Admiral's Staff

[LordHawke]

Originally Posted by Rip

I have taken the crew of the USS Gar to drop off agents up and down the coast of Japan and China. Not so much as a scratch. Dark and quick are the keys to success.

My first mission was to drop off an agent at Osaka (I was captaining USS Gar). Takes planning and moonless nights (and about 6-7 tries before I learnt the correct lessons). Stormy weather helps. I sailed up a channel along the Honshu coast during a storm, at night on the surface. Got to a point which was still quite deep (~300 ft of water), submerged to 150ft and waited for night to fall (it was already dawn when I got there). The most tense moment was when a convoy sailed directly over my position! But they never detected me.

Night fell, I went up to periscope depth and made my way up the shallows at 2/3. No nearby ships, so I surfaced, went to Ahead Full and crossed the shallow stretch as fast as I could. Reaching a deep part of Osaka bay, I set course for the target area, keeping close to the deep in case I needed to crash dive. There are several gunboats about. The best strategy I found was to tail a gunboat going my way discreetly (use radar and the plot chart). Play cat-and-mouse until you reach a point close to the target area.

Wait for an opportune moment until the gunboats are out of sight, then surface and go Ahead-full to the target zone (over the shallow water). Don't go too close as you may run aground! Once near the target beach, go to All-stop. A menu will popup asking if you want to release the agent. Select the option, and watch our OSS friend cast off for his mission.

No time to waste here, turn around, Ahead-flank and get back to the deep. Make your way out of the bay again (should still have enough darkness time). I actually managed to sink a large merchant in the bay while doing this. Back in the channel, slip past the destroyers (move behind them) and back into the open sea.

Mission accomplished!

This was on Normal difficulty.