Hunting for HMS Illustrious
 

After the last night's debacle, when I let the Illustrious get away (I wrote something about it here), I'm becoming obsessed to find her again and sink her, and I'm planning to devote an entire patrol for that purpose.

For that, I'll need some help from you, fellow Kaleuns. :D

The last time I saw her was in August '40 in sector AM4931, course 33. Is there any chance she will pass through the same area again?

If anyone has some information on her whereabouts, or has seen her in late '40, please say so.

:arrgh!:

Good Hunting, Meduza...good luck! :arrgh!:

I found the Illustrious!

After the initial sound contact, I managed to slip past the escorts in foggy weather and made a visual contact. As a bonus, there were HMS Revenge and the Hood. :arrgh!:

Now I was in dilemma, whether to attack the Hood or Illustrious. So i fired 3 eels at the Hood and one at the Illustrious' stern to stop her. All torpedoes hit! Then I paused and minimized the game to check stupid TV schedule. The game crashed :damn:.

I reloaded a previously saved game, and tried to remember my course to find the task force again. And I did! The waves were higher than on previous attemp, but the visibility was better, so I approached more carefully. Attack was made the same way as before. Three torpedoes hit the Hood, the 4th one prematured (I fired a magnetic because I couldn't fire a 90 degrees shot and was afraid of a dud).

The Hood listed to starboard but didn't sink. When the escort left, I surfaced and started the pursuit. After a while I spotted a destroyer behind me. :hmm: I couldn't have overtaken them... After diving, I found it was another task force! They were gaining on me and soon came to visual range. And there she was - HMS Illustrious, surrounded with some cruisers and bunch of destroyers. It was dark, and I decided to maka a long distance attack on surface. I didn't want to waste time, I still had a Hood to catch! :D

I had only two bow torpedoes, and I realized I forgot to load them! :oops: I set a parallel course, flank speed, while the torpedoes are loading. When they were done, the Illustrious almost passed me. I made a quick turn, launched my eels and disappeared in darkness. I was already far away when torpedoes struck. Soon after she was going down! Mission accomplished. :arrgh!:

I went after the Hood and found her crawling at 4 kts. One torpedo was enough to send her to the bottom.

Good god, the Hood and Illustrious are having a bad day.

Sure do
They must have an inexhaustable supply of Hoods :hmm:

Wonder if they do Aux cruisers
:rotfl:

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h2...x3/Patrol4.jpg

I don't think I ever seen so many aux cruisers, let alone sink them. :lol:

Funnily enough cant remember seeing one in a career before either

Just a bad few days for the RN esp as the Illustrious gone as well as 3 Hoods

:rotfl:

I added another loss for Britannia.


One dinky Dido class cruiser.:lol:

Still trolling for shipping. :( Crickey, where are you all hunting? :lol:

Someone needs to touch up on their Australian :lol:


Early convoys sometimes have bigger ships within them. The Hood goes on regular patrols in the North Sea. You won't find her patrolling, but you can catch her as she coming out of Firth of Clyde. Illustrious is purely luck, no idea where to find her

I was ordered to patrol grid AN11 in 10/1939. I got a radio report of a westbound task force coming my way. I plotted an intercept course and found Hood with Repulse and Renown.

Try hanging out off the north coast of England.

I suspect we will all lose in the end.....probably inevitable :lol:

I once managed to sink the "Illustrious", too, with a Type II Boat (U-63) on April 15, 1940 at AN447 (that's between Shetland Islands and Bergen).

Biggest warship I ever managed to sink, still a remembering moment.

Cheers,
AndyW

Well, seeings as how I'm headed up there anyways, I might as well spend an extra day or two sightseeing. ;)

Don't forget to take a photo or two. :lol: