Got my first battleship last night...

[maillemaker]

Last night was our 3rd patrol, out of Kiel. 1939. We were just about to AM18 at night in foul weather when we made contact with a convoy. I was on the surface when we sighted the first escort.

I dropped us to periscope depth, and we made for the contacts northwesterly until I felt we were close enough to take a peek with the scope. I scanned the convoy - some big tankers, cargo ships, good, good, and then WOAH! A battleship! A quick scan through the identification manual identified her as the HMS Nelson.

I gave her 3 torpedoes and sent a fourth to a tanker. Then I spun around and targeted a cargo ship behind us - all with manual targetting.

All 3 hit the battleship, and she went down. One hit the tanker, and it was burning. I dogged the convoy until morning, most of the time without much response from the escorts, until finally they found us and kept us down for a few hours with some intense depth charging. We sprung some leaks but our new officer with his repair skills got us back into good form again.

When morning came, 4 ships were gone from the convoy and all my torpedoes were gone.

It was my first mission with manual targetting.

[tenakha]

i didn't knew it is possible to find a battleship escorting a merchant convoy

[Rose]

First mission with manual targeting?! That's pretty amazing.

[bigboywooly]

Originally Posted by tenakha

i didn't knew it is possible to find a battleship escorting a merchant convoy

Early war was quite common to see a BB or at least a cruiser in a convoy
Apart from uboats there was a real fear of German surface raiders

After the loss of the Bismark the rest of the heavy Ge units sat parked in port for the most part so the threat was less

Apart from the Murmansk convoys where there was the ever present threat of the Tirpitz or remaining pocket BB's\Cruisers breaking out of the Fjords

While they stopped adding BB's to the actual convoy there was usually a covering TF not far away

As the Scharnhorst found out to her cost

[Brag]

Originally Posted by maillemaker

Last night was our 3rd patrol, out of Kiel. 1939. We were just about to AM18 at night in foul weather when we made contact with a convoy. I was on the surface when we sighted the first escort.

I dropped us to periscope depth, and we made for the contacts northwesterly until I felt we were close enough to take a peek with the scope. I scanned the convoy - some big tankers, cargo ships, good, good, and then WOAH! A battleship! A quick scan through the identification manual identified her as the HMS Nelson.

It was my first mission with manual targetting.

Congratulations!

My only beef with GWX is that the BBs escorting convoys are somehow too easy to succesfully attack. Maybe in GWX 1.04 they will make small course or speed alterations.

[bigboywooly]

Originally Posted by Brag

Congratulations!

My only beef with GWX is that the BBs escorting convoys are somehow too easy to succesfully attack. Maybe in GWX 1.04 they will make small course or speed alterations.

The problem is the game treats the BB as it does any other ship in convoy bar escorts
Engine limitations

[Growler]

I don't care WHAT version you're playing, the pucker factor of being caught on the surface by a BB is... intense.

I remember when I first got SH3 shortly after its release, and I tried the single mission against the 3 BBs and their destroyer escorts (Barham mission(?)). I was feeling suicidal, so I surfaced a decent distance behind the BBs and opened fire with the deck gun.

I kept moving, but there wasn't any return fire for a while. Curious, I ship-cammed over to the BB I was engaging... to arrive just as the broadside she was setting up was let loose.

Uhm, yeah. That was very, very cool. And very, very bad to be at the other end of. They don't even have to hit you. I don't think I stopped run short of McMurdo Sound.

[_Seth_]

Originally Posted by bigboywooly

Apart from the Murmansk convoys where there was the ever present threat of the Tirpitz or remaining pocket BB's\Cruisers breaking out of the Fjords

Spot on, mate! (PS: tenakha And others: Try searchin' google or uboat.net for the story of convoy PQ17..... An exellent read about a real convoy tragedy..)

[bigboywooly]

The threat alone of Tirpitz caused the nightmare that was PQ17