Al Lowe
06-22-15, 08:40 AM
East of the Celebes in late 1941, in command of the USS Narwhal. I stumbled upon a small task force that was escorting 3-4 small troop ships (Passenger ships). As it was almost pitch dark, I saw them, they didn't see me. I radioed my find in, and was ordered to attack the troop ships. They wer the priority.
Now, just an FYI, I had external view active, but I wasn't using it. I sometimes just like to look at how my boat looks, and see things explode close up. :) Anyway, I line up on the two closest troop ships, and fire 2 torps at each. All the while, keeping my fingers crossed that the Mk 14s don't explode early, and that they're not duds.
The first two connect, no problem. that ship goes down pretty quick. The next two though, get intercepted by a Mogami class heavy cruiser. One is a dud, the other one wasn't. So, now the "pitch dark" is rather well lit up. I droped down to about 200 feet, and concentrated on reloading my forward tubes while trying to avoid the depth charges.
I get depth charges dropped on either side of my boat, causing little to no damage. (They weren't real close.) Then I hear this horrible scrapping noise. I'm thinking, what the hell happened? Did I run into something, 200 feet down? Curiosity got the better of me, I pressed F11 and went to free camera external view. There I see the oddest thing I've ever seen in this game yet. A Takeo class cruiser had run OVER an Akitsuki class destroyer.
The destroyer was smoking and on fire, but still afloat. I watched for several minutes as the cruiser was dragging the destroyer along for a short distance, until they finally separated. The cruiser seemed fine, but the destroyer settled down to about the gunwales being level with the water, yet didn't sink any further.
With all the confusion, the ships were criss crossing everywhere, and soon I had all forward tubes reloaded. So, I came back up to periscope depth, and looked around to see what was close. I picked off 2 more troop ships, and got 2 more good hits on the Mogami I'd damaged earlier, sending it down. Then I fired off my stern tubes, one at the half sunk/run over destroyer, and one at the heavy cruiser. Both hit and were not duds. The destroyer went down the Takeo had stopped, in fact, most of the task force had stopped. I think the escorts were trying to find me.
I dropped down to 200 feet again, reloaded all 6 tubes, and came back up, the Takeo hadn't moved from where I'd left him before. So I fired my 4 forward fish at him. Two struck, the other two being intercepted by another escort which also went down. My two aft fish went into the last troop ship. One was a dud, one wasn't. Fortunately it turned out, one was enough.
At that, I went back to 200 feet and slinked away.
I'd seen near missed collisions before, but never an actual one. That was different. :)
Now, just an FYI, I had external view active, but I wasn't using it. I sometimes just like to look at how my boat looks, and see things explode close up. :) Anyway, I line up on the two closest troop ships, and fire 2 torps at each. All the while, keeping my fingers crossed that the Mk 14s don't explode early, and that they're not duds.
The first two connect, no problem. that ship goes down pretty quick. The next two though, get intercepted by a Mogami class heavy cruiser. One is a dud, the other one wasn't. So, now the "pitch dark" is rather well lit up. I droped down to about 200 feet, and concentrated on reloading my forward tubes while trying to avoid the depth charges.
I get depth charges dropped on either side of my boat, causing little to no damage. (They weren't real close.) Then I hear this horrible scrapping noise. I'm thinking, what the hell happened? Did I run into something, 200 feet down? Curiosity got the better of me, I pressed F11 and went to free camera external view. There I see the oddest thing I've ever seen in this game yet. A Takeo class cruiser had run OVER an Akitsuki class destroyer.
The destroyer was smoking and on fire, but still afloat. I watched for several minutes as the cruiser was dragging the destroyer along for a short distance, until they finally separated. The cruiser seemed fine, but the destroyer settled down to about the gunwales being level with the water, yet didn't sink any further.
With all the confusion, the ships were criss crossing everywhere, and soon I had all forward tubes reloaded. So, I came back up to periscope depth, and looked around to see what was close. I picked off 2 more troop ships, and got 2 more good hits on the Mogami I'd damaged earlier, sending it down. Then I fired off my stern tubes, one at the half sunk/run over destroyer, and one at the heavy cruiser. Both hit and were not duds. The destroyer went down the Takeo had stopped, in fact, most of the task force had stopped. I think the escorts were trying to find me.
I dropped down to 200 feet again, reloaded all 6 tubes, and came back up, the Takeo hadn't moved from where I'd left him before. So I fired my 4 forward fish at him. Two struck, the other two being intercepted by another escort which also went down. My two aft fish went into the last troop ship. One was a dud, one wasn't. Fortunately it turned out, one was enough.
At that, I went back to 200 feet and slinked away.
I'd seen near missed collisions before, but never an actual one. That was different. :)