God Save Me From the Type IIA - Page 2

Damo · 12-22-09, 03:45 PM

Well, I've finally handed back my IIA, unfortunately a bit lighter than when I got it. I was patrolling AN46 and detected 3 warship contacts on the hydrophones quite close. Thought I'd go have a looksie and saw 3 destroyers, 2 tribal class, 1 C&D class all heading NNE. Against my better judgement I lined up a shot on the lead and second in line from 3000m whilst riding on the surface, it was about 11pm with a reasonable moon. I managed to hit the first one but had messed up the timings so the second so it missed by mere feet when the second destroyer began changing course.

They all turned my direction so I turned tail and started running. It was then that a fourth contact turned up, another destroyer, heading my way. In my panic, and in hindsight a mistake, I dived to 30m, leaving 10m below but I'd left the engines cranked on flank so of course, they immediately heard me and came steaming in. I should have stayed on the surface as they had not seen me up until that point. 2 hours of evading followed before I managed to reach the deeper water in the NE and slip away.

Unfortunately, I'd taken on a lot of damage with hull integrity down to 46% (longer repair times, woot), so I made for Kiel with no periscopes, one destroyed electric motor and a fair few sore heads. I have a rule as part of my DiD that any boat that goes below 55% hull integrity gets decommissioned and melted down for doodlebugs, so alas, U-16 (I know, a IIB in RL), is no more, and my brief love affair with the underdog is over. After 7 patrols I managed 98,000GRT. Bit gutted I didn't make 100k but it's all down to my stupidity with those destroyers, I should have left them be.

I've now transferred to 2nd Flotilla and have left port in a new IXB, U-123 (as always, number picked randomly). Looking it up on uboat.net reveals it was 'one of the most famous U-Boats of WWII' ( http://www.uboat.net/boats/u123.htm ), so I'm hoping this to be a good omen for the future. It's March 1940 and I'm assigned to just west of the Gibraltar Strait so here's to making the most of the 'happy times'.

12-22-09, 03:45 PM	#1
Damo Captain Join Date: May 2009 Location: Forever stuck in Data folder... Posts: 482 Downloads: 259 Uploads: 0	Well, I've finally handed back my IIA, unfortunately a bit lighter than when I got it. I was patrolling AN46 and detected 3 warship contacts on the hydrophones quite close. Thought I'd go have a looksie and saw 3 destroyers, 2 tribal class, 1 C&D class all heading NNE. Against my better judgement I lined up a shot on the lead and second in line from 3000m whilst riding on the surface, it was about 11pm with a reasonable moon. I managed to hit the first one but had messed up the timings so the second so it missed by mere feet when the second destroyer began changing course. They all turned my direction so I turned tail and started running. It was then that a fourth contact turned up, another destroyer, heading my way. In my panic, and in hindsight a mistake, I dived to 30m, leaving 10m below but I'd left the engines cranked on flank so of course, they immediately heard me and came steaming in. I should have stayed on the surface as they had not seen me up until that point. 2 hours of evading followed before I managed to reach the deeper water in the NE and slip away. Unfortunately, I'd taken on a lot of damage with hull integrity down to 46% (longer repair times, woot), so I made for Kiel with no periscopes, one destroyed electric motor and a fair few sore heads. I have a rule as part of my DiD that any boat that goes below 55% hull integrity gets decommissioned and melted down for doodlebugs, so alas, U-16 (I know, a IIB in RL), is no more, and my brief love affair with the underdog is over. After 7 patrols I managed 98,000GRT. Bit gutted I didn't make 100k but it's all down to my stupidity with those destroyers, I should have left them be. I've now transferred to 2nd Flotilla and have left port in a new IXB, U-123 (as always, number picked randomly). Looking it up on uboat.net reveals it was 'one of the most famous U-Boats of WWII' ( http://www.uboat.net/boats/u123.htm ), so I'm hoping this to be a good omen for the future. It's March 1940 and I'm assigned to just west of the Gibraltar Strait so here's to making the most of the 'happy times'. __________________ The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat. It only took one T1 eel to convince that boat not to float.