Salvadoreno
04-14-06, 03:19 AM
Well my first war patrol using NYGM Tonnage War was pretty exciting to say the least. Its not quite over, but already lots has happened. Its june 1942 in the Meditterenean and so far i have 4 ships sunk, 3 merchants and 1 warship all in small convoys. I decided since i was doing so well i'd cruise close to Malta, which was a bad idea and i got dc'ed for about 1:30 real time. Heading over to Beirut and the Lebanese coast with only 2 stern torps left i was looking for some easy kills, but aircraft was hounding my voyage and i was getting freaked. Ready to abort and just head home i got word of a freindly convoy heading my way passing about 400 miles east of Malta heading toward Tripoli. Rather then take my chances alone i decided to join the convoy. :up: I was gonna follow them to tripoli and take the route to the east using the coast, no aircraft would hound me!!
And i was right! The good ole Italians escorted me with no incidents to my boat, but.... The convoy didnt get it too well. It was 2 coastal and 1 small merchant ****s escorted by 4 type 34 destroyers. As we were well south of Malta my watch crew spots a lone hurricane diving out of the sky, but this time not towards me, towards the loooooley merchants! The type 34 next to me lights up the sky! I order my watch to fire as well! All that gunfire must have spooked the hurricane and he dropped his load well starboard of the merchant! Wohoo victory! The hurricane made haste back to Malta but our italian freinds new the position was probably given away. About 2 hours later a Catalina comes up! But all the destroyers spot him this time and let him have it! As the Catalina makes his suicide dive towards the merchant he lets his WHOLE payload go and i watch from my conning tower (100% unfortunately no pics) the bombs strike his mast! Oh No! The catalina runs off lucky to have survived but our merchanr freind took some damage. I race up to the merchant to inspect the damage and she is still able to hold up her 7 knots, although listing a bit. Unfortunately about 2 hours later the coastal cannot handle the pain anymore and she dissapears. The survivors all load into the Type 34 missing 1 man, 1 of the starboard gunners killed in the blast as he ran to man his weapon. We stuck around for his burial ceremony but lost the italians after a severe storm cut us off. Fortunately the storm probably stopped the aircraft, and as i changed course i ran into 1 of the escorts and bid him a farewell and godspeed. The storm lasted about 2 days and the convoy probably reached Tripoli without further incident. My hats off to our Italian allies! May they have a safe return journey as well and keep feeding our Africa boys the supplies they neeD!
And i was right! The good ole Italians escorted me with no incidents to my boat, but.... The convoy didnt get it too well. It was 2 coastal and 1 small merchant ****s escorted by 4 type 34 destroyers. As we were well south of Malta my watch crew spots a lone hurricane diving out of the sky, but this time not towards me, towards the loooooley merchants! The type 34 next to me lights up the sky! I order my watch to fire as well! All that gunfire must have spooked the hurricane and he dropped his load well starboard of the merchant! Wohoo victory! The hurricane made haste back to Malta but our italian freinds new the position was probably given away. About 2 hours later a Catalina comes up! But all the destroyers spot him this time and let him have it! As the Catalina makes his suicide dive towards the merchant he lets his WHOLE payload go and i watch from my conning tower (100% unfortunately no pics) the bombs strike his mast! Oh No! The catalina runs off lucky to have survived but our merchanr freind took some damage. I race up to the merchant to inspect the damage and she is still able to hold up her 7 knots, although listing a bit. Unfortunately about 2 hours later the coastal cannot handle the pain anymore and she dissapears. The survivors all load into the Type 34 missing 1 man, 1 of the starboard gunners killed in the blast as he ran to man his weapon. We stuck around for his burial ceremony but lost the italians after a severe storm cut us off. Fortunately the storm probably stopped the aircraft, and as i changed course i ran into 1 of the escorts and bid him a farewell and godspeed. The storm lasted about 2 days and the convoy probably reached Tripoli without further incident. My hats off to our Italian allies! May they have a safe return journey as well and keep feeding our Africa boys the supplies they neeD!