Just finished an interesting patrol with U-922 in early 1945, based out of Trondheim. Patrol lasted 2 months mostly submerged and snorkelling for short periods during the nights. Attack area was mostly around the top of AM. Boat rarely exceeded 2 knots.
Had a bit of good luck early on with an easy attack on a small unescorted convoy that sailed within my reach, with 3 ships sunk for nearly 16,000 tons. Found a lone ship travelling through a dark stormy night but I was unwilling to surface and chase it, so fired off one eel with limited target data in the hope of a lucky hit. No such luck with either a miss or malfunction. Plenty of warships getting around throughout the patrol but not too hard to keep out of their way, except for one frightening moment when a hunter killer group went straight over the top. Couldn't manoeuvre out of their way in time so just pointed the bow towards them to narrow the profile, stopped motors and quietly sank down to 200m. Sea state was rough which was an added bonus and I wasn't detected.
I was having good luck dodging aircraft and not being detected whilst snorkelling until the 6th week, when I got caught out one night and got attacked which caused a moderate amount of damage. Some minor flooding which was quickly brought under control and then repairs to various systems, which took about 15 hours before regular running and snorkelling could be resumed. Air activity was quite heavy after that for the next few days with some more attacks but no further damage. The RWR on the snorkel had been damaged by the initial attack and had a reduced level of effectiveness. By this time I'd already decided to return to port as the end of the second month was approaching and damage to the hull could not be determined. The return transit was uneventful with the boat finally surfacing one night close to Norway after nearly eight weeks submerged.
This was a really satisfying patrol which I was just having fun with really, but at the same time game me an overall impression of being quite authentic, as much as the game environment can provide anyway. A very different kind of pace and overall approach to how you do things compared with earlier in the war. A nice change. Hopefully I'll get in a couple more successful patrols and survive before wars end.
Mods: GWX, h.sie, most of the usual other stuff we're all familiar with and a few personal bits and pieces.
|