Commander Gizmo
10-31-09, 02:38 PM
During my last rather fruitless patrol filled with well lit neutral convoys in my 1934 destroyer I found myself very low on fuel in the south eastern tip of grid AM. I knew I'd have to make it back to brest for resupply before heading to Wilhelmshaven. I potting my course and set speed for 17 knots, my most efficient speed. Just a few minutes into my return trip I get a radio report of a large convoy about 30 clicks to the southwest of me. I think, 'why not?' and set off to use my fuel reserves on one more assault despite the foul weather, which had visibility down to a mere 1km if you can see through the rain.
Upon intercepting the convoy, my radio man starts pouring in reports. Sounds like three escorts and a ton of juicy targets! Wait a second! What's that warship doing in the middle of the convoy?! We all know that can mean only one thing. A cruiser or battleship. Seeing as how I can't load a game with WSM without crashing, I better decide carefully on how to proceed, if at all.
Apparently I like to live on the edge, because I didn't give the order to retreat. I wasn't sure how far those giant guns could reach in this weather (Britain has to see it to shoot it in 1940), and so I had to decide if I could avoid getting shot at due to the bad weather once all the search beams were on me. Well, being the edge living captain I am, instead I decided the best course of action was to take out the warship first thing. "Ahead Flank!" I shouted. Thank you SH3Speech.
Using radar to find the columns I slipped in between two rows at flank speed running directly for the large guns, whatever they were. Amazingly none of the ships detected me despite the fact that I was close enough to spit on their crew. I quickly set up a spread of four impact torpedoes at 5 meters and readied my crew for a fierce engagement. At 36 knots, it took no time at all for the warship to come into view. "Looks like the Nelson! Can you confirm?" I shouted at the weapons officer (who probably had a whole different title on my new boat, but whatever). "No! It's the Rodney!" was the reply. "The torpedoes will hit that too!" I answered.
After setting up a solution for straight ahead -- there not being any time for more than that at 36 knots -- I fired four torpedoes. After the last one had cleared my boat I ordered hard to port since the biggest guns were on the front of my opponent's ship. "Come on! Turn! Turn!" My boat very slowly at high speed started to angle away from a collision course. I must have passed within 400 meters of my target. I ordered all guns pointed at the BB and got the crew on the turrets. I also ordered them to hold fire until the torpedoes hit. Amazingly somehow I still hadn't been detected. Their crew must be asleep.
A few tense second go by as the torpedoes head for their target. Somehow only one hits just under one of the main guns. I don't know how can I miss that bad with a four spread at 800 meters and a straight bow shot. I wait for the Rodney to open fire before I do in case they somehow still hadn't located me with all the spot lights shining on my ship. However, they did indeed. I got off a few good shots, and fortunately didn't take a single hit.
After running out of visual range of the BB, I headed out along an arc back to flanking the convoy. Along the way I took a few seconds to sink a pesky J&K that didn't offer much of a fight. I also took care of a few merchants along the way.
After taking care of a few armed merchants and a Black Swan, I headed back in at flank for another round with the Rodney. My torpedoes hadn't reloaded yet, so this time it is deck guns. I swung in from slightly behind and made a pass to her starboard side where the torpedo hit blasting as many dents into her armor as I could. About half way through the pass I thought that it might have been safer to challenge her main guns first rather than line myself up for them on the way out, but no shells hit me once again. As she was disappearing from view, I could see she was listing a bit so I must have done some damage.
I took out a few more merchants on my way out of the convoy to finish loading my torpedoes. After slipping out of their range and away from the final escort, who was searching fruitlessly 3000 meters away, I began to focus on reloading instead of manning the guns. I also ordered all engines stopped so I might have a chance to make it back to port under my own power.
Once my final three torpedoes were reloaded, I made one final pass at flank into the starboard side of the Rodney. This time I fired two impact eels at 6 meters with about a 5 degree spread. Once the BB was in view, I fired right away and turned to starboard to make my escape, this time firing all guns the whole way. My aim was somehow better this time as both torpedoes hit and my crew inform me that she is going down. Just how they know, I can't begin to tell. Must be something new they are teaching at academy.
At this point I can focus on the convoy and easily evade the helpless escorts since they have no radar. I discovered the Rodney was guarding four C4's, three large merchants, two large tankers, four medium merchants and a handfull of 5000-6000 armed merchants (NKM?, NGM?). My tonnage went from 54,000 to 274,000. I pulled up to the dock in Brest in the same terrible weather having only 74km worth of fuel left at best efficiency. I think I'll put in for extra fuel reserves and see what the brass have to say.
