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-
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