I'm back playing GWX again for the first time in years and falling in love all over. I'm on my third patrol with the 2nd Flotilla, October of '39 and I'm heading towards BF17 to intercept some shipping. I've made the decision to head through the channel and while my previous trips through (one pre-war and one just as war broke out) were uneventful, this one has been anything but and I'm not even IN the channel yet!
Right off of Dover I had my first contact. A medium merchant all alone. She was sank with a single torpedo, and right after the torpedo exploded my worthless hydrophone operator informed me of warships steaming my way. I escaped easily, but while I was crawling along near the bottom at 1 knot we received another contact not far from the first one we sank. The warships had left to continue their patrol and it was just me and the small merchant. I surfaced the boat and let the deck gun unload on them until they were on their way to the bottom. The warships returned and we danced a bit before escaping without damage.
I didn't make it far, right off the coast of Calais and I began receiving warship contacts all over, but most were on routine patrols and had no idea I was even there, and then another contact popped up, a large merchant ship steaming my way. All I had to do was lay in wait. I set the torpedo to fast speed, impact pistol, and just below the water line. I aimed for the bunker but hit just ahead of it. Within an hour she was on the bottom.
I made my way to a deeper part of the channel and stayed submerged until night. Before I went to bed I surfaced and began running at 12 knots heading west, perhaps foolishly. It seems to be a target rich environment and at this rate I will run out of fish before reaching my patrol grid.
We'll see if I survive.
TL;DR: Don't go in the channel.
|