My first "OH CRAAAPP!!" moment in SH5

[scratch81]

Patrol area SE of Iceland, 5kt winds, 0 visibility, too much fog. 2nd watch officer reports "Task force sighted" typical circle of dd's surounding a nelson class battleship. eager for the hunt, i dive to pariscope depth and immediately begin taking readings and lining up my shot. the situation was less than ideal for a torpedo attack, about 30 degrees aob. but i've done worse.

As im getting range to target measurements i see a DD come up in the left side of my scope, range to contact, less than 10m. my pariscope hangs up, doesn't seem to want to fully retract as im hitting shift+del, just kinda inches down as im setting my new depth, trying to rig silent running etc. I just know he's gonna see that flag pole out there and im going to be the next dead hero. he's basically right on top of me so i order extre... err flank speed and go deep, flag pole still flying, after all orders issued i return my attention to lowering the scope. at 70m or so, i rig silent and just start listening for pings, splashes, booms, anything telling me that the gig is up. nothing... just engines passing into the night. as the battle ship and the last of the destroyers fade into the distance i finally realize i haven't breathed in the past minute and a half. i wait another 20-30 minutes there in the deep, and go back to pariscope depth for a peak. its all clear horizon to horizon.

[kylania]

Great story!

I had a similar low visibility experience the other night. I knew a convoy was just ahead, I'd tracked them on the 'phones, but since they were moving so fast I decided to track them on the surface.

Well, visibility was horrible! 100m, if that! I was creeping along in the storm and the fog, but not seeing anything. Kept sweeping back and forth. Finally took out my binocs and looked around, no details at all. Dropping my binoculars I notice the water infront of my boat is foamy... I look up to the left and there, not 10m from the nose of my boat, is the stern of a tanker having just passed me! I must have looking into the side of his ship and not seen it!

Remembering they were in formation, I quickly calculate a shot on the location of the far ship and los! After a minute I hear a muffled explosion and see a hint of fire! I'd hit whatever ship had been sailing along side the one I just barely missed colliding with.

By now, I know the next rank of ships is coming up on my location, and the convoy's been alerted. I keep seeing flashes of search lights trying to pierce the fog...

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7082/whereareyou.jpg

It's only because of these lights that I'm able to get targets of any of the rest of the ships. If they'd just stayed unlit, they'd have made it safely away.

[THE_MASK]

Maybe scripting can be added regarding the searchlights in fog .

[commandosolo2009]

same here too, only to a friendly escort... thanks Benno :down: :cry::x:damn::damn::damn::damn:

[SteelViking]

Awesome stories, here is mine, kind of long:
Background:
I spend all my time in the Mediterranean after it is available (can't leave Rommel hangin). My favorite thing to do is to sink the cruisers out of the many hunting groups.
What happened:
I was in the Western Med. heading in the direction of Gibraltar, doing dive drills for the hydrophone. I pick up a pattern of warships that fits the profile of a hunter group, and they were on a heading that would take them just NE of my position. So I go to periscope depth, turn the sub, and wait.

I thought I was lucky when I realized the group was going to pass over head, and I was set up to not get touched by their sonar. The group gets 1/3 over me, and I raise my attack periscope out just above the water(it was dead calm) set everything up for the shot(it was good, 500m ish 90 degrees, the works) fire two torps, and then I realized one of them was a T1.

They see the wake immediately, but I had gotten over confident, and was dead set on sinking at least one of the cruisers. The destroyers all turned to converge, but I wanted to ensure a torp. strike and fire again if I missed(again, I had gotten way over confident). I see both explosions(I was to close for him to dodge) and I order Flank, 100m, knuckle right, lower periscope. I am maybe 20m down and a destroyer unloads charges into the water (side firing included). I got hit three good times, massive engine damage, flooding, and aft batteries fried. I get the flooding under control and dive all the way to 170m, luckily I had not taken too much hull damage. Waited for hours for them to stop searching, and almost ran out of air, but I finally got away, and limped back to port on only one engine functioning. I almost died, but the cruiser is hanging out at the bottom of the sea.:arrgh!:

[scratch81]

Niiiice. glad you got out of that one.:rock:

[SteamWake]

My first oh crap moment is pretty similar task force sighted bad weather worked into position just waiting on them to cross for the shot when....

Internect connection lost :stare:

[commandosolo2009]

My first oh crap moment is pretty similar task force sighted bad weather worked into position just waiting on them to cross for the shot when....

Internect connection lost :stare:

aint that a b**tch??

[Talyllyn]

I encountered four destroyers on my way to my assigned patrol area and managed to damage one and sink two. I thought it was going quite well.
Unfortunately I missed the fourth one and decided to take evasive action as it was heading my way and had no fish loaded.
I pressed the crash dive button and changed course hoping to escape.

I had a nasty shock when I realised I surfacing right in front of the speeding destroyer. I was rammed and quickly sank.

I was too shocked to grab a picture.

Blow ballast and Crash dive are next to each other, I obviously pressed the wrong button - lesson learnt!

Keep calm, Don't panic!

[scratch81]

played gwx too long not to panic at the sight of a DD bearing down on me