Falkirion
12-24-09, 10:16 AM
But before I get to that convoy I have to sleep. Had a fairly successful patrol thus far. And I'm happy with the 3 ships I've put under.
First ship I came across was while heading to my assigned patrol grid. AN13, I'm never heading back there later in the war. But just northwest of there I came across a coastal freighter. He was making 6 knots, I was making 8. Headed off ahead of the poor sod and waited underwater. One torpedo under the keel. One sunk merchant. Cleared the area down at 130m and came back to the surface at sunrise. After a quick scan continued on my way to patrol grid.
On the way to AN13 and whilst on station there I was harrased by the same plane twice in the one day. First time I was under before he got anywhere near close. Second time I was barely past 40m before he dropped an ash can on my last known. It exploded astern safely. Waited down low until sunset to surface and complete my 24 station keeping exercise and head to the richer hunting grounds further to the west.
Made it into the western approaches a couple of days later after making contact with a few more smaller merchants but I let them go and they didn't harass me. Very pleased I did so. As one of the first ships I made contact with heading west to the USA was an Ore Carrier. Made my usual preperations for attack and sent a torpedo after him. It hit, but he continued steaming on. I fired off another and it too went into him but again no sinking. I was getting a little annoyed. I slunk out of the area and assuming that my course and speed observations were true motored ahead of him. About 3 hours later I made contact with him again. This time no chances. A pair of torpedos into his side. One at the bow and one under the middle. This time finally he slipped under. This engagement was made during the middle of the day in calm waters.
Night fell and as I was zig zagging back and forth across the approach lanes I found a small merchant. Not wanting to waste another eel. I decided to give my crew their first deck gun engagement. As he crossed into 2500 yards I opened up. First pair of shots went wide, and he went evasive not wanting to be eluded this early on I turned toward him, closing the range. The next one hit on the rear deck and set off his cargo, alright this wont take long I thought to myself (A glance at the real world clock showed it was already after 1am) after another few rounds went into him we crossed into visual range. He put on his search light and started scanning for me. My next deck gun round obliterated it and the command deck. So much for evasive manuevers. I held off approaching to within 1km and sat back and shelled him. Another 5 or so rounds and she was sinking fast. At a cost of around 30 shells, 1 small merchant now under the north atlantic. With the seas still eerily calm we headed back to look for convoys.
As luck would have it just as dawn was breaking we got a report of a convoy in the area. I was just far enough ahead to be in position to make contact if my rough guesstimates of its course were correct. As the hours melted away into the afternoon we got an update on the convoy we were chasing. It had changed course to NNE and slowed to 6 knots. After a couple more hours we made contact. From the brief look I got with the external cam it looks juicy.
Patrol log to be finished when I get back to making my approach when I wake up. For now though this Kaulen is off to catch some rack time.
First ship I came across was while heading to my assigned patrol grid. AN13, I'm never heading back there later in the war. But just northwest of there I came across a coastal freighter. He was making 6 knots, I was making 8. Headed off ahead of the poor sod and waited underwater. One torpedo under the keel. One sunk merchant. Cleared the area down at 130m and came back to the surface at sunrise. After a quick scan continued on my way to patrol grid.
On the way to AN13 and whilst on station there I was harrased by the same plane twice in the one day. First time I was under before he got anywhere near close. Second time I was barely past 40m before he dropped an ash can on my last known. It exploded astern safely. Waited down low until sunset to surface and complete my 24 station keeping exercise and head to the richer hunting grounds further to the west.
Made it into the western approaches a couple of days later after making contact with a few more smaller merchants but I let them go and they didn't harass me. Very pleased I did so. As one of the first ships I made contact with heading west to the USA was an Ore Carrier. Made my usual preperations for attack and sent a torpedo after him. It hit, but he continued steaming on. I fired off another and it too went into him but again no sinking. I was getting a little annoyed. I slunk out of the area and assuming that my course and speed observations were true motored ahead of him. About 3 hours later I made contact with him again. This time no chances. A pair of torpedos into his side. One at the bow and one under the middle. This time finally he slipped under. This engagement was made during the middle of the day in calm waters.
Night fell and as I was zig zagging back and forth across the approach lanes I found a small merchant. Not wanting to waste another eel. I decided to give my crew their first deck gun engagement. As he crossed into 2500 yards I opened up. First pair of shots went wide, and he went evasive not wanting to be eluded this early on I turned toward him, closing the range. The next one hit on the rear deck and set off his cargo, alright this wont take long I thought to myself (A glance at the real world clock showed it was already after 1am) after another few rounds went into him we crossed into visual range. He put on his search light and started scanning for me. My next deck gun round obliterated it and the command deck. So much for evasive manuevers. I held off approaching to within 1km and sat back and shelled him. Another 5 or so rounds and she was sinking fast. At a cost of around 30 shells, 1 small merchant now under the north atlantic. With the seas still eerily calm we headed back to look for convoys.
As luck would have it just as dawn was breaking we got a report of a convoy in the area. I was just far enough ahead to be in position to make contact if my rough guesstimates of its course were correct. As the hours melted away into the afternoon we got an update on the convoy we were chasing. It had changed course to NNE and slowed to 6 knots. After a couple more hours we made contact. From the brief look I got with the external cam it looks juicy.
Patrol log to be finished when I get back to making my approach when I wake up. For now though this Kaulen is off to catch some rack time.