Bustoff
12-07-05, 12:49 PM
So there I was crusing on the surface at night in the channel between Cherbourg and the English coast (its Dec 1939 so no worries) when my watch crew spots a juciy C2 on the horizion. I begin a plot and after three minutes of scribbling and my trusty nonograph I have his course and speed. So I set my boat up for a 90 degree AOB shot at 700 meters and lay in ambush in the darkness for him to cross my path. Now for a little twist to this tale. I had been having a ball in the channel so I only had three torps left in the bow. I hadn't reached my patrol zone yet and I wanted to save them for that. So my ambush was set up with the aft tube of my faithful VIIB in mind. Now we all know that one torp rarely sinks a C2 but my plan was to hit him with the single torp and then finish him off with the deck gun.
Torpedo LOS! I fire the fish when the TDC calculates a near zero gyro angle and wait for the boom. As the torpedo is running true my watch officer tells me that we have been spotted. I thought, no worries, since that C2 is surely unarmed in 1939 and he will never be able to outmanuever a steam torpedo set to fast, fired at 700 meters. To the crews delight the torpedo detonates right behind the funnel of the C2 but of course, he continues to chug happily along. So I order the watch crew to man the deck gun and put on a fireworks show. I order them to throw up a star shell for some mood lighting and then commence firing at the waterline until she goes under. They gleefully carry out my request.
As they are delivering HE rounds into the hull of the mighty C2 my watch officer yells out "Enemy ship is engaging us!". I look around and see nothing. I think that maybe he is talking about the C2 and I continue to watch my deck gun crew put on their show.
Then all of a sudden my watch officers face lights up in an errie glow. Next I hear little plinking sounds all over the conning tower. I spin around and hopping through the waves is an Elco boat with its search light pointed right at us and its machine guns blazing!
I instantly order flank speed ahead. The diesels roar to life. I then order a dive to periscope depth (the channel is way too shallow for crash dives) and hope for the best. My deck crew secures the deck gun in nanoseconds (yes I know its a flaw in the sim but I like to think that they are just that good! :up: ) and the boat slips under the water while small caliber rounds dance all over my hull.
Upon reaching periscope depth I raise the attack scope to take a look around. There I see the Elco boat with its search light scanning the waves circling around the spot where my boat dived. I also see the C2, which my deck gun crew was able to immobilize but not sink, sitting dead in the water. Then the Elcos search light lights up the C2 brighter than the field at a night baseball game. I think "Hey thanks guys" and order left full rudder to bring the bow around for a shot at the dead C2. I let go two eels at the stationary C2 and wait for the pyrotechnics. All the time the Elco spots my periscope and begins shooting at it. Thankfully they are bad shots although they did splash some water around!
Suddenly the C2 expoldes and then breaks in two! I guess one of my eels hit a fuel bunker. She slips under the waves and I order a dive to 25 meters so I can slip away. My sonar man tells me that the only contact he has is the Elco so I return to my plotted course and move away at slow speed. I hear through the hydrophones that the Elco just keeps circling my last position so my escape was easy.
I surface two hours later long after contact with the Elco was lost. Interestingly enough my sonar man reported two warships apporaching the position of the Elco as we slipped away. Fortunately I was long gone by that time. I guess they were picking up survivors. On the surface I order the crews favorite record be played on the grammophone and we report our exploits to the BdU.
Pretty cool game huh! If I were that Elco captain I would have tried to ram the periscope. I guess they didn't think of that!
The story I just told would make for a great action/suspence scene in a film. Getting caught on the surface made for a lot of suspense. Hollywood writers don't need to worry about writing scripts from scratch. They just need to play SHIII!!!
Leutnant z. S. Bustoff
Torpedo LOS! I fire the fish when the TDC calculates a near zero gyro angle and wait for the boom. As the torpedo is running true my watch officer tells me that we have been spotted. I thought, no worries, since that C2 is surely unarmed in 1939 and he will never be able to outmanuever a steam torpedo set to fast, fired at 700 meters. To the crews delight the torpedo detonates right behind the funnel of the C2 but of course, he continues to chug happily along. So I order the watch crew to man the deck gun and put on a fireworks show. I order them to throw up a star shell for some mood lighting and then commence firing at the waterline until she goes under. They gleefully carry out my request.
As they are delivering HE rounds into the hull of the mighty C2 my watch officer yells out "Enemy ship is engaging us!". I look around and see nothing. I think that maybe he is talking about the C2 and I continue to watch my deck gun crew put on their show.
Then all of a sudden my watch officers face lights up in an errie glow. Next I hear little plinking sounds all over the conning tower. I spin around and hopping through the waves is an Elco boat with its search light pointed right at us and its machine guns blazing!
I instantly order flank speed ahead. The diesels roar to life. I then order a dive to periscope depth (the channel is way too shallow for crash dives) and hope for the best. My deck crew secures the deck gun in nanoseconds (yes I know its a flaw in the sim but I like to think that they are just that good! :up: ) and the boat slips under the water while small caliber rounds dance all over my hull.
Upon reaching periscope depth I raise the attack scope to take a look around. There I see the Elco boat with its search light scanning the waves circling around the spot where my boat dived. I also see the C2, which my deck gun crew was able to immobilize but not sink, sitting dead in the water. Then the Elcos search light lights up the C2 brighter than the field at a night baseball game. I think "Hey thanks guys" and order left full rudder to bring the bow around for a shot at the dead C2. I let go two eels at the stationary C2 and wait for the pyrotechnics. All the time the Elco spots my periscope and begins shooting at it. Thankfully they are bad shots although they did splash some water around!
Suddenly the C2 expoldes and then breaks in two! I guess one of my eels hit a fuel bunker. She slips under the waves and I order a dive to 25 meters so I can slip away. My sonar man tells me that the only contact he has is the Elco so I return to my plotted course and move away at slow speed. I hear through the hydrophones that the Elco just keeps circling my last position so my escape was easy.
I surface two hours later long after contact with the Elco was lost. Interestingly enough my sonar man reported two warships apporaching the position of the Elco as we slipped away. Fortunately I was long gone by that time. I guess they were picking up survivors. On the surface I order the crews favorite record be played on the grammophone and we report our exploits to the BdU.
Pretty cool game huh! If I were that Elco captain I would have tried to ram the periscope. I guess they didn't think of that!
The story I just told would make for a great action/suspence scene in a film. Getting caught on the surface made for a lot of suspense. Hollywood writers don't need to worry about writing scripts from scratch. They just need to play SHIII!!!
Leutnant z. S. Bustoff