Ducimus
12-23-05, 01:59 PM
Its 1940 and Im cruising off the NW coast of spain just south of the bay of biscay, ports still in french hands,( Norwiegen campaign has just taken place a week or so ago)
I get a report of a task force , their current position is just SW of ireland, heading due south. Usually such reports im in no position to attack, but this one looked feasible. At 19 knots i would be along his projected path 12 hours before he gets there. So at flank speed i do just that.
Its about 3 hours tell expected contact and as luck would have it i got another report. He's NW of me comming accross my stern,, where as i expected him to from the NE accross my bow. I surfaced, made a hard turn, and at flank speed made a mad dash, and then along the new expected firing point, dived for a hydrophone check.
I had arrived at just the nick of time. He was approachign fast, and i had decided to check my hydrophones at just the right moment had i waited any longer i wouldnt have noticed him in time. I proceed to a decent distance and waited. When the lead escort was 10 degrees off my bow i surfaced for a night surface attack against what turned out to be a revenge battleship. Once surfaced it turned out the entire taskforce compliment was
1 lead DD escort
2 Fiji Light cruisers
1 Revenge battleship
1 Nelson Battleship
1 rear DD escort
The whole force was moving at 21 knots. Once the lead DD was clear of my bow at about 6000 meters i headed in at full speed. At approximately 3800 yards i fired a salvo at the nearest battleship (the revenge), having done this i turned hard to port and lined up for a stern tube shot on a Light cruiser that was adjacent to the revenge and 2700 meters from my position.
Of the 4 fish spread, i had 1 premature detonation. The other 3 hit soundly, as this happened i had just managed to get on the firing bearing for the fiji at 2400 meters. I Cut the engines, centered the rudder and fired tubes 5 and 6. Having dones this i went to back to flank speed to get the hell out of there.
Torpedo number 5 missed and went ahead of the fiji, number 6 hit him amidships. Meanwhile the revenge was sinking. Noticing this, i i speed into the night stuffing more torpedo's into the tubes for a coup de grace attack on the cruiser. Just as i had made this decision my weapons officer reports another torpedo impact. I pause and reflect for a moment.. the only ship behind the revenge was the nelson! After this realiztion i dismissed it as a wasted torpedo.. 1 fish is not going to do anything significant to that ship.
Once tube 1 is loaded and tube 2 almost there, i come back in for another attack run.The fiji i wounded is billowing large smoke clouds, is on fire, and is now cruising along at 14 knots, and i am doing 19 knots parrell to his course at about 5000 meters. The other light cruiser and the 2 escorts are ahead of him. The sun is rapdily rising, im now in grey light conditions and its 0:730. If i dont move in now, i will miss my chance. So i order the rudder to port and commence another attack run. I can CLEARLY see the cruisers and escorts, and im wondering how long it will be before im noticed. Regardless i tell the cheif to keep all power to the engines. I will get this cruiser. While im on the bridge, assesing the situation, i realize that the nelson is nowhere to be seen. Looking back at the wounded cruiser i see smoke about 5000 meters astern of him in the distance.
Apparenly that one torpedo did more then i thought. At about 4000 meters i fired tubes 1 and 2 at the wounded cruiser and set turned rudder to fall astern of the cruiser, with intents on investigating and attacking the nelson. With the change in course i put some distance between myself and the cruiser, yet he s only 2000 meters or so off to my left, my broadsides showing to his stern.
Torpedo's detonate, and i guess i hit a magazine, because he went up like a roman candle. Flares are shot skyward and i expect heavy fire on my postion at any minute. Looking on the nelson now im again at 4000 meters, tube 3 is ready, tube 4 requires another 30 seconds. I send my navigator to assist the crew in the bow compartment.
At 3800 meters from the nelson i notice both DD's are closing on my postion, to my bow the nelson grows larger and larger. At 2800 meters tube 4 is finally ready, I fire both torpedo's, the pull the rudder to a hard right and crash drive just as shells started exploding near my boat... i had been topside entirely too long!
60 seconds later.. i hear both fish impact, and hear the nelson sink. The DD's, being late to the party lost contact and rejoined the suriving cruiser.
That was a one in a million chance in a patrol. I seriously doubt ill have that much luck on another patrol. Im lucky that more torpedo's didnt premature detonate as the sea was rough. Im lucky that the one hit on the fiji was enough to slow him down, and im lucky that the torpedo that was intended for the light cruiser, somehow managed to hit the nelson and damage him enough to slow him down. Espeicaly considering i had set that torped to fast speed, 5000 meters, and the nelson was about that distance from when i fired that stern salvo.
Lucky... lucky.. lucky.... Nobodys that lucky. Might be a bad omen of bad things to come :hmm: Maybe im just getting spooked, regardless, i decided with only 4 fish left in the boat to start the journey home, and issue a full bottle of becks for every crewmember onboard U128!
