Dirty little tricks in a Type II

[akula_krieg]

Might be considered cheating, but this tactic saved my bacon from one hella pissed off DD the other night.

I was attempting a Scapa Flow penetration through the east passages in a Type IIA. You all know how shallow it is in that area...if you're spotted, you have problems.

Well, I was surfaced in broad daylight in calm seas, my first mistake, and my lookouts spotted a DD boring in at us far too late. Ducked under and went through a continuous depth-charging...somehow, the little boat took the punishment and kept going. One charge hit home, however, and I began to flood...bottomed out the boat with only a few meters of water over my head. Repairs got underway and the flooding was secured before the DD made its next pass.

This little incident occurred in 1939, but this DD was no rookie. He expended his depth charges fairly quickly and began making ramming runs...wiped out one scope and the radio mast on the first one, killing two seamen in the process (by this time I was off the bottom and going again). I figured I was dead on the next pass, so I hoped for the best and made an ahead flank beeline for the north coast east of Scapa, only a couple kilometers distant.

I guess it's an AI issue, but the DD missed on his next attempt and plowed right into the beach. A quick turnaround and a torpedo set for 1 meter fired from the observation scope ended his party. I made it the rest of the way into Scapa and scored a troop transport and another DD, and managed to make it out safely; the smarter thing, looking back, would have been to turn home and get the hell out of there.

Had I not been in a Type II, I doubt I would have made it...a Type VII would have been too large to get that close to shore. Thought I'd share if any of you coastal boat types get into a similar situation

-akula-