Med Report

[Murr44]

Right now I'm into my 3rd patrol of a career in the Mediteranean sailing aboard U 73. New Year's Day 1942 has just come & gone and this has been a rotten b*st*rd of a patrol! We've had weeks of sunny skies with little or no wind. The problem is that there have been few targets & those that have appeared have all been heavily escorted. No lone ships. Every single merchantman has been in small (2-3 ship) convoys with at least 2 escort vessels: twice I've seen 2 escorts guarding a single lowly coastal freighter. We've suffered 4 aerial attacks; fortunately no permanent damage or casualties were inflicted and we have been chased off almost every convoy that we've met. Narrowly missed a Dido class 1 day out of base (possiblly a bad omen :hmm: ). On the plus side, we've sunk 2 large merchants for about 18,000 GRT so far on this trip. Very narrowly escaped being sunk attacking the 2nd large merchant: one Black Swan detected us in the last seconds :damn: so I had to lauch torpedoes & go for depth asap.:o We spent what seemed like an eternity twisting & turning trying to evade her and the 2nd escort. We're down to our last 3 torpedoes & I'm hopeful that we get a little rough weather (no rain & fog though) so that the next convoy may be easier to approach. This is starting to get sooooo monotonous...

Oblt. z. See Otto Vosseler.
GWX 2.1

[papa_smurf]

Welcome to the Med......................

[Brag]

Med vacations can be expensive. :yep:

[KeptinCranky]

You don't feel it's rewarding to blast the small merchant right from under the escorts noses?

I've done it in the med, shooting from 6km out or so, decks awash, medium speed steamer eel at night, shoot and scoot, watch the fireworks and ineffectual searchlights from far away with the escorts none the wiser :D

very rewarding... you'll also eventually run into a King George V BB, it's worth the wait sinking that...

as for the rest of 1942, be prepared for things to get a whole lot messier airplane-wise until you finally get your radar warning in august or so... good luck! :up:

[Murr44]

Our luck changed for the better with the last convoy! :rock: We approached a 5 ship convoy (2 escorts, 2 large merchants & a coastal freighter). While submerged we managed to dodge the 1st escort. Crawling along at 2 knots I targetted the 1st large merchant (about 12,000 tons) from about 2500 meters & launched 2 G7a's. I would have preferred to get in a lot closer but the merchant was doing 8 knots & the distance between was slowly increasing. Couldn't see increasing speed as we might be detected. Both eels hit & down she went.:arrgh!: We had one torpedo left in the fore tubes (G7e) so I went for the coastal freighter. Launched this one from 1900 meters; again, I would've liked to get closer but the 2nd escort was getting very close & I didn't want us to be detected. Dove to 143 meters (on the way down the last torpedo hit it's mark & the freighter exploded - lots of fireworks:D ) & got out of the area as quickly & quietly as possible.

By this time we were down to our stern torpedos (1 loaded & 1 in reserve) so I decided to pack it in & head home. Sank a little over 32,000 so we did far better than I'd expected.

Vosseler out...

[Jimbuna]

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE!! http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[Murr44]

Yeah I wish I'd able to nail the 2nd large merchant. It was another 12,000+ tonner & it would've been nice to imagine those escort captains explaining how they lost all of their charges. Still, it's nice to think that somebody's going to catch hell for loosing 2 out the 3 merchants that they were supposed to be guarding...:D

[Murr44]

Rather than start a whole new thread I thought that I'd simply update this one. I'm presently at sea on patrol #4 & I JUST SANK MY FIRST GWX DIDO CLASS LIGHT CRUISER!!!:cool: Yeah I know it's not a big deal to some but that's the first major warship (other than a couple of destroyers several careers back) that I've ever destroyed. She was part of a convoy of 4 (2 cruisers & 2 DE's) travelling in CN62. I let the Black Swan preceding her pass and lined up a really nice bow shot. Took a "page" from Brag's site (thanks btw:up: ) & set a T1 (it was dusk) to the default 4m depth. The torpedo hit her bow and opened up a gaping hole. She then drove herself under by means of her own inertia.

I should point out that I received some assistance from the Luftwaffe. As we were sneaking past the lead Black Swan the Luftwaffe suddenly showed up and provided a convenient distraction. Herrmann must be trying to impress Adolf again.:D

It's several hours later & we've surfaced. I've still got several eels left & I want to do some more damage!:arrgh!: Guess that I made up for missing that Dido on my last patrol...

Vosseler