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T.Von Hogan
11-25-07, 11:38 PM
Was sailing south thru grid EH98 early november 1943 when i ran across the strangest contact. There was a Brazilian medium cargo followed by a Brazilian modern medium merchant followed by an American Flower Corvette. It seemed strange that the corvette was last in line trailing by nearly 1000 meters.
I closed to about 4000 meters between the 2 Brazilian ships and let go 2 salvo's of 2 TIII's at each. Both eels hit the medium Cargo and 1 hit the modern and both ships went down. After firing i turned north and brought the corvette into my scope expecting his charge towards me. Instead of coming at me he goes back 2000 meters in the direction he had come from and proceeds to start circling there. After circling for about 20 minutes he resumes the course they were all on and starts heading north at 5 kts oblivious to me being in the area.
It was clear to me that the skipper of this boat was either in shell shock or on drugs not sure which. I had positiioned my boat where he would come across my stern within 650 meters after he returned to his northward course. I was nervous as he neared and my stealth meter became crimson red but his earlier behavior had convinced me he was oblivious to his surroundings..... sure enough he never waivered from course even as a TIII ripped thru the side of his hull:arrgh!:

i am GWX 1.03 compliant:huh:

GoldenRivet
11-25-07, 11:56 PM
i know the exact little 3 ship convoy your talking about... i encountered them about a year ago. i studied them with a look of confusion on my face for a moment before deciding what to do, i dont remember the grid square but i know where i encountered them.

grid EH?... down by the canary islands? heading towards Gibralter?

i know the exact group you speak of. I decided that even if the ships were neutral, they are being escorted by an armed ship of an enemy nation and are therfore fair game. i proceeded to sink the merchants, the flower corvette made little effort to locate me and resumed his base course.

that was the end of the engagement.

i think that because i was low on torpedoes i let the flower go... i was saving the fish for some bigger game.

Subject
11-26-07, 08:07 AM
Hehe - you can also find an american convoy of 2 destroyers and 4 large cargos with a small - neutral! - merchant cruising in and out between the columns... After the large cargos was torpedoed, the small merchant came to a full stop behind one of the sinking cargo. Like mourning the loss, or bewildered maybe?

You can also find a very large british convoy led by a croatian destroyer... :doh:

siber
11-26-07, 08:55 AM
In April 1941, U-99 encountered a convoy heading towards Freetown, about 300 km West of the port. It was detected on hydrophones, and upon surfacing, the watch crew reported heavy seas, rain and fog - perfect weather as always for an interception... :shifty:

To cut a long story short, I managed to track down the convoy and creep up on it. Suddenly, a medium passenger liner swept out of the fog at about 600m. A quick look at the mast confirms British Merchant Navy service, and the sub turns to put 2 torpedoes into her side. We submerge to avoid the presumed escort. Just as we're closing the hatch, the lookout reports another ship swim into view out of the fog.

30 minutes later and the convoy (minus the liner) has changed course. Hydrophone knows they're nearby, but we're searching once again through thick fog and driving rain. A medium tanker appears in the mist - a juicy target - but the captain is adament: We must confirm the nationality before attacking. U-99 edges closer to see - stars and stripes! American. Thank goodness we didn't attack, or BdU would have eaten us alive for provoking the USA into the war.

Sailing cautiously into the convoy, the ships must have seen us yet remain on course. The tanker, accompanied by a US troopship, a US medium cargo, and a Brazilian tramp steamer is escorted by a US Flower. No-one makes any aggressive moves and we slip away into the fog.

U-99 returns to Lorient minus one crew member (who died at the flak gun as we were strafed off the Algarve by an aircraft from Gibraltar) and was the crew's last voyage in U-99 before going on leave to their families and sweethearts and then reporting to St Nazaire to take a VIIC boat out in July.

T.Von Hogan
11-26-07, 09:57 AM
grid EH?... down by the canary islands? heading towards Gibralter?

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Yes sir i was southwest of the canary islands and they were headed north towards gibralter.

EDIT: I'm sorry that grid was EH79 not EH98 i Don't hug the coast line that close this late in the war lol Them planes are thick as mosquitos there