Rob Jacobsen
07-19-22, 12:47 PM
It’s March of 1943, and I left Brisbane in my brand-new USS Balao on another agent-insertion mission—again to Osaka, where I was previously depth-charged to death after delivering my agent and then trying to escape for 17 hours crawling through the shallows, hunted by two destroyers with all the time in the world.
Now I have to go back!
En route on March 11, heading NNW through the Solomons, I deck-gunned a Medium European Composite freighter at 04:31. We were bow to bow, and she got within 400 yards before finally going down with massive explosions. Two days later, 490 nm NW of Rabaul at around 14:00, I torpedoed a two-ship convoy of a Medium Old Composite Freighter and a Medium Old Split Freighter, two torps each, finishing the latter with two shots from my deck gun.
Then came the big morning convoy on March 17 heading NNE at 9 kts around 360 nm NW of Saipan. It had six or seven merchants (tankers and freighters) and five escorts. I ran at flank at distance along its port side to make an end-around approach. The lead escort was far ahead, and I thought I had a good head-on approach when I turned into the path of the convoy. Unfortunately, it was broad daylight and a calm sea, so I could only get a visual on the destroyer before I had to go to PD; I couldn’t send a contact report. I dropped to about 160 feet and killed the engines so that the escort would pass me, and I could rise in its baffles. But it picked me up and began turning behind me. I rose to PD and got off four torpedoes, two each at a Large Modern Tanker and a Medium Old Tanker, killing both. The first went down at 10:20. The second lingered until 10:33.
I went deep at flank, slowed for escort passes, turned west by slow degrees, and was finally able to gain enough distance to surface and report the convoy. That done, I plotted my course to Osaka for my agent-insertion mission. However, a reply to my report came in: “ULTRA X CONTACT ESCORTS ARE TO BE CONSIDERED PRIORITY X CLEAR THEM UP FOR FOLLOWUP ATTACKS X.”
I paused the game and then did a subsim Internet search with clammy hands to see if that meant what I feared it did. Yes, I had to reengage and tangle with the escorts I’d been fleeing! Didn’t HQ know what we’d just been through? Well, three destroyers already had my scent, so I turned to face them. The lead Fubuki took two torpedoes down the throat at 11:13. I hit the second one at 11:16 with another two torpedoes—lucky strikes at close range with an AOB of about 20 degrees to port. The third loitered a bit and then returned to the convoy.
A popup told my that the task was complete (“Inflict losses to convoy escorts”).
Great. Now I just have to drop off another G*d-dang agent in the same place that got me killed!
Followup: I made it. Heavy rain and pitch darkness got me in, past an attentive gunboat, and I escaped the same night. Back outside the bay, in the deep water again, I sighted two outgoing convoys and reported one. I was instructed to sink enemy merchants.
I sank two and crippled a third, a Split Freighter, which then sat dead in the water, listing heavily to starboard with seawater washing its deck from bow to stern. I circled around slowly to finish it with my deck gun, having spent my last eight torpedoes (four bow, four stern) in the initial action. The rest of the convey regrouped and moved on. At about 3,000 yards from the still-floating target, I raised my scope, swept around, and saw—what’s this!—a destroyer sitting with its engines stopped and men at the guns and depth-charge racks. With its engines off, it hadn't shown up on sonar. It was only a few thousand yards from me, just watching and listening. I closed a little more on the crippled target and then waited out the escort. After a long spell, it restarted its engines and headed off in the direction of the convoy. When it was safely out of range, I surfaced and finished off the freighter, which changed my task from “incomplete” to “complete.” (The two torpedoed and sunk merchants hadn’t been enough.)
After-action report: I was initially surprised that in my convoy attack after the Osaka insertion, I had only been able to sink two ships and cripple a third with eight torpedoes. After all, it was dark, the sea was calm, I had a good setup on several freighters, I was undetected, the convoy was not speeding or zig-zagging, and I was certainly close enough not to miss. I later realized that although I had good torpedo men at their stations, I had supplemented them with non-torpedo men—including watchmen who had been injured days earlier when I didn’t clear the bridge fast enough while diving beneath a merchant (that also cost me an AA gun and some radar damage). Further, everyone was fatigued from the nail-biting insertion mission. I will henceforth weigh my crews’ health and fatigue more heavily when contemplating whether to track or attack.
