September 2, 1939 - Third day out on first patrol. Met up with a British Cargo hauler...10 hours
before they are declared valid prey. Itchy trigger finger tells me to hold off and let him pass. Stalk him until war is declared and then claim the first kill of the war. Weather comes up suddenly and with an inexperienced sonar man he manages to lose me in the night. I curse my luck and return onto a course for my patrol zone.
September 3, 2009 - War is officially declared. My Chief looks at me with scorn for losing the ship yesterday. Weather is horrible. Make up for it with a faint contact miles away...apparently unmoving. Make a bead to investigate it, get laid up by another contact closing on us at a snails pace in the storm. Closer and easier to intercept I decide to change course, figuring the initial contact will stick around since it hasn't moved in four hours now according to my (now far less trustworthy) Sonar man.
Second contact proves fruitless again. A Norweigan cargo ship. By the time I'm close enough to ID the flag I've got him dead to rights in a fast 90 targeting solution. I still suck at the manual targeting, but I'm getting better, and at 800 meters, 0 AOB even I can't miss! Itchy trigger finger indeed...neutral or no. After missing out on the Brit...damn this is the worst first patrol. I hesitate. I order the tubes open. I do another ranging just to be sure...and then drop the scope and let him go. It's not worth the drop in rep back home (sigh).
Order my navigator to make flank speed for the faint contact. It's still on my map, but getting fainter. Starting to think it sank in the storm. By the time I'm halfway there, she's disappeared.
3 Opportunities...zero torps fired. Zero kills. Not an auspicious start.
