toryu
08-30-05, 01:10 PM
U49, VIIC
August 13th, 1940
KL J. Steiner commanding.
So I'm off the Donegal coast again. In true Irish summer style, it's been windy, raining and overcast. For days and days. It's my 9th patrol, and I've noticed a couple of odd things.
The base is now Brest. I know this for a fact, because BDU keeps radioing it out every few hours. I found the North Sea to be full of British destroyers. No commercial traffic near the coast, but plenty of dangerous enemies. I managed to sink one of them with a stern shot about 100km off Hartlepool in bad weather. I thought I missed him, but a big orange fireball erupted from his stern, and he sailed under the waves, in a slow turn to port. A patch of burning oil remained for some minutes at the spot where he was hit. The odd thing was that I didn't see a sunk ship marking on the map. I've been credited for a sunk destroyer though in my log.
I've sunk two merchants in very bad weather off Donegal. One of them was a C2, and the other was a coastal merchant. I got soundings of them a few kilometers out, and set up an attack. In the storming weather, I attacked on the surface. On both occasions, I could see the ships passing my bow in the fog, three hundred meters away, and my watch crew were struck dumb. Nobody said a word. No warnings, no sightings. I keep waiting for Schiff Gesichte! and nobody said nada. The visibilty was bad, I'll admit. The C2 was barely visible as shadows, but the Uzo locked on ok, and it took one torpedo to blow it in half. We were practically on top of it as it sank. The stern of the wreck was bobbing around right on top of us as it went under.
The coastal merchant was a similar story. I knew what to expect though, and kept watch myself. Nobody said Schiff Gesichte! until the Uzo was locked on and the torpedo was streaking away. Uh, thanks guys. You're a great help.
I think this is how the destroyers get on top of you with time compression. The watch crew sucks in bad weather. I had that happen to me also, a few trips ago. In bad weather, running with TC64. My first attack ever from a destroyer consisted of a Flower Class putting two rounds into my conning tower from 100meters away. My useless watch crew didn't spot him until we were under attack. I crashdove, and just barely got submerged while he ran over me.
So far on this trip, I'm up to about 5 merchants and one destroyer. Lots of destroyers in the North Sea, but nothing so far off Donegal. I'm in something of a sweet spot.
August 13th, 1940
KL J. Steiner commanding.
So I'm off the Donegal coast again. In true Irish summer style, it's been windy, raining and overcast. For days and days. It's my 9th patrol, and I've noticed a couple of odd things.
The base is now Brest. I know this for a fact, because BDU keeps radioing it out every few hours. I found the North Sea to be full of British destroyers. No commercial traffic near the coast, but plenty of dangerous enemies. I managed to sink one of them with a stern shot about 100km off Hartlepool in bad weather. I thought I missed him, but a big orange fireball erupted from his stern, and he sailed under the waves, in a slow turn to port. A patch of burning oil remained for some minutes at the spot where he was hit. The odd thing was that I didn't see a sunk ship marking on the map. I've been credited for a sunk destroyer though in my log.
I've sunk two merchants in very bad weather off Donegal. One of them was a C2, and the other was a coastal merchant. I got soundings of them a few kilometers out, and set up an attack. In the storming weather, I attacked on the surface. On both occasions, I could see the ships passing my bow in the fog, three hundred meters away, and my watch crew were struck dumb. Nobody said a word. No warnings, no sightings. I keep waiting for Schiff Gesichte! and nobody said nada. The visibilty was bad, I'll admit. The C2 was barely visible as shadows, but the Uzo locked on ok, and it took one torpedo to blow it in half. We were practically on top of it as it sank. The stern of the wreck was bobbing around right on top of us as it went under.
The coastal merchant was a similar story. I knew what to expect though, and kept watch myself. Nobody said Schiff Gesichte! until the Uzo was locked on and the torpedo was streaking away. Uh, thanks guys. You're a great help.
I think this is how the destroyers get on top of you with time compression. The watch crew sucks in bad weather. I had that happen to me also, a few trips ago. In bad weather, running with TC64. My first attack ever from a destroyer consisted of a Flower Class putting two rounds into my conning tower from 100meters away. My useless watch crew didn't spot him until we were under attack. I crashdove, and just barely got submerged while he ran over me.
So far on this trip, I'm up to about 5 merchants and one destroyer. Lots of destroyers in the North Sea, but nothing so far off Donegal. I'm in something of a sweet spot.