Herr Russ
11-21-06, 10:35 AM
Left Brest for some obscure grid in the middle of nowhere. Got there on an uninterruped TC of 256 running on the surface the whole time except for my dusk/dawn phone check.. Patroled the grid on the surface at 1/3 for the 24 hours without a contact report.. Ran up to the Irish Channel and started to patrol back and forth. Weather was horrible with waves breaking over the conning tower and sometimes hitting the raised attack scope. Submerged and used the phones at 1/3 speed.. Started to get contact reports, but they were not moving. :hmm: Creeped up and saw a T3 doing 1 knot and riding out the storm. 1 eel took her down.. Picked up a warship closing, so I moved away.. Had to surface to charge the batteries. Didn't worry about speed, but charging.. Made a few 'clicks' in the weather, fully charged my batteries and submerged. Near the wreck of the T3 were two more contacts. Plotted a course & it appeared these were still as well.. Fully surfaced and charging, I spotted (barely) 2 C3's riding out the storm.. Two eels each and they joined the tanker.. While I was submerged & approaching the C3's, my highly decorated sonarman picked up two more contacts. Thinking I was in the middle of a convoy, I surfaced & tried to send a contact report. No luck. I did send a status report and was already over 26K tons. Approached the first unknown and it was just a coastal, but tonnage is tonnage :arrgh!: and one eel sent her down. The second unknown contact was a C2 (was as in past tense :up: ) That took 3 eels (one bounced off the hull)..
The weather started clearing and that brought out the destroyers. Probably wondering where their ships were. I had a V&W close and her course brought her across my stern at 900 meters.. I was still undetected so I let loose my eel from Tube 5. I was wondering if the acoustic fish would still detonate magnetically when the destroyer sped up to 24 kts. Just as I was looking for the crash dive button, her stern lifted up with a huge explosion and geyser of water. The screws and rudder were gone along with a sizeable section of hull.. She sank stern first.. We surfaced and watched the bow slide under.. Down to a few eels now & weather just too rough for the deck gun so we continued across the two grids where all these ships were sunk. Picked up a report of a merchant to the North and plotted an intercept course. I had just come up to speed when the lookouts spotted a ship. Turned out to be a 98 ton tug :stare: Not going to waste a fish on her since it was too rough for the deck and flak gun, but had my TC restricted during the encounter and worried that my position was being radioed in. A Clemson arrived so I submerged and continued on my plot. Clemson started searching and the hydrophones indicated that she would be crossing my bow around 2 KMs. She was cruising at 14 kts so I sent one eel her way and immediately changed course. Just when I thought the fish had missed, I heard a huge explosion through the hull. Went to periscope depth and saw the destroyer going down bow first. Another spectacular sight :huh: Found my original plot and found the small merchant. Took her down with 1 fish (I sorely missed my deck gun with the rough weather). Submerged to take one more phone reading and picked up a faint noise at 045. Headed that way at full and TC of 356.. A few minutes later I submerged and heard the contact on the same bearing, but closer. Surfaced and continued my run. Finally overtook a loaded T2 and lit her up with an eel. Started heading South to find better deck gun weather and back towards Brest. Cruising along, we almost ran into the side of a C3. I was immediately spotted and fired upon. As I dove, I sent one eel her way which reduced her speed. Since I crash dived, I headed right towards her and cruised under her keel. I surfaced on the other side and let my last fish fly.. It finished her off and it was back to Brest for me.. All ships were within 2 grids and the entire patrol only took 4 hours. I was back into Port within 2 weeks game time with over 63K tons, 100% hull integrity and 1600 renown.. Hard to believe the difference between this patrol and my last (Returned w/ 9% hull integrity)..
Herr Russ
The weather started clearing and that brought out the destroyers. Probably wondering where their ships were. I had a V&W close and her course brought her across my stern at 900 meters.. I was still undetected so I let loose my eel from Tube 5. I was wondering if the acoustic fish would still detonate magnetically when the destroyer sped up to 24 kts. Just as I was looking for the crash dive button, her stern lifted up with a huge explosion and geyser of water. The screws and rudder were gone along with a sizeable section of hull.. She sank stern first.. We surfaced and watched the bow slide under.. Down to a few eels now & weather just too rough for the deck gun so we continued across the two grids where all these ships were sunk. Picked up a report of a merchant to the North and plotted an intercept course. I had just come up to speed when the lookouts spotted a ship. Turned out to be a 98 ton tug :stare: Not going to waste a fish on her since it was too rough for the deck and flak gun, but had my TC restricted during the encounter and worried that my position was being radioed in. A Clemson arrived so I submerged and continued on my plot. Clemson started searching and the hydrophones indicated that she would be crossing my bow around 2 KMs. She was cruising at 14 kts so I sent one eel her way and immediately changed course. Just when I thought the fish had missed, I heard a huge explosion through the hull. Went to periscope depth and saw the destroyer going down bow first. Another spectacular sight :huh: Found my original plot and found the small merchant. Took her down with 1 fish (I sorely missed my deck gun with the rough weather). Submerged to take one more phone reading and picked up a faint noise at 045. Headed that way at full and TC of 356.. A few minutes later I submerged and heard the contact on the same bearing, but closer. Surfaced and continued my run. Finally overtook a loaded T2 and lit her up with an eel. Started heading South to find better deck gun weather and back towards Brest. Cruising along, we almost ran into the side of a C3. I was immediately spotted and fired upon. As I dove, I sent one eel her way which reduced her speed. Since I crash dived, I headed right towards her and cruised under her keel. I surfaced on the other side and let my last fish fly.. It finished her off and it was back to Brest for me.. All ships were within 2 grids and the entire patrol only took 4 hours. I was back into Port within 2 weeks game time with over 63K tons, 100% hull integrity and 1600 renown.. Hard to believe the difference between this patrol and my last (Returned w/ 9% hull integrity)..
Herr Russ