panthercules
02-18-06, 07:04 PM
I'm sinking in the rain,
I'm sinking in the rain,
What a glorious feeling,
I'm happy again :)
After I lost the convoy I was stalking in my new Type IXB to a CTD problem a few days ago, I started a new patrol off the western approaches to England. While the weather was still good, I found and gunned a couple of lone merchants, finishing them both off with torpedoes, and then headed northwest around Ireland toward my patrol zone.
I then got a report of a convoy sighting further south, and turned around to intercept. As soon as I did, the weather brewed up into a big storm, with the heaviest rain I've ever encountered and extremely short visibility. I usually try to avoid hunting convoys in storms, but this was the first convoy I've had a shot at intercepting in this whole career (I was in my 9th patrol), so I decided to press on anyway.
As I waited at 'scope depth in the path of the convoy, I saw two ships loom up out of the mists, a small tanker in front and a C2 behind me. I fired 2 torps at the tanker, and both stern tubes at the C2. I missed the tanker but heard explosions later on the other side of her, so i was hoping perhaps I had hit a ship in the next column over. Then I saw a C3 appear following the tanker in that same column, and hit her with both my remaining torps in the bow tubes. Just after I fired at her, I heard and then saw one of my stern torps hit the C2 behind me. I dove to reload and let the rest of the convoy pass by, hoping I could find and finish off the wounded stragglers before making another run at the convoy itself.
After returning to the surface with my torps reloaded, I had to hunt all around through the mists but finally did manage to find the C3 I'd hit lying dead in the water, down slightly by the stern and with a slight list. It had been maybe 90 minutes already, and I waited another 20-30 minutes, but she didn't show any signs of sinking so I finished her off with another torpedo so I could get on with looking for the other ship I'd hit.
I never did find my other victim, and apparently the convoy jogged south and I lost it too, so I headed on up north to my patrol zone. Just after I finished my assigned patrol zone duties, I got a report of another convoy nearby, so I took off after that one. The storm was still raging, with visibility down around 500m, and my hydrophones revealed no warship screws ahead of the convoy, so I approached this one on the surface from dead ahead. As soon as I saw the first ships looming up out of the mists, I dove to periscope depth and lined up for my attacks.
My first two torps from my bow tubes both exploded against the C3 passing in front of me, but the ship behind me was just a small freighter, so I wanted to wait for a better target for my last remaining stern torp. While I was checking out the target behind me, I didn't notice that my forward speed had carried me too close to the column in front of me. All of a sudden, I realized that the next ship in line (a C2) was bearing down on me and that we were on a collision course. I ordered a crash dive and hard right rudder, and winced as I heard the hull of the C2 scrape across my conning tower. Fortunately, it was a glancing blow that only took out my AA gun deck, leaving my 'scopes undamaged.
I cut short my crash dive and came back to periscope depth. My turn had brought my stern tubes to bear on the crippled C3 from my first attack. Not wanting to risk losing her in the storm, I went ahead and finished her off with my last stern torp, leaving only 1 torp left in my bow tubes (I still had 4 torps left in my external reserves, but with the storm I knew I wouldn't be likely to be able to get to those any time soon). Just then, the next ship in line came out of the mists ahead of me - another C2. Although I didn't think there was much chance of taking out a C2 with only the 1 torp remaining, I figured I didn't have anything better to do with it so I let it fly. As luck would have it, she must have been an ammo-carrier (my first, in 3 careers), because my torpedo explosion was followed by a series of impressive secondary explosions which ripped her apart stem to stern :)
The weather never did clear up enough to let me get those external torps loaded into my boat, so I headed back to port, very satisfied to have managed to sink 3 good-sized merchants in such stormy conditions (and to have escaped with only some minor external damage from the collision with that C2). Apparently, BdU was also satisfied, awarding me some diamonds and some goodies for my crew as well. All in all, my most successful outing in the rain so far :D
I'm sinking in the rain,
What a glorious feeling,
I'm happy again :)
After I lost the convoy I was stalking in my new Type IXB to a CTD problem a few days ago, I started a new patrol off the western approaches to England. While the weather was still good, I found and gunned a couple of lone merchants, finishing them both off with torpedoes, and then headed northwest around Ireland toward my patrol zone.
I then got a report of a convoy sighting further south, and turned around to intercept. As soon as I did, the weather brewed up into a big storm, with the heaviest rain I've ever encountered and extremely short visibility. I usually try to avoid hunting convoys in storms, but this was the first convoy I've had a shot at intercepting in this whole career (I was in my 9th patrol), so I decided to press on anyway.
As I waited at 'scope depth in the path of the convoy, I saw two ships loom up out of the mists, a small tanker in front and a C2 behind me. I fired 2 torps at the tanker, and both stern tubes at the C2. I missed the tanker but heard explosions later on the other side of her, so i was hoping perhaps I had hit a ship in the next column over. Then I saw a C3 appear following the tanker in that same column, and hit her with both my remaining torps in the bow tubes. Just after I fired at her, I heard and then saw one of my stern torps hit the C2 behind me. I dove to reload and let the rest of the convoy pass by, hoping I could find and finish off the wounded stragglers before making another run at the convoy itself.
After returning to the surface with my torps reloaded, I had to hunt all around through the mists but finally did manage to find the C3 I'd hit lying dead in the water, down slightly by the stern and with a slight list. It had been maybe 90 minutes already, and I waited another 20-30 minutes, but she didn't show any signs of sinking so I finished her off with another torpedo so I could get on with looking for the other ship I'd hit.
I never did find my other victim, and apparently the convoy jogged south and I lost it too, so I headed on up north to my patrol zone. Just after I finished my assigned patrol zone duties, I got a report of another convoy nearby, so I took off after that one. The storm was still raging, with visibility down around 500m, and my hydrophones revealed no warship screws ahead of the convoy, so I approached this one on the surface from dead ahead. As soon as I saw the first ships looming up out of the mists, I dove to periscope depth and lined up for my attacks.
My first two torps from my bow tubes both exploded against the C3 passing in front of me, but the ship behind me was just a small freighter, so I wanted to wait for a better target for my last remaining stern torp. While I was checking out the target behind me, I didn't notice that my forward speed had carried me too close to the column in front of me. All of a sudden, I realized that the next ship in line (a C2) was bearing down on me and that we were on a collision course. I ordered a crash dive and hard right rudder, and winced as I heard the hull of the C2 scrape across my conning tower. Fortunately, it was a glancing blow that only took out my AA gun deck, leaving my 'scopes undamaged.
I cut short my crash dive and came back to periscope depth. My turn had brought my stern tubes to bear on the crippled C3 from my first attack. Not wanting to risk losing her in the storm, I went ahead and finished her off with my last stern torp, leaving only 1 torp left in my bow tubes (I still had 4 torps left in my external reserves, but with the storm I knew I wouldn't be likely to be able to get to those any time soon). Just then, the next ship in line came out of the mists ahead of me - another C2. Although I didn't think there was much chance of taking out a C2 with only the 1 torp remaining, I figured I didn't have anything better to do with it so I let it fly. As luck would have it, she must have been an ammo-carrier (my first, in 3 careers), because my torpedo explosion was followed by a series of impressive secondary explosions which ripped her apart stem to stern :)
The weather never did clear up enough to let me get those external torps loaded into my boat, so I headed back to port, very satisfied to have managed to sink 3 good-sized merchants in such stormy conditions (and to have escaped with only some minor external damage from the collision with that C2). Apparently, BdU was also satisfied, awarding me some diamonds and some goodies for my crew as well. All in all, my most successful outing in the rain so far :D