Last report of the mission.
Subtitle : man, this game can drive you nuts !!!
As stated in previous report, been messing around at the entrance of the Bristol Channel north of Lundy Island, waiting for the weather to clear... No hope... Sound contacts everywhere, passing by right, left, behind... While reloading got almost ran over by a big freighter coming out of nowhere and disappearing as fast in the next rain curtain...
I can imagine the message to the family in Wilhelmshaven : Kapt'n Helmut Höffer has been sunk with all hands in U-56 on his first patrol by a british cargo ship !!!
After 24hours of the game, I call it a "no joy" (can't see any target...) and head on towards the coast of Ireland. Just as we pass by Milford Haven the other way, I hear from the bridge " Schiff gesichtet, grosse Entfernung..." Long distance, with this fog ? Hans, get it easy with the schnaps ! I get up there only to see by myself : miracle... at 4:30 o'clock in the morning, the weather is slowly clearing, the wind dropping a little to 4 m/s, the clouds fade away and the fog is lifting.
OK, BdU won't tell me this time I am not aggressive enough... Turn 180°, we are going back in there...
Bad thing though, the local flyboys are early out of bed and I get a Hurricane bomb run just as the sun rises, no damage...
Will make the story short, another 2 planes attack at 21:30 (they go to bed late as well...) and that's all...
With the good visibility, I now see that land is close on both sides... I notice on the way a harbour between the real location of Cardiff and Swansea, suppose it must be a wrong placement by a few kms of the Cardiff harbour.
As I get close to Cardiff, my watch officer calls a "land unit spotted, 270, long distance..." A what ? told you to cut it out with the schnaps bottle...
For curiosity, I make a free cam run and get confirmation : it is a land unit and it sure doesn't look good...
I finally get closeto Bristol, where I hear the PT boats running around, but far enough, and just then, suddenly, guess what : dark clouds come over me, lightnings and oh no ! medium fog !!! I am damned...
Ok cool off, we still see enough if it doesn't get worse... 2 klicks from harbour, a periscope check : the Auxiliary Cruiser is gone (bad news) but at her place is a troop transport (good news). It won't be said I did all that for nothing...
Three slow steamers 4 m deep 2 klicks away.... periscope down, turn around. Man it's long for a slow torp to travel 2000m. Then "Torpedo Treffer !" Boom x 3...
20 mins later during the escape : "She's going down" 9150 tons on the log...
At present am going down towards the sea again, just another couple of weeks ahead to get back to Wilhelmshaven (we are already the 23rd of Sept...) Only problem is the body of Willi Blank starts to smell a lot, wish me a mod to shoot him out through the torpedo tubes...
Many thanks to those who make these great times possible :
Ubisoft and SH3 team for the first half of the game...
NYGM team for their 2.2 supermod...
SH3 Gen to give me missions to accomplish other than patrolling empty grids...
SH3 weather for driving me mad...
Grab Clip Save for the ingame shots.