Patrol 8 completed. I am sailing out of Lorient even though I have not been assigned there officially. This was a new experience for me. I am pleased to say that I sank my first Auxiliary Cruiser during this voyage. It was traveling at 7 knots in a convoy guarded by a lone corvette. I fired a two-torpedo salvo at 1300 meters, steamers, high-speed, and struck the vessel amidships and toward the back. It exploded and sank immediately. I was glad.
I also sank my first corvette on this outing–by deck gun, if you can believe that. It was unintentional. I was stalking the same convoy I mentioned above and the winds were very calm at 2 m/s so I was moving torpedoes inside while maneuvering for position. Suddenly I was spotted. I realized that I was spotted because the ships began to zigzag. I knew the corvette would soon be after me, so I turned tail and ran. Yes, I know that I could have just dived and reset the torpedo movement, but I think someone on here said that was cheating so I was trying to get the torpedo inside before the corvette was on me. I set course 180º and soon the corvette was hot on my tail and firing. I took some damage, but I managed to keep him at bay until I got the torpedo inside. Then I figured, what the heck, I'll just kick it up to full speed and head around and back to his convoy before he can get there first.
That's exactly what I did, although I took some more damage on my way back. Just as I was getting close to the convoy I realized that the corvette was no more than 3500 meters away and I thought that there was no way I was going to get a shot off and avoid having him shoot me.
Then I thought... why hasn't he shot me already? Well, it seems Mr. Corvette ran out of bullets, and I hadn't actually noticed. Well, well, well, Mr. Corvette, the tables are turned. So I came about and we headed straight for each other. At about 1500 meters I turned 40º starboard and gave the gunner the green light. I hadn't counted on the corvette having additional rounds, but apparently he had some sort of what I assume was an anti-aircraft gun, and he started firing at me with that. However, after about 8 rounds, I put him underwater.
Then I headed back to the unguarded convoy and had some fun. One of the ships opened fire on me, but it was a bad shot. I headed straight for that ship, and soon the gunner sank it.
Then I fired off all the torpedoes I had, and even manned the anti-aircraft gun to fire more shots. I did what I could.
Final results:
14 Merchants sunk for 76,745 tons.
2 Warships sunk for 14,800 tons.
Hull Integrity at 49.82 percent.
Promoted to Kapitan Lieutenant.
Awarded Knight's Cross.
Docked at Lorient.
It is still not my base of operations. My commander back in Wilhelmshaven must be displeased, but I still got decorated.