Quote:
Originally Posted by Mios 4Me
USS Gato, ex-Midway, after numerous assignments with poor returns, decided to check out Truk without orders. On the E side, on 11/2/42 @ 0500, multiple targets appeared on the radar, most bound ENE. We swept out wide to the E to intercept the lead elements, a merchant with an escort. This Whale Factory must have been the most important WF in the history of the world as it was escorted by a Yamato BB, both moving slowly.
We sank the BB, then took a closer look at the WF: it was almost submerged and the song of the sea began to play. We quickly surfaced and sank it with the deck gun. Radar then reported that the escorts and a carrier were still where originally reported 15 km from the BB, ie stationary. We approached and put five Mk14s into a Taiyo CVE, which did not sink. An errant torpedo sank an escort.
Closer into Truk, a sub was frozen next to a merchant and a freighter was stationary a few km E of that.
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This was the original coasting TF report. To clarify on the non-TF ships (other than the Whale Factory and escort the TF was commingled with), the other stationary ships in the general vicinity were an LMT 163°, 23 km from Dublon harbor, and an A1 sub, Jingei tender, and a corvette 5.75 km closer to Dublon. 11/2/42
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mios 4Me
Sent on the next patrol to the Carolines and given a license to hunt anything, anywhere, we headed for Truk for another round of experiments.
First attempt: Swept counterclockwise around the atoll, freezing several warship and merchant units on the N/NE shores of the large SW island. Submerged to transit the channels to ID the various units. Game soon CTDed while maneuvering inside.
Second attempt: <snipped>
Moved W several hours, then headed back for a sweep around the atoll to test the trigger. Received a report of warship headed W from the W channel exit. Upon arrival found two stalled merchants and a sub.
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The last vessels mentioned were a MECF, MRBSF, and an A1 sub, located 271°, 68 km from the center of the Moen airfield triangle on 12/14/42 @ 1419
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mios 4Me
Incidentally, PB, I just had a third assignment to Truk. You recall the issue posted from the first one, the Yamato convoy E of Dublon. The second assignment went more normally: ambushed an exiting convoy at the SW approaches which had been still inside the atoll when detected, then penetrated the harbor and sinking anchored capital ships (and a frozen MPF once). Each time the game CTDed as I nearly escaped the lagoon, which I attributed to system resource constraints. It's almost as if the game refuses to allow harbor raiding there. Eventually I declined the raid and went N, where I discovered a frozen Shokaku and modern passenger transport. Sank both, then proceeded back to Mare Island to start sea trials (although this was the Balao we'd just upgraded to). No CTD.
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To amplify, the Shokaku was at 317°, 29 km from Moen airfield on 4/16/43 @ 0311. The MPT was a few km to the NE. There were a couple of unidentified escorts farther inside the atoll which may have been frozen as well. The CV was initially underway when detected on radar.
When I revisited this save point once, I went inside instead and encountered a soon-to-be frozen MPF at 279°, 21.5 km from Moen airfield, plus a stationary A1 sub (third one mentioned in this post) and a corvette moving at 1 kt in the channel just NE of there.
Finally, on 8/19/43 @ 0440, there was a burning corvette aground on the southern shore of an island 259°, 22 km from Moen airfield.