daft
03-25-10, 04:11 AM
I fired up SH4 again after being away for a while, and boy is it easy to get hooked. Took command of the Drum and went of to the Marshall's for my first patrol. I only encountered two ships on my way to our assigned station, and they both turned out to be US merchants, so no torps were fired. After patrolling the assigned area for a period of time and still come up short, I decided to poke my nose into Truk to see what the enemy was up to. Unfortunately I got a bit cocky and thought I'd close on the harbour in daylight, which (obviously) was a BIIIG mistake.
Just after reaching shallow waters SW of Truk harbour, I came under intense fire from a Japanese destroyer and a patrol boat. We quickly headed south, all diesels ponding away in an effort to reach the safety of the deeper water there. Just as we were getting ready to pull the plug, one of the destroyers scored a hit which damaged our hull and destroyed the deck gun. As we went under we quickly figured out that the fooding wasn't too bad and could be repaired rather quickly. Our biggest problem was the fact that we still had very little depth to play with, but the bottom was dropping sharply here, so most probably we would be able to go deeper before the warships arrived overhead.
Before we knew it though, the enemy was upon us and the pinging from the sonar rose to a deafening level before it stopped and DC's started to rain down. As soon as the first detonated, we rang up flank speed and I ordered us deeper, down to about 160 feet (some 20 feet off the bottom). The charges shook us hard and caused some additional leaks. Lights flickering, pain chips raining down on us. We held fast though, and kept going south, desperate to find deeper waters and the safety of a thermal layer.
Before we could manage that, the destroyer got another run at us. With no depth to use to our advantage we once again rang up flank and came hard to port to get out of the way. But it was too late. Another hard salvo sook us really badly causing equipment to fail left right and centre. Shouts went out about flooding in the torpedo room, and the repair crew quickly got to work sealing up the holed hull.
Meanwhile, the enemy kept pinging, but as we pushed ourselves slightly deeper yet we finally found that precious layer at 190 feet. Quietly we nosed below, watching our battered hull closely as we went down. Soon the warships lost the scent, and Drum sneaked away to the relative safety of the deep ocean. As I sat in my cabin I realized I had finally crossed that fine line between recklessness and extreme aggressiveness.
Just after reaching shallow waters SW of Truk harbour, I came under intense fire from a Japanese destroyer and a patrol boat. We quickly headed south, all diesels ponding away in an effort to reach the safety of the deeper water there. Just as we were getting ready to pull the plug, one of the destroyers scored a hit which damaged our hull and destroyed the deck gun. As we went under we quickly figured out that the fooding wasn't too bad and could be repaired rather quickly. Our biggest problem was the fact that we still had very little depth to play with, but the bottom was dropping sharply here, so most probably we would be able to go deeper before the warships arrived overhead.
Before we knew it though, the enemy was upon us and the pinging from the sonar rose to a deafening level before it stopped and DC's started to rain down. As soon as the first detonated, we rang up flank speed and I ordered us deeper, down to about 160 feet (some 20 feet off the bottom). The charges shook us hard and caused some additional leaks. Lights flickering, pain chips raining down on us. We held fast though, and kept going south, desperate to find deeper waters and the safety of a thermal layer.
Before we could manage that, the destroyer got another run at us. With no depth to use to our advantage we once again rang up flank and came hard to port to get out of the way. But it was too late. Another hard salvo sook us really badly causing equipment to fail left right and centre. Shouts went out about flooding in the torpedo room, and the repair crew quickly got to work sealing up the holed hull.
Meanwhile, the enemy kept pinging, but as we pushed ourselves slightly deeper yet we finally found that precious layer at 190 feet. Quietly we nosed below, watching our battered hull closely as we went down. Soon the warships lost the scent, and Drum sneaked away to the relative safety of the deep ocean. As I sat in my cabin I realized I had finally crossed that fine line between recklessness and extreme aggressiveness.