Things that make you go Ahhh ****

[the.terrabyte.pirate]

1940 in U-13, my trusty IID.

Out from my first patrol from Lorient. New flotilla, new home port. Time to make a name for myself.

While heading up the west coast of GB, a convoy appears as a radio contact. It's a little far off, but I figure "What the heck" and plot an intercept course. It's a long shot, over 250 km away, but the intercept point is on the path I'm already travelling.

Gun the diesels to ahead full. Bad weather is slowing us down. High wind, torrential rain. Cautiously on 128x tc.

Suddenly it's BANG... taking damage. Depth charges in the water. Hull damaged. Bow torpedo tubes damaged.

I crash dive, but the depth charges blow me to pieces. Not before my sonar guy picks up the sounds of the convoy's merchants at close range.

The lead escort of the convoy ran straight over the top of me in the darkness. Not a peep from my watch crew.

Positive: I know my intercept method works. I found the needle in the haystack. It's like shooting an arrow from the sky with a bullet, firing from over your shoulder while using the reflection from a mirror.

Negative: Ah S**T! There is no way any of my future intercepts will be this accurate, and all I have to show for it is a sunk boat and a dead crew.

I normally play DID, but the situation sucked so badly I've decided to reload from Lorient and start the patrol again. It wasn't my mistake. It wasn't even bad luck. It was a fluke that I'll be damned if I'll accept as a legit death. It's the equivalent of the computer crashing.