Sunk my FIRST Destroyer!!!!!

[ddiplock]

Yeah yeah, i know what you fellow Kaleuns are going to be saying "you sunk a destroyer, so what? Its hardly the HMS Nelson now is it??"

Well you'd be right, its not the mighty battleship Nelson, or any form of large British warship. But its a warship nontheless, and one that shall never plague the U-boats again!!!! Heading South-West down into the Hebridies, a favourite route I take on every patrol I spotted a lone V&W class destroyer heading my way. I dove on down to periscope depth and rigged for silent running. She was heading straight for me, but she hadn't seen my boat and had NO idea I was waiting for her It was almost like a scene from Das Boot!!!

I've always been weary of doing speed calculations on warships, for although they always seem to be moving slowly, on the nav map it shows a different story. I did the usual 3 minute 15 second calculation, she'd travelled 1km in that time, so I calculated her speed on the nomograph to be at about 6 knots, which I popped into the TDC. At the last minute I realised my boat was still facing the wrong way, and I hadn't turned to fire at the destroyer abeam. I quickly went to full rudder and slowly began to creep into my firing position.

Realising however that the destroyer wasn't going to wait for me, I decided to take the shot. I opened tube 1, did a quick calculation on range, bearing, AOB and speed and input it all into the TDC and then fired. Given the fact my boat was still turning when i was gathering my data I really had no idea if the torpedo was going to hit or not.

The torpedo struck home!!! Underneath the destroyer forword of the ships props. The explosion ripped into the weak underside and somehow the aft mast of the destroyer was blown clean off the hull!!!! I couldn't help but smile as she quickly sank on her journey to the depths. It was only a destroyer yes, but god did it make me smile being my first one sunk


NOTE: There was a time in a previous career I did come across my first Battleship. Things couldn't be better and I got to within 800 meters of her, unfortunatley the seas were heavy, a wave broached over my conning tower revealing it and all hell within the task force erupted. I was forced to dive the ensuing DC attack, and never saw another battleship again Even now task forces when I try to intercept them, even though they're heading for me always seem to "dissapear" and never show themselves. A pity