My Good Fortune

[scrapser]

It's July 17th, 1942 and I'm southwest of Ireland after crossing the Atlantic to my assigned patrol at CA87 (off Virginia). On the way over, I sank the tankers (4 each) in two convoys I happened across and a lone C3 with my deck gun (it was a pitched battle until I took out it's gun).

Now here I am with 13 torpedoes left, the water is like glass and I run head on into a task force! But wait there's more!! I'm already in perfect position to take out an Illustrious, a Nelson, and a Revenge. I saved the game as soon as I knew what I had coming towards me so I could calm down and get a grip.

This is my second campaign and also the second task force I've encountered in 1942. I engaged lots of task forces in 39 through 41 and thought that would be it. I never saw one task force other than radio reports in my first campaign. I'm using patch 1.4b and some graphics mods...that's all.

Now back to the battle.

scrapser

[scrapser]

Well, that was interesting...I moved to 1.5km off the track the capital ships were following and waited. The Nelson was in front followed by the Illustrious and the Revenge was some 3000km behind the rest, zigzagging because an escort kept cutting in front. This complicated everything.

I decided to wait until the carrier was 3500km's away, then fired one keel shot at it's bow...waited about 10 seconds, then fired a keel shot at the Nelson's stack to hopefully hit both ships simultaneously (it worked). I immediately lowered the scope so the lens was wet and moved forward ahead slow (there was a Tribal Destroyer coming up on my stern and would pass just 500km behind me if I didn't move forward). But I was feeling the squeeze as a Clemson was leading the whole task force out front.

Fortunately they didn't detect me right away. The Nelson got hit first and blew up but the Illustrious just slowed down to 3 knots. Meanwhile all hell broke loose. I was biting my nails as I continued to creep forward until I was halfway between the two escorts I was trying to avoid. I ordered all stop and just sat there waiting for the Revenge to come within range. Time moved like a glacier.

I could tell by the Revenge's movements it would come within 1500km's and be just about 90 degrees when it did, so I changed my two remaining forward torpedoes to run shallow and fired them both amidships. As I was doing this, I got the dreaded "Enemy is pinging us!" message. Quickly, I fired the two torpedoes, waiting until the doors were open for each one, then ordered crash dive.

I spent the next hour or so evading the depth charges while slowly making a U-turn to take me back in the direction I attacked from. Checking the hydros, I got the happy message the Revenge was dead in the water but the Illustrious was still steaming at 3 knots. Eventually the destroyers gave up and headed off at 21 knots leaving the carrier to fend for itself.

I can't say I was unhappy about this but it does seem a bit unrealistic... oh well. I finally surfaced out of gun range of the Revenge (it was listing heavily to port). The carrier was about 7600km's away, so I ordered ahead standard and set a course that would parallel the carrier. As I made progress, I started getting attacked by Swordfish and ended up shooting down 8 of them. All my flak gunners are Senior Chief Warrant Officers so they blew them out of the sky before they could even get close. I'm in a Type IX with the single heavy flak and two light flak guns.

When I got within visual range of the carrier, I submerged and started running at flank speed. About 2300km's away, my sonar man tells me the pack of escorts have reversed course and are now bearing down on me. I changed course to intercept the carrier and before the escorts got within visual range, they turned and headed off again.

When I got within range of the carrier, I fired one shot at it's bow, but it prematurely detonated (I hate that). A second shot hit the target but it just went to 1 knot...a third to the rear quarter finished it off. I then returned to the Revenge and fired one shot about where the forward gun sits. The ship listed more, then rolled 90 degrees, then righted itself and rolled again. About 20 minutes later, it capsized and sank.

With 5 torpedoes left, I headed south and got about 50km's when I ran into another convoy! Three troop transports, a T3 and a T2. It was now the wee hours of the morning. I set up and waited with my stern pointing towards the convoy approaching from my rear. I fired my two stern tubes at two of the transports. One prematurely detonated, the other found its mark and the ship went dead. The third rear torpedo managed to get loaded in time for me to fire on another transport but it missed.

I waited for the convoy to pass (escorts were searching the wrong area because I fired from just under 3000km's). I fired my remaining two forward torpedoes at the two healthy transports...one blew up and the other went dead. Crash dive. After evading the escorts (another hour) I went to periscope depth and waited for the convoy to move out of range.

While waiting, one of the dead transports finally sank leaving only one to finish off with the deck gun. I did this from 3700km's and headed home.

227,000 tons
6270 renown

Time for bed!

scrapser

[BaronVonSchnitzel]

Good job, scrapser! :rock: :rock: :rock: