Was it a mine?

[Mafiota2]

Another possibility is that your waypoint was going trough a small island
Sometimes they are so little they are invisible on the map and when you speed up you go straight through them soo i'm just saying

Or it was a mine

[TheAbyss]

Ah, a mistake, it wasn't Formosa, it was where Karimata Strait hits Jawa Sea (close to Singapore). It was in the shallows, that's all I know (there doesn't appear to be any islands/sandbanks where I plotted the path--looking at it in my new career), but I suppose there could be a really shallow area somewhere there to beach oneself (the outside death screen wasn't of a beached ship though, just one in the open waters). Shame I didn't see what got me, especially if it was a mine.

Another reason to avoid the shallows now. Apart from using an S-18 [where escape happened for me], I was always DC to death by escorts in shallow waters.

[Armistead]

Not sure what mods you use, but shouldn't be any mines on the surface.
They're are lots of small reefs and islands in that area. You said radar picked up birds and boats, I assume by birds you mean planes, but either could've spotted you and killed you using TC before you could react...Depending on time and year, could've been shore guns.

[magic452]

My money goes on a plane. The game doesn't always pick them up fast enough. Watch the high TC when any were near enemy waters.

Magic

[I'm goin' down]

"In a mine,
In a mine,
Where a thousand Diamonds-
SHINE!"

They probably dropped one on the way home from Work.

(Song: Whistle While You Work
Movie: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

[TheAbyss]

The only problem with the plane is that it was in the middle of the night.

So, mines can't hit surfaced ships (that's kinda odd, unless the ones depicted are dedicated ASW mines)? There was no "we're under attack" message at all, which is what I usually see if I'm too careless with time compression in the presence of enemy shipping (setting up an attack). Just the spinning camera and with a sub in the middle of nowhere with water pouring off the sides (no landmass or sandbank). The CO2 bug wasn't in-effect.

I suppose I could have bumped into a coastal vessel, DD, or something and since time compression was up high (a simple gunboat is armed well enough to hole a sub quickly), there was no time for a "we're under attack message" (never seen it happen before, but that doesn't mean much).

[Armistead]

You said you had contacts and went to TC, unless you were using low TC and paying attention, that was probably hit. You go much higher than 256 you can hardly react to the enemy.

Mods and stock differ, but some planes attack at night.

[I'm goin' down]

Originally Posted by Armistead

Mods and stock differ, but some planes attack at night.

Yes they do. It's as plane as day.