predavolk
03-31-08, 08:31 AM
Well, I decided to transfer from a VIIB to a IXB in the summer of '40. Of course, they decide that the best place to send a big, ocean-spanning vessel is right in the middle of the Irish/North Straight- AM68. :roll: While there's a narrow, deep trench down the middle (max 160M), most of the area is less than 100M deep.:down:
Sooooo...I get to my assigned patrol area OK. Probably because it's been a raging gale. A task force sails out of Preston (Liverpool?) and starts heading my way. I'm able to hear it coming, and decide to move a touch out of the straight to try and intercept it early so I can then run back to deep water for my escape. I lose it on the surface. Yay.
But wait, a convoy is coming down the straight from the North- happy times! Turns out, it's a tiny convoy of 1 patrol craft and a medium cargo ship. Woo-freakin'-hoo. By a minor miracle, I manage to intercept the cargo ship on the surface after easily slipping by the patrol craft. Unfortunately, I can't quite get a good angle for a torpedo shot. I take a shot anyhow, but it misses. While trying to maneuver for a second shot, the patrol craft, presumably signaled by the cargo ship, comes charging in- guns blazing! Damn! Well, forget diving, I crank to flank and right full rudder. I take a couple of hits, but nothing too serious as I lose him in the driving rain. The damage control team quickly patches me up (is there anywhere in-mission where you can determine your hull integrity %?)
The storm continues to rage as I flee North up the straight. But wait, here comes a LARGE convoy coming down the straight! :roll: This is just teasing me. Juicy, juicy targets are sailing by but I'm stuck in a phone booth filled with a typhoon! So what the hell, be more aggressive, blah, blah, blah. No problem evading the front escort, pop up to the surface once I get his bearing and boom, I'm in the middle of the convoy with estimated plots for the merchants. There! A ship emerges from the gloom on my port side, 35 degrees off. I desperate try to haul the ship around for a shot on this small merchant, but it slips into the pouring rain before I can. I do notice that, oddly enough, I can see the vanishing smoke more easily without binoculars than with them. No matter, as it's gone. So I head down a course that should take me between 3 tightly packed boats. Going ahead slow so that I have time to see them and take action. Another boat spotted! Unfortunately, this one is port 50 degrees. I try turning my stern tube to it, but no joy. A desperate shot that I fired any how misses. I beat, smack, and curse the stupid lookout who won't get out of my way, and consider removing him from the bridge, but I don't have that time to spare. A couple of minutes after, a medium cargo appears a few hundred meters off my port bow, sailing in a directly opposite heading. Beauty! I turn my remaining stern tube on it. Speed, AOB, and range were preset, but I have to do some last minute adjusting to the latter two. Wow, big angle (it's an electric, and I'm use to steam), but loose torpedo! Just then though, a destroyer, or something else that's ugly and firing a MUCH bigger gun than on a patrol craft, charges from the gloom straight at me! Damn! BOOM! My torpedo hits! I'm very pleased with myself for making that tough snapshot.:know: BOOM! I'm not very pleased that I just took one hell of a hit.:doh: Light cannon fire rakes the boat. I get most of the bridge crew down below as I order flank speed, turn into the destroyer, and get a damage control team on the situation. Unfortunately, I'm fighting jet-ski destroyer, who's able to stick to me like white on rice despite my speed and turn. He has no problem staying within, what I would guess, 250M of my boat. BOOM! Another big hit cripples my diesels, slowing me. BOOM! Another hit and the boat's looking pretty damn red. BOOM! And that's the end of U-108. :dead:
Well, it wasn't fun while it lasted. I don't play "Iron Man" like some here (I might if I had more time), so I'll reload and try the mission again. Only this time, I'm just going to hide in that spot then run the hell out of there unless conditions are MUCH better for an attack. AM-68 is nicely situated for attacking convoys, but the shallow, limited waters are no place for a IXB. I'll patrol it, then get the hell out to some more open waters. This coastal stuff is for VIIs, if not Canoes!
