Channel Mayhem

[iambecomelife]

I just had the most amazing experience in the Channel.

My sonarman got a contact at midday - a group of about three ships near the Southern English ports. I approached submerged, as some were reported to be warships. It wasn't long before I saw a huge pillar of smoke on the horizon, as well as the telltale flashes of a ship's guns. It turned out that a pack of JU-88's had jumped a War Melody class freighter. She was a ablaze and spilling out flotsam, her crew scrambling into liferafts and yelling for help. Two MTB's and an ASW trawler had come to the cargo ship's aid. Unfortunately for them, there were just too many bombers. A near miss smashed the trawler and she was riddled with machine gun fire. Eventually she sank after taking two of the attackers with her. The two surviving British torpedo boats limped away, one of them heavily damaged. I surfaced and decided to attack (crazy, I know). I blasted the crippled one with 88mm and dual 20mm fire (very satisfying, IMHO!) Eventually it blew up and sank. Just as my crew was celebrating I heard cannon shells pinging off the conning tower. The last MTB was back, and it was REALLY ticked off. I shot it up with flak but it was too late - her deck weapons did me in (possibly because I'd been damaged by a mine earlier). I was a little frustrated but the whole engagement was so exhilerating. Final score: One sub and two JU-88's in exchange for a freighter, trawler, and MTB. Major props to the GWX team for doing such a fine job devising campaign layers. After more than a year of no patrols due to modding commitments, it's so much fun to be back in the saddle.