USS-Permit (SS-178) reporting!
As I was heading away from that first Medium Old Split Freighter, I decided I'd head for the strait between Hokkaido and Honshu to look for more targets. I picked up a contact on my radar and changed course to intercept, but through some poor planning on my part I thought the contact was moving directly
away from me when in fact there were
two ships moving directly
toward me. They were therefore much closer than I was prepared for when I brought my periscope up again to look for them and I had very little time to maneuver into firing position and work up a solution.
I quickly ID'd the ships from the manual as two Large Composite Freighters and tried to run through Hitman's procedure but I'd already lost myself too much time so I ended up having to make a guess on the speed (the max listed in the manual was 18 for these, so I just punched in 9 knots) and visually estimate the AOB.
I think it was mostly dumb luck (and the fact that I was
very close and at nearly a perfect 90 degree angle) but I somehow managed to fire off two of my Porpoise's four forward tubes at the first ship, then lined up the stadimeter on the second ship and fired (leaving the same info for AOB and speed) the second two.
Two direct hits on each target, four for four! I almost did a little dance.
I stayed submerged for a while to watch the show and eventually the first freighter sank all by itself. The second one was burning rapidly and wasn't moving anymore, but didn't show any signs of sinking, so I surfaced and ordered my deck gun crew to let 'er have it near the waterline.
After a minute or two of shelling a coastal battery apparently noticed all this activity 'cause I started hearing shells other than our own zipping over our heads and splashes in the water near my sub! I let the deck gun fire another couple of rounds before ordering a dive to avoid the incoming rounds, and luckily it was enough 'cause the second freighter broke apart and began to sink just as we went under.
I still think I was just incredibly lucky on the torpedo hits 'cause I still don't really feel like I know what I'm doing, but I'll take what I can get!
COMSUBPAC just sent me a radio report of an "Enemy Large Convoy" heading NNW out of Aomori at 9 knots, so I've plotted myself an intercept course. I'm assuming the convoy will probably have a destroyer escort, so here's hoping I don't do anything too stupid and get myself killed. (I also decided after the first kill that I'm not going to reload saves anymore unless the game glitches. DiD and all that...)
nomad_delta