I realize that in RL in 1940 I probably wouldn't have had radar and destroyers like mine can't fire torpedoes straight ahead like a uboat, but it was fun none the less and quite tense fighting a BB even if she couldn't hit a barn if it was sitting on her deck.
Upon intercepting the convoy, my radio man starts pouring in reports. Sounds like three escorts and a ton of juicy targets! Wait a second! What's that warship doing in the middle of the convoy?! We all know that can mean only one thing. A cruiser or battleship. Seeing as how I can't load a game with WSM without crashing, I better decide carefully on how to proceed, if at all.
Apparently I like to live on the edge, because I didn't give the order to retreat. I wasn't sure how far those giant guns could reach in this weather (Britain has to see it to shoot it in 1940), and so I had to decide if I could avoid getting shot at due to the bad weather once all the search beams were on me. Well, being the edge living captain I am, instead I decided the best course of action was to take out the warship first thing. "Ahead Flank!" I shouted. Thank you SH3Speech.
Using radar to find the columns I slipped in between two rows at flank speed running directly for the large guns, whatever they were. Amazingly none of the ships detected me despite the fact that I was close enough to spit on their crew. I quickly set up a spread of four impact torpedoes at 5 meters and readied my crew for a fierce engagement. At 36 knots, it took no time at all for the warship to come into view. "Looks like the Nelson! Can you confirm?" I shouted at the weapons officer (who probably had a whole different title on my new boat, but whatever). "No! It's the Rodney!" was the reply. "The torpedoes will hit that too!" I answered.
After setting up a solution for straight ahead -- there not being any time for more than that at 36 knots -- I fired four torpedoes. After the last one had cleared my boat I ordered hard to port since the biggest guns were on the front of my opponent's ship. "Come on! Turn! Turn!" My boat very slowly at high speed started to angle away from a collision course. I must have passed within 400 meters of my target. I ordered all guns pointed at the BB and got the crew on the turrets. I also ordered them to hold fire until the torpedoes hit. Amazingly somehow I still hadn't been detected. Their crew must be asleep.
A few tense second go by as the torpedoes head for their target. Somehow only one hits just under one of the main guns. I don't know how can I miss that bad with a four spread at 800 meters and a straight bow shot. I wait for the Rodney to open fire before I do in case they somehow still hadn't located me with all the spot lights shining on my ship. However, they did indeed. I got off a few good shots, and fortunately didn't take a single hit.
After running out of visual range of the BB, I headed out along an arc back to flanking the convoy. Along the way I took a few seconds to sink a pesky J&K that didn't offer much of a fight. I also took care of a few merchants along the way.
After taking care of a few armed merchants and a Black Swan, I headed back in at flank for another round with the Rodney. My torpedoes hadn't reloaded yet, so this time it is deck guns. I swung in from slightly behind and made a pass to her starboard side where the torpedo hit blasting as many dents into her armor as I could. About half way through the pass I thought that it might have been safer to challenge her main guns first rather than line myself up for them on the way out, but no shells hit me once again. As she was disappearing from view, I could see she was listing a bit so I must have done some damage.
I took out a few more merchants on my way out of the convoy to finish loading my torpedoes. After slipping out of their range and away from the final escort, who was searching fruitlessly 3000 meters away, I began to focus on reloading instead of manning the guns. I also ordered all engines stopped so I might have a chance to make it back to port under my own power.
Once my final three torpedoes were reloaded, I made one final pass at flank into the starboard side of the Rodney. This time I fired two impact eels at 6 meters with about a 5 degree spread. Once the BB was in view, I fired right away and turned to starboard to make my escape, this time firing all guns the whole way. My aim was somehow better this time as both torpedoes hit and my crew inform me that she is going down. Just how they know, I can't begin to tell. Must be something new they are teaching at academy.
At this point I can focus on the convoy and easily evade the helpless escorts since they have no radar. I discovered the Rodney was guarding four C4's, three large merchants, two large tankers, four medium merchants and a handfull of 5000-6000 armed merchants (NKM?, NGM?). My tonnage went from 54,000 to 274,000. I pulled up to the dock in Brest in the same terrible weather having only 74km worth of fuel left at best efficiency. I think I'll put in for extra fuel reserves and see what the brass have to say.
I realize that in RL in 1940 I probably wouldn't have had radar and destroyers like mine can't fire torpedoes straight ahead like a uboat, but it was fun none the less and quite tense fighting a BB even if she couldn't hit a barn if it was sitting on her deck.