On a related note, does anyone have the tower emblem for U-108? Based on the photo at subaddict, it looks like it might be a polar bear or something.
Sooooo...I get to my assigned patrol area OK. Probably because it's been a raging gale. A task force sails out of Preston (Liverpool?) and starts heading my way. I'm able to hear it coming, and decide to move a touch out of the straight to try and intercept it early so I can then run back to deep water for my escape. I lose it on the surface. Yay.
But wait, a convoy is coming down the straight from the North- happy times! Turns out, it's a tiny convoy of 1 patrol craft and a medium cargo ship. Woo-freakin'-hoo. By a minor miracle, I manage to intercept the cargo ship on the surface after easily slipping by the patrol craft. Unfortunately, I can't quite get a good angle for a torpedo shot. I take a shot anyhow, but it misses. While trying to maneuver for a second shot, the patrol craft, presumably signaled by the cargo ship, comes charging in- guns blazing! Damn! Well, forget diving, I crank to flank and right full rudder. I take a couple of hits, but nothing too serious as I lose him in the driving rain. The damage control team quickly patches me up (is there anywhere in-mission where you can determine your hull integrity %?)
The storm continues to rage as I flee North up the straight. But wait, here comes a LARGE convoy coming down the straight! :roll: This is just teasing me. Juicy, juicy targets are sailing by but I'm stuck in a phone booth filled with a typhoon! So what the hell, be more aggressive, blah, blah, blah. No problem evading the front escort, pop up to the surface once I get his bearing and boom, I'm in the middle of the convoy with estimated plots for the merchants. There! A ship emerges from the gloom on my port side, 35 degrees off. I desperate try to haul the ship around for a shot on this small merchant, but it slips into the pouring rain before I can. I do notice that, oddly enough, I can see the vanishing smoke more easily without binoculars than with them. No matter, as it's gone. So I head down a course that should take me between 3 tightly packed boats. Going ahead slow so that I have time to see them and take action. Another boat spotted! Unfortunately, this one is port 50 degrees. I try turning my stern tube to it, but no joy. A desperate shot that I fired any how misses. I beat, smack, and curse the stupid lookout who won't get out of my way, and consider removing him from the bridge, but I don't have that time to spare. A couple of minutes after, a medium cargo appears a few hundred meters off my port bow, sailing in a directly opposite heading. Beauty! I turn my remaining stern tube on it. Speed, AOB, and range were preset, but I have to do some last minute adjusting to the latter two. Wow, big angle (it's an electric, and I'm use to steam), but loose torpedo! Just then though, a destroyer, or something else that's ugly and firing a MUCH bigger gun than on a patrol craft, charges from the gloom straight at me! Damn! BOOM! My torpedo hits! I'm very pleased with myself for making that tough snapshot.:know: BOOM! I'm not very pleased that I just took one hell of a hit.:doh: Light cannon fire rakes the boat. I get most of the bridge crew down below as I order flank speed, turn into the destroyer, and get a damage control team on the situation. Unfortunately, I'm fighting jet-ski destroyer, who's able to stick to me like white on rice despite my speed and turn. He has no problem staying within, what I would guess, 250M of my boat. BOOM! Another big hit cripples my diesels, slowing me. BOOM! Another hit and the boat's looking pretty damn red. BOOM! And that's the end of U-108. :dead:
Well, it wasn't fun while it lasted. I don't play "Iron Man" like some here (I might if I had more time), so I'll reload and try the mission again. Only this time, I'm just going to hide in that spot then run the hell out of there unless conditions are MUCH better for an attack. AM-68 is nicely situated for attacking convoys, but the shallow, limited waters are no place for a IXB. I'll patrol it, then get the hell out to some more open waters. This coastal stuff is for VIIs, if not Canoes!
On a related note, does anyone have the tower emblem for U-108? Based on the photo at subaddict, it looks like it might be a polar bear or something.