My god this game can be intense sometimes! I intercepted a convoy with an escort of 5 or 6 DD's and made a save that unfortunately was just a little too close.
The escorts immediately run a full speed to intercept me as soon as I enter the game. I managed to hit one with the stern tube but took a bit of damage
as one of them ran over me from astern while in the process of crash diving. After a very long time spent hiding as they ran back and forth dropping
depth charges, they eventually gave up and steamed off to rejoin the convoy.
After the DD's departed we surfaced and then started the long haul of finding and overtaking the convoy again. During the later stages of the attack,
we were spotted and once again and the DD's turned to intercept. I managed to fire 4 torpedoes into the convoy scoring 3 hits on 2 ships (wasn't what I
was actually aiming at) before crash diving again. Once again with the escorts dropping depth charges ineffectually in the wrong place I decided to
head in the general direction of the convoy and use some TC to speed things up as I had already spent a number of hours in real time for this intercept.
During the TC suddenly all hell broke loose as we took a hit from a depth charge. With damaged just about everything, the boat started to sink rapidly
with major flooding in the control room. I tried to blow ballast but could only maintain current depth using manual control of the hydroplanes and motors
set at flank speed. Obviously this gave the DD's a beacon to home in on but there was no choice, advertise your position or sink to crush depth!
With no options but to attempt knuckles and double knuckles as the DD's passed overhead and praying that you don't get hit again, the crew finally
got the flooding under control and we were able to reduce power on the motors. With the ballast blown and no compressed air, eventually positive
buoyancy then became the problem and manual hydroplanes and forward speed was needed as not to surface in the middle of the circling DD's
until the necessary repairs were completed to maintain the depth. I honestly didn't think that we would survive this adventure but with the Chief
putting extra crew on damage and flooding control with the help of the Bosun's moral boosts etc, we actually managed to survive. Not sure if
this stuff is actually what you would class as Sunday afternoon relaxation.
