Merchant Marksmen

[UnderseaLcpl]

Some of you have seen the recent post where I complained about being shot in the periscope. Well, now I'm complaining about being shot on the surface.

Just today I attacked a convoy westbound in grid BF15. It was a big one and contained 4 large merchants and an ammunition ship along with a plethora of medium-sized vessels and 4 escorts of various classes.

I botched my approach because of a target course miscalculation (tried to compensate by making decent submerged speed) and alerted the lead escort.

So I sunked the escorts, one at a time and made an two end-arounds blowing off all my torpedoes.

I was not happy with the results. 2 good sized ships sunk but the 3 mediums I hit only damaged and showing no loss in speed.

A sizeable contingent of fat merchants was at the rear of the convoy and I decided to shadow and attack them by deck gun at night, keeping a range of about 3000m. Impatience prompts me to attack slightly before sunset and I cripple a tramp steamer with the gun.

Overtaking her underwater I surface and dispatch her aft gun with my twin-20mm cannon. I then sink her at my leisure. Pleased with these results I repeat the process with a Granville type freighter and set my sights on a large merchant.

I surface around 3500m astern of her and try to close to 3000 before opening fire.
To my unpleasant surprise she fires on me at around 3200m and scores a hit on my stern with the first shot using some type of small cannon.

Undaunted, I order the deck gun crew to open fire and target the waterline when I am hit a second time. The impact killed my whole deck gun crew.

Thinking this poorly-trained merchant crew couldn't possibly be so lucky as to hit me a 3rd time I continue the attack. The next impact hits the conning tower and kills my watch officer and another rating. I decide to abort immediately and dive to escape.

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So, what is going on here? My boat is sighted at 3000m and fired upon, successfully, at night? By a merchant gun crew? 3 times in a row? Yeah, my a$$.

Maybe I am just very unlucky.