December 1942, grid square BE33.

Sonar contact, lone merchant traveling slow. Surface and find out the weather's gone to hell since I've been under. Heavy fog, heavy seas, hard rain, visibility out to maybe 400 meters at most.

It takes me awhile to locate the ship, but eventually I'm on her tail. Still can't see her; I've been tracking for two hours through sonar checks every twenty minutes.

Then, out of nowhere, she appears out of the fog, about 350 meters dead ahead, and she's a fully-armed liberty cargo. Turned my bow into twisted metal within five seconds. I quickly snapshot two torps and crash-dive...due to high seas, the boat's slow going down and the cargo continues to rake the deck with fire as accurate as a seasoned destroyer.

Thankfully, the torps blast her in two before I become another U-Boat casualty. I actually had to head back to port after that...my hull integrity was down to 93%, two bow tubes were permanently out of commission, and I had two dead crewmen.

Ever since then, I've decided to let bad weather pass before attempting an attack.

-akula-

1st patrol in the fall/winter of '39 - brand new VIIb - rotten weather, so I cruise topside during the day, thinking that the gentlemen of RAF Coastal Command are taking the day off.

Boy, was I wrong - a Hurrie roars out of the clouds and fog and drops a bomb square onto my fantail - we hover at 50+ m. trying to control the flooding - we finally get it under control a 1/2 hour later- I decide to continue the patrol, and we get a payoff of 50000 grt sunk, three of them T3's

We make it back to Wilhelmshaven - with a blackened bum.

(march 1940)(RUB1.43) I was in the middle of a convoy at night with 15 knot winds . The waves were huge but no fog or rain . Best type of weather i think for subs because you are harder to spot in between the waves . Anyway i had just sunk two C2s and was parallel with a third going in the same direction about 700mts away . Suddenly a canon shot from the bow of the C2 . Hang on a minute , Do C2s have canons ............................ Crash dive............. A destroyer comes around the bow of the C2. The canon gets me . Bad flooding . I was able to stop the flooding and dived to 100 mts .

Summer '42, east of Halifax in IXB. Until now, the patrol had been very good. Spent most my torps on the way to patrol grid between NY and Halifax, hitting Liberty's, Victory's and such like nobody's business. Thought I'd go and hit a convoy/task force in BB91, since lots of them seemed to go through that. Somehow, I managed to sail one grid too north and had a bit of hurry to intercept, thereby failing to notice depth changes on navmap. Hit the convoy allright: T3, 2x T2 and C3 and ordered ahead one third, course inside the convoy, depth 150 meters.Imagine my surprise, when we hit the bottom at 67m :hulk: In no time, 2 corvettes and 2 destroyers were pinging and DCing us like mad. The convoy was in shambles, so I tried to get merchants between us and the escorts, which seemed to work.. Two hours later I thought we actually managed to make a slip, inching our way to deeper waters- 20km away. Then the corvettes found us again and gave sheer hell for 2.5 hours. Eventually, I just gave up: " Screw this, were dead anyway and I've to hit the sack if I'm gonna go to work in the morning". Hit TC8 and in 20 seconds the bastards just left :-? You tell me, I only work here. 96% hull integrity, 166000 tons in the bag :|\

Here's a different kind of 'close call'.

September, '39. I'm on my first patrol, west of Great Britain. I've already sunk a destroyer and my crew is itchin' for more blood. Weather is shiXXy, 15 m/s winds and high seas. Fortunately, it's daylight and visibility is good.
Lookouts spot a ship heading my way. It's a large cargo ship! Dive! In position for a two-shot salvo at close range. Shoot! Both fish impact, but fail to explode :damn: I watch the cargo ship sail away, and only then notice the Stars & Stripes flying at its stern :oops:

(So what, if the U.S. had entered WWII in 1939, instead of 1941?) :arrgh!:

Lol, I had a same thing with a french merchant. I launched a torp and just when I pushed the enter I noticed the flag. "Miss, miss, miss, PLEASE MISS!!!!" But it hit, good thing it didnt sink. :)

Similar to the two above:
Right south of Sydney early in the war I find a sound contact... plot a course on the map and steaming to intercept. Weather is dreadful, so I can only faaaaiiiiiiintly see the contures of the bastard in the fog. Becomes more and more apparent, so I finally lob a fish at'im.
External camera forward, and see the flag. I go something like:
:huh: :stare: :doh:

"BE DUD BE DUD BE DUD BE DUD BE DU, thank you GOD!"