Still in the middle of my next Patrol in April '41, and no sign of a convoy up North. I was heading back South when the weather turned crap, really crap.
Anyhow, SW of Ireland my Sonar gets a Merchant contact, but it's 8pm and dark and miserable out, so I wouldn't even try to take him on. Instead I shadow him during the night, getting a good sense of his heading etc., and wait for light and hopefully better weather.
Morning comes but the weather is still terrible. I line up my first attack run on the Merchant, but by the time I can finally see him in my scope he's only 300m away, and I'm pretty sure that's not enough time for my torpedo to arm. I finally find out he's a C2 though. At about 350m he disappears from view into the crap weather.
Not really sure what to do, as I don't want to just shadow him until the weather improves, I decide to take a chance. Using what I know of his heading etc., I line up ahead of him again for a 90 degree shot, listening as my Sonar reels of the decreasing heading of the contact. I set Tube 1 for 4.5m and Impact Detonator (I normally use Magnetic, but not in these waves!) and open the tube door. When he's about 12 degrees off my starboard bow, I just fire, blind.
And what do you know, I get a hit! Not only a hit, but right in mid-ships and he breaks in two immediately and I've got a kill. I surface and go on my way again, very happy with myself for a blind kill...
J.