Stories and Patrol Logs + Screenshots and Videos (merged)

[Gryffon300]

Very much enjoying the story threads. I wouldn't mind contributing (I've just had a great first patrol ex Pearl, but I want to do it justice), so I need some technical advice or a referral to a good 'How to' thread, to find out:

- What are the best methods for capturing events (shots) - I see both screen shots and what look like event camera or free camera shots; and,

-what is the best method for capturing log data for ship ID, tonnage etc to provide accurate detail. (I've found and tried to install a report generator utility unsuccessfully - so I'm looking for a fix or an alternative.)

Thanks
Gryff

[in_vino_vomitus]

CTRL+F11 grabs a screenshot and the DEL key on the number pad removes the dials. The details of your kills ought to appear in the captains log automatically. I have to say I'm not sure how to post full-size pictures. Looking forward to a patrol report - you write pretty well

[Tonnagekoenig]

Hi all,

here



is a little video i made as promotion for our Aces of the Deep-Mod "Fall of the rising sun!" and our upcoming online-campaign. Have fun watching. I hope you like it!

So long.

[Gryffon300]

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

CTRL+F11 grabs a screenshot and the DEL key on the number pad removes the dials. The details of your kills ought to appear in the captains log automatically. I have to say I'm not sure how to post full-size pictures. Looking forward to a patrol report - you write pretty well

Thanks for your kind words and information. I was wondering why the little 'Camera' button doesn't work in my set-up. So, I'll give your method a go, though, like you, I'd like a few more options/skills up my sleeve. I would have LOVED to have known what to do in my first cruise - there was one artistically beautiful explosion that I desperately wanted to be able to capture for memories and to share with you...

Anyway, I'll give it a go to explain a mission - see what you think.

Tight Hatches

Gryff

[in_vino_vomitus]

Looking forward to it - also worked out the full size pic thing - you need to upload the pic elsewhere and insert the link - it's the button between the speech bubble and the letter/envelope on the toolbar....

[Overkill]

Awesome video, sir!

[Gryffon300]

07-12-1941
Well, my Darling, here is (hopefully) the first of several journals that I will keep for you and the boys to be passed on to you (again, hopefully in person!) after hostilities end. I want you all to understand some of the things that we go through, but especially to help the boys understand what it means to go to war, and help them decide whether a life in the military really is for them. I have felt that Josh and Aaron sometimes get 'braid-dazzled' by the uniform. I want them joining for their own reasons - not from some misplaced hero-worship.

However this has come into your hands, you should know that our mutual acquaintance at Mahalo Pete's is being tasked to be our 'Bookkeeper' for this somewhat unmilitary and highly clandestine project. (There is certainly no-one at the Dolphin's Hole that I would entrust, being mostly navy, and its way too risky to entrust any of the crew or base personnel - it would be a career-ender for them and a Court Martial for me. The Military Intelligence guys would NOT appreciate what I am about to do. I know you understand this, but I implore you to refrain from mentioning this in any correspondence - the Censors would be all over it like flies on a cow-pat.)

I know you will be reading this a long time from now (maybe years - who knows how long this damn thing will last?), but I've got to say again how much I regret the decision to send you all off to the wilds of Canada. I still believe with everything that's in me that it's the right decision to keep you all safe. How an Aussie ended up skipping a boat in the Yank Navy, and his family learning to handle a White Christmas is still a head-scratcher, but I pray, with the perspective of time, we will see that we made the right decision for the safety of our family.

So as not to sugar-coat anything, and to be of use to the boys if they ever go Nautical, I may get a bit technical, but in between all that, I hope it means something to you. Anyway, here we go:

I am proud to report that the 'powers that be' have finally relented and decided to recognise my stirling qualities (not to say years of experience on that leaky pommie sausage), and assigned me as skipper of the USS Permit (SS-178)! It's a Porpoise class - a bit better than the old tub, eh? (As you new-chum Canadians would say.)

__________________________________________________ ____________

08-12-1941
After minor refits (new air and surface radars and upgraded guns and paint-job), I've been handed a ship-shape command and after our final provisioning sees us full away the day after the attack on Pearl. It was pretty hairy, but thankfully, it doesn't look like our boats were a priority target, so the Big Guns took the brunt of it. (The magazine going up on the Arizona knocked the wind out of me more than a mile away while I was dodging like a dingo on the way to a bunker.)

