Boompus' Gibralter thread inspired me to try the mission again. The last time was long ago when I first installed the game, I didn't get far then since I had no clue what I was doing.
This time I thought I would try to see how far I could make it on the surface at night since I didn't want to spend hours trying to creep through. I loaded the mission and laid course for the African coast of Spanish Morocco at ahead full. Avoiding two destroyers on the way I arrived as dusk was setting in. Hugging the shallow waters near the coast, I entered the strait when darkness fell.
It got quite shallow in a few places, eleven meters once. Many patrols came close but only twice did I have to dive to periscope depth to avoid them. I made it nearly half way when...
...I got ambushed by two MTBs that got close enough without being seen. Letting my crew duke it out with them I tried to make a dash for deeper water, weaving left and right to try and keep those speedy little demons within the deck gun's firing arc. It took about twenty shots, but three hits each finished them.
It wasn't long before their big brothers showed up and were all over me worse than my cats when I open a can of tuna.
I could only safely dive to forty five meters at that point, so it got pretty hairy. In the course of their hunt a couple of funny things happened to distract me.
This guy ran aground at full speed.
And this fellow dropped a string nearly on top of me, stopped, backed up and the exploding depth charges blew off his DC Racks, maybe his propellers too, I didn't check. Wish I had gotten the shot when it happened.
Hard turns and short bursts of flank speed finally allowed me to get away into deeper water with relatively minor damage and flooding, except for completely destroyed stern dive planes. The rest of the trip I crept.
La Spezia at last. Italy sure looks pretty.
