This is why I love this sim...

[Bubblehead1980]

TMO RSRD USS Herring-Gato

May 5, 1944 Java Sea, en route to Fremantle after a long, boring patrol in Gulf of Siam(Thailand) , sunk one 4,000 ton merchant there, missed a convoy due to air cover(convoy I added since it was void of traffic, convoy had an escort carrier), could not catch convoy before it made port. While returning home, getting low on fuel, radar made contact at 2210 hours with three ship, three escort convoy.seas were somewhat heavy, cloudly out, half moon.Low on fuel, figured would try for one attack, maybe two if situation permitted, the proceed on to Lombok Strait to head home.Closed in to 2000 yards, while port flank escort was lagging behind, three large Nippon Maru class tankers turned out to be my targets.Their plotted speeds keep changing from 8-10.5 knots, making a salvo against all three impossible, and flank escort was speeding up to rejoin, so decided to attack the lead tanker.Fired 6 torpedoes at 2245 , made a hard turn to port to move away.Five of 6 hit, tanker erupted in a massive fireball.The flank escort spotted me, fired a few shells and star shells, but lost me in the darkness.Pulled away about 8,000 yards and took stock of situation on PPI scope.One escort was sitting quiet, listening, one was looking for me where I was, other was on port side of two remaining tankers, zigging at 11 knots or so.

Sped away to the starboard side to come in for attack, bow tubes reloaded. Targets plot was too wild to fire at two, so decided to fire 6 Mark 14's at one, then four mark 18 in stern tubes at second after turning away during torpedo run.Closed in to 2000 yards, fired all six(to account for plot errors, turned away.Alarms sounded just as torpedoes hit home, the target exploded in massive fireball, these tankers were obviously carrying fuel, likely to Singapore from Surabaya, for the trip to home islands.Switched to aft TBT, fired four Mark 18's at last tanker while speeding away as Type AB escort was heading my way at flank speed, firing star shells, then a few splashes about 600 yards away.All four mark 18's hit home, tanker caught fire and exploded after one minute, split in two, dec watch crew were slightly injured from the massive explosion(EAX sound sim is great, it sounded amazing) While speeding away, noticed another escort was closing in at about 8,000 yards, pour on the coaled, they both slowed, begain circling and dropping many depth charges after a 5 minutes pursuit lol apparently thought I decided to dive.Slipped away into the night, with 30,000 tons of tanker at bottom of Java Sea.Arrived at Fremantle on 9 May after a stop for fuel at Exmouth Gulf.

This is part of why love this sim, boring patrol, seemed would go home with one mid sized freighter down, then boom, three fat tankers, ended patrol with 34,000 tons down.

[Sailor Steve]

I'm more excited about the behavior of the escorts. Sounds like a real battle account to me. Congratulations.

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I'm more excited about the behavior of the escorts. Sounds like a real battle account to me. Congratulations.

I have seen them start dropping charges when I am on surface before, kind of cool.I run TMO visuals for RSRD with a darker nights mod, so night surface attacks are much more realistic, can get in close, not get spotted if handle boat properly, depends on moon light mostly, much as in real life.Sometimes the explosions illuminate the area enough, it helps escorts spot sub, ammo and fuel explosions do this.

[TorpX]

Yeah, that's kind of interesting. I didn't know they would do that.

[Armistead]

One thing I noticed with the darker nights is even if the escorts chase me, as long as I stayed narrow, I could often escape on the surface. They would chase and shoot, which is dangerous, but often I was able to get away, then they would go into a zig search, drop charges and shoot star shells. Just got to be careful, a star shell gets close, it can really light you up and their visuals really increase.

Now fast DD's coming, lil different story, depends on how far away you are.

[Bilge_Rat]

Heh! BH, leave some targets for the rest of us!

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by Armistead

One thing I noticed with the darker nights is even if the escorts chase me, as long as I stayed narrow, I could often escape on the surface. They would chase and shoot, which is dangerous, but often I was able to get away, then they would go into a zig search, drop charges and shoot star shells. Just got to be careful, a star shell gets close, it can really light you up and their visuals really increase.

Now fast DD's coming, lil different story, depends on how far away you are.

That is good though, that is how it went in real life most of time from what have read, hitting a sub with guns on surface at night was tough, probably mostly luck if hit one unless it was at point blank range.Read many accounts of the firing, coming close but not hitting.They can still hit, it's a risk being on surface, esp since I play with darker nights but standard TMO visuals and my own custom cfg file.Right balance basically found and like in rl, all depends on moon light, have to operate accordingly.Really is nice being able to even work way inside some convoy screens if they are large enough convoys and spaced far apart enough, fun to blow a few ships up and then have to navigate way out, at times under fire.