My closest call ever.

[maillemaker]

I'm on 100% realism with every option checked, including no map updates. Playing Dead is Dead. Though I do have a mod that allows me to see % hull integrity since I figured captains would have some feel for the level of damage to their ship.

It is March 1944. I've just transferred to Bergen from Lorient with my type IXD2. I want to be sure I'm there when they start handing out the type XXIs.

The IXD2 is a goliath. With the number of torpedoes and the amount of fuel we have we can wipe out convoys and can virtually run at full speed into and out of the operations area. I'd be thankful for that speed later.

The new Type V homing torpedoes are now out. I put 4 in the stern and two up front. All the rest of the internal bow loads are FAT electrics. Since the outside storage can't handle electrics that need routine maintenance, the outside loads are all FAT steamers. I love the new homing torpedoes. They are escort killers.

We head out on a patrol to AM52. A trivial trip for the D2. I don't like the patrol grid we've been assigned as the water starts to get shallow there on the map. Like all of us who have made it this far, we live by the mantra, "Stay out of shallow water!".

We make the trip "over the top" of England with little trouble. Our radar warning goes off a few times and once we ducked under the water just a hair too late and some bullets nick our AA guns on the aft conning tower structure. Still at 98% hull integrity though.

Almost to our patrol grid, and we are alerted to a convoy south west of us coming straight at us at 9 knots. A trivial intercept - they will run us over without us even having to change course. The sun is low in the sky when we detect the radar from their escorts and I take her under. Sonar points them a mere two degrees off the starboard bow. We stay under and let them come to us.

It's a surprisingly easy approach for this late in the war. We slide to the left of the lead escort undetected, and end up inside the convoy just inside the left-most column of ships. As expected, the outside column isn't as juicy as the inside columns, but they are big enough that I'm somewhat sorry my stern tubes are full of homing torpedoes.

I turn 90 degrees to be perpendicular to the convoy's path to start my attack.

I'm in the perfect spot for a big merchant that will cross my bow at 400 meters approaching from my right. My plan is to put 2 into it, 2 into another that comes along, and reload and hit some more until the escorts make me leave. We've got a nearly completely undamaged ship (a necessity when attacking convoys this late in the war) so I can take her down past the red line and get away undetected. I'm confident.

And it's here that I make my first mistake.

I assume that the convoys will go ape **** when the merchant I'm about to blast goes up. So I decide to go ahead and launch my two stern homing torpedoes at the port-side flank escort and the trailing port-side flank escort. I'll have to shoot through a gap in the left-most row of merchants to hit the first one, and shoot out the rear of the convoy to hit the other. But I figure by the time the torpedoes arm the escorts will be gunning it and the fish will nail them before they know what hit them.

So I loose one of my rear homers at the port-most flanker, and then turn the scope to the left to find the rear flanker. It's then that I notice the last ship in the outside column is a British sub. I can make out the escort beyond her. I fire my second homing fish and turn my attention back to the merchant now almost in front of me.

I secure from silent running so the boys can start reloading the rear tubes. In 30 seconds the **** is going to hit the fan anyway so it's time to get busy. I've dialed up the TDC for 7 knots and a 90 degree shot. The big merchant crosses about 10 degrees to starboard and I let two FAT electrics fly. They won't need their ladder capability at this range, because I can't miss.

Boom. Boom. Both torpedoes hit the merchant and she begins to burn. The convoy is going faster than I anticipated so both torpedoes struck her in the stern. The last fish just barely caught her and must have blown off the steering gear and wrecked her screws. She starts to founder and fall out of position. It's really getting dark now and searchlights are coming on all over the convoy, including the one I hit. I push the scope down a hair in the water.

At this point I switch to the tactical map to see how my homing torpedoes are doing. It's a bug in the simulation that even at 100% realism with no map updates you can still see your torpedoes running around on the tactical map. I watch to see if the homing torpedoes are homing. The first one has sailed out of the convoy and is continuing on to oblivion. It never heard the escort I fired it at. The second homing fish, however, is tracking - it looped back and is tracking one of the merchants in the outer-most row of the convoy. I jump to the scope just in time to see it run up the butt of a fair-sized cargo ship and explode. It was set shallow for an escort, though, and consequently it hits high on the hull and not deep enough to damage the screws or steering gear. Probably hit the rear anchor chain closet and while it will make docking tricky for her captain when they get to port she doesn't even slow down now.

So. Two expensive homing torpedoes wasted.

Reloading is underway, and I've got two T3 Flächenabsuchender fish ready to go. Another big merchant crosses my bow, but it's two rows over in the convoy - about 1000 meter shot. I loose my last two ready fish and wait. Unfortunately, both torpedoes miss and in spite of their ladder-running capability they never hit anything. So so far I've sunk one ship on this convoy attack. Very poor performance compared to my usual escapades.

I can see two huge tankers bringing up the rear of the column right in front of me, but they are about 1000 meters away. They are lagging in the convoy. I want to wait for them but the two escorts I had shot at earlier are now speeding my way. I decide to go to full speed and run down the convoy until I get beside the tankers, and then I'll cut left and nail one. I should have two bow torpedoes loaded by the time I get into position.

Several minutes pass. Both the escorts have now cut inside the convoy and are pinging like mad. I'm still not in position yet. I drop a noise maker to keep the escorts busy while I move into firing position on the tanker. Finally I give the order to come 90 degrees to port, and none too soon. Things are happening fast now. The escorts have discovered that the noise maker isn't really me and are a little mad about that and are churning the water my way. And in my haste I have gotten very, very close to the tanker. I'm worried I'm so close my fish won't arm and they will bounce off her hull, wasted.

I give the order to fire my two front fish and dive deep. We've stayed too long at this party.

BOOM! BOOM! Both fish hit. And there are many secondary explosions easily audible, as well as the screeching of metal. I jump to the scope and even though we are about 25 meters underwater I can just make out the hull of the tanker - she's broken in two and we are going to pass directly under her. I'm worried she will come down right on top of us and take us all to the bottom so I hastilly order another 90 degree cut to the right to take us out the rear of the convoy. I'm proud of my maneuvering as a couple of minutes later the last tanker, the one that was following the one we hit, passes directly over our heads. Hopefully the escorts will be unable to find us with the nice tanker shield directly over us.

We go to silent running and full speed heading for 180 meters depth, just into the red. We could probably go deeper but with 98% hull integrity I don't want to chance it, and that should be plenty deep enough to avoid detection.

Unfortunately, it wasn't. With the very calm seas, the escorts are having a field day. Non-stop pinging and they've got us cold. I try a couple of high-speed sprints leaving a noise maker behind, but it has no effect at all.

Finally a pass comes that is close enough to damage the two aft-most compartments. My damage control team is expert, however, and three qualified petty officers headed up by my engineer max out the repair effort. They get it fixed quickly enough but we are down to 87% hull integrity. We have no choice but to ease up the depth a bit. I come up to 140 meters.

They are still hammering away with the sonar non-stop. We maneuver as best we can for a while, but once again another pass busts things loose in the two aft compartments. Once again my DC team stops the water from coming in but we are now at 57% hull integrity.

Things are looking rough now. There is no way we can go deep enough to lose their sonar. Our only choice is to fight it out on the surface. I secure from silent running so that our boys can finish loading up the torpedoes. I've got 2 homing torpedoes in the rear and two up front but they are not in the tubes - everything being loaded up front are T3 FATs. I turn the boys loose to finish loading and head for periscope depth.

Unfortunately, we don't get there.

At about 30 meters a destroyer makes a run on us and they hit pay dirt. They blast us so hard that the boat rolls nearly 90 degrees in the water. They caught us right amidships. Massive damage. The attack periscope is destroyed. The hydrophone is destroyed. We've got flooding in three compartments. Major flooding in the bow crew compartment. It's so bad that we can't rise. We can't get to periscope depth to fire our fish! And our hull integrity is now down to 13%! We are just darn lucky that all the batteries and the motors are still intact so we can still maneuver.

I order the rear tubes fired and thankfully even though we are not at periscope depth we are not so deep as that we can't fire the fish. I send them off at divergent angles and hope they can find their marks while we fix our damage and get the flooding under control.

Within minutes, I watch the two homing fish on the tactical map and they are both tracking to different targets. I've cut our engines back so they don't home in on us. Damage control is working and the flooding is getting under control. Boom! Boom! Both of the magical homing torpedoes have found targets and destroyed escorts. The pinging that has been hammering us non-stop diminishes greatly, but still continues - there are still more escorts up there. And it's amazing that our boat is still afloat given the beating we've taken.

