Anyone else had a "bad luck" patrol?

[Morts]

i just had a "bad luck" patrol
10 swordfish attacks (well there where 2 planes in each attack..so 20 attacks)
7 direct bomb hits and alot of near misses that damaged me
5 dead crew

but then i look on the bright side
1 plane downed
20 ships sunk with torps and shells to spare
and 84632 tons sunk

[NeonSamurai]

Ive had some bad patrols too where ive almost come up empty.

My last one (brand new career, start of the war in a dugout (IIA) based at Kiel) didnt start well.

First off the weather was abysmal almost the entire voyage (high seas with 13-15m/s winds, fog and rain, i also play with 1.5x wave height) which also ment constant rotating of the watch and engine room crews (my game is set up so fatigue works reguardless of time compression). Most of the crew was looking very green about the gills from the dugout getting thrown about by the waves and wind.

Secondly BDU had assigned me to grid AF87 which is just north of Bergen. Which i just knew would give me almost no chance of any valid targets, and because of the distance to get there, would make it very difficult to go somewhere else where i might have a chance of finding something to sink.

So i decided to save as much fuel on the trip as i possibly could and set sail down the kiel canal and out into the ocean at 4-5 knots (mostly 4 due to the bad weather).

After a week and a few days i arived at the very edge of the assigned patrol grid, i decided i would not chase any ships around there as it would burn my fuel up and i figured i would not see anything that wasnt neutral. So i ordered engines to stop and dived to 25m and waited for 2 days (surfacing every now and then to freshen the air).

Having heard nothing but the sounds of fishing boats anyways during those 2 days i decided ok time to go towards England. With some carefull calculations i determined i would have just enough fuel to reach the tip of england just north of Aberdeen (AN18) and be able to make it back home, but would not have enough fuel to do any high speed chasing when there. So i plotted a course which would leave us about 30km off shore at the tip.

Another week's worth of bad weather during the trip and i finaly arived, ordered the boat down to periscope depth and waited. Two days later i finaly got my first contact, it sounded like a decent sized merchant, and it just happened to be heading nearly right in my direction.

I set up my attack (surface night, windspeed 15m/s) position and waited for the ship to come closer, It was a 11751 ton Large Merchant. I positioned my boat for an attack run, 2 torpedo spread and commenced the attack, both torpedos hit and she went down rather rapidly.

A few days later i encountered a Tramp Steamer following almost the exact same path the Large merchant had followed, at that moment a british bomber came into view so i ordered a crash dive (the bomber hadnt spotted us), then set up to attack the tramp steamer. One torpedo and she went down to the bottom after flailing around in the surf a while.

Next day to my delight yet another Large Merchant showed up, again following the course of the other two. Ironicly yet another plane showed up at about the same moment and i was again forced to dive (it also failed to see me in the bad weather). This one also went to the bottom with my last 2 torpedos (i modded my GWX so that the II boats carry 5 torpedos not 6)

With all torpedos expeneded i sent my reports to BDU and ordered our return voyage. The trip was uneventfull other then the weather finaly clearing up about half way back. Though the weather turned to heavy rain when we entered the canal. The dugout ran out of fuel just as we entered our berth and docked. Final tonage was 25474 tons (pretty good for a IIA with 5 torps).


Anyhow that was a patrol that easily could have gone bad and got me no tonnage if i hadnt been so miserly with my fuel expenditure. i utterly refused to chase anything that patrol as i knew that if i did, i would not have enough to get back. Also the travel time took forever too with the bad weather, the most fuel efficent speed (4-5 knots) and me having to constantly rotate the crew around every few hours due to the bad weather over the 20 day patrol. I also got very lucky and stumbled on a shiping lane (i knew shiping traffic would have to pass somewhere around there).

[Puster Bill]

Originally Posted by ddiplock

I've just finished my first patrol of a new career....again lol

Anyway, during the entire 24 days i was at sea, the weather was stormy with heavy rain and thick fog.....for the entire patrol literally!!!!

I'd recived reports of ships, and got several reports of large convoys and tried to intercept them, but to no avail.

I never saw a single enemy ship during the entire patrol, not one. It was only heading back into Kiel, right outside Kiel I encountered a Swedish Tramp Steamer slowly heading out.....that was the first ship i'd seen since starting my patrol!!! I'm putting it down to bad luck, and hoping patrol 2 reaps better rewards.

Any other guys had patrols like this?? I feel so dissapointed to have such an emtpy patrol on my record

Depending on the year, any patrol you come home from is a 'good patrol'

[USS Sea Tiger]

Just cleared France,, running at top speed in the night to get as many miles between me and Great Britain as possible,

Out of the thick of night came the Plane,, never once saw her, bomb plopped right onto my bow,

My dedicated Damage control team jumped to it and saved the boat after reaching 220 meters and leveled off, stopped the floodig and then surfaced,,but the forward dive planes were destroyed.
Guess what,, you cannot go to periscope or any other controlled depth in that situation. Ran for home,, killed two birds enroute, .

patrol lasted 2 days, The boat was a wreck at 25 percent integrity left. and three men wounded, 2 KIA

all for a handful of tailfeathers. 2 lousy birds.

[Jimbuna]

That's a bummer

[ddiplock]

Originally Posted by USS Sea Tiger

Just cleared France,, running at top speed in the night to get as many miles between me and Great Britain as possible,

Out of the thick of night came the Plane,, never once saw her, bomb plopped right onto my bow,

My dedicated Damage control team jumped to it and saved the boat after reaching 220 meters and leveled off, stopped the floodig and then surfaced,,but the forward dive planes were destroyed.
Guess what,, you cannot go to periscope or any other controlled depth in that situation. Ran for home,, killed two birds enroute, .

patrol lasted 2 days, The boat was a wreck at 25 percent integrity left. and three men wounded, 2 KIA

all for a handful of tailfeathers. 2 lousy birds.

I guess even at night time, its best to run submerged then

I know provided I make it far enough into the war, i'm getting a snorkel on my boat, and ducking under the waves out of sight for good