__________________________________________________ _______________

12-12-1941
Some of my Septic Tank crew are a fair bit taller than the Jack-Tars I've crewed with, so I'm having more than a few chuckles hearing the curses fly as yet another bloke bangs his scone on the overhead. (This early in the cruise, we have a virtual cobble-stone pavement of cans throughout a lot of the companion-ways for extra storage, thus reducing the headroom by about 6". It's normal procedure for us, as you know, but I don't know if these guys have done it this way before - I must ask the Purser. On these long-range boats, I think the gang should appreciate my little private deal with the chandlers in a few weeks time. I'm determined that we celebrate Christmas with a bit of panache - though I must say, these blokes certainly get, and expect, a level of quality and quantity of grub that still beggars the imagination. Rationing is something absolutely foreign to them.)

__________________________________________________ ____________

15-12-1941
We are off to the South China Sea. The orders in this Navy are a little weird, my love. They seem to afford us skippers unusual latitude - get to an area and loiter for a few days, then do as I deem fit. VERY different from the totally prescriptive orders I'm used to with the Brits. So, given that I don't have a required date to be on-station at the designated co-ordinates, I have twisted the COB's arm and got him enthusiastic about a three-day detour to Wake Island. With all the wild rumours going around regarding the disposition of advancing Jap forces, I think it wise to get some personal experience with possible future hot-spots. (We'll probably scope-out Midway on the way back, if all goes well.)

To 'make up' for the extra distance, we've compromised on running at 2/3 rds. This wasn't a hard sell: one of the skippers I've had a chin-wag with insists that that is the only way to run (given that it's 6 or 7 thousand miles to the patrol zone!) Bit of a change from the old Strategy and Planning lecturer at Sub School. I can hear him now, "Just what do you imagine 'Standard Speed' means, Mr?" Sarcastic twat.)

__________________________________________________ ____________

20-12-1941
Well, we've spent a day or so nosing around. Just as well. I'd never go in there submerged - I don't even think I'd be able to send a fish in there at the normal running depth - I'd have to set it to run shallow from the harbour mouth at night to give us a shot at taking things out at anchor. Had a couple of air raids come over from the West while we were there - so obviously there's something nasty out there prowling around.
Well, mission accomplished - off to patrol off China.

__________________________________________________ ___________

21-12-1941
Holy Smoke!
We'd hardly cleared Wake last night (about 15 nm west, I think - must get a scribe to make note of these time and location things for future logs) when we started to pick up sporadic radar and sound returns. We went to Flank on a direct course and over the next half hour we began getting multiple returns. It sure as heck wasn't our boys! The returns were trending right, so we bent our course westward to intercept. Another half hour and we were tracking half a dozen returns. I'd been bitching to another senior skipper about not seeing any convoys - looks like I got my wish. On the other hand, it seemed that their speed was at or above 12 knots, so maybe our 'virgin' boat was about to see what it was like to tangle with a task-force! It never rains, but it pours, right?

Continued to close, and started to get some visuals at between 3.5 and 4.5 nm. It was dark enough, and I was down to slow so as not to show a bow-wave and there she was. A fleet carrier. Of course! That explains the Zeros raiding Wake. We adjusted our angle of attack to give a nice intercept inside the destroyer screen (only pool-ball-rack three and the lead was sniffing around west of the line of advance). I was about 2.5 nm east of the intersect-line with the carrier about 4 nm down-range when another carrier came into view! I was about to 'phone it in' when up pops a Heavy cruiser, then a couple of minutes later, a second! Embarrassment of riches!

Radar said there was nothing serious behind that one, so I called in the sighting and went to periscope depth. SubPac responded that they had no idea that these scorpions were in the area - so I believe it was worth the risk to get in a good report. We drove in for the optimum firing solution, with my tiny mind going like a cat on a hot tin roof. You know what I'm like at a Smorgasbord - too much choice leaves me strategising how to get a little bit of everything. So, 2 prime and 2 secondary targets (plus avoiding destroyers) and only 4 forward torps and two rear. Hmmm.

