Thread: First Convey
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Old 04-03-07, 02:34 AM   #24
Genferret
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The Rodney likes to pop up in '39 I would guess from this story here.

My 4th patrol out (which I'm still on now) the first convoy I ran across that was England bound had the Rodney in it. I popped off 4 Eels, one at the Rodney about 1m under her keel, one at a whaling vessel, one at a large tanker, and the fourth at a large merchant. All 4 hit, the tanker and whaling ship went down immediately. Rodney got injured and had a serious list but seemed to continue on just fine. The large merchant made it about another 5nm or so but she went down as well.

I then headed towards my designated patrol sector, happy with that tonnage, but disappointed at the no-kill on the Rodney.

After a few days patrolling my area (BF17) I decided to head home since my NavO said we'd have just about enough to get home at 1/3 speed with a little left over in case we came across a merchie to chase down.

As I'm passing through AM29 on my way home I dove down to periscope depth to let my sonarman check for any sound contacts. Lo and behold there was a convoy on it's way out that was heading nearly straight for us. So I set myself up in my standard convoy intercept position (just about dead ahead of them and sligthly off to the right of where they'll pass me).

Once the lead escort was past me I brought myself back up from 40m to about 13m. Just enough to get the scope far enough up to see the targets, but deep enough that in the rough waters my tower wouldn't break the surface. As I'm scanning for a nice target what do I see? The Rodney appears to have set sail again with this new convoy.

This time around she didn't get away. In the position I was in she passed within 1500m of me and I sent all 4 bow torpedos her way at a 7 degree spread. All 4 hit and she went down pretty quick. The next hour was kind of hairy with the escorts searching for the perpetrator that had just sunk their battleship but I managed to get away unscathed.

Now continuing my journey home to Wilhelmshaven and the Rodney will be missing her previously scheduled date of attacking the Bismark (she was one of the ships present on the last attack on the Bismark).
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