joegrundman
06-13-08, 01:10 AM
It's January 1940, and i'd just installed the community units mod - i was thrilled when on my way to the patrol zone i encounterd a large and unfamilar merchant just north of Shetland on a calm, dark night.
I had to chase it, and though i say so myself, i performed an excellent surface attack, racing past it at a range of about 1000m, and then launching a 90 degree shot as i was running parallel.
Figured since it was Jan 1940 and merchants were generally not armed yet, i'd just fire the one and help it to go down with some deck gunnery, saving my eels for the patrol zone.
Well I was wrong there! It was a "fast freighter" and had 2 heavy guns and at least 4 antiaircraft cannon, and they were lethally accurate - the sky was lit up with star shells, searchlights and tracer fire, and within seconds i had been hit solidly at least once and was flooding.
I didn't want to submerge due to hull damage.
I turned to present my stern and fled at max speed. I loosed off another two torpedos but they went wide.
Once i made it to a safe range, i figured i should go and finish them off - nope, i got detected again at 4 km and hit another few times, this time i went really wide and looped around to intercept. They didn't come so i crept back and sure enough the enemy was at a standstill, but clearly not sinking. i crept to get a better angle to finish it off and woah got detected and hit again! Two more torpedoes missed in my confusion, but my 6th torpedo hit and killed it.
I only had 15% on my hull and decided i really ought to go back home
What was that thing? my instinct is to say i found a Q-ship. Are there Q-ships? It doesn't make much sense otherwise.
So when i got back to base, i looked at the result - -it was a Neutral !
Now this is interesting - i was sure that the old 32 TC limit for hostiles had activated, but maybe i'm wrong about that.
Still that was one heavily armed merchant, and one of the most memorable encounters i've had!!
I had to chase it, and though i say so myself, i performed an excellent surface attack, racing past it at a range of about 1000m, and then launching a 90 degree shot as i was running parallel.
Figured since it was Jan 1940 and merchants were generally not armed yet, i'd just fire the one and help it to go down with some deck gunnery, saving my eels for the patrol zone.
Well I was wrong there! It was a "fast freighter" and had 2 heavy guns and at least 4 antiaircraft cannon, and they were lethally accurate - the sky was lit up with star shells, searchlights and tracer fire, and within seconds i had been hit solidly at least once and was flooding.
I didn't want to submerge due to hull damage.
I turned to present my stern and fled at max speed. I loosed off another two torpedos but they went wide.
Once i made it to a safe range, i figured i should go and finish them off - nope, i got detected again at 4 km and hit another few times, this time i went really wide and looped around to intercept. They didn't come so i crept back and sure enough the enemy was at a standstill, but clearly not sinking. i crept to get a better angle to finish it off and woah got detected and hit again! Two more torpedoes missed in my confusion, but my 6th torpedo hit and killed it.
I only had 15% on my hull and decided i really ought to go back home
What was that thing? my instinct is to say i found a Q-ship. Are there Q-ships? It doesn't make much sense otherwise.
So when i got back to base, i looked at the result - -it was a Neutral !
Now this is interesting - i was sure that the old 32 TC limit for hostiles had activated, but maybe i'm wrong about that.
Still that was one heavily armed merchant, and one of the most memorable encounters i've had!!