Tactical decision: what would you do?

[SuperEtendard]

i just came back from the raid to Rabaul...

i started the patrol in june 1942, from Brisbane, with a S-42...

Although the coral sea battle had been won, there was a lot of enemy aerial activity, I almost spent all of my batteries charge in crossing the coral sea (there i realized how long it takes to the S sub to recharge , it takes 5 hours to recharge 1/4 of the batteries....)
When i entered the "Rabaul Bay", i did it at 00:00 and waited the rest of the night surfaced to finish the recharge of batteries.
In the middle of the night i spotted an allied airplane heading for port moresby, also a pilot in parachutes, but landed on the beach...

When the sun came out, (5:45) I went to PD and headed for Rabaul.
No patrolling DD was there. When I rised the periscope at 2 km from rabaul, the sky was full of fast yellow lights... it was an AIR RAID
This time it wasnt the navy, it was the air force. 2 or 3 USAF Lancasters (yes, i know. but the game is that way...) bombed the ships at Rabaul, most missed, but an oil-carrier merchant was damaged...

I waited for the aircrafts to go away and then started my attack. I launched 4 torpedos to a heavy merchant in front of me, at 80° from me. sunk in 1 minute, later i fired 2 torps to a medium oil merchant, but both torpedos hit the dock before reaching the ship. then i recalculated and fired 2 more to the same ship, they hitted the bow of the merchant, but it stayed just fine . I change target and fired 2 torps to the damaged oil carrier, it exploded and sunk with the stern out of the water, like titanic, but it stayed there... stucked in the shallow bottom.

Finally i fired my 2 last torpedos to a big oil merchant, hoping the would hit the center of the ship and explode the oil and tear in half the merchant, but they hit the bow and the ship didnt sink ...

Then i tourned back at 17:00 (i waited all the afternoon for the damaged ships to sink, but it didnt happened) and retourned to brisbane without problem, i sank 2 ships and damaged 2 others, just 1 remained untouched, a medium freighter that was too far away... I was lucky because the DD went somewere out of rabaul or it was sunk by the planes, but it wasnt there... (no mines nor sub nets-----> Stock ver 1.4 )

Good Luck raiding at Rabaul

[nikimcbee]

I'd stay outta the harbor. If you tangle with the destroyer and miss, then....

[I'm goin' down]

Approach with decks awash, accompanied by Nikimbee's sleek PT boat, with their "girl' posing on its bow. That will get their attention. When the enemy starts shooting, flip 'em the bird and get the hell out of there. Take the gril with you...!

[MKalafatas]

@ SuperEntendard: Great job!

@ I'm goin' down: lol! Women and children first!

[Soviet Creeper]

Raiding rabaul. It never ends well.

Not for the japanese merchant marine

Not for me. yay

[MKalafatas]

Originally Posted by SuperEtendard

i just came back from the raid to Rabaul...

i started the patrol in june 1942, from Brisbane, with a S-42...

Although the coral sea battle had been won, there was a lot of enemy aerial activity, I almost spent all of my batteries charge in crossing the coral sea (there i realized how long it takes to the S sub to recharge , it takes 5 hours to recharge 1/4 of the batteries....)

The S-boat has several limitations: 13 knot surface speed, max capacity of 12 torpedoes, 200' max depth. It's equipped with just 2 diesel engines --- as you mentioned, battery charges are a labor. For this reason, I no longer travel on the surface during the day under enemy air cover.

But the most serious limitation in my opinion is the absence of surface sonar. Opting out of time compression to dive for sonar checks is a tedious exercise.

Nevertheless, there were some unfortunate souls who ventured forth in these World War One museums, and for that reason the challenge is interesting.

To close out the story of my adventure --- I returned to Rabaul a week later. Two destroyers were on patrol; one returned inside the harbor but I exited the scene. In real life, I would not risk my boat and crew in such circumstances merely to avoid the ignominy of returning to port with 12 torpedoes. "Immersion" in the game experience requires some honesty on our parts.

[SuperEtendard]

Originally Posted by MKalafatas

The S-boat has several limitations: 13 knot surface speed, max capacity of 12 torpedoes, 200' max depth. It's equipped with just 2 diesel engines --- as you mentioned, battery charges are a labor. For this reason, I no longer travel on the surface during the day under enemy air cover.

The batteries just doesnt last so long, you can empty the batteries in just one day (1/3), but it takes more than a night to full recharge, so its kinda annoying to stay hours submerged doing nothing, (0 knts) waiting for the night to surface and recharge,

Poor S boat, it wasnt a fleet boat, it wasnt built for great distances.
Dont insult him, it has feelings...

Its a coastal patrol sub, like the Type II U-boat...

At the begining of the war, they were based in manila, it was great for them, they had the jap traffic route really close. When they were transfered to Australia.... they became obsolet.