That late in the war, being on the surface is tantamount to a death sentence. Late war approaches are a game of patience and more patience coupled with situational awareness achieved using the hydrophones and only very limited and brief periscope sweeps.
First error was that when the weather tanked and I lost visual contact with the convoy I attempted to continue an approach that should have been abandoned. Error two was going to full speed in an attempt to close the nearest merchant sound contact and determine a visual firing solution. Error three was failure to set up on the initial attacker with a T-V acoustic after the first depth charge salvo missed and instead, going deep immediately.
With 20/20 hindsight, probably should have fired the two FaT-II into the convoy using the predicted data as the patterns and depths were already programmed and then attempt to ambush any counter attack with the acoustics in Tubes I and V.
Late war careers are really merciless if you make a mistake and three of them are likely to spell doom.
-C
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