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DirtyACE · 02-16-08, 05:47 PM

I just did my first trip to Iceland durring my first patrol on an IXB sub. This was in March 1940, so US was not in the war yet. As I rounded the penninsula, my sonar operator detected a large convoy. Most of them were small and medium ships, but there was a whale factory in there. The convoy had an escort of 3 black swans. As I laid an ambush, one of the swans promptly ran itself onto the shore and was destroyed, before I even fired a single torpedo.

Anyway, I put one electric torp in the bow of the whale factory from almost 3 km. From my experience in GWX1.03, this usually sent them to the bottom as the bow would start to fill up with water it would plow the whole ship deeper and deeper, but to my surprise that didn't happen, it just kept sailing on with the convoy. After a quick *sigh* we had to wait for the escorts to stop looking around for us before we could start flanking the convoy again. We did this and laid another trap, this time we put a steam torp into the whale factory's boiler room causing an explosion and sinking it. This was the only action I took against this convoy. I waited for them to sail off before continuing to Reykjavik.

Upon arriving, I discovered that there was really nothing worth sinking in the harbour. There was a large US tanker but I couldn't touch it, yet. I turned around and started my voyage back to hunt at the entrance of the St. George's Canal.

I didn't even get a chance to round off the penninsula again when my sonar operator picked up a numerous contacts heading in my direction, another large convoy. This one, however, several good size ships. Two whale factories, three large cargos, a small ocean liner, a troop transport, and a couple medium tankers.

I made up my mind to targe the largest ships again, so the whale factories. Laid another ambush fired a magnetic torp at the first ship which detonated directly underneathe the middle of the ship but it didn't seem like the ship even flinged. The second ship received an impact torpedo to the bow, but once again it kept sailing like nothing happened. I'm having somewhat of bad luck with hits on this patrol, I'm thinking to myself. I was hoping to quickly down two ships and start heading back, but it looked like it wasn't in the cards. By the way, this convoy was sailing in the direction of US. I was also concerned with my fuel as I didn't want to do too many flanking maneuvers this far from home.

Before we could start flanking this convoy for the second time I had to evade the escorts. I heard them pinging and I thought they found me. I heard depth charge splashes but when they detonated it was some distance off, so I breathed a sigh of relief. We continued on silent running for a bit more until the escorts gave up, then we quickly ploted a parallel course and flank speed.

We were really gunning it for about 100 km with a couple of hydrophone checks to see that the convoy was still on course. After the third hydrophone check we realised that the convoy had altered its course by about 30 degrees and we were too far in front. Quickly we figured out the new course and flanked for another 80 km. This felt like a hell of a chase, but at the same time the fuel situation was in the back of my mind. I just had to have at least a couple of kills so as not to have waisted the fuel in vain.

The ambush was finally set after almost 200 km of pursuit. This time I got right into the convoy in between the first and second rows of ships. As the two whale factories passed by in front of me, I put a second torpedo into each which sent them both to the bottom. I was also in such a good position that I couldn't resist to launching a torpedo at a large cargo. The torpedo hit it just infront of the superstructure and caused a fire.

I had another concern at this time and it was whether I'd be detected by the escorts as the weather was very clear and calm, but I think by using an electric torp on the first whale factory confused everyone as to where I was since there was no trail of bubbles.

I stuck around a bit to listen whether the large cargo would sink and it did. Afterwards the crew was in creat spirits as our hunt was very fruitful, then we charted a course back to familiar waters.

02-16-08, 05:47 PM	#9
DirtyACE Engineer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 213 Downloads: 28 Uploads: 0	I just did my first trip to Iceland durring my first patrol on an IXB sub. This was in March 1940, so US was not in the war yet. As I rounded the penninsula, my sonar operator detected a large convoy. Most of them were small and medium ships, but there was a whale factory in there. The convoy had an escort of 3 black swans. As I laid an ambush, one of the swans promptly ran itself onto the shore and was destroyed, before I even fired a single torpedo. Anyway, I put one electric torp in the bow of the whale factory from almost 3 km. From my experience in GWX1.03, this usually sent them to the bottom as the bow would start to fill up with water it would plow the whole ship deeper and deeper, but to my surprise that didn't happen, it just kept sailing on with the convoy. After a quick sigh we had to wait for the escorts to stop looking around for us before we could start flanking the convoy again. We did this and laid another trap, this time we put a steam torp into the whale factory's boiler room causing an explosion and sinking it. This was the only action I took against this convoy. I waited for them to sail off before continuing to Reykjavik. Upon arriving, I discovered that there was really nothing worth sinking in the harbour. There was a large US tanker but I couldn't touch it, yet. I turned around and started my voyage back to hunt at the entrance of the St. George's Canal. I didn't even get a chance to round off the penninsula again when my sonar operator picked up a numerous contacts heading in my direction, another large convoy. This one, however, several good size ships. Two whale factories, three large cargos, a small ocean liner, a troop transport, and a couple medium tankers. I made up my mind to targe the largest ships again, so the whale factories. Laid another ambush fired a magnetic torp at the first ship which detonated directly underneathe the middle of the ship but it didn't seem like the ship even flinged. The second ship received an impact torpedo to the bow, but once again it kept sailing like nothing happened. I'm having somewhat of bad luck with hits on this patrol, I'm thinking to myself. I was hoping to quickly down two ships and start heading back, but it looked like it wasn't in the cards. By the way, this convoy was sailing in the direction of US. I was also concerned with my fuel as I didn't want to do too many flanking maneuvers this far from home. Before we could start flanking this convoy for the second time I had to evade the escorts. I heard them pinging and I thought they found me. I heard depth charge splashes but when they detonated it was some distance off, so I breathed a sigh of relief. We continued on silent running for a bit more until the escorts gave up, then we quickly ploted a parallel course and flank speed. We were really gunning it for about 100 km with a couple of hydrophone checks to see that the convoy was still on course. After the third hydrophone check we realised that the convoy had altered its course by about 30 degrees and we were too far in front. Quickly we figured out the new course and flanked for another 80 km. This felt like a hell of a chase, but at the same time the fuel situation was in the back of my mind. I just had to have at least a couple of kills so as not to have waisted the fuel in vain. The ambush was finally set after almost 200 km of pursuit. This time I got right into the convoy in between the first and second rows of ships. As the two whale factories passed by in front of me, I put a second torpedo into each which sent them both to the bottom. I was also in such a good position that I couldn't resist to launching a torpedo at a large cargo. The torpedo hit it just infront of the superstructure and caused a fire. I had another concern at this time and it was whether I'd be detected by the escorts as the weather was very clear and calm, but I think by using an electric torp on the first whale factory confused everyone as to where I was since there was no trail of bubbles. I stuck around a bit to listen whether the large cargo would sink and it did. Afterwards the crew was in creat spirits as our hunt was very fruitful, then we charted a course back to familiar waters.