My closest call was on a harbor mission, forget which one.
I was on my way out when 2 destroyers and a sub chaser trapped me in a small cove, very shallow water.
I lined up on the lead destroyer, hitting him with a bow shot. He settled in the mud with his stern sticking out of the water. I tried another shot at the sub tender but missed--no time for another one--what to do??
Looking around, I got a crazy idea... I hauled tail--I mean redeployed--towards my sunken foe and took shelter under his, ah ,stern. Yep, pretty snug there but more than enough room for my scope. I kept going forward and reverse as needed to keep my boat in place.
The japs hated this game! They circled and kept firing at my scope but couldn't make a run on me.
Long story short I picked off both with three torpedoes. After that it was dark and my crew and I sailed around a while charging our batteries. There was no one left to contest it in that area. Later we dove and slipped on out to sea past 2 more destroyers.
I hoped they liked their pictures, almost cost me my boat and crew.
|