Charleston's first campaign.

[Charleston]

Personal Diary, Lcmdr. C. Charleston
Commanding Officer
SS-294 USS Escolar

1st War Patrol:

2-1-1943: Received orders to patrol Marshall Islands and departed Brisbane, 0600 hours, . Set course to Marshall Islands via west of Solomons.

2-4-1943: Arrived at patrol zone, with uneventufl passage, in late morning. Establish patrol to the SW of the Marshalls.

2-6-1043: 2100 hours, SJ radar contact with multiple ships, bearing 045, range 12,000 yrds--weather rainy, visibility poor. Convoy appeared to be leaving Marshalls, heading due South. Set direct intercept course.

Closed and submerged at 5000yrds. Visual contact establish at 2600 yrds, convoy of 4 troop transports and 2 or more escorts. Fired at 700 yrds at lead transport wtih 2 fish spreads, targeted 2 additional transports with 2 fish apiece. Come about 180 degrees to bring stern tubes to bear. Hits reported on all three transports, however 2nd and 3rd transports still making 5 knots. Targeted one fish apiece and 2 fish on last transport. Hits reported on 2nd and 3rd transport, 2 misses on 4th.

Three transports sinking at 166-52 E, 6-13 N. Escorts closing for ASW attack. Dove to 300 feet, changed heading to 275. Contact lost approx. 2330 hours.

2-7-1943: 1200 hours, SJ radar contact, 14,000yrds, bearing 090, heading 000--rainy with rough seas and poor visibility. End run at flank speed to place boat in path of unidentified ship then submerged.

Visaul contact at 5000yrds with lone troop transport. Unable to determine if ship was from previous convoy. No sign of escorts. Fired 2 fish at 1000yrds, both missed. Additional 2 fish fired at 1200 yrds at fleeing transport, one hit. Transport slowed to 3 knots.

Surfaced to finish target with deck gun. Came under gun fire attack from transport with moderate damage to scope. Transport sunk with combination of deck gun and additonal torpedo hit. 166-48 E, 7-17 N.

Remainder of patrol uneventful. Set return course to Brisbane 2-12-1943, arrived 2-16-1943.

Results:

4 Troop Transports sunk of approx. tonnage 7759.5 apiece.
Total Patrol tonnage: 31038

Remarks:

Boat and crew pefromed well, however I must assume full responsiblity for endangering boat with premature surface attack on transport, 2-7-1943. I was fortunate to come away with only a damage scope.

Additionally torpedo miss rate is too high. This must be improved if I am granted another patrol. I'm afraid the squadron CO will blow a gasket when he reads my formal report.

[Hitman]

I always love to read after action reports :up: It's somehow like reading a historic novel :)

But only 16 days on patrol? :know:

[Charleston]

Aye HItman,

On essentially solo games like PA & SH1 it helps me focus to if I know I'll be reporting my successes and screw-ups. :D

[Charleston]

Personal Diary
L.cmdr C. Charleston
Commanding Officer
SS-294 USS Escolar

Second War Patrol

1. Assigned to patrol Palau Islands. Left Brisbane 0600 hours 4-22-1943. Set course to Palaus via east of Solomon's and north of Rabaul.

2. Trip uneventful till SJ radar contact on 5-5-43 N., 140-51 E. , 4-37 North with contacts at 10,000yrds. Seas calm, visibility fair. Visual contact established at 3,000 yrds with tanker and single escort.

Closed to 1500 yrds and fired two fish at tanker for surface attack. Came under gun fire simultaneously from escort, minor damage to scope. Dove to test depth and engaged escape course. Escort made ineffective ASW attack, no damage sustained from depth charges. Sonar reports breaking up sounds from tanker. Ship estimated at 8722 tons. Lost contact with escort at 0150. Surfaced 0400 for repairs.

3. 5-6-1943, 139-18 E. and 5-45 N. I thought I had stumbled on to a plentiful hunting grounds but almost lost my boat and crew this date. Seas were moderate, visibility fair. Single SJ radar contact at 8,000 yrds with visual established at 3,000 yrds. Ship appears to a lone, medium sized merchant. Plotted direct intercept course with surface attack, planned to fire fish at 1500 yrds or less.

At 2,000 yrds merchant opened up with intense gun attack. There were gun flashes coming from all along the decks of this bastard. Severe damage to my boat's hull with heavy flooding. Cash drive despite damage, boat was not going to last much longer surfaced. No choice but to engage enemy with submerged attack and surface to repair damage ASAP.

Four fish fired at 1,000 yrds, sonar reported multiple hits and quickly followed by breaking up and sinking sounds of enemy. Surfaced and set about repairs.

Intelligence later identified target as a sub trap (Q-ship?) at 7526 tons.

Hull jury rigged with multiple patches which stopped flooding but I deemed Escolar too damage to continue patrol (hull 20% integrity). Set course back to Brisbane.

4. 5-7-1943 137-22 E., 6-56 N, must have stumble along new shipping route. SJ contact with single contact 1945 hours at 10, 000 yrds. Target almost on direct heading. Visual at about 2800 yrds, appeared to be an unescorted tanker. Closed to 1000 yards with submerged attack (taking no chances after last night's disaster) and fired 3 fish. Visual through scope confirmation of hits and sinking. Enemy estimated at 10, 259 tons.

5. Rest of return trip to Brisbane uneventful. Docked on 5-20-1943 at approx. 0200 hours.

6. Reported possible new heavy traffic shipping route to HQ. Sending crew out on much deserved R&R while ship under goes major repairs.

Patrol Results:
Tanker: 8, 722 t.
Sub trap: 7,526 t.
Tanker: 10, 259 t.

total: 25,507 t.

Career Total: 57,545 t.



OCC: What's a sub trap? Help me out, were there Japanese Q-ships on the prowl in 1943? Thanks!

[Hitman]

Yes a sub trap is a Q-ship, but Q-ship is a term originally used by the british in the 1st World War. For the japanese they were simply traps to lure submarines out and surprise them with hidden guns and a ship filled with empty barrels and wood (Making it difficult to be sunk). If you suspect that a ship you encounter is a trap, move away...they can be recognized sometimes by their zigzagging course and aggresive movements pattern (They use the AI ROES of a cruiser :know: )

Keep the reports coming, I like them :up:

Notice that this time you have been 1 month our there :)

[Charleston]

Personal Diary
L.Cmdr. C.Charleston
Commanding Officer
SS-308 USS Apogon

I shouldn't have paid so much attention to the Admiral's daughter, it got me transfered to SUBPAC and a new boat. I'll miss the Escolar. (A reinstall caused my saved game files to get real grumpy and I had to begin a new career).

1. Given command of the USS Apogon and ordered to patrol the Marshalls. We departed Midway 1-20-1943 at 1900 hours. Arrived on station, 1-25-1943. Put the boat and the boys through their paces on the way down to the Marshalls. The boat and crew are green but are shaping up with hard training. (I think the Apogon's first patrol wasn't' untill 12-43 but who's nit-picking?).

2. 1-25-1943: Radar contact at 9,000 yrds on a clear night at 2045.. Waiting on track, we took the boat under at about 4,000 yards. Two fish with one hit and one dud sent a fat 10,259 ton tanker under. A good omen for the start of a patrol. I think though I'll leave the night surface attacks to ole Dick O'Kane and keep my boat under the waves.

3. Things were slow for eight days, but on 2-3-1943 at 0930 SJ radar lit up with a contact at 12,000 yrds. We were NW of Majuro, 170-32 E., 7-22 N. Submerged at 7,000 yrds while waiting on track. At 1,000 yrds, 2 fish sent a suspicious looking maru of 7526 tons to the bottom. I wouldn't be surprised if it was another one of those damn sub-traps..

4. 2-5-1943: We got reports of a large surface group moving at high speed but we couldn't intercept. Sent a report of the group's course and heading off to HQ. If that Admiral has me blacklisted I'll probably catch hell for letting these guys slip by.

5. 2-7-1943. Early morning SJ contacts at 0530. South of Tarawa at 173-40 E.,0-20 S. Clear skies meant we dove early. This was a good thing too because the contacts turned out to be a column of 3 destroyer's. Behind them was some type of maru, though sound reported she was making enough turns to be a fast transport.

Here I screwed up and almost lost another boat. I took too long between periscope sightings and poked the scope up right in front of the bow wave of the lead tin can. We sent 3 fish off and dove to test depth. All the while I was praying the distance was enough for the torps to arm. It was, at least for one fish and we took a dd away from the emperor's navy. A large one at about 2089 tons.

6. I couldn't get that possible transport out of my mind. After escaping away from the other two dd's intend on revenge we surfaced and set up a long end run to take another crack at this convoy. It took almost another day to get in position and I must have been crazy to drive the boat at full ahead on the surface for most of the time. A couple of plane contacts on the SD sent us under and made us lose a lot of ground.

It was worth it and we were able to close on a normal approach at 0730 on 2-8-1943, 168-50 E., 3-47 N. It was a good sized transport. At 1500 yards 3 fish, all hits sent her under. One of the escorts must have stopped to pick up survivors, the tin can stopped dead in the water a couple of hundred yards ahead of the sinking transport. I suppose the good Lord will want an explanation but I sent a few more fish into the tin can and sent the 1991 ton escort under too.

7. Running low on torpedos we made for Midway and arrived back in port on 2-13-1943. Arrived in port with the boom flying and the crew happy. I took a few pictures through the scope for bragging rights.

Patrol Results:

tanker 10,259 t.
sub trap 7,526 t.
DD 2,089 t.
Transport 7,992 t.
DD 1.991 t.

Total: 29,857 t.


Here's a sight sure to make any sub driver's heart skip a beat:
http://img446.imageshack.us/img446/9346/trans16kn.jpgIMG]

I really like the Vicker's mod torpedo wake...
http://img446.imageshack.us/img446/4161/trans30vd.jpg

...but I like the Vicker's mod fireball even more!
http://img446.imageshack.us/img446/5561/trans48pn.jpg

[Bruno Lotse]

RE: Here's a sight sure to make any sub driver's heart skip a beat:

Yes, it does. :up:

[Charleston]

Thanks Bruno!


Hey, I forgot to mention that despite it being a bit tedious, I loved going EIGHT full days without sighting a ship! Very much in keeping with what went on historically although admittingly frustrating at times. :P

[Crash Dive]

Great reports, you make me want to reinstall PA and take a few weeks off SH3. :up: