Falkirion
08-16-08, 10:21 AM
Ah Silent Hunter 4. Throws me one of the toughest mission types straight out of training at Pearl. On December 9th I put to sea from Pearl in my Porpoise on my first patrol of the Pacific ocean, my objective. Get into Osaka, take some photos, get out. Sounds simple enough for a first mission, albiet a bit tough for a first time sub captain like myself.
Having a mission like this straight off the bat with barely any training (Thanks Ubi...) I was fairly hesitant about trying my luck getting into Osaka. Luckily though most of my patrol was uneventful, tried to chase down two merchant convoys but couldnt get an accurate read on their positions so I cut my losses and proceeded on with my objective. By the time I reached Japanese waters it was December 26th and running on the surface was a risky proposition, I nearly got nailed by two Zeros, crash dived both times to avoid detection from the Destroyer patrols that were lurking around. With the seas getting higher I decided to run at 200 feet down at 3 knots to avoid detection for as long as possible, wait for nightfall and then run at flank (I'm using infinite fuel, just started on Silent Hunter after all) for as long as I could. With the mouth of Osaka bay looming and with a fair amount of darkness around I decided to try my chances and run in to the deeper waters of Osaka. My plan worked for the most part, until I reached the big island, and two smaller islands. Then somehow the shore batteries had realized I was there.
Whistling, the opening ten shots went wide, but one got lucky and struck the rear deck of my sub, opening up a hole and damaging the bulkheads and engines. Immediately I dove and put the damage control teams to work. Within five minutes all the damage was repaired, I wasnt taking on water so I took it as a good sign since I had seen the damage that the shore batteries had caused my sub. I crept forward running silent and as deep as I could safely without jepordizing my crew and sub. With dawn approaching I decided to go deep, nearly bottoming the sub out and wait for darkness to fall again before making a second attempt on the harbour. The plan worked and just before dawn I saw a Japanese patrol fleet heading home. I knew the chance to do some damage was there but I was commited to achieving my objective before having some fun on the way back to Pearl.
Unfortunately for me this plan backfired at around 12pm local time. Parked as deep as i could get in the mouth of the bay I was fairly confident that I could outlast the Japanese search parties for the day, but one gunboat and two destroyers begged to differ. And thats when my patrol ended, I knew with these three closing in my chances of survival to nightfall were getting slimmer by the minute. I decided to chance a run out of the mouth of the bay and into the deeper waters. But I couldnt find a hole in the screen. I didnt have any deeper water I could dive to and risking a torpedo attack seemed foolish to me. Then the Japanese bombers came in and drove me further back into shallower waters. After that my goose was cooked. The destroyers came in on depth charging runs and that was it.
My first command now lies at the bottom of the mouth of the bay with all hands.I'm looking forward to starting over tomorrow. Hopefully I get something a little less challenging for my first mission this time but it was definitely a learning experience.
Having a mission like this straight off the bat with barely any training (Thanks Ubi...) I was fairly hesitant about trying my luck getting into Osaka. Luckily though most of my patrol was uneventful, tried to chase down two merchant convoys but couldnt get an accurate read on their positions so I cut my losses and proceeded on with my objective. By the time I reached Japanese waters it was December 26th and running on the surface was a risky proposition, I nearly got nailed by two Zeros, crash dived both times to avoid detection from the Destroyer patrols that were lurking around. With the seas getting higher I decided to run at 200 feet down at 3 knots to avoid detection for as long as possible, wait for nightfall and then run at flank (I'm using infinite fuel, just started on Silent Hunter after all) for as long as I could. With the mouth of Osaka bay looming and with a fair amount of darkness around I decided to try my chances and run in to the deeper waters of Osaka. My plan worked for the most part, until I reached the big island, and two smaller islands. Then somehow the shore batteries had realized I was there.
Whistling, the opening ten shots went wide, but one got lucky and struck the rear deck of my sub, opening up a hole and damaging the bulkheads and engines. Immediately I dove and put the damage control teams to work. Within five minutes all the damage was repaired, I wasnt taking on water so I took it as a good sign since I had seen the damage that the shore batteries had caused my sub. I crept forward running silent and as deep as I could safely without jepordizing my crew and sub. With dawn approaching I decided to go deep, nearly bottoming the sub out and wait for darkness to fall again before making a second attempt on the harbour. The plan worked and just before dawn I saw a Japanese patrol fleet heading home. I knew the chance to do some damage was there but I was commited to achieving my objective before having some fun on the way back to Pearl.
Unfortunately for me this plan backfired at around 12pm local time. Parked as deep as i could get in the mouth of the bay I was fairly confident that I could outlast the Japanese search parties for the day, but one gunboat and two destroyers begged to differ. And thats when my patrol ended, I knew with these three closing in my chances of survival to nightfall were getting slimmer by the minute. I decided to chance a run out of the mouth of the bay and into the deeper waters. But I couldnt find a hole in the screen. I didnt have any deeper water I could dive to and risking a torpedo attack seemed foolish to me. Then the Japanese bombers came in and drove me further back into shallower waters. After that my goose was cooked. The destroyers came in on depth charging runs and that was it.
My first command now lies at the bottom of the mouth of the bay with all hands.I'm looking forward to starting over tomorrow. Hopefully I get something a little less challenging for my first mission this time but it was definitely a learning experience.