Your most frustrating foul-ups?

[hermanJnr.]

Sometimes, especially on higher realism settings, an attack just doesn't go as planned. I thought it'd be interesting to hear of some unplanned events from the sailors here.

Playing on 70% realism, I just recently started a new career after a break from the game. Getting my bearings by sinking a hapless small enemy merchant with the deck gun, I then decided to intercept a nearby Task Force that had been radioed in.

Sure enough I bumped into them along the predicted path. I correctly identified the juicy target ship as a Large Old Passenger Ship troop transport, plugged in the Range calculation using the Stadimeter, set up the AOB of the ship and then patiently waited before getting the crew to give me a speed from my second reading.

The escort, in the form of 2 Destroyers, remained blissfully unaware as I crept to just over a kilometre away. I set up the torpedoes - this was in the bag.

And then it all went wrong. I fired 3, figuring that'd be sufficient to take out a big ship, then waited. The explosions started far sooner than I would have liked - a dud torp exploded dramatically only a few hundred metres from my sub. Immediately Morse signals were being flashed by the enraged destroyers and the merchant startled wobbling uncertainly.

*BANG*, two torp hits right on the bow of the target regardless. I wait, breath held, as it lists slightly. And then it rights itself, the juggernaut laughing off the damage and apparently ignoring the tons of water gushing into the front of the boat. Crap.

After that it was a crash dive followed by a far-too-close-for-comfort session of "Flee the Destroyers", three torpedoes down and not a single ton of damage in sight!

[tat501]

Ive had a couple of bad ones - mostly when Im too tired to double check things. Worst one I remember was in SH5 when I had a King George V class battleship in sight - just ran into it in the North Atlantic with a heavy escort. Managed to get into position unseen and set up a firing solution...

Waited anxiously for the right time to fire and 3-2-1-LOS!!

Torpedo turns the wrong way....wtf?? Seems I put its angle on bow as being 45 deg starboard instead of port with the RED/GREEN thingy on the scope...big whoops. What a stupid error that was.

[Soviet Creeper]

One time I got a little too time compression happy while heading back to base just after sinking a large Fleet Carrier, and I had forgoten to put my watch crew back on duty (They were below deck damage controling n stuff)

I ended up in the sights of a enemy destroyer, he sent a few rounds my way, and one pegged my sub right between the engine room and aft torps, causing both of them to flood.

My sub ended up nearly verticle, and I was flank speeding just to not sink. Though that meant the destroyer knew exactly where I was, and there wasnt a damn thing I could do. Charge after charge slowly battered my sub, until she broke, and went to the bottom. This mostly upset me because of the amount of time it took and how despreate I was. Sometimes, I hate playing hardcore carrers :P

[fireftr18]

I don't remember any in particular because there were so many.

I did have an interesting thing happen to me, and it involves TMO. I was wearing headphones at the time. On patrol, I get a visual siting of a warship. It turned out to be a destroyer. As I was on the surface looking for it, I heard a shell coming, it missed, but the sound was so good, it sounded like the shell went straight through my head.

[Armistead]

On my boat we don't refer to mistakes as foul-ups, we call them "Wernhers"

Most of my foul ups, ruined careers, etc., are the result of my XO, Wernher.....Most of you know I was forced to accept him as my XO due to the influence of his powerful family. For years now I have documented my many glorious patrols ruined by Wern...

[magic452]

Two of my biggest mistakes were way back in the 1.4 days TMO I think.

First one was the battle of Midway. I had just refueled there when a report came in about the IJN fleet being off Midway, wasn't paying attention to the date so was surprised. I managed to sink two carriers and though that maybe I could catch them on the way home and in fact did with two more carriers down. Refueled at Midway and finished my assignment to Japan with good tonnage. In a big hurry to get to Pearl (high TC) to get my medals, pretty girls, etc. I hit a small island just east of midway. Didn't sink but the forward torpedo room boys weren't happy. Neither was Lockwood.

Second happened when I had put two torpedoes into a carrier, don't remember which one. I decided to go under her to shake a pesky DD and try to get another shot from the other side.
Just as I was going under her she capsized and pinned me against the flight deck and took me down with her. Found out you can't dive faster than a CV can sink.


That is just two of a long list over the years.

Magic

[Hylander_1314]

Originally Posted by magic452

Second happened when I had put two torpedoes into a carrier, don't remember which one. I decided to go under her to shake a pesky DD and try to get another shot from the other side.
Just as I was going under her she capsized and pinned me against the flight deck and took me down with her. Found out you can't dive faster than a CV can sink.

I did this not just once, but twice! Darn DDs were right on me, and I thought the best way to shake them would be to go under a ship that was dead in the water.

Trouble is, I lingered too long. So I don't make a habit of diving under torpedoed ships anymore. To darn dangerous and unpredictable!

[Armistead]

Yea, got to be careful about hiding under damaged ships. I hid under a BB once I had dead in the water, jap planes knew I was near and bombed the BB trying to get to me, blew it up and killed me....

[fireftr18]

Originally Posted by Armistead

On my boat we don't refer to mistakes as foul-ups, we call them "Wernhers"

Most of my foul ups, ruined careers, etc., are the result of my XO, Wernher.....Most of you know I was forced to accept him as my XO due to the influence of his powerful family. For years now I have documented my many glorious patrols ruined by Wern...

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by magic452

Just as I was going under her she capsized and pinned me against the flight deck and took me down with her.

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

I did this not just once, but twice!

You're both in good company. Back in the First World War the greatest submarine ace of them all, Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, was nearly killed when he hid his boat under a freighter he had torpedoed. The freighter sank on top of him and that they survived was a matter of blind luck.

Source: The U-Boat War: 1914-1918, by Edwin Gray.

[MarkCt]

I had survived a blistering depth charging by three DD,s. My hull damage was way up there and just about everything was damaged or destroyed. So I set course for home base feeling real good and lucky that I survived not seeing that the line went over a little island. Well I hit it dead on, got stuck and the boat was destroyed. All I had to do was miss that little speck of land and I was home free.

[Rockin Robbins]

My favorite trick happened because of my old diving technique. I used to crash dive on detecting a plane. I'd level her out at 100' and wait for the plane to go by. Then I'd surface and continue on the surface........forgeting that when you crash dive you go to ahead emergency.

A couple of game days later suddenly I discovered I was almost out of fuel! This is frustrating because nobody could make this mistake in real life. You'd hear the motors roaring and instantly know. There is no way you could forget you were at full throttle for two days.

I don't crash dive any more and that hasn't happened again.

[Dignan]

A few times I've done the following...

tracked a target for miles and set up a good plot. Map checks out... TDC checks out... The plot and TDC begin to even validate each other. I'm at a good distance away from target track, 90 degrees to their course. Escorts haven't detected me yet. I Open the tubes... target crosses the wire...fire one, fire two, fire three. Wouldn't you know I forgot that I lined up my stern tubes to face the target but accidentally fired my bow tubes.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

My favorite trick happened because of my old diving technique. I used to crash dive on detecting a plane. I'd level her out at 100' and wait for the plane to go by. Then I'd surface and continue on the surface........forgeting that when you crash dive you go to ahead emergency.

A couple of game days later suddenly I discovered I was almost out of fuel! This is frustrating because nobody could make this mistake in real life. You'd hear the motors roaring and instantly know. There is no way you could forget you were at full throttle for two days.

I don't crash dive any more and that hasn't happened again.

Don't forget the time you sunk a US carrier....lil foul up to say the least.

[Segwin]

My most frustrating foul-up was trying to mod & run SH5.