Foghladh_mhara
08-28-07, 03:40 PM
I never thought this day would arrive and to be honest I owe it all to the incredibly brave but ridiculously stupid AI sub who spotted the convoy.
Twas September 1940 and I had just transferred to the 7/13th flotilla staging out of St Nazaire. Although loath to leave my beloved 2nd flotilla the prospect of navigating my way out of the hole that is Lorient every patrol tipped the balance in favour of St Nazaire.
We were assigned Grid AM23 just north of the Rockall Bank. Knowing this to be close to the shipping lanes and having come across a significant amount of single traffic in that area before we were pleased with the assignment. We have become wary of convoys and more specifically the escorts.
Or rather I have turned chicken.
We headed southwest once clearing the harbour minefield aiming to reach the deep water as soon as possible and then plotted a route skirting along the continental shelf. Although it is early in the conflict and Allied air and naval power has not spread to the Bay of Biscay yet I feel better hearing that there is over 1000m under the keel should the need arise.
Once reaching deeper water we carried out a deep dive to check out our systems. Seeing as were playing at 90% realism (I cant do without external camera, I have to see the explosions and the sub is normally heading down deep by the time they impact!) with malfunctions and sabotage enabled I'd rather try to find any problems at this point. All seemed in order for now so we proceeded on the surface.
We had reached BF17 when we received the contact report. A convoy spotted by one of our subs on a south westerly course. The reported position was only 150km away and heading towards us. Now as I said I've lately been allergic to convoys but this one was only travelling at 5 knots and we would converge at nightfall so I took a swig of brandy and set up the intercept.
The weather was very calm and i was confident my lookouts would spot the escorts before they spotted us. I need'nt have worried. The first escort was fully visible from very long range. In fact he was probably visible from the moon seeing as he was on fire but still dutifully keeping station on the fringes of the herd. There were flames coming from every part of his superstructure. Didnt appear to slow him down though. As I got closer I saw there were 2 large cargos, 1 whale factory and a large merchant also showing flames so obviously there had been a bit of a barney. I picked off three of these in my first salvo and they all went down as one hit wonders. I'm guessing they must have been badly damaged. The remaining floating bonfire was at the head of the convoy and he was a very useful fellow to follow. In fact I never sank him at all and just used him as navigation beacon.
The usual drill followed. Go deep and evade. Surface and reload and back in front again. They were travelling so slow I managed to set up 3 attacks in one night. The escorts was so inexperienced that I even managed to carry out a daylight attack and escape without as much as one deoth charge falling. Oh to be in 1940 for ever!:yep: My final tally on the convoy was 9 ships including 2 whale factorys for a total of about 95k or thereabouts. At this point I only had one stern torp left and there was nothing big left to sink so I disengaged and carried on to my patrol grid. Sure enough on the long journey up and down from AM23 I managed to bag 4 small tramps and merchants with the deck gun and very nearly sank an ore carrier that was flying the US flag but not lit up :nope:
Grand total 103,000 tons of shipping sent to the bottom, promotions and baubles all round and a hefty chunk of renown in the bank. And to think my career guidance teacher said I'd amount to nothing! :D
Twas September 1940 and I had just transferred to the 7/13th flotilla staging out of St Nazaire. Although loath to leave my beloved 2nd flotilla the prospect of navigating my way out of the hole that is Lorient every patrol tipped the balance in favour of St Nazaire.
We were assigned Grid AM23 just north of the Rockall Bank. Knowing this to be close to the shipping lanes and having come across a significant amount of single traffic in that area before we were pleased with the assignment. We have become wary of convoys and more specifically the escorts.
Or rather I have turned chicken.
We headed southwest once clearing the harbour minefield aiming to reach the deep water as soon as possible and then plotted a route skirting along the continental shelf. Although it is early in the conflict and Allied air and naval power has not spread to the Bay of Biscay yet I feel better hearing that there is over 1000m under the keel should the need arise.
Once reaching deeper water we carried out a deep dive to check out our systems. Seeing as were playing at 90% realism (I cant do without external camera, I have to see the explosions and the sub is normally heading down deep by the time they impact!) with malfunctions and sabotage enabled I'd rather try to find any problems at this point. All seemed in order for now so we proceeded on the surface.
We had reached BF17 when we received the contact report. A convoy spotted by one of our subs on a south westerly course. The reported position was only 150km away and heading towards us. Now as I said I've lately been allergic to convoys but this one was only travelling at 5 knots and we would converge at nightfall so I took a swig of brandy and set up the intercept.
The weather was very calm and i was confident my lookouts would spot the escorts before they spotted us. I need'nt have worried. The first escort was fully visible from very long range. In fact he was probably visible from the moon seeing as he was on fire but still dutifully keeping station on the fringes of the herd. There were flames coming from every part of his superstructure. Didnt appear to slow him down though. As I got closer I saw there were 2 large cargos, 1 whale factory and a large merchant also showing flames so obviously there had been a bit of a barney. I picked off three of these in my first salvo and they all went down as one hit wonders. I'm guessing they must have been badly damaged. The remaining floating bonfire was at the head of the convoy and he was a very useful fellow to follow. In fact I never sank him at all and just used him as navigation beacon.
The usual drill followed. Go deep and evade. Surface and reload and back in front again. They were travelling so slow I managed to set up 3 attacks in one night. The escorts was so inexperienced that I even managed to carry out a daylight attack and escape without as much as one deoth charge falling. Oh to be in 1940 for ever!:yep: My final tally on the convoy was 9 ships including 2 whale factorys for a total of about 95k or thereabouts. At this point I only had one stern torp left and there was nothing big left to sink so I disengaged and carried on to my patrol grid. Sure enough on the long journey up and down from AM23 I managed to bag 4 small tramps and merchants with the deck gun and very nearly sank an ore carrier that was flying the US flag but not lit up :nope:
Grand total 103,000 tons of shipping sent to the bottom, promotions and baubles all round and a hefty chunk of renown in the bank. And to think my career guidance teacher said I'd amount to nothing! :D