The Excitement of DiD

[onelifecrisis]

Please allow me to share my latest "worth sharing" experience with those of you who can be arsed to read it.

I'm playing through the war with a series of SH3C-controlled commanders ("Realistic Career Length" and DiD). See the links in my sig, or otherwise here's the short version: my first two commanders were lucky enough to retire and pass on my U-boat and ever-more-experienced crew to my current commander, Wilhelm, who is on his fourth patrol... in which BDU sent him/me to patrol shallow waters off the US coast. I only ever go into shallow waters when ordered to, and I never disobey my Patrol orders. Realism and all that.

It's my first US patrol grid assignment since Erich set sail in Sept'39 (or at least it's the first time I made it to a US patrol grid without running out of torps en-route) and it's also my first patrol with radar (ever, I think).





So there I was in CA54, off the US coast in less than 40m of water, wandering around with radar on (to see if it's any good) and not detecting a damn thing with it. This radar only scans directly ahead of the U-boat, but I was hoping to pick up something if only to get an idea of it's capabilities. I got nothing. Fortunately my watch crew and sonarman proved effective enough at finding targets and I sank a couple of tankers and merchants to add to the respectable collection of British ships I'd sunk on my way over there.

Then on a clear and dark night, in perfectly calm seas and moderate visibility, my radar guy finally announced a contact. A warship. Two seconds later my watch crew reported the same contact dead ahead.

Normally the DD wouldn't see me at that range, at that time of night, but I guess the Americans have those radar detector things already because the DD was already firing flares. I dove to PD, put the scope up, ran silent, and started to turn my cumbersome IXB around while watching the DD approach. By the time I'd managed a 180 the DD was taking up most of the view through my scope. I knew I'd be detected so I pinged for depth just in case I'd maybe got a metre or two more than I thought I did. Nope. 15m under the keel and nowhere deeper than that for miles around, judging by the navmap.

I set my TDC to "point and shoot" mode and fired one of my two remaining aft torps at the approaching (and weaving) DD. The torpedo detonated to the side of its target, apparently not causing much (if any) damage. I started diving fast to 25m and took evasive action. It worked and I somehow managed to avoid being rammed and even avoided taking any damage from the DC's (maybe a rookie-crew on that DD, I thought/hoped).

I ran silent in the DD's deaf zone for a while, now at a depth of 28m, before the DD accelerated a little and turned away. I turned slightly in the opposite direction before zero-ing my rudder and heading slowly (and still silently) for deeper but distant waters. It seemed to work. Maybe my torp had damaged the DD's hydrophones because it seemed unable to hear me even after I'd left it's deaf zone, in spite of my close proximity and the super-calm weather. After a while the DD was quite far behind me and I thought I'd got away, but then the pinging started.

I listened to the DD on the phones. It was almost directly behind me and closing, but slowly. It didn't seem to have a precice lock yet... or maybe I'd damaged it's engines... but whatever the reason, it was not accelerating. But it was pinging more and more... and not woth that idle "I'm looking for you" ping. No, these were the more determined, Darth Vader-esque "I have you now" pings. So I turned a few degrees (to position it directly behind me) and started climbing to PD, listening to it intently for any change in speed or course. I set my last (gulp) aft torp to fire directly aft in a straight line at a depth of 5.5m with a magnetic detonator. The DD was closing on my six in a perfectly straight line but I was too deep to launch. I could only guess at its range (not too close, yet) and I didn't dare put on any speed just in case the DD could hear me. At last, at a depth of about 19m, my aft torp door answered my 'open tube' commands. Still sitting at the hydrophone, I fired.

Boom boom, as Balz would say.

I surfaced as fast as I could and literally breathed in a gulp of air once I was on the bridge.

"Aircraft spotted!"

F---!

"Crash dive!"

F---!

"Cancel that order. Ahead flank and dive to 25m!"

Fate must have been smiling on me because my sub once again took no damage - in spite of the fact that the U-boat had barely even started to dive when the rain of bombs and bullets landed around it.

I waited for the wing-ed git to bugger off. I resurfaced, more carefully this time. All clear. I checked my mission orders. Patrol Grid CA54 for 24 hours: Completed. Right, f--- this, I'm going home. Maybe on the way I'll find targets for my remaining torps.


DiD is the best!