Now I have to go back!
En route on March 11, heading NNW through the Solomons, I deck-gunned a Medium European Composite freighter at 04:31. We were bow to bow, and she got within 400 yards before finally going down with massive explosions. Two days later, 490 nm NW of Rabaul at around 14:00, I torpedoed a two-ship convoy of a Medium Old Composite Freighter and a Medium Old Split Freighter, two torps each, finishing the latter with two shots from my deck gun.
Then came the big morning convoy on March 17 heading NNE at 9 kts around 360 nm NW of Saipan. It had six or seven merchants (tankers and freighters) and five escorts. I ran at flank at distance along its port side to make an end-around approach. The lead escort was far ahead, and I thought I had a good head-on approach when I turned into the path of the convoy. Unfortunately, it was broad daylight and a calm sea, so I could only get a visual on the destroyer before I had to go to PD; I couldn’t send a contact report. I dropped to about 160 feet and killed the engines so that the escort would pass me, and I could rise in its baffles. But it picked me up and began turning behind me. I rose to PD and got off four torpedoes, two each at a Large Modern Tanker and a Medium Old Tanker, killing both. The first went down at 10:20. The second lingered until 10:33.
I went deep at flank, slowed for escort passes, turned west by slow degrees, and was finally able to gain enough distance to surface and report the convoy. That done, I plotted my course to Osaka for my agent-insertion mission. However, a reply to my report came in: “ULTRA X CONTACT ESCORTS ARE TO BE CONSIDERED PRIORITY X CLEAR THEM UP FOR FOLLOWUP ATTACKS X.”
I paused the game and then did a subsim Internet search with clammy hands to see if that meant what I feared it did. Yes, I had to reengage and tangle with the escorts I’d been fleeing! Didn’t HQ know what we’d just been through? Well, three destroyers already had my scent, so I turned to face them. The lead Fubuki took two torpedoes down the throat at 11:13. I hit the second one at 11:16 with another two torpedoes—lucky strikes at close range with an AOB of about 20 degrees to port. The third loitered a bit and then returned to the convoy.
A popup told my that the task was complete (“Inflict losses to convoy escorts”).
Great. Now I just have to drop off another G*d-dang agent in the same place that got me killed!
Followup: I made it. Heavy rain and pitch darkness got me in, past an attentive gunboat, and I escaped the same night. Back outside the bay, in the deep water again, I sighted two outgoing convoys and reported one. I was instructed to sink enemy merchants.
I sank two and crippled a third, a Split Freighter, which then sat dead in the water, listing heavily to starboard with seawater washing its deck from bow to stern. I circled around slowly to finish it with my deck gun, having spent my last eight torpedoes (four bow, four stern) in the initial action. The rest of the convey regrouped and moved on. At about 3,000 yards from the still-floating target, I raised my scope, swept around, and saw—what’s this!—a destroyer sitting with its engines stopped and men at the guns and depth-charge racks. With its engines off, it hadn't shown up on sonar. It was only a few thousand yards from me, just watching and listening. I closed a little more on the crippled target and then waited out the escort. After a long spell, it restarted its engines and headed off in the direction of the convoy. When it was safely out of range, I surfaced and finished off the freighter, which changed my task from “incomplete” to “complete.” (The two torpedoed and sunk merchants hadn’t been enough.)
After-action report: I was initially surprised that in my convoy attack after the Osaka insertion, I had only been able to sink two ships and cripple a third with eight torpedoes. After all, it was dark, the sea was calm, I had a good setup on several freighters, I was undetected, the convoy was not speeding or zig-zagging, and I was certainly close enough not to miss. I later realized that although I had good torpedo men at their stations, I had supplemented them with non-torpedo men—including watchmen who had been injured days earlier when I didn’t clear the bridge fast enough while diving beneath a merchant (that also cost me an AA gun and some radar damage). Further, everyone was fatigued from the nail-biting insertion mission. I will henceforth weigh my crews’ health and fatigue more heavily when contemplating whether to track or attack.