Are these guys more tenacious then the ones in a convoy?
While patroling the South China Sea - spotted 2 Ashi DDs running about 19 knots and were going to cross my path - glass seas.
I thought why not try to take out one or both? If I nail one then one should be easy to evade.
I set up about 3000 yards to be safe and fire my fish... Just as the fish leave the tube, my WO forgot to set the depth setting to as shallow as possible to ensure a hit (definitely can't be captains fault!). Of course one fish goes right under and the other is easily evaded...
The DDs steam towards my position thus beginning a 10 hour hunt...
These nasty bastards had a fix on me every time. If I manuevered too late, I would get damaged by close DCs. One would sit pinging away while the other DD would creep on me - going like 5 knots or something and drop his load. Very similar to British creeping tactics. The only chance I had was blow tanks to persicope depth and try to fire quick fish. Tried this FOUR times, all missed by evasion. The fifth chance finally nailed one with my last fish.
The lone DD kept making runs on me but ran out of DC's!! Tried to manuever, but every time (2 hours worth) he knew my exact position (250 ft, riggged for silent, 1/3). had enough of trying evadea DD shooting blanks so reloaded remaining fish and popped up to finish him off.
At the end I had 6 fish left (yes my skills need improvement), down to 10% batteries
, 30% CO2, hull damage at 25%, and severely wounded crew members.
As I limped back to base, I wondered:
Do other skippers go for lone DDs or do you wait for larger prey? :hmm:
And are the lone DD's uber tough? I'm using TMO and usually the DDs in a convoy return after some time.
Cheers!