Just whose side are we on?

[I'm goin' down]

Ducimus just made TMO 2 available, so not wasting any time, I jumped in at Midway, June 4, '42. I have never had luck in that battle, so I was determined to set the record straight this time. I decided to save to video. I certainly made a name for myself this time.

(This is dedicated to Rockin Robbins.)

Initially, this mission greets you with a group of destroyers before a few carriers and a Kongo approach. TMOs destroyers had me in depth charge hell for two hours while I tried to figure out where Ducimus set the crush depth for the Barbarinna, a Gato, although I managed to fire ten torpedoes at the Kongo in the course of incurring surface shelling from the dds, with one hit on the Kongo that caused it minor damage. After escaping to the northwest, I surfaced and faced relentless Jap air power, countng as many as 10 planes lining up to make a run at my boat. Finally night fell just as the battery levels forced the Barbarinna to surface.

An all night search on June 4th only revealed two contacts which both turned out to be flames from sunken ships. On June 5th, I spotted a task force, but it outpaced the Barbarinna, and she lost contact. However, I tracked and managed over a 40 mile distance to outpace and get ahead of another "convoy" of ships. It was raining and foggy, with poor visiblity. This is where the fun (if you want to call it that) started.

I had tracked and plotted the course of convoy of ships for over 40 miles, so I was confident of its course. It was 259 degrees. Once I got ahead of it, I turned the Barbarinna towards its course and lined up for an O'Kane shot. My sonar man had identified some of ships as merchants, but now identified the closest as a warship. It was approaching from port. Since the fog made visual contact impossible, I used gutted's Solution Solver program to calculate the firing point, which was 347 degrees as the target was doing 16.25 kts. An error was made in lining the bow of the Barbarinna perpendicular to the target's course. While I was correcting it, the target sailed passed the firing point. I think it was a destroyer.

I thought I had missed my chance to attack when the sillouette of a carrier appeared on the same course at a distance of several thousand yards. Unfortunately, I forgot to adjust the Barbarinna's speed, and because I was distracted resetting the running depth of the torpedoes, I did not notice it had just sailed past the target's course. Also, the Barbarinna's course was still not perpendicular to the target course. No other attack strategy using torpedoes was feasible as I could not see the target, and I did not have time for a sonar only attack, plus my sonarman was still tracking the first target. I was running out of time! To remedy these situations, I put the Barbarrina in reverse, and at the same time tried to adjust its course to line up for an O'Kane salvo at on the carrier. Since I wasn't sure of the first target's identity, I had set torpedoes to run at minimum depth. Now that I was going try to to attack a carrier, I reset their running depths at 10-13 ft., as in the early war, torpedoes often ran deep.

It turned out my course adjustments to set up for an O'Kane shot were incorrect. I was trying to correct the Barbarinn'a course shot while in reverse, and the course adjustment resulted in oversteering the boat. Then I ran into real trouble. I calculated the course adjustment using gutted's Solution Solver, but for some reason the Barbarinna would not respond to orders to turn. I rechecked the Solution Solver and confirmed the firing angle was 347 degrees. When I brought the Attack Map up to the screen it showed the Barbarinna way off course to port, and the carrier target was just passing the 347 degree firing point per the Solution Solver program! It was time for action. If the Barbarinna did not attack now, she would not attack this carrier. It would not be an O'Kane shot, and I did not use the TDC to calculate range/aspect ratio, but target speed was input accurately. I fired the first torpedo, then adjusted the torpedo angles on the TBT a few degrees to the right, ahead of the carrier, for each of the next five, and fired all of them as well. I followed the torpedoes on the Attack Map. Two hits were duds. At least one missed according to the sonarman, and he confirmed at least one hit. Things were happening so fast, I am not sure he called out the results of the other two torpedo shots. I never saw the target before I shot. I do not know if the other two torpedoes hit, but experience tells me that at least one must have.

I checked the external camera three times searching for the carieer in the fog and rain. I finally found it sailing away by tracking smoke plumes which were barely visible due to the weather conditions. There she was, a big, beautifiul carrier listing heavily to starboard. I thought I would follow it with the external camera to see if it would sink, as it appeared in trouble. Five minutes later she went down. As it slid under, the camera scanned its deck. There is was - OOPS! (a really big OOPS!)-the Stars and Stripes! *#!^@!! And the message on the screen flashed, "Whose side are you on?"

Post script: I watched a video replay. The torpedoes hit as follows: 1 hit, 2 duds, 3 misses. I only observed one hit.

[magic452]

From ComSubPac:
You can replace RR on the rock pile till further notice.

RR says


Magic

[etheberge]

Lol

I was wondering why you had dedicated your post to Rockin Robbins at the beginning, but now I know .

Better tidy up the cell Captain Robbins, you're about to have some company in the brig!

[Bubblehead1980]

[G2B]

So I.G.D. has mastered the way of the Samurai,

I think Admiral Nimitz would like to have a chat with you

[rein1705]

Be LESS aggressive?

[I'm goin' down]

If you understood all of my post, felt the anxiety of the experience, and posted or post a response, you are addicted. Except, for Rockin Robbins, he may be addicted, but he is also in jail with nothing to do but post on Subsim .

[rein1705]

Believe me IGD i get you. Im so into this game i have nightmares of depthcharges.

[NorthBeach]

You exhibit considerable diligence and earnest determination, IGD San!

[G2B]

No addiction here, just escapism to unwind.





Upon returning to Pearl the crew of the Barbarinna was questioned about the loss of Admiral Nimitz beloved Enterprise, records indicate they may have been in the vicinity. The crew reports they were at least 50nm miles away to the N.E. and have no information regarding Enterprise.

The crew was also questioned about the "accident" their captain suffered. The entire crew answered the same, "The captain was prone to sleepwalking and may have fallen overboard in the middle of the night"

When asked about one of the boats anchors and chain that were missing the crew responded "The chain had broken loose and sank to the bottom in heavy seas" Upon inspection it appears the chain was unbolted and that they may have been lying to cover up a mistake of not properly securing it.

New rules will be forthcoming on how to deal with sleepwalking crewmen.

[Sailor Steve]

Very good, G2B!

[Jan Kyster]

The missing anchor could have been a result of the boats being modified before setting of for war patrols, but I've heard stories about irregularities on the USS Barbarinna before, so who knows...


Note to self: ID before firing

[rmr1701]

Oops

[Rockin Robbins]

Hell, now I'll probably have to shave or do something drastic like take a shower.....

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Jan Kyster

The missing anchor could have been a result of the boats being modified before setting of for war patrols, but I've heard stories about irregularities on the USS Barbarinna before, so who knows...


Note to self: ID before firing

Conversations with fellow captains reveals that Captain Down's nickname among the fleet was "Hipshot". Whether this is relavent to the loss of Enterprise is still under investigation.