I would normally assume 4 plus for a carrier, but with the destroyers far enough away, I was willing to risk 3 and 3, hope for a disable and a clean-up later. Put the crew on battle-alert status, opened all tube doors, set tubes 1-3 for slow and 4-6 on fast, set depth at draft minus 10 (I'd heard some nasty rumours about these American torps running deep - among other problems).

I let the lead run past square at about 1500 then we let go a good spread right, mid, left at the Hiryu. Then, went to hard port at flank, and zeroed the rudder as we came to bear on the Soryu, let lose with a 'centre-shot', then went to hard port again. About then the first of the 'slows' hit. Eventually came to bear again for the rear on our second friend (who hadn't started to change course yet), went to centre rudder and ahead Standard and put a right & left into her.

Carried on to put some distance in and watched as all three impacted the Soryu! I lost track of the strikes on the Hiryu, but I know we had two hits, maybe three. Within an hour, the Hiryu was listing and disabled and the Soryu was going down. The Cruisers and escorts hung about for a while, but not long enough to reload more than one - even with my best guys on the job. I had come about and let it rip at a Cruiser, but it was a dud, so I went deep and silent and slunk off to get away from the (pretty lost) escorts.

After they eventually picked up and headed off, I came off 'Silent' & relieved the crew and allowed them to stand down from battle stations (even though this was going to slow my re-loading time). No hurry now.

__________________________________________________ _____________

21-12-'41 (cont)
Around dawn, I surfaced at about 6,500 from the cripple. It hadn't seemed to settle any more during the night and the list seemed about the same. I didn't want to give them the benefit of wasting another torp if i could avoid it, so I let loose with the new deck gun and armour-piercing shells. It was too far, so I continued to move in (cautiously!), but received no return fire. It was great gunnery practice for us, and I expended the entire load of armour pierces and about half my HE's and I was wondering what in the Seven Oceans I was thinking trying to down a Carrier with my little BB-gun, when she decided to do a slow role. Chalk up a second carrier! Were the gun crew ever cock-a-hoop! Who ever heard of a 50 cal sinking a carrier? The boys will be getting a few rounds shouted for them at the Dolphin's to retell THAT one over and over. (Though, there's one scurvy Captain I know that I'm sure will be wanting photographic evidence. Honestly, I couldn't say I blame him.)

It was well after sun-up, but I was still getting the occasional trace of the remainder of the task force NNE of our position, so, "Why not?". Off we went at flank having done the improbable, full of p*** and vinegar. We could do anything!

After chasing them for a couple of hours, the returns started to get stronger! Quickly. They were coming back at us! So, once again, we were in the hunt. Got on the line of advance in perfect firing position BUT, with about 2 nm to go to the intercept point, they altered coarse to the SE. I shot off 4 'Hail Mary's', not expecting anything, and was not disappointed - 2 duds, a premi and a miss.

Well, we waited till they were at extreme range, and once again surfaced and gave chase for the better part of the morning, only to have them double back on us, again! What WERE they thinking? Probably awaiting new orders. I'm sure that there were intense discussions going on back at HQ about which officer(s) was going to have the honour of committing hara-kiri! Whatever they had planned must surely be aborted now, and the reason for the carrier group is gone without the carriers. I wonder if the bridge officers are on deck in their white kimono readying to go meet their ancestors? Either way, from what we learned of Bushido, I wouldn't want to be them. Poor buggers.

So, set up again and waited. The two Mayas came barrelling through at 16 knots, so no mucking around. Set all to fast and again opened all doors. Let loose 3 at the first and our last 2 at the second - similar to the carrier procedure. I got two premature detonations and a dud on the first lucky SOB, but got a BEWDY single hit on the second. It must have been the perfect depth setting right underneath the magazine, because that one hit sent her up in the most astounding fire-ball that took her to the bottom in short order. It was absolutely transfixing - I couldn't take my eye from the scope. pretty negligent of me, cause this time the destroyers were much closer (less spread-out, only having two ships to guard now). They were pinging their little heads off, but once again RSRD served me well.

