I play whenever I get a chance, after work, items that need taking care of around home and a little of the honey-do-list. This career that I was on lasted until Feb of 1945 with a total of twenty patrols. This just happens to be the longest career I've had up to date. I came across a convey of nine merchants with five escorts in a star formation. I normally don't like going up against INJ escorts in such shallow water. Two hundred feet just isn't enough ocean to hide in and the weather conditions didn't help any either. Calm seas doesn't help hide you. But the targets were too juicy not to attack, three of the nine were tankers and my choice was a Nippon Maru. I might not have a shot at another one before the end of the war. So I drove before INJ escorts made radar contact to a depth almost scrubbing the hull on the bottom with my nose pointed at the closest escort at barely one knot and silent running. I was trying give the escort the narrowest profile and smallest amount noise possible. I noticed that the lead escort not in the front of the convey anymore. I went in at a 45 degree angle of the convey route for my attack run. When I thought that I was with range of my Mark 18s torpedoes, I came up to periscope depth, measured the target's speed, made final adjustments to my manual plot. I sent three fish on course for a little meet and greet! Drove back for the bottom and the crew came off battle stations. On the way down, there was three explosives and the target went to the bottom. The escorts didn't know which directions the torpedoes came from. Maybe luck was on my side. I started my escape and evasion from the area. One escort pass me less than 900 yards as I stopped the engines without turning towards me. Maybe, I thought, we can get out of here without being noticed. Just the rear escort now to get by, but my profile towards him wasn't the greatest, 30 degrees at one knot takes to long to turn. Him and his friends found me and worked the sub over until the damage was too great. I know that I could go back to an earlier save and do things different. But I think I'll let this career end as is. Thanks to all the skippers that help someone like me to be able to go this long and to the skippers that make the mods that keep this game interesting and also this forum. Without it, where could folks like me come to read and ask questions, how to enjoy the game. I know this is a long post and I appreciate the time that it was given to read.
