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Bubblehead1980 · 08-20-13, 10:55 PM

January 1944 East of Volcano Islands. USSCabrilla(Balao) First Patrol

January 30, 1944 While en route to patrol area west of Volcano Islands, ran into 3 ships, 3 escort convoy east of Chi Chi Jima.Attacked at noon, sunk two large ships, endured 6 hour depth charge attack in ideal conditions.Forced to 650 feet to get away from three destroyers, two Fubukis and and an unknown DD.Follow up night surface attack sank the final freighter, DD's never got a fix on me.Entered area at 0400 on January 31, 1944.

Around 0945, went to the bridge and was searching when suddenly a loud boom and shell splash occured, lookouts suddenly reported a submarine spotted.I ordered flank speed and full port rudder, giving a zero AOB to the sub, who fired 3 quick rounds which missed, landing in the spot we would have been if not for the radical port turn.I ordered a crash dive and leveled off at 200 feet, going to general quarters.Using sound, we came back to scope depth and tracked the sub, which was making high speed radical movements, very difficult to get a solution, this sub skipper was a pro.

Soon a loud explosion shook my sub, an aircraft was on scene, large flying boat type, likely a "Mavis". We went deep and moved into postion where i guess sub would be if it kept up its current zig, back to scope depth, plane was off in distance flying low. Sub entered a leg of it's zig, we fired four Mark 14's, this sub expertly combed the wakes even when fired at 1000 yards.I brought stern tubes around(not wanting to waste more bow tubes this early in patrol and at 700 yards, fired 2 Mark 14's, both of which hit.The sub exploded and the plane rushed in dropping close bombs, causing a minor leak and damage to trim pump.The next 30 days in patrol area were slow, just a few planes, no traffic, headed home and arrived at pearl harbor on March 18, 1944.Three large ships and a submarine sunk.Weird patrol, all action occurring early, before even in assigned area but relatively close to it lol.

This definitely caught me off guard as sub does not show up on radar and in the fog, her watch crew spotted us before my rookie watch crew spotted them.Lucky their first shot missed, the others would have hit if not for the port turn.

I can only imagine what this would have been like if the AI sub could fire torpedoes, suddenly see torpedo wakes coming and especially if it could dive.

Hopefully someone with the ability will give us an AI japanese sub that can fire torpedoes.They did DD's and PT boats, surely an AI sub can be made to fire at least a couple torpedoes, if they 90% of tiem they hit nothing like the DD and PT boats, itd add so much.Regardless, this was close call. Some screenshots of the sub after.

08-20-13, 10:55 PM	#1
Bubblehead1980 Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Florida USA Posts: 7,104 Downloads: 605 Uploads: 44	Close Call. January 1944 East of Volcano Islands. USSCabrilla(Balao) First Patrol January 30, 1944 While en route to patrol area west of Volcano Islands, ran into 3 ships, 3 escort convoy east of Chi Chi Jima.Attacked at noon, sunk two large ships, endured 6 hour depth charge attack in ideal conditions.Forced to 650 feet to get away from three destroyers, two Fubukis and and an unknown DD.Follow up night surface attack sank the final freighter, DD's never got a fix on me.Entered area at 0400 on January 31, 1944. Around 0945, went to the bridge and was searching when suddenly a loud boom and shell splash occured, lookouts suddenly reported a submarine spotted.I ordered flank speed and full port rudder, giving a zero AOB to the sub, who fired 3 quick rounds which missed, landing in the spot we would have been if not for the radical port turn.I ordered a crash dive and leveled off at 200 feet, going to general quarters.Using sound, we came back to scope depth and tracked the sub, which was making high speed radical movements, very difficult to get a solution, this sub skipper was a pro. Soon a loud explosion shook my sub, an aircraft was on scene, large flying boat type, likely a "Mavis". We went deep and moved into postion where i guess sub would be if it kept up its current zig, back to scope depth, plane was off in distance flying low. Sub entered a leg of it's zig, we fired four Mark 14's, this sub expertly combed the wakes even when fired at 1000 yards.I brought stern tubes around(not wanting to waste more bow tubes this early in patrol and at 700 yards, fired 2 Mark 14's, both of which hit.The sub exploded and the plane rushed in dropping close bombs, causing a minor leak and damage to trim pump.The next 30 days in patrol area were slow, just a few planes, no traffic, headed home and arrived at pearl harbor on March 18, 1944.Three large ships and a submarine sunk.Weird patrol, all action occurring early, before even in assigned area but relatively close to it lol. This definitely caught me off guard as sub does not show up on radar and in the fog, her watch crew spotted us before my rookie watch crew spotted them.Lucky their first shot missed, the others would have hit if not for the port turn. I can only imagine what this would have been like if the AI sub could fire torpedoes, suddenly see torpedo wakes coming and especially if it could dive. Hopefully someone with the ability will give us an AI japanese sub that can fire torpedoes.They did DD's and PT boats, surely an AI sub can be made to fire at least a couple torpedoes, if they 90% of tiem they hit nothing like the DD and PT boats, itd add so much.Regardless, this was close call. Some screenshots of the sub after.