Eventually saw them off, got up and chased them - don't know why I bothered - don't know what I thought we would do if we caught them as we were by now out of torps. They saved me the trouble of finding out - this lot eventually headed off into the blue to the NW and outran me. Thought we'd be good little submariners and continue on to our patrol zone (old habits die hard). I had a gun with 60 odd shells left plus a bunch of eyeballs that may prove useful to the decision-makers, so we will continue to our zone with about 42,000 tons of enemy capital ships under our ballast. Its a grand feeling.

__________________________________________________ _______

25-12-'41
Had a cheerful, solemn Christmas. All my treats and the special foods went down a treat. Even a tot of rum each was appreciated - though I heard a lot of moaning that it wasn't bourbon. There's just no pleasing some people. (Actually, it was all done in good cheer - as comradely ribbing of the 'Aussssie' Skip - why they can't pronounce Aussie or G'day, I haven't worked out yet, but they genuinely can't, so I'll have to get used to it or charge them with dereliction of duty. Can't make up my mind which yet, as I told them. They are talking about putting it to the vote. They're a good bunch.)

__________________________________________________ ______

30-12-'41
Ran into a solo merchant (a Nagara) on the afternoon of the 28th , almost literally. The weather was atrocious - rain and fog with limited visibility. Picked up this tub on our systems and groped around closing in on him. We were on the surface, at General Quarters, prepared to take him on with the gun, slogging through a heavy sea, when we broke through the mist to see him looming over us, broadside at about 150 yards! Oops! We both lit off, with me in emergency astern and both of us blazing away. We must have been down to about 20 yards, well within my White Knuckle Zone, by the time we were stopped and starting to withdraw. Some skipper! Rookie mistake.

Anyway, by the time we had extracted ourselves from his visual range he had inflicted some serious damage on the ship and some of the crew. But, so had we, and I kept smashing away at him beyond visual range. Even though we were often only getting about 1 in 3 hits when the range or angle changed, we eventually put him down. Another 7,000 tons. Now, I had to look to my boat and crew.

Over the next day got it mostly all repaired - still about 15% reduction in integrity, so there will be no excursions to the depths, if I can avoid it. Needless to say, we are on our way back to Pearl. Now, I don't want you to worry (you can't anyway - you won't even know about it for weeks or months), but I WAS slightly wounded in the encounter, along with several of the crew. I didn't even know it at the time. It was only after I woke up with my eye swollen shut after I went to my bunk and fell asleep instantly (many hours after the encounter - once I was sure of the safe disposition of the boat and well-being of the crew).

THEY were well aware of the ruddy great shiner that I was developing - they later told me they just thought I was "being stoical". I'll never disabuse them of the notion - truth is, I didn't feel a thing. At least, not until today - I've got a lump the size of an orange, can't see out of it, and have the mother of all headaches. The medic has me looking positively piratical, and says I have to get X-Rayed back in base - he suspects a fractured eye socket. We got off lightly. Hope it was worth it.

__________________________________________________ _______

12-01-'42
Had an uneventful transit. We had a fine New Year's celebration with the last of the 'Special Stores'. I think it meant a lot.

We are about an hour out of port and the COB has just affixed the upended broom to the observation scope. Signals have been running hot and there's apparently quite a reception committee lined up for yours truly (mostly, "Well done", with a little sting-in-the-tail, "Please explain!" thrown in for that last fiasco). Whisper has it that I have a Purple Heart and a Navy Bronze Star waiting for me dock-side. Is that good? Don't know how special it is - I'll have to have a talk to a Yank who understands these awards, but I'm sure its no Victoria Cross, so I'm not going to be famous.

I'll sneak this out to 'the Bookkeeper' for safe keeping. I'll do another one on my next cruise to keep this one safe... The next one will be a lot shorter - less gum-flapping.

Miss you all badly. Hope Josh and Aaron enjoyed their first White Christmas - made a change from beach sand, I'll bet.

Thinking of you always,

Marcus.

[Tonnagekoenig]

Thanks!

By the way, here http://85.25.133.181//SH4-Onlinecamp...8/Intro-HQ.wmv you find the HQ-Version. I find it much better .