We've pumped enough of the water out that at flank speed we start to crawl to the surface and periscope depth. I've got to use the observation scope now as the attack scope is finished. It breaks the water and I see two more escorts circling - to River class frigates. We dance with them as they try to make passes over us, and when one passes us coming up from the stern I throw it into back emergency so they will hook around in front of us. I set the TDC to zero knots speed and fire by dead reckoning. I put the crosshair about 2 and a half ship lengths in front of her and fire and hold my breath. With map updates turned off, all I can do is wait and see if it hits or not. After about 30 seconds the frigate lifts out of the water on a mountainous geyser. A hit, and she's down.

I turn towards the last remaining escort and try a down-the-throat shot. It will be hard, because she's zig-zagging, but usually the stop turning and go straight in on the last 400 meters. If you can time your shot right you can get a shot off with just enough time for the torpedo to arm and detonate with a magnetic fuse. But this one never stops zig-zagging. Against my better judgement I take the shot, trying to estimate the lead and get it off before she gets too close for the fish to arm. No luck. The torpedo misses. We cut the rudder hard and the escort and I turn into each other, passing so close to the side of her that her side-launching depth charges fly over our boat but far enough away that her charges dropped over the stern do not hit us.

As the frigate cuts around our stern, coming around our right, I throw our boat into reverse and set up for another across-the-bow shot.

I've got two torpedoes left, one is ready, and one is being loaded. The River class is cutting across our bow now from right to left, just as before. I estimate the lead and let a torpedo go. We wait and wait, but it just keeps cruising on. I've missed. And I've got one torpedo left.

Now sometime in this fight I evidently fired off one of the two homing torpedoes that I had in forward storage. I don't know when I did it. And my last torpedo is now loading. It's got a black body, so it might be a homing torpedo, but it also might be a standard T3 FAT torpedo, too. While they are loading in game you cannot click on them to see what kind they are.

Is it a homing torpedo? Or a standard torpedo?

We wait for it to load, hoping it's a homing torpedo. Meanwhile, we dance evasively with the frigate. We dare not dive with the hull this damaged.

Finally the loading progress gets to the warhead. It's gold! It's a homing fish! We've got a chance!

Finally, agonizingly, the last torpedo is loaded, and I fire it in the direction of the escort. It meanders off 400 meters and then starts wiggling - it's looking for a target. And it finds one. It curves around and...heads back towards us!

The River class frigate is bearing down on us from almost dead ahead. It cuts across our bow from left to right, and will pass us close on the starboard side. The homing fish is making a beeline for the two of us. I'm scared it will hit us so I cut the engines completely. The escort is bearing down. The fish is coming almost here.

I pull the observation scope under the water. I can see the stern of the River in the murky water. And against the froth of its wake I can see the homing fish driving home! Will it hit before the escort starts dropping charges on us? Are we too close?

Plop...plop - I can see charges hitting the water but then the torpedo speeds through them and BOOOM in a massive explosion depth charges and torpedo explode simultaneously and the River class frigate goes up with a massive explosion!

Miraculously, in spite of being so close that I could watch the fish impact in the dark, we take no damage. I push the observation scope up to its full height. Did we get them all? Are there more escorts? I can't make anything out but some faint smoke smudges from the fading convoy. The sea is silent from pinging. I pull the scope down and order us to the surface. Flank speed, away from the convoy.

We break the surface at a run. Uh-oh. Through binoculars I can make out the distant profile of another escort with a frothy beard cutting through the water coming at us. Someone had stayed with the convoy and now that all the escorts were dead they were compelled to come after us.

The watch officer reports the nearest visual contact is about 12,000 meters away. We are going to run for it. I tell the engineer to forget about charging the batteries and give us everything we have to run for it. If that escort catches us we are finished. We have no more internal torpedoes and one shell will sink us. Hell, one machine gun round would probably sink us.

And then I do something I normally don't do. Normally to bring in the internal torpedo stores I wait for calm seas at night and come to a dead stop for the dangerous operation of unshipping the external loads and bringing them in the loading hatches. But we have calm seas and we are practically floating across the water at 16 knots. I order the crew to bring the fish in while we are underway. If that escort catches us and we have to go under we will have no choice but to try and duke it out but we must get torpedoes inside or we are finished. I tell the boys to tie themselves in well because if someone goes overboard we cannot stop.

