Its SO good to see you FK. Maybe you can help me get legless or some perspective (preferably both). So, take off the Viking Helm, pull up a chair and let me be maudlin for a bit.
On this last patrol, I was in the Channel, running ESE on my way back from BF17 & had just got the signal that we were to go at it with the Brits. So, I reversed course and chased down a Medium Merchant that I had close inspected half an hour previous (it had been farily dark, so I had to get to 300 m to be sure of his flag - of course, he was running dark - boy, these merchants sure are twitchy - I guess the writing was on the wall though, about the war starting and everything, though how all these merchants get to waddle around ignoring the International Law of the Sea by not showing their running lights PRIOR to hostilities commencing, I have no idea!)
Sorry, I've had too much to drink already.
Anyway, we put him on the bottom with deck gun and I'm in BF32 (not BF33 - confused the GM line for the edge of the box for a minute), about 40k SE of Bristol just before 21:30 on the evening of September the 3rd (you remember, about half an hour before we got the signal that war had been declared on us by Aus, NZ, India and the rest of those pathetic remnants of the failed British so-called Empire). I picked up an indication of a ship at extreme range, went to flank and went hunting.
We spotted her at long distance in the dark South East of us going West like the Hounds of Hell were after him. It was a V&W. I was about to break North, when I got a second "ship spotted" call. After a bit of messing about, it turned out to be a Southhampton class. Now, I'm interested, so I bend my course due South to run an intercept. I'm doing 18 knotts to their 25, and doing my map work it looks like the closest I will get to their line of travel is 6.5kms. So I set my T1's to Medium (fast would have worked, but I would have run out of range).
I had just plugged in the torp speeds, when I get another 'ship spotted!", then a third and a fourth! Its a bloody Task Force! THREE Southhamptons in line astern, with at least 6 escorts.
It was sooo depressing. I had my Chief Engineer running the diesels WAY over the top of the green for over half an hour, but couldn't close to a worthwhile firing solution. Even when we first made contact and had settled on due South, at medium torp speed, at 7.5 kms, the first of the Southhamptons required a shot 25 to starboard. The tail-end-charlie was better at 10 degrees, but the total run distance (along the hypotenuse) was going to be too great. So close. So very close.
I know you understand the feeling, having missed the Hood, but, can you IMAGINE the glory and the impact that getting a couple of Southamptons on that night would have had on those weak, pallid Britishers? And then, if YOU had followed that up by taking out the Hood?! The war would have been over by Christmas! The British would have been cowering in their docks, afraid to put a little toe near the water!
Ah, the Sea, she IS a cruel mistress, no? Yes, I'll have that other Stein now, thanks. So, my Valkyrie friend, and the rest of you in this shout. What would YOU have done? Could I have got them somehow? Could I have bought glory to the Fatherland and a place in Valhalla?