[Markus Witt]

For the first time this career I have discovered a convoy myself. As I have no initial data on this convoy I have to find it myself. Initially I am able to determine convoy course and speed pretty quickly but then things become confused. In hindsight I believe that the vessels I saw in line were along a diagonal within the convoy which threw me off. The first course change in my plot probably never happened. Instead it was likely on a steady more westerly course. This would explain why it kept disappearing from sight. If this is the case then the convoy must have travelled at about 6.5 knots instead of 5.5 knots. To add to the confusion, later observations on an escort with steady bearing seemed to confirm a speed of 5.5 knots. But this speed was calculated based on a wrongly assumed convoy course. When I finally moved into an attack position the convoy made a large course alteration adding even more confusion. However I was quickly able to determine this new course by observing individual vessels AOB and I moved into an attack position. During this time I still assumed convoy speed was 5.5 knots and did not bother to check. At this point I was pretty knackered as the playing session was dragging on for about 5 hours and I was a bit fed up with it. Just get in there and shoot! After firing I was rather bearish on my chances for success but as it turned out the first torpedo struck the intended vessel midships. As the target speed was set to 5.5 knots this adds even more to the confusion as this speed seems to have been wrong. Perhaps the convoy changed speed after altering course? Perhaps the vessels in the inside columns reduced speed to allow the outer columns to stay in position. Not sure how that works in the game. Anyway I might have been very lucky to hit it. In the end the vessel I hit didn’t sink so I left this attack empty handed. But still this was probably the most interesting convoy attack I’ve had. Even now I’m not sure what exactly happened, but I kinda like that, a bit of mystery. And the fact that I hit a vessel, although perhaps lucky, is still satisfying.