SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post

Charleston · 11-05-05, 11:03 PM

Personal Diary
L.Cmdr. C.Charleston
Commanding Officer
SS-308 USS Apogon

I shouldn't have paid so much attention to the Admiral's daughter, it got me transfered to SUBPAC and a new boat. I'll miss the Escolar. (A reinstall caused my saved game files to get real grumpy and I had to begin a new career).

1. Given command of the USS Apogon and ordered to patrol the Marshalls. We departed Midway 1-20-1943 at 1900 hours. Arrived on station, 1-25-1943. Put the boat and the boys through their paces on the way down to the Marshalls. The boat and crew are green but are shaping up with hard training. (I think the Apogon's first patrol wasn't' untill 12-43 but who's nit-picking?).

2. 1-25-1943: Radar contact at 9,000 yrds on a clear night at 2045.. Waiting on track, we took the boat under at about 4,000 yards. Two fish with one hit and one dud sent a fat 10,259 ton tanker under. A good omen for the start of a patrol. I think though I'll leave the night surface attacks to ole Dick O'Kane and keep my boat under the waves.

3. Things were slow for eight days, but on 2-3-1943 at 0930 SJ radar lit up with a contact at 12,000 yrds. We were NW of Majuro, 170-32 E., 7-22 N. Submerged at 7,000 yrds while waiting on track. At 1,000 yrds, 2 fish sent a suspicious looking maru of 7526 tons to the bottom. I wouldn't be surprised if it was another one of those damn sub-traps..

4. 2-5-1943: We got reports of a large surface group moving at high speed but we couldn't intercept. Sent a report of the group's course and heading off to HQ. If that Admiral has me blacklisted I'll probably catch hell for letting these guys slip by.

5. 2-7-1943. Early morning SJ contacts at 0530. South of Tarawa at 173-40 E.,0-20 S. Clear skies meant we dove early. This was a good thing too because the contacts turned out to be a column of 3 destroyer's. Behind them was some type of maru, though sound reported she was making enough turns to be a fast transport.

Here I screwed up and almost lost another boat. I took too long between periscope sightings and poked the scope up right in front of the bow wave of the lead tin can. We sent 3 fish off and dove to test depth. All the while I was praying the distance was enough for the torps to arm. It was, at least for one fish and we took a dd away from the emperor's navy. A large one at about 2089 tons.

6. I couldn't get that possible transport out of my mind. After escaping away from the other two dd's intend on revenge we surfaced and set up a long end run to take another crack at this convoy. It took almost another day to get in position and I must have been crazy to drive the boat at full ahead on the surface for most of the time. A couple of plane contacts on the SD sent us under and made us lose a lot of ground.

It was worth it and we were able to close on a normal approach at 0730 on 2-8-1943, 168-50 E., 3-47 N. It was a good sized transport. At 1500 yards 3 fish, all hits sent her under. One of the escorts must have stopped to pick up survivors, the tin can stopped dead in the water a couple of hundred yards ahead of the sinking transport. I suppose the good Lord will want an explanation but I sent a few more fish into the tin can and sent the 1991 ton escort under too.

7. Running low on torpedos we made for Midway and arrived back in port on 2-13-1943. Arrived in port with the boom flying and the crew happy. I took a few pictures through the scope for bragging rights.

Patrol Results:

tanker 10,259 t.
sub trap 7,526 t.
DD 2,089 t.
Transport 7,992 t.
DD 1.991 t.

Total: 29,857 t.

Here's a sight sure to make any sub driver's heart skip a beat:

IMG]

I really like the Vicker's mod torpedo wake...

...but I like the Vicker's mod fireball even more!

11-05-05, 11:03 PM	#6
Charleston Seaman Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 40 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Personal Diary L.Cmdr. C.Charleston Commanding Officer SS-308 USS Apogon I shouldn't have paid so much attention to the Admiral's daughter, it got me transfered to SUBPAC and a new boat. I'll miss the Escolar. (A reinstall caused my saved game files to get real grumpy and I had to begin a new career). 1. Given command of the USS Apogon and ordered to patrol the Marshalls. We departed Midway 1-20-1943 at 1900 hours. Arrived on station, 1-25-1943. Put the boat and the boys through their paces on the way down to the Marshalls. The boat and crew are green but are shaping up with hard training. (I think the Apogon's first patrol wasn't' untill 12-43 but who's nit-picking?). 2. 1-25-1943: Radar contact at 9,000 yrds on a clear night at 2045.. Waiting on track, we took the boat under at about 4,000 yards. Two fish with one hit and one dud sent a fat 10,259 ton tanker under. A good omen for the start of a patrol. I think though I'll leave the night surface attacks to ole Dick O'Kane and keep my boat under the waves. 3. Things were slow for eight days, but on 2-3-1943 at 0930 SJ radar lit up with a contact at 12,000 yrds. We were NW of Majuro, 170-32 E., 7-22 N. Submerged at 7,000 yrds while waiting on track. At 1,000 yrds, 2 fish sent a suspicious looking maru of 7526 tons to the bottom. I wouldn't be surprised if it was another one of those damn sub-traps.. 4. 2-5-1943: We got reports of a large surface group moving at high speed but we couldn't intercept. Sent a report of the group's course and heading off to HQ. If that Admiral has me blacklisted I'll probably catch hell for letting these guys slip by. 5. 2-7-1943. Early morning SJ contacts at 0530. South of Tarawa at 173-40 E.,0-20 S. Clear skies meant we dove early. This was a good thing too because the contacts turned out to be a column of 3 destroyer's. Behind them was some type of maru, though sound reported she was making enough turns to be a fast transport. Here I screwed up and almost lost another boat. I took too long between periscope sightings and poked the scope up right in front of the bow wave of the lead tin can. We sent 3 fish off and dove to test depth. All the while I was praying the distance was enough for the torps to arm. It was, at least for one fish and we took a dd away from the emperor's navy. A large one at about 2089 tons. 6. I couldn't get that possible transport out of my mind. After escaping away from the other two dd's intend on revenge we surfaced and set up a long end run to take another crack at this convoy. It took almost another day to get in position and I must have been crazy to drive the boat at full ahead on the surface for most of the time. A couple of plane contacts on the SD sent us under and made us lose a lot of ground. It was worth it and we were able to close on a normal approach at 0730 on 2-8-1943, 168-50 E., 3-47 N. It was a good sized transport. At 1500 yards 3 fish, all hits sent her under. One of the escorts must have stopped to pick up survivors, the tin can stopped dead in the water a couple of hundred yards ahead of the sinking transport. I suppose the good Lord will want an explanation but I sent a few more fish into the tin can and sent the 1991 ton escort under too. 7. Running low on torpedos we made for Midway and arrived back in port on 2-13-1943. Arrived in port with the boom flying and the crew happy. I took a few pictures through the scope for bragging rights. Patrol Results: tanker 10,259 t. sub trap 7,526 t. DD 2,089 t. Transport 7,992 t. DD 1.991 t. Total: 29,857 t. Here's a sight sure to make any sub driver's heart skip a beat: IMG] I really like the Vicker's mod torpedo wake... ...but I like the Vicker's mod fireball even more! __________________ A cool sub and TV show that started my love affair with submarines.