Ok - so we made it back with no scopes. That was a major relief. The engineers reckoned we had 85% hull integrity. But BDU had a cruel sense of humour about it - they sent us right back to ET13. Once again we encountered a convoy in the gibraltar approach moving at 5kts. Protocol dictated that we attack. So we did. This time in fog and rain. Luckily, based on radio reports, I had their course charted almost exactly. We move in. I attack from what I thought was 3km. It turned out to be about 2km. I hit with 3 torps and sunk a troop transport for 16k, and a small freighter for 1.6k. But then we were detected. Relentless ASDIC ensued. I sunk an V&W with a T5. I was DCed right to hell - port propeller destroyed! Decoy Launcher destroyed! I limped away at 1kt (and discovered that even with a destroyed decoy launcher, you can still launch decoys). We made it back to port on 1 screw. I've updated my GWX 2.0 lessons - now I'm only bringing T1 FaTs, and I'm attacking from 4km min. It's just way too dangerous to get close now. (Dec '43).
__________________
|