The watch officer says that we are gaining ground on the escort, which is still coming our way. She's about 14,000 meters away. We are starting to feel like we might get away when the sky about half way between us and them erupts in light from a star shell. We keep running and loading.

Several minutes go by. Finally at about 15,000 meters I can barely make out the escort, and she's broadside to us. She's no longer running us down. Either she's searching, or she's turning back, but either way, it looks as if we have survived!

We continue to run full bore away from the escort, even after she has disappeared. Suddenly, the radio operator detects radar signals! It is dark - close to midnight - but the skies are clear. Could it be a night attack aircraft? I decide to chance it to get the last two fish inside. I don't even bother manning the AA guns as one strafing run and we would be done for anyway.

Turns out, it was another escort. Probably called in on our location for support from our hit on the convoy. It's about 15,000 meters away when we spot it, 25 degrees to starboard. We cut east by southeast, almost back towards the last escort we ditched (!) at flank speed, to move away from this new threat.

Fortunately, she never sees us. Finally, with all the external fish brought inside and no escorts in sight, we cut the engines back to two-thirds and send the crew to rest. We have survived. I plot a new course back home, keeping us in deep water and well away from the shores of England. We are in no shape for any kind of fight. The boat is barely afloat.

It turns out, as we turn north to run for home, that we were very close to the initial reported position of the convoy we attacked. And lo and behold, what do we run across but a 24,000 ton troop transport, dead in the water!

I have seen this a lot with GWX, particularly late in the war with the bigger ships in convoy. Often they will be damaged and fall out of formation of the convoy and straggle. I assume this is to simulate damage from other u-boat attacks or maybe it is just a bug.

Anyway, here we are with a massive troop ship, dead in the water, and no escorts. I can see through the binoculars that she's well armed, though, fore and aft, so at about 8,000 meters we slip beneath the waves and approach her broadside at periscope depth.

At about 700 meters I launch two steamers at her at full speed settings. She was a sitting duck, sitting low in the water. Both of them slammed into her side. Probably one would have finished her off but two of them put an end to her straight away. It made the poor showing on the convoy attack at least pay off. We'll need the renown next patrol for those expensive homing torpedoes and the type XXI when she's available.

The rest of the trip home was tense, but uneventful. We dove at the first sign of enemy radar. We traveled underwater by day, full speed on the surface at night. When we rounded the top of Lerwick I finally let out a breath of relief.

Never have I been so happy to make it into port. This is the closest I've come to death and still survived. I really thought we were finished on this one.

[Tango589]

A superb read, well done on surviving!

[Jimbuna]

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!!

[Tonnage_Ace]

That made for a great read on my way to work!
Next time you're being hunted and you have no other options, try going flank away from the searching destroyer, set an aft torpedo(typeIII) for magnetic and 4m depth then set speed to slow and adjust your heading so that he is roughly at 180 from you...fire when he straightens out and goodnight

Lots of success with that

[KL-alfman]

glad, you made it back home!
enthralling experience

[ExFishermanBob]

A great read - I realised I was holding my breath about half-way through it!

[banryu79]

Outstanding AAR, thanks for posting!

[Kremmen]

Oh man that was tense.Great read,thanks for posting

[Panthera Pardus]

Really well written. I could dimly see it before my eyes. I am glad that you have managed to get out home. Thank You for posting.

Joy and Happiness
Panthera Pardus

[captgeo]

great read....thanks

[GJO]

A riveting story - well done!

I am currently half way through reading 'Iron Coffins' and your adventure sounds more thrilling than the real thing . . .

[maillemaker]

Glad you all liked it! This was probably one of my toughest sorties ever. I can't believe I survived it.

Iron Coffins is a great read! I think Werner is still alive in Florida.

Steve

[GreyBeard]

That was a good read, an excellent story. Do you use the Gameplay and Realism Patch by h.sie?

[Aras]

Outstanding work and great story Herr Kaleun

[scott_c2911]

That was a fine story. I was genuinely scared for you. I wanted to ask a question though. I could really do with the mod that shows hull integrity. Where do I get it from?