed at our little boat all the way through the Nordsee, and visibility was almost nonexistent; so much so that we couldn't make out the ships of a large convoy moving through the area despite the hydrophone reports that indicated they were almost right on top of us. At the time we still had the one eel waiting in a fore tube, but with only that and the stern tube available, going up against an escorted convoy with barely 100m beneath our keel and less than 2000m visibility seemed like a very foolhardy undertaking, so we reported the contact, dropped to 80m and ran silent out of there.

We did come across a lone coastal freighter several hours later, and fired off a shot from a fore tube that just missed her bow as she turned away from its trajectory. Whether she somehow managed to spot our 'scope in the waves, or was simply getting bounced around too much in the storm to keep a steady course and depth, I'm not sure. Heaven knows it was all we could do to stay on course on the surface.

By the time we returned to base the wind had died down somewhat, but the cold rain persisted with a vengeance. Nevertheless, a highly successful patrol from which all hands returned happy and healthy.

And, yeah, I think I better turn up the realism a notch, since I'd like to be promoted to Kptl before my luck runs out. :O:


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