Argh! This is just . . . somebody wake me up from this bad convoy dream!

I've decided to try taking a boat from the beginning of the war and see how far I can go (in GWX 2 :p ). I'm also going to be swapping Captains as the war progresses and as SH3Commander promotes then-current Captains.

This is my 5th patrol so far, and I've been sent to CF99 from Kiel. More than a bit of a haul, but . . . ::shrugs::

In AN41, 9 Mar '40, around 0400 hours, I start spotting ships. Lots of 'em. Running approximately perpendicular to my course. Unfortunately the sea is dead calm and it's rather bright out with a moon, so going to flank to intercept didn't seem likely to succeed. So I went to dead stop and spent about 15 minutes taking bearings and plotting their course more accurately, then sped off to set myself up ahead of them.

Alas, by the time I could clear visual range and get into position the sun was coming up, so instead of a night surface attack I was going to be stuck with a daylight submerged.

Around 0630 I start getting sound reports. By 0715 I start seeing smoke on the horizon. Again, once they get into visual range I start taking bearings, in case I have to refine my position.

They seemed to be coming right towards me and, yes, when the lead escort (only one, right in the front; I hadn't seen any flankers at that point) was within 5,000 meters it was obvious they were literally coming right towards me. So I decided to make a slow turn towards them and slip right down their middle.

The lead escort had been constantly moving back and forth across the front of the column . . . until we'd closed to around 2,500 meters . . . and then she decided to just steer straight ahead! Going to 1 knot and 14 meters depth and running silent I'd hoped we'd creep past her.

Which we did, although it was a bit tense having her pass within 500 meters!

Even more interesting, once she'd closed within 1,500 meters, my soundman stopped reporting her as a warship. Suddenly, when asking for 'closest warship' instead of having that one reported I started getting reports of a warship at 'long range'. And when I listened in on the hydrophones myself (and boy howdy do screws sound loud at 500 meters! ) it was coming up as 'unknown' rather than warship.

Needless to say *I* knew what it was, and held my breath as she slowly, gradually slipped down my starboard side, then sternwards.

Now, here I am, free and clear and lurking in the middle of a five-column convoy, about 15 ships per column . . . pop the scope up and start glancing around. Drooling. Large merchants everywhere!!

Ummm . . . wait . . . that one's Norwegian. So's that one . . . And that one's Estonian. And those two are Swedish.

WTF!?

I'm two-thirds the way through the convoy and every stinkin' ship I can spot and ID are neutral!!!

[Brag]

That's a bummer Keep your cool. There will be others.

[bigboywooly]

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Hmmmm tis one of 2 depending on which way they are going
BUT
Both have Br ships in AND more than 1 escort

Convoy ON.18 of ten British, thirteen Norwegian, twelve Swedish, two Danish, four Finnish, two Estonian ships departed Methil at 1700 escorted by destroyers COSSACK (D.4), ESCORT, ECLIPSE, ELECTRA, ENCOUNTER

Convoy HN.17 of eight British, nineteen Norwegian, one Danish, one Finnish ship departed Bergen escorted by destroyers NUBIAN, DELIGHT, DIANA, ILEX, GURKHA

Am guessing ON 18 as you mention Swedish ships

Originally Posted by bigboywooly

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Hmmmm tis one of 2 depending on which way they are going
BUT
Both have Br ships in AND more than 1 escort

Convoy ON.18 of ten British, thirteen Norwegian, twelve Swedish, two Danish, four Finnish, two Estonian ships departed Methil at 1700 escorted by destroyers COSSACK (D.4), ESCORT, ECLIPSE, ELECTRA, ENCOUNTER

Convoy HN.17 of eight British, nineteen Norwegian, one Danish, one Finnish ship departed Bergen escorted by destroyers NUBIAN, DELIGHT, DIANA, ILEX, GURKHA

Am guessing ON 18 as you mention Swedish ships

Well, as I don't know where Methil is . . .

I've spotted 4 escorts in total. At the time of my initial approach I could only ID one, but I knew there'd have to be more. :p

It's hard to get an exact count of ships, as I've no wish to keep my scope up that long. But that seems to be about right: 5 columns of around 9-10 ships per column (got a better count this time). So that's likely the convoy. All I can say for sure is that there are NO British ships in the central columns. And I can't see far enough to the outer ones to ID them. --mutters--

Right now I have this VERY intense desire to, once I've crept out the back, to surface and thumb my nose at them, blow raspberries and go "Nyah! Nyah! Snuck right through you!" . . . but somehow I think that would be a bad idea!:rotfl:

[Lzs von swe]

Could be the same convoy I met in that area:hmm:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...postcount=4315

[bigboywooly]

[Badger Finn]

Yep seen this convoy about Oct-Nov 1939

There are some fat English Frieghters in amongst it

Unfortunatly for me had to save and it crashed next load

Found it again on another save then then lost it in bad weather

Damn

[gimpy117]

yeah... that's the way in the black sea 2/3 convoys=friends!
and i learned NOT to shoot the red cross!!
i figured that they didn't help my side so lets kill them....BIG MISTAKE!
i reported the kill and the BDU said GOOD JOB! and i ended my partol and BOOM! end of career!

Originally Posted by bigboywooly

Hey, danke bbw!! That was very thoughtful to do. I appreciate it.

That's prolly them then, yes. Especially if they were headed NNW or thereabouts. Been shadowing them all day going for a second 'look-see' of the outer columns.

Two noteworthy things to point out about this contact:

1) Currently I'm surfaced, around 0130 hours much later that day. I've so far been inundated with 'Ship spotted!' messages (I've counted 17 so far). Yet I still can't seem to send a contact report. It says I've sent one, but it doesn't appear in my message transcripts logs.

2) Three times during the day I got spotted shadowing this. I was around 15 km when they spotted me, and they dispatched a destroyer to come out and harass me. Said destroyer(s) started opening fire at a range around 13 klicks!! With some coming quite close, too! Very sweet!! Just goes to show you how powerful their targeting directors were, especially when the weather is dead calm and perfectly clear.

[T.Von Hogan]

Originally Posted by gimpy117

yeah... that's the way in the black sea 2/3 convoys=friends!
and i learned NOT to shoot the red cross!!
i figured that they didn't help my side so lets kill them....BIG MISTAKE!
i reported the kill and the BDU said GOOD JOB! and i ended my partol and BOOM! end of career!

Could of been your brother on that hospital ship, hopefully you will have more respect for the big red X if they ever let you out from behind that desk........snicker

[TomcatMVD]

Originally Posted by gimpy117

yeah... that's the way in the black sea 2/3 convoys=friends!
and i learned NOT to shoot the red cross!!
i figured that they didn't help my side so lets kill them....BIG MISTAKE!
i reported the kill and the BDU said GOOD JOB! and i ended my partol and BOOM! end of career!

Maybe they were being ironic?:hmm: