Leyte Gulf, Yamato Sunk, Reload Failure

[WernherVonTrapp]

Well, I finally had one of my best patrols ever. I made it to the battle of Leyte Gulf and intercepted Kurita's Center Force about 88nm W of the San Bernardino Strait. I initially overshot my approach but was able to sink a Kongo with my 4 remaining aft tubes. I went deep, corrected my angle of approach and made it to PD just in time to see the big fat Yamato just over 2000yds ahead of my port bow. I fired all 6 forward tubes and all 6 hit their mark, though slightly behind my aiming points. They all struck in a spread from starboard midship, right on back to the tip of her fantail.

It wasn't long before she was dead in the water. The DDs didn't conduct much of a search for me and despite a few pings here and there, never located me before heading off and leaving the Y to her own devices. I had already accumulated over 31k merchant tons on a foraging assignment at Convoy College. Now, I just sunk a Kongo and had a once in a lifetime opportunity to sink an unguarded Y. After firing all 6 tubes, I had only 4 torps left to my name. By the time I returned to PD, 2 more had been loaded. I fired these more toward her bow aiming for the A & B turrets. Both hit home with resulting secondaries and, though her list became more pronounced, it wasn't enough to sink her. I dove to 250' while the last 2 torps were loading and headed my boat for a shot at her port side. Upon completing the reload, I surfaced to a beautiful 90° angle at just over 1000yds. I aimed amidship and at the aft turrets. Both hit with another large secondary. She didn't go down right away and I wasn't sure if she would at all.

I waited in anxious anticipation and within a matter of minutes, I could hear several internal explosions reverberating through the water. These continued for several more minutes until the explosions made it to the outer superstructure. A few moments later, the lifeboats appeared and she was gone. I surfaced the boat and had no radar contacts at all. I began to head toward a downed flier in a rescue attempt and, that's when it happened.

My first mate broke radio silence, entered the inner sanctum, breached all levels of security clearance and, entered the man cave. In a blink of an eye, I went from intense focus during a combat scenario to a high stress level reminder about a promised shopping excursion. I glanced at the PC screen, glanced at my first mate, glanced back at the PC screen, the sweat began to bead down along the contours of my face. I felt the flush begin to flood through my veins. Duty was calling on two separate fronts. I quietly pondered my options, "which enemy do I engage?" I began to grit my teeth at the indecisiveness. The pressure began to build like a pressure cooker filled with nitroglycerine. Steam began to erupt from my ears and I heard a loud whistle begin to blow!
Dohhhhhhhh, all right honey. Just, let me shut down the game before we go, OK?

That's when things began to get hazy. With her perched over me like a vulture over a rotting carcass, I shut down the game as a moment of reprieve gripped me upon seeing my total tonnage over 101,000 tons. Then, upon returning from my assignment in the shopping zone, I tried to boot up my saved game, all 3 of them. The dreaded, "Silent Hunter IV Has Failed To Load" message echoed through my mind like some twisted water torture scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
(cry of anguish) Ohhhh, the horrors of war!