[maillemaker]

Didn't even make it to 1943 this time.

Massive convoy. About a day off of the coast of Spain. Huge, huge ships in this convoy. 3 Whale Factory Ships. At least two Ceramic Ocean Liners (14,000+ tons).

I made a perfect approach at night, flat seas. I put two into one Whale, two into another Whale, spun around and put my stern two into a Ceramic. All three sank. All torpedoes exploded.

Went deep, but they were on me like white on rice. 5 escorts pounding me. I went down to 200m, but the charges were raining all around me. Prior to this they never seemed to drop this deep. Now they were all around me. I got hit a few times causing damage, but no loss of hull integrity.

3 of the escorts left me, leaving only two. They kept at it. Suddenly, both my sonar and radio man are DEAD, and I have massive damage to the boat - 67% HI and dropping fast. I'm blowing like crazy but things keep cracking and popping and my hull integrity is dropping 10% every 15 seconds. I think it got down to about 20% at 180 meters when it crushed.

It was my 30th patrol. I was WEEKS into this campaign and had an absolute expert crew. Nobody fatigued anymore. GAH!

Back to 1939.

Steve