Uncontrolled Dive?
Trying to make a return trip through the straights of Gibraltar. On my approach, I was encountering frequent air patrols, one of which got the jump on me and strafed the boat, minor damage to the forward tubes, quickly repaired by the crew inside before i could even assign the damage party, but it did lower my HI to 97%.
During the actual crossing, weather was very bad, and I had a ASW trawler find me during my speed run, calling in a destroyer. I dove to my normal 150m or so (IXB), to do my normal wiggle waggle escape at 1 knot. I hit 150m, and kept going, crossing 200m. Repeated orders to maintain 150 had no results, I eventually had to order a blow, stopping at 150m. The dive resumed again. Had to blow again. I brought us up to 90m, which we were able to maintain.
I lost the patrols, resurfaced a bit later to resume my sprint, and got jumped by the destroyer again. The ensuing battle eventually killed me, and after more damage, i was unable to maintain even 70m depth.
Two questions with this then:
1) How was a I not maintaining depth with minimal damage, when in past I was able to before in previous patrols with damage? There was no flooding during the first dive.
2) Did the RN have Radar in Sep '41?
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Luck is a residue of Design.
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