Das Boot-esque convoy attack

[Sledgehammer427]

before i begin, i want to tell you that this came after 3 botched installs (all CTDs during gameplay, messed up subsequent loads) so i reinstalled 4....i am playing GWX 2.1, OLCE 2, and OLC GUI with manual targeting.

Grid Square CG85...at the inlet/outlet of the Med...
after sinking one ship with the DG...1000 tonner

convoy report nearby...turned to intercept...3 hours later, Merchant Spotted!
its night, and pitch black outside...only the horizion is a lighter shade of dark blue. i jump on the bridge, and i see a convoy conisisting of about 2 copies of ships over 5,000 tons minus tankers, and a Southhampton Class cruiser. i am headed southeast, they are headed southwest...range....about 3,000 meters, at 6 knots.
i am at ahead slow, making 6 knots...to my left, i catch a silohuette of a black swan about 2,000 meters away.
i jump on the UZO...and order Ahead Flank....an empire class freighter and the southhampton overlap, i set up and fire 2 eels, then shift to the second Empire...and fire the last 2 and crash dive....

at 35 meters...the first 2 miss, times up, and has been for 1 minute.
at 50...Torpedo impact!...Torpedo impact!
one empire down....
and a black swan and a v&w closing in i saw turning when i crash dove.

what caught me was when i was playing the gramophone, i had Konvoi playing from the Das Boot Soundtrack...and i realised that the attack mimicked the attack from the directors cut! :o :D

[meduza]

Well done! :up: Pity you didn't make your escape on surface. That's even more satisfying.

I'm currently reading Iron Coffins, and I'm amazed how they easily managed to get inside of a convoy, attack, and escape in one piece. While reading it, I was thinking "what a lunatics" :D.

Maybe I'm to cautious, but I usually attack submerged although I did it surfaced a number of times. In my next career I'll try to do more surface attacks, and if possible, get inside the convoy. It's not possible in my current career, because it's late '43.

[Sledgehammer427]

well, there was only about an hour between the first depth charges and when i came to the surface...epic night, ill see if i was smart enough to take pictures :lol:

and i'm gonna run my career thru the whole war (no DiD, thats my next one)
and its....Dec. 1940. so with 265,000 tons under my belt (wicked first 2 patrols in 39...i started in Sept.) im pretty well set to get around....say.....600,000 tons if my track record has anything to show for it...

[Piggy]

I tried a surface attack last night, light fog, overcast, very dark.

I was shadowing the convoy and could see it had two escorts on the flank. I watched their patterns, one would race out while the other would stay on coarse with the convoy then switch (to do a run out) when the other escort returned from its foray. The rear one had just returned from a scouting foray behind me and the front one started to head out on its run. I was just ahead of it and figured now was my chance to make an attack run. Turned about 90 degree's to intercept convoy, the front flanking escort was about 2 to 3K away from me heading away from the convoy, lead escort was about the same distance. I was threading the needle, never done this before but it was fun, a good rush! Reminded me of Das Boot, and then I remembered the crew members talking about "what does captian think he's doing, blazing in like that, this aint 1940 anymore" etc... (it was may of 41 for me).

In the end I had to submerge at the last minute for my attack because I just didnt think I would get a shot off before the merchants or escorts spotted me, although in hindsight Im pretty sure I could have done it.

Ive tried this before but was caught each time, you really need ideal weather conditions and a little luck for it to work.