I've had two of these already. First one was when I came upon a taskforce on my way back to base. I had but four torpedoes left, so decided to just take out the first target of worth. Turned out the task force consisted of a single battleship and no less than ten destroyers. I decided I didn't want to play hide and seek with that many destroyers on a calm, sunny midday, so from about 3500 yards I fired all four torpedoes and ordered a dive to 200 feet. Ten seconds later I heard the first explosion, and with the last few inches of periscope sticking out of the water I identified it as one of my torpedoes. -Curses, I thought as I retracted my periscope, but it wasn't over yet. Just before my periscope had retracted all the way, I saw a torpedo zooming just above me. Curious about this, I followed it with my periscope and saw that it was circling above me. Two torpedoes left. Having nothing to do but wait to see if two torpedoes would be able to sink a battleship, I manned the hydrophones. No more than a minute after launch, I heard a second explosion and thus my third torpedo was played out of the field. I wondered what I had done to deserve such animosity from the tutelary of torpedoes, but at least I had one torpedo left. Excellent mathematical tallent, combined with skill in engineering and a healthy dose of luck, detonated the torpedo (presumably) one foot below the keel of the battleship, ripping it appart and releasing whatever fuel or amunition was in the compartment above it on the rest of the ship in a fiery hell that split the ship in twain. I chugged home with a glee normally reserved for tugboats in a childerens tv-series.
The second one was fired from a surfaced position in the middle of the night, this one too the second of what eventually became a salvo of four (the first and third exploded prematurely as well). Standing on the bridge and watching the single merchant ship sail along happily wasn't really frustrating. Watching my first torpedo blow up wasn't that frustrating either, but when my submarine suddenly shook as my second torpedo obliterated my aft torpedo compartment and mangled my propellers I was slightly frustrated. My third torpedo blew up halfway, and if I had been playing SH3 instead, I would've shouted german profanities during the fourth torpedo's four minute traveltime. As it turned out to be a dud and the merchant escaped, me being dead in the water for a day, I shouted german (and english, norwegian, sweedish, dutch, spanish, russian and french) profanities all the way back to port.
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