the radio message sounded promising: "Large neutral convoy". 200+ km away: Nope, too far. But ... the convoy found me - hours later, early morning, same message but closer. Still on its course. I decided to lie low and take a peek, maybe shadow during the day and attack at night.
This is what the sonar officer told me when the convoy was about 8km away:
Large, indeed. But - four warships ? come on, this is only my fourth patrol. I can handle one destroyer with luck, but four?. While I waited for the convoy to pass, I took a peek:
A closer look at the "lead" ship (hm, first row, third from right. Why "lead" ship?)
Must have been the lead ship, because it has a Greek flag. The only other (hm, is carrying tanks compatible with neutral status?) "neutral" ship was another Small Merchant with a Norwegian flag way back in the convoy.
The juicy rest:
1 Large Merchant, 1 Ore Carrier, 1 Whale Factory, 3 Medium Cargo, 12 more medium merchants, and four warships (1 V&W, 1 A&B, 2 J&K destroyers) ... all of them British. "Neutral Convoy", my a**.
I'm beginning to see the point in "sink em all" ...