Presently on our third patrol since I took command of the boat in October. We have just finished tearing through a convoy we had intercepted north of Ireland, near our assigned patrol area. The encounter could not have come off any better.
As we sailed NNE ahead of the convoy the watch spotted a small merchant about 8 klicks north. I was about to ignore it when it dawned on me that an attack on that ship might draw some of the convoy escort away. We closed in, opened fire and sank that ship in short order. Headed back to the convoy and sailed a box-like pattern around them, keeping a distance of 4-5 kilometers. The dark of night cloaked us well, and the weather was near perfect.
We came around behind them and trailed for close to two hours (much of that was in TC). Didn't spot any escort whatsoever so I decided to give the order, and away we went. Tore them a new chute. Out of 15 ships - three were neutral - we sank 12.
The only protection I saw for them was an armed trawler that had meandered back from where we had been spotted several hours before. It must have been too far away to notice what was happening... we were still busy lobbing HE at the last few merchants!
The only fire we took, I think came from the last merchant. We were pretty close to it by the time she went down. I had sent an aft torp to the escort, but never saw whether or not it hit.
All in all, hands down, the absolute best convoy intercept I have ever had since I started playing SH3. The weather was perfect, it was pitch dark, and there was a diversion opportunity nearby (I didn't think it would work). Not crossing my fingers for any subsequent luck, though.
I only took one screenie, of the map. Shows the rough path we were to sail as we scouted the convoy. The merchant we had sunk as a diversion is part of the smudginess in the upper-right corner of the image:
