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Old 09-20-20, 12:57 AM   #5571
Cajun Kaleun
Seaman
 
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Cascadia
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Another successful patrol to the Americas this time we were tasked just east of the Dominican Republic during the late spring of 42. It was a fairly uneventful transit only got bounced once leaving Lorient by enemy air but it was a lackluster attempt. Made it to the patrol area and didn't encounter a thing. So I made the decision to steam west to Florida and go around the peninsula.

Just east of the Bermudas while doing a hydrophone check we picked up merchant screws heading our way. The weather was absolutely piss poor visibility was barely 400 meters so I decided to surface and run to a shooting position. First position was useless visibility was so bad and the sea so rocky it was impossible to get a visual contact. So we surfaced and hustled to our next shooting position on their track. Well I miscalculated a little and suddenly they burst out of the fog it was a heavy tanker bearing down right on us. Went all ahead flank to avoid the collision and pumped a stern eel into her. Finished her off with two more and entered the strait between Florida and the Bermudas.

Was running decks awash when hydrophones picked up a destroyer headed straight for us. Crash dived and then suddenly the dreaded splashes. Dived to 150 meters at flank and waited. Luckily they exploded far aft so rigged for silent and scooted out of the area quietly as the destroyer killed the local fish life behind us. Finally made it just south of Key West and decided to take a peek at what early 42 American docks looked like. An old Clemson was the only defense and it was running a wide pattern. After observation decided to draw on my Type II days and went in silent and shallow. Found another Clemson docked and a small tanker. Sank both and slunk back out towards west of Cuba.

At that point the trip took a foul turn American air assets were in an absolute frenzy after our daring raid and it was just constant diving and trying to charge batteries for days until we were well east of Cuba. At that point fuel was low even though we only went through half our compliment of eels and decided it was time just to call it. Better alive and victorious than push our luck anymore with the American ASW assets.

Edit: Forgot about my duds against the Tanker. Had 2 duds and the other 3 found their mark. Rough seas are frightening sometimes.
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