Nasty surprise tonight

[scubamatt]

So, had free reign to sink anything anywhere, took a little jaunt over to a harbor that wasn't too far from deep water, figured I'd shoot anything in/near the docks.

Looking through the scope after dark, I see a couple of small freighters, an auxiliary subchaser, a Fubuki DD, and a H6K seaplane floating there.

Got all set up, put two fish into the Fubuki, one into the aux boat. Dive and hide, wait for the reports of things sinking. Back up to periscope depth, harbor is a little stirred up, but the seaplane is still there and the two Maru. Back off a ways, measure my distance on the charts so my gun crews know what to set, and surface the boat for some night surface gunfire.

A few rounds later, the seaplane is burning merrily, one of the Maru is enthusiastically spraying the ocean in my direction without much effect, and I'm feeling pretty good about exchanging shells with him.

I have a stern mount deck gun (sigh) so I decide to maneuver a little to get a cleaner shot on the second Maru. As the boat begins to move, my lookouts says 'warship detected, bearing 223, closing!' and my boat gets slammed with a heavy shell. Damage everywhere, mass panic, flooding.

I go flank speed, hard left rudder and watch a big shell go past my stern as I try to wheel the gun around to return fire.

It is a Japanese *submarine* coming into port and shooting at me with its deck gun(s). In all the years I've played this game, I've never actually encountered an enemy sub. I pause the game to have a minute of screaming rage at my monitor. I take stock of the situation, unpause the game and return to chaos.

I can't get a clean shot at him with torpedoes, my turn is bringing me around towards him though...and the Maru finds the range finally. Plink Plink Pow 'arg they got Joey' type sounds. Quick check of the damage control situation reveals massive flooding in three compartments and many wounded. I'm afraid to dive, so I decide to run away on the surface and hope for the best.

Stupid enemy sub turns into my path, gun blazing. My deck gun can't bear because he is in front of me, so I man the AA gun and hose him down for a bit before we collide. I run him over, he sinks, my ship is now massively damaged judging from the nonstop shouts of 'we have flooding'...and my depth is increasing despite _not_ giving the order to dive.

I go to the damage control screen and pause the game.

68% hull damage. All compartments flooding, and the stern is almost gone. I have the worst damage control team in the history of...wait...why are they are all manning the deck gun?

Oops.

Let's just fix that, move you guys back to the DC team, prioritize some things. Steer the boat towards the end of the island, I think we're going to have to abandon ship shortly.

She doesn't sink, though I do have to hit emergency blow when we start to submerge. They manage to stop the flooding from getting worse, pump the water back out, and eventually get most everything repaired (at least what they can). I sail back to home port on the surface the whole way... praying for bad weather and no air patrols.

I make it, end patrol, got credit for one maru (5,186 tons) and one seaplane (7 tons). No credit for the sub or the Fubuki, but my disappointment is tempered by the fact that I didn't sink and die. I gave all of the medals and promotions to the DC crew, they earned it.

Not sure if the Jap sub hit me with a torpedo first, or if one deck gun shell did all of that, but my boat was pretty much wrecked aft of the control room, in one hit. Not going to surface and shoot it out again, next time I try and see if I can sink a float plane with a torpedo instead.

[james_nix]

Wow. I've been away for a while playing Witcher 3, but I've had a hankering to come back. Your story really gets me excited to play again!

[Barkerov]

This is why I never shell anything that is sitting in a harbour.
Great story though

[torpedobait]

Originally Posted by scubamatt

game and return to chaos.

next time I try and see if I can sink a float plane with a torpedo instead.

Heh, heh. You can "sink" an HK-3 with a torpedo, if the depth is set to its shallowest setting and the proximity fuse works as designed. The blast blows the plane straight up, maybe a thousand feet or more. Not realistic, but cool to see one time.

[CaptainRamius]

I shall never experience that. If I do, I'll quit. Simple as that

[CaptainRamius]

Originally Posted by Barkerov

This is why I never shell anything that is sitting in a harbour.
Great story though

Exactly! There are always: shoreguns, other warship, submarine, planes, or a suicidal merchant ship (don't ask)

[KaleunMarco]

hey matt,

yes, i have experienced a jap sub while playing FOTRS. fortunately for me, my crew always detected her before she detected me but i can feel your rage. as colonel rhodes is fond of saying, "watch my six...."

[bloddyboy123]

welp, time to go back to stock and see what happens! xD

[Capt. James Hook]

Great story!
I have never seen a Jap Sub.

[Aktungbby]

Capt. James Hook!

[Armistead]

What mods are you using?

[White Comet]

Wow, I've never encountered another sub. I've only ever encountered an I-400 anchored at port.

Nice job on the escape.

[Hambone307]

I encountered an enemy sub on one of my other careers a year ago. Got the watch yelling "enemy warship spotted!" and went to the bridge to ID it. Couldn't see the thing so I moved closer. Lo and behold there was a German Typ XI off my port bow with no conning tower and a rather large deck gun. Sent one torp at him and literally blew him out of the water. I was transiting the shallows just north of Borneo during that encounter.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim Hook

[scubamatt]

Originally Posted by Armistead

What mods are you using?

I'm running TMO, plus two of Rockin Robbins mods (EZPlot and TMO Keys).