Best war patrol ever!
I get a report of a task force , their current position is just SW of ireland, heading due south. Usually such reports im in no position to attack, but this one looked feasible. At 19 knots i would be along his projected path 12 hours before he gets there. So at flank speed i do just that.
Its about 3 hours tell expected contact and as luck would have it i got another report. He's NW of me comming accross my stern,, where as i expected him to from the NE accross my bow. I surfaced, made a hard turn, and at flank speed made a mad dash, and then along the new expected firing point, dived for a hydrophone check.
I had arrived at just the nick of time. He was approachign fast, and i had decided to check my hydrophones at just the right moment had i waited any longer i wouldnt have noticed him in time. I proceed to a decent distance and waited. When the lead escort was 10 degrees off my bow i surfaced for a night surface attack against what turned out to be a revenge battleship. Once surfaced it turned out the entire taskforce compliment was
1 lead DD escort
2 Fiji Light cruisers
1 Revenge battleship
1 Nelson Battleship
1 rear DD escort
The whole force was moving at 21 knots. Once the lead DD was clear of my bow at about 6000 meters i headed in at full speed. At approximately 3800 yards i fired a salvo at the nearest battleship (the revenge), having done this i turned hard to port and lined up for a stern tube shot on a Light cruiser that was adjacent to the revenge and 2700 meters from my position.
Of the 4 fish spread, i had 1 premature detonation. The other 3 hit soundly, as this happened i had just managed to get on the firing bearing for the fiji at 2400 meters. I Cut the engines, centered the rudder and fired tubes 5 and 6. Having dones this i went to back to flank speed to get the hell out of there.
Torpedo number 5 missed and went ahead of the fiji, number 6 hit him amidships. Meanwhile the revenge was sinking. Noticing this, i i speed into the night stuffing more torpedo's into the tubes for a coup de grace attack on the cruiser. Just as i had made this decision my weapons officer reports another torpedo impact. I pause and reflect for a moment.. the only ship behind the revenge was the nelson! After this realiztion i dismissed it as a wasted torpedo.. 1 fish is not going to do anything significant to that ship.
Once tube 1 is loaded and tube 2 almost there, i come back in for another attack run.The fiji i wounded is billowing large smoke clouds, is on fire, and is now cruising along at 14 knots, and i am doing 19 knots parrell to his course at about 5000 meters. The other light cruiser and the 2 escorts are ahead of him. The sun is rapdily rising, im now in grey light conditions and its 0:730. If i dont move in now, i will miss my chance. So i order the rudder to port and commence another attack run. I can CLEARLY see the cruisers and escorts, and im wondering how long it will be before im noticed. Regardless i tell the cheif to keep all power to the engines. I will get this cruiser. While im on the bridge, assesing the situation, i realize that the nelson is nowhere to be seen. Looking back at the wounded cruiser i see smoke about 5000 meters astern of him in the distance.
Apparenly that one torpedo did more then i thought. At about 4000 meters i fired tubes 1 and 2 at the wounded cruiser and set turned rudder to fall astern of the cruiser, with intents on investigating and attacking the nelson. With the change in course i put some distance between myself and the cruiser, yet he s only 2000 meters or so off to my left, my broadsides showing to his stern.
Torpedo's detonate, and i guess i hit a magazine, because he went up like a roman candle. Flares are shot skyward and i expect heavy fire on my postion at any minute. Looking on the nelson now im again at 4000 meters, tube 3 is ready, tube 4 requires another 30 seconds. I send my navigator to assist the crew in the bow compartment.
At 3800 meters from the nelson i notice both DD's are closing on my postion, to my bow the nelson grows larger and larger. At 2800 meters tube 4 is finally ready, I fire both torpedo's, the pull the rudder to a hard right and crash drive just as shells started exploding near my boat... i had been topside entirely too long!
60 seconds later.. i hear both fish impact, and hear the nelson sink. The DD's, being late to the party lost contact and rejoined the suriving cruiser.
That was a one in a million chance in a patrol. I seriously doubt ill have that much luck on another patrol. Im lucky that more torpedo's didnt premature detonate as the sea was rough. Im lucky that the one hit on the fiji was enough to slow him down, and im lucky that the torpedo that was intended for the light cruiser, somehow managed to hit the nelson and damage him enough to slow him down. Espeicaly considering i had set that torped to fast speed, 5000 meters, and the nelson was about that distance from when i fired that stern salvo.
Lucky... lucky.. lucky.... Nobodys that lucky. Might be a bad omen of bad things to come :hmm: Maybe im just getting spooked, regardless, i decided with only 4 fish left in the boat to start the journey home, and issue a full bottle of becks for every crewmember onboard U128!
Best war patrol ever!