[Gryffon300]

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

CTRL+F11 grabs a screenshot and the DEL key on the number pad removes the dials. The details of your kills ought to appear in the captains log automatically. I have to say I'm not sure how to post full-size pictures. Looking forward to a patrol report - you write pretty well

Hi Vino

I've been revisiting the screen-shot issue. Its going to take me a little longer as, although Ctrl+F11 seems to do something, the .bmp file it creates is dumped into the SH4 folder, which is not good, as it means mucking around in that folder. Cutting and pasting in that folder is not great process - so I'll have to explore a way to control the destination folder, if possible.

Of more concern, however, is that the file (that is named like this - SH4Img@2013-07-03_16.16.14_529.bmp) is not openable, with an error message that comes up reading, "Windows Photo Viewer can't open this picture because the file appears to be damaged, corrupted, or is too large." (All the files are 3 MB).

More homework. (Sigh.) Can anyone point me to fix-up instructions?

Thanks
Griff

[in_vino_vomitus]

Well written - and good shooting

Funny thing about the screenshot thing is that the exact same thing happened to me. I move all of my images to a screenshot folder and then mess with them there - I'm sure there's a better way, but this has worked perfectly up 'til now. Last night I moved some over, opened them up and got the same error message you described, which has never happened before -
wierd.....

[Gryffon300]

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

Well written - and good shooting

Thanks for that.

Funny thing about the screenshot thing is that the exact same thing happened to me. I move all of my images to a screenshot folder and then mess with them there - I'm sure there's a better way, but this has worked perfectly up 'til now. Last night I moved some over, opened them up and got the same error message you described, which has never happened before -
wierd.....

I promise, IT WASN'T ME. I didn't do it. Not my fault. I didn't break it! Weird and a little spooky. Maybe its a recent Microsoft update that has created a problem?

Anyway, I'm a bit grumpy just now. I've just exited Truck Lagoon on the early hours of Aug 17, '42, having snuck through, avoiding 4 small subchasers to take out 9 or 10 merchants (4 east of Dublon, 4 East of Truck and 1 West of Truck, using a combination of Torps and gun on the last 5 - one torp each and gun if that wasn't enough), for a total of over 60,000 tons. I also then spotted a task force anchored to the West of the channel off the Truck docks, consisting of a Fleet Carrier, a Heavy Cruiser, Several Light Cruisers and a few DDs.

I got all this done, escaped under cover of darkness up the North Channel on the surface, and was on my way to my designated patrol zone (completely out of ammo) and the game 'killed' me because I ran out of Oxygen!!! I was aware of a glitch, because I was showing CO2, but diving and surfacing multiple times did not clear it. So, the Beast gave me another Purple Heart and a nice medal, I didn't get time to 'save', because I was cruising on time-compression. It probably wouldn't have helped anyway, because it wouldn't have let me RTB because of the O2 issue. It was determined to suffocate us regardless.

So, I'll have no option but to go back to my previous save in the channel 8,500 yds SE of the Dublon dock. I'll probably "cheat" this time and by-pass the merchants and have a go (long range - about 4,500 yds - from the channel) at the capital ships. Getting a Carrier and a Cruiser or two may be sufficient compensation.

Grrrrr.

Gryff

[in_vino_vomitus]

Yeah - if you just save your game and reload it, that usually fixes it - I've had a similar thing happen with silent running - I try to turn it on but despite the command being acknowledged the icon refuses to appear - this is usually followed by depth charges dropping like confetti. Something I have noticed though, is that the game stores periscope photos - the ones you take on photo recon missions - they're in the Documents\SH4\Data\Photo\ folder. The quality isn't great though - This is one....

[Gryffon300]

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

Yeah - if you just save your game and reload it, that usually fixes it - I've had a similar thing happen with silent running - I try to turn it on but despite the command being acknowledged the icon refuses to appear - this is usually followed by depth charges dropping like confetti. Something I have noticed though, is that the game stores periscope photos - the ones you take on photo recon missions - they're in the Documents\SH4\Data\Photo\ folder. The quality isn't great though - This is one....

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3807/9...39e30f7c_o.jpg

Yes, I have a few inactive buttons beyond the darkened 'camera' button. I've never been able to get the 'select target' gun button to work - I could have used it in a recent encounter at night in a target-rich environment - I wanted my crew to take out an excessively annoying and persistent sub-chaser (I had already put over 10 HE and AP rounds into him!).

I haven't had a recon mission yet, so I'll be curious to see whether the photo capture you speak of will function. What I find of great interest, though, is that the game saves the image as a jpg, rather than the bmp's that I am struggling with. Thanks for that info.

Gryff

[Gryffon300]

Hello again. I have started this second journal to try and ensure that you get to see at least one sometime in the future. Just as well, because on my way back from this mission, I was re-directed to Midway as a base, rather than back to Pearl. I've managed to speak with The Bookkeeper and he assures me he will keep the first one safe for us.

Anyway, after some minor repairs, we headed out for our Patrol zone around Hokkaido. We got there with no serious encounters. (I'm not going to bother mentioning the multiple and regular avoidance dives on all these pleasure cruises to evade detection by aircraft, unless something happens - just take it as read that in any cruise there will be 10 - 20 crash dives for this issue.)

Hung out for a few days in the area with nothing exciting happening. Absent any indicators to suggest a likely Happy Hunting Ground, we did my usual high-tech target discovery method - you remember the Dart Board Navigator game we developed, well, it's evolved a little. (These Yanks aren't so much into darts, but they ARE up for a bit of fun!)

We got the XO blindfolded in the Ward Room with a dart board on the wall. We crammed as many as possible into the room, turned him around three times, then had to shout instructions to get him on target on the board. In the confusion and bedlam, there were a couple of near misses, and one fellow (Chef'o) got a dart in his shoulder - but it taught them all a lesson about too many Chiefs causing total confusion! When they figured out that it was better to elect one bloke to give directions, it worked out much better (of course, it tickled their funny bones to select the most junior swabbie on the boat to Boss the XO around. Gave them all a cheer - they've taken to calling the lad 'Nav'. After what resulted, I suspect he has that moniker forever.)

Anyway, we use the dart board as a compass rose to select our heading. Once the XO eventually landed one, out came the protractor for a precise heading, and so it was that we headed off in the direction 'chosen' by 'Nav' and the XO, roughly SE, away from our designated patrol zone.

__________________________________________________ ______

One night, several days later, about 170 nm SE of our original patrol plot, we arrived at Long 145° 41' E, Lat 38° 36' N early in the morning of 29/06/42 and picked up some high-speed targets on radar.

I stayed up once I had tracked them to an interception point till they were in visual - a little group of 3 unescorted Takao Heavy Cruisers tracking NNE at about 16 knots! Outstanding!

They were line-astern running a moderate zig-zag, as expected. I set all 8 torps to high speed, opened the doors and lined up at about 900 yds from the line of advance and hoped. I got 3 away at the lead, then went to flank at hard a-port and put 3 toward the second. I then continued hard left to bring the rear to bear for the last 2 on the third one as it was going away at about 45 degrees on it's rear quarter.

Got a couple of hits on one and one on the second, with several premi detonations and misses (mostly running too deep - well below the set depth), and missed the third (for some reason, the skipper had decided not to carry on in a straight line!). Both the first two were slowing and in trouble, the third went into a high speed circling pattern around it's crippled fellows. I wasn't too concerned about going to flank to chase them while re-loading.

I got a few more shots off from fore and aft at all three, with multiple premi's and misses, but eventually a second into #2, but none into #3 (with so much happening, don't know what happened). As it turned out, #1 & #2 sank within minutes of each other (certainly tougher than that lucky shot on the Maya HC in the last cruise!).

In the meantime, #3 took off NNE at over 30 knots, importantly, on the original course. I waited for him to get beyond visual range (at about 6.5 nm in these conditions), then surfaced and went to flank on a slightly divergent course, with the recharge off, to squeeze an extra knot or two out of her, and settled down for a long stern chase, relying on the faint hope that the quarry would stay on the previously observed line AND drop back down to the original speed.

We got everything squared away, all remaining tubes re-loaded (down to 4 fish forward). We diverged to then run parallel to the old course line 9 nm offset. We lost all track for about 3 hours, but then started to pick something up on radar about on the line we had plotted. An hour or so after that, we were confident we were onto the quarry!

