[K-61]

Pete,

I figured out last night by farting around how to fully operate my deck gun. Just played with the keys intuitively and it worked. As for flak guns, you can man the 3.7. I think you just hit the F11 key repeatedly to cycle through the flak stations.

Yes, I think we play much alike, but perhaps I am a bit more daring than many. I like to get into what I call "knife fighting" range. In surface gunnery with cripples, I close to less than 1,000 metres. I used to get as close as `00, but I learned my lesson when my boat took heavy damage from an exploding merchantman and I had deck crew killed. Now I will approach as close as 400-500 metres. I will parallel a cripple so I can bring all guns to bear. I will let the deck gun crew do their thing while I rake a vessel with the flak guns, going for command bridge, any suspected gun stations, searchlights and prop area at the stern, along the water line.

As I play LSH, I suspect that the damage model is not quite the same as GWX, but I am not certain of it. Just a hunch I have.

I use a similar torpedo loadout as you do, but I place identical torpedoes in 1 and 4, and 2 and 3 for salvo firing. I imagine trying to "balance" out the boat in real life and I like to load same torpedoes for the game's salvo buttons. Not that I very often use them, except for maybe a heavy warship where I want to quickly launch and then dive away.

Last night I took my VIIB down to BF 17. I had used most of my torpedo load on the way there, and then to take down a 5,000 tonner at night while I was chasing a nearby convoy B-dienst had reported. That left me with one G7E. I finished off the freighter with a few deck gun rounds; I did not wish to lurk and wait forever for it to sink on its own. Doing a scan through the scope I did not see any guns, so surfaced to gun it and then run after the convoy. Normally if I am after a convoy I will not divert to nearby sightings, but this one freighter wandered into view at the extreme range of sight. I diverted to give it one torpedo, which left me the one G7E.

Hauling after the convoy through the night at ahead full, I finally sighted a ship at the back of the convoy. As it was still dark, I approached closer and saw more columns. Determining its base course, I went around to the port side and did an end-around. I was nervous because there were several escorts and I only had one torpedo left. Was it worth the risk? Ach, Himmel, be more aggressive!

Racing against the clock, I worked my way around to the starboard side of the westbound convoy as the sky was lightening. I had to balance the need for speed to get into ideal position against the possibility of being sighted by rushing in. I dared to remain surfaced until the hair on my neck was standing on end, and set the decks awash. When I could bear the strain no longer, I dove to periscope depth and set slow ahead. As I got closer, I went to silent running at 1 knot and crept into a beam position. In the center of the convoy was a fat T3 estimated at 18,000 tons! Yes, one torpedo, could I damage it and force it fall out? Creeping closer I planned my attack; set the torpedo to run deep enough to run under a lesser valued ship, but impact trigger so it would not be set off it did run under another ship of lesser draft.

When I felt the time was right, I fired and immediately ordered a turn to the east and dive to 100 metres. After what seemed an eternity, the torpedo detonated against the T3. I hate those few seconds when you see the chronometer needle creep past the red line with no boom. Just as I was cursing my bad luck after all of that work, kaboom! Immediately the escorts began to fire starshells, but I was already leaving town. At no time did an escort come close enough to detect me; I had found a perfect gap in the screen and exploited it. Continuing me deep dive, I crept west for several hours and let the convoy haul away.

Coming up to scope depth, I had emerged about 7,000 metres astern of the convoy. I could pick out individual ships in the morning haze, but waited until they were about 10,000 metres away before surfacing to follow from astern and recharge the batteries. I came as close as 6000 metres to the convoy from astern, but the injured T3, though smoking, was having no trouble keeping station. I followed until afternoon, hoping it would fall out, but no luck.

Reluctantly, I gave up hope and set the course for the long journey home. Pulling into Wilhlemshaven, we were showered with flowers, champagne and cheap cologne and bedecked with medals. I have decided to stay with my VIIB in spite of the IXB now being offered. My crew has matured, with two planes shot down and a number of kills by torpedo and gun. Let's not mess with a good thing. We are now about to leave on patrol 3.