Have not been beat up like this in a while...wow.

[Bubblehead1980]

After a so so night out, came home loaded up current patrol,, figured would play it out since won't have any time to this weekend.Ended up nearly getting killed.

TMO 2.0 RSRD


USS Grenadier-Gar class out of Brisbane.

100 realism, cams and contacts OFF.

20 December 1943-28 January 1943


Caught a convoy leaving Rabaul on the morning(0952) of 20 January 1943.Convoy consisted of 3 freighters(two nagara marus and one zinbu maru) and two subchaser(Etorufu) escorts.

Made an approach at 150 feet so could run at ahead 2/3 to get close enough, came up to scope depth, near perfect set up on the Zinbu Maru.Tubes open and preparing to fire at 1600 yards....suddenly explosions rocked the boat....an aircraft had spotted us in the flat, glassy seas, the freighter slowed and the nearest subchaser began pinging and turned towards me, reset the speed in TDC and waited to see which way the freighter was zigging, appeared to be zigging near me, fired 3 Mark 14's...all 3 prematurely exploded.Fired 3 more, dropped the scope and ordered 250 feet(test depth), heard another premature explosion, finally one torpedo impact.All bow tubes now expended, just four left in after tubes.

Soon the subchasers were on me, pinging and making runs.Managed to escape damage on first two runs...third run was close, very close.....damage reports flooded in.Most disturbing was hull damage went to 6 in addition the battery and electric engine damage which cut my speed and underwater endurance, DC team went to work while the subchasers continued their onlslaught.Fourth run was close but no damage, fifth run sent hull damage to 11 and pushed me up to 240 feet(yes really) charges mustbe been under the boat.
Ordered depth of 275 feet, seet if could lose them, which seemed to work as the next two runs were not close.Then one escort went quiet, listening no doubt, so I ordered all stop but no doubt my boat was noisy from the damage and repairs going on.With speed at zero, ordered ahead 1/3(in game can hover but in RL could not so I dont in the game) The "sleeper" sprung to life roaring in and dropping a large pattern(judging from the splashes) Soon my boat was taking even more damage....compressor severely damage, trimp pump heavily damaged.....high pressure air and water shot into the conning tower, some minor flooding in after torpedo room, radio destroyed, both periscopes destroyed, deck gun damaged, AA gun damaged, sonar damaged, TDC damaged,port prop shaft damaged and a few others.Risking it all, took boat to 300 feet.After 4 more runs with some close, managed to sneak away.They continued pounding the ocean and gave up after 3 hours(Japanese did tend to give up too early in RL)

Surfaced later that evening, made repairs possible as set course for home.Encountered a lone Zinbu Maru on surface later and used TBT to sink her with four remaining stern torpedos, arrived in port on 28 December 1943.

Final damage list:

Hull damage:11

Both periscopes destroyed.Compressor inoperable(never would repair even though it said 85 percent damage)

Prop shaft destroyed(port) went up to 100 during successive depth charge attacks.

radio destroyed

4 bow tubes destroyed,

SJ radar antenna destroyed

SD radar antenna destroyed

deck gun and AA gun disabled

Lost 7 percent of fuel from clean fuel oil tank when it was damaged.

Several other systems destroyed.


Boat was esstentially a wreck, have not been worked over like that in SH 4 in a while.The escorts were surprisingly good for early 43.Looked this convoy up in the ME, both were just set to "compotent" skill level, hate to see what vet or elite is for them because they were top notch or just really lucky.

Not a bad patrol for cams/contacts off...getting pretty good at it.



http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp152/jstringr1685/SH4Img2010-11-06_042849_311.jpg

[TheBrauerHour]

Great patrol! I like the fact that you had the presence of mind to send some more fish on their way before you went deep.

I am reading a "thunder Below" by E.B. Fluckey, and in it he would often throw some torps at a merchant so that the escorts would give up depth charging earlier to pick up survivors.

Gotta love when you get rattled by depth charges liek that and your crew still manages to bring the boat home. Patrols like that, for me at least, are better than the patrols where you sink tons of ships.

[Bubblehead1980]

Great patrol! I like the fact that you had the presence of mind to send some more fish on their way before you went deep.

I am reading a "thunder Below" by E.B. Fluckey, and in it he would often throw some torps at a merchant so that the escorts would give up depth charging earlier to pick up survivors.

Gotta love when you get rattled by depth charges liek that and your crew still manages to bring the boat home. Patrols like that, for me at least, are better than the patrols where you sink tons of ships.


Thanks, yea my fuel was low and would be terminating patrol in few days anyway and the way traffic is in RSRD in in early 43, could be last chance to attack a worthy target so I fired before diving, was close enough it wasnt much of a long shot but it did help the escorts get a good location of me but that is part of it.Most books I read by the successful skippers did the same, they would fire and go deep if an escort was on them even though it did help the escorts initially.I managed one hit, if not for the premature exploders, wouldve had more than one hit and sunk the target, ah well.

I have read Thunder Below 2 or 3 times, great book.Tied with Wahoo! and Clear the Bridge! by Admiral Richard O Kane as the best sub books by former skippers.


Yea, it's neat to make it home all banged up as many boats did in RL, fleetboats were tough well boat submarines.Many came home with ubelievable damager.Halibut, Seahorse, Drum, Jack, and Growler, come to mind first, but many others took horrendous damage and made it home.Reason I like RSRD is its realistic.Not my best patrol by far but the tonnage is realistic for early 1943.When you play this sim with cams and contacts off plus RSRD to make the traffic realistic, keeps things on an even keel.Once in a while esp in 1944 you can come home with 40k tons pretty easy if you find the right convoy as some subs did.