Hours later, we had overtaken and moved in to await the blast-past. Sure enough through it came and we let loose all 4 remaining torps (set to 10 and 15, hoping that they wouldn't dive too deep under the 20' draft). Tagged it with two fish and 13 hours after the first two, we sent the third to meet his siblings.

I really don't understand HOW we were able to catch him. Any decent skip with a brain in his noggin would have put himself on an alternate course for a couple of hours before returning to the objective. These Japs must not have the authority or inclination to deviate from their orders - if so, that 'discipline' certainly was a weakness this time and cost them dearly. He may not have dreamed WE would hunt him down, but he SHOULD have had the wit to be concerned that we would have set a snare for him with other subs along his route! Such tunnel vision cost over 750 men their lives. Such "Charge of the Light Brigade" blind obedience I didn't think had existed since the early days of the 'War to End Wars'. When will we ever learn?

Of the 16 torps we launched, I had: 6 hits; 3 misses; 1 dud; and, 6 premature explosions. I'm going to have WORDS with the armourers when we get back, you can bet on that!! Almost half my fish were useless!

__________________________________________________ ______

Just as a PS, before I hide this away here on Midway - got home to another yadda-yadda reception - the brass thought taking out so many cap ships on Japan's doorstep gave them a real bloody nose and will be a propaganda coup. Speaking of which, while we were still in range of Japan, we heard this amusing radio broadcast by this girl who is calling herself Tokyo Rose. She plays lots of good American Swing, but in between times she says amusing things like, "You build them, we sink them." After our little escapade, that gave the boys a good belly-laugh, I can tell you!

__________________________________________________ _______

I was on the way to the bank to get a lock-box account for this when I dropped into a pub here just outside the base. Of course it was full of servicemen of all descriptions but I found a booth and was amusing myself with a quiet toast to my fabulous crew. I'm reliably informed that a promotion to Commander is in the wind, together with a new boat (a Tambour class - more torpedoes!). I was hoping that most of my crew will be transferred with me and staring into my glass when I heard a loud call, "Mark-san!"

No guesses who that was! Yep, what were the chances that I'd lob in the same gin-joint as Miyagi-san! Kesuke had signed up immediately after Pearl in the Army with the 442nd (with many other Japanese Americans, apparently.) Unfortunately, he tells me that his pregnant wife has been interned in a camp, the same as the poor bloody Italians and Germans interned back home earlier in the war. I hope nothing bad happens, but he says that the government is stealing their home from them. Sometimes governments use the innocents for propaganda - the first casualty of war is truth?

I'm going to send you contact details for her - who knows? you may be able to do something for her from Canada - it's the least we could do for all their kindnesses to us. Mind you, did I EVER get some queer looks for talking with a 'filthy Jap'. A chest full of medals helped (I was off to the Base Commander's office after the bank - hence the need for some fortification. You know how much I love chin-wagging with the desk-warmers!). But, you know how people are, so whatever you decide to try to do for them, use discretion, eh?

Always Yours

Marcus

[Gryffon300]

Originally Posted by in_vino_vomitus

Well written - and good shooting

Funny thing about the screenshot thing is that the exact same thing happened to me. I move all of my images to a screenshot folder and then mess with them there - I'm sure there's a better way, but this has worked perfectly up 'til now. Last night I moved some over, opened them up and got the same error message you described, which has never happened before -
wierd.....

Hey, Vino, you old Sauce! Guess what, it fixed itself!

Here's a reprint of a post I put in the Mod Workshop 'CO2' thread.

Very weird stuff. As both myself and Vomitus developed an inability to open bmp files simultaneously, it was mooted that there may have been a Microsoft upgrade that had 'killed the function. I have tried multiple solutions, but to no avail. However, last night, after yet another series of standard Windows auto upgrades (131 MB's worth!), I took a bunch of screen shots on the off chance I could do something with them (I wanted proof that the game was not giving me credit for 3 out of the 6 Capitals (2 x Heavy and 1 x Light Cruisers).

I did not have much hope, but after the mission, I went to the saved files, and immediately noticed a significant difference. As previously noted, the un-openable files are 3MB files, whereas all of last night's shots were 5MB. Ah,ha! Something is going on. Sure enough, I can open and view them all.

Don't ask me what happened, I'm just glad something, somewhere was changed (but not by me).

Gryff