Psycluded
03-23-07, 09:46 PM
... seems a bit, well, easy.
My first patrol from Pearl was to photograph the port at Osaka and any ships that lay there. Thinking it would be a touch-and-go sort of mission with a shallow harbor and LOADS of ASW-minded DD's patrolling every entrance and port, I timed my approach so I hit the southern inlet at about 10 PM, as daylight faded.
Once darkness hit, I surfaced and sprinted about 5 nm off the port of Osaka and dove to periscope depth. Once below the water, my sonarman reported about 8 separate warship contacts to the north at Kobe. Great, I thought, here they come.
Up attack scope, take pictures of every ship in osaka I can see, then down scope and over to sonar to figure out wether these ships are approaching or not. Sure enough, they were all stationary. Huh, I thought, maybe they just haven't been alerted to my presence and are all asleep. Lets go over and check this out.
So, I crept to the eastern side of the port facility at Kobe and stuck my 'scope over the waves for a moment and just about fell over backwards. The Yamato was at anchor about 800 yds off my port bow, and the Shokaku, Zuikaku and Hiryu were in port as well. No searchlights were lit, no destroyers in sight. A Furutaka class cruiser and a Takao class cruiser were also present. Hell, I didn't have enough torpedoes for them all.
I marked their locations on the map and dropped the scope, and then started planning what I thought would likely be a suicide attack. I approached and then turned my stern towards the Yamato, with my bow tubes on-angle for the carriers. I then called an all-stop, so the periscope wouldn't create a wake, and popped my eyes over the surface again. Still no activity. Perfect.
Four shots for the Yamato, two into her bow magazine and two into her stern engineering compartments, just in case both the bow shots were duds. The carriers got two shots each, one under the main elevators, and one under the screws, for the same reason as the Yamato. If they're not destroyed outright, I want to cripple them. All torpedoes away, and by the time I get the scope down tight, the first explosions ripple through the hull of my ship, the USS Tuna.
"Torpedo impact, torpedo impact!" whispers my sonarman loudly, when suddenly his reports are no longer necessary. The force of the explosion shook the command room so hard my chief hit his head on the periscope rail. Apparently, both torpedoes had been enough to ignite the considerable magazine of the Yamato, which was now likely a spectacular fireball, alterting God only knows how many japanese vessels to the presence of an unseen threat.
Quickly, I gave the order to make for the southern inlet at all-ahead-full, still submerged. We would need to remain so until at least out of visual range of the port, if not far longer. As we passed the western edge of the port, the rest of the torpedoes, seemingly all as one, detonated under their targets. Not a single dud in 10 torpedoes fired. The Shokaku and Hiryu sunk after about 3 minutes, the Zuikaku after about 10 (apparently the sailors there were better at containing the fire). Before I was out of range, my aft torpedo room reported all tubes reloaded, so I unloaded them with 4 parting shots, two each, for the Furutaka and Takao cruisers still sitting at anchor, searchlights on. I had yet to see a warship move from her berth to try and find me. Minutes later, both cruisers were in flames, with large mushroom-cloud explosions ballooning over them. 14 torpedoes fired, 0 duds. All were shots on stationary targets, so it's not like they were difficult shots.
The rest of the patrol was pretty routine. I escaped without seeing a single DD until well south of the mainland, and those I avoided like the plague. On arrival in pearl, I was promoted, given a medal and promptly given the same mission to do again (we need an "update" on the harbor). Wonder what will be in Kobe -this- time around.
My first patrol from Pearl was to photograph the port at Osaka and any ships that lay there. Thinking it would be a touch-and-go sort of mission with a shallow harbor and LOADS of ASW-minded DD's patrolling every entrance and port, I timed my approach so I hit the southern inlet at about 10 PM, as daylight faded.
Once darkness hit, I surfaced and sprinted about 5 nm off the port of Osaka and dove to periscope depth. Once below the water, my sonarman reported about 8 separate warship contacts to the north at Kobe. Great, I thought, here they come.
Up attack scope, take pictures of every ship in osaka I can see, then down scope and over to sonar to figure out wether these ships are approaching or not. Sure enough, they were all stationary. Huh, I thought, maybe they just haven't been alerted to my presence and are all asleep. Lets go over and check this out.
So, I crept to the eastern side of the port facility at Kobe and stuck my 'scope over the waves for a moment and just about fell over backwards. The Yamato was at anchor about 800 yds off my port bow, and the Shokaku, Zuikaku and Hiryu were in port as well. No searchlights were lit, no destroyers in sight. A Furutaka class cruiser and a Takao class cruiser were also present. Hell, I didn't have enough torpedoes for them all.
I marked their locations on the map and dropped the scope, and then started planning what I thought would likely be a suicide attack. I approached and then turned my stern towards the Yamato, with my bow tubes on-angle for the carriers. I then called an all-stop, so the periscope wouldn't create a wake, and popped my eyes over the surface again. Still no activity. Perfect.
Four shots for the Yamato, two into her bow magazine and two into her stern engineering compartments, just in case both the bow shots were duds. The carriers got two shots each, one under the main elevators, and one under the screws, for the same reason as the Yamato. If they're not destroyed outright, I want to cripple them. All torpedoes away, and by the time I get the scope down tight, the first explosions ripple through the hull of my ship, the USS Tuna.
"Torpedo impact, torpedo impact!" whispers my sonarman loudly, when suddenly his reports are no longer necessary. The force of the explosion shook the command room so hard my chief hit his head on the periscope rail. Apparently, both torpedoes had been enough to ignite the considerable magazine of the Yamato, which was now likely a spectacular fireball, alterting God only knows how many japanese vessels to the presence of an unseen threat.
Quickly, I gave the order to make for the southern inlet at all-ahead-full, still submerged. We would need to remain so until at least out of visual range of the port, if not far longer. As we passed the western edge of the port, the rest of the torpedoes, seemingly all as one, detonated under their targets. Not a single dud in 10 torpedoes fired. The Shokaku and Hiryu sunk after about 3 minutes, the Zuikaku after about 10 (apparently the sailors there were better at containing the fire). Before I was out of range, my aft torpedo room reported all tubes reloaded, so I unloaded them with 4 parting shots, two each, for the Furutaka and Takao cruisers still sitting at anchor, searchlights on. I had yet to see a warship move from her berth to try and find me. Minutes later, both cruisers were in flames, with large mushroom-cloud explosions ballooning over them. 14 torpedoes fired, 0 duds. All were shots on stationary targets, so it's not like they were difficult shots.
The rest of the patrol was pretty routine. I escaped without seeing a single DD until well south of the mainland, and those I avoided like the plague. On arrival in pearl, I was promoted, given a medal and promptly given the same mission to do again (we need an "update" on the harbor). Wonder what will be in Kobe -this- time around.