My longest patrol ever... or at least it seemed so
.
Started at Cavite NB with the start of the war, and was sent to patrol the China coast next to Hong-Kong. Not much there, so after the standard 10 days I sent a report and got orders to reach Northern Formosa.
Got to the patrol zone and this time I could have some fun. Bagged two small escorts first, then a medium-sized merchant and later a small oiler. So far so good. On my third or fourth day of patrol in the area my sonar reports two merchants. Maneouver my boat to get into position, and decide to attack the first one, which is larger. 2 torps... 2 duds. OK. Still have time to fire tubes 3 and 4... 1 hit (not enough for a large ship) and another dud. Damn!!!
They turn around and leave zig-zagging so I thought that 4 wasted torps were enough. When I thought they were far enough,I surfaced the boat... Apparently, not far enough... shells start raining on my boat with impressive accuracy. Hits... injured crew, holes in my boat... Since we were on completely divergent courses the shelling didn't last long, but there I was, with damage all around ,my hull at 081 integrity (no bueno, ehm?) and like 1000 miles to the nearest base
. I decided to ignore all contacts with enemy shipping and try to bring my boat home.
My home base was not Cavite anymore, since it had been destroyed just a couple of days after I set sail, and my home port was now Darwin
but I thought I could make it to Mariveles, get some more fuel and then make it to Australia. I thought wrong. Before I could make it there Mariveles was also destroyed, leaving me with the only option to fuel at Balikpapan, Borneo. With the slight problem that this was just on the verge of my range.
To make things better, when I was on my way to Balikpapan I got a message with a warning that Balikpapan won't be working as an operational base in about a week...
. I think I grew 10 years older with this patrol
, but finally made it to Balikpapan with my fuel tanks on the verge of collapse, fueled and left for Darwin with the Japanese Army on my trail.
My way back home
The patrol
I think they scrapped my poor old sub. They offered me another one or to quit my career
. I chose another sub to trash
but that will be another day.
Great mod
. Absolute killer immersion
