Out of the mist. or, the Fog of War

[Phobus]

‘Out of the Mist’

After my earlier, unsuccessful, attempt to attack a convoy I was cruising in reduced visibility, rain and wind of 7mtrs/sec. I had earlier gone to PD to listen but heard nothing so back to the surface. Suddenly dead ahead, very fine on the stbd bow, loomed the grey shape of a large merchantman, 10,000t at least comming straight at me!. Can’t man the deck gun because of the wind velocity so order”Hard a Port” to bring my stern tube to bear. Then all Hell is let loose - she opens fire with several guns. Crash dive! As I take a last look I notice her funnel She belongs to the ‘Grey funnel line’.

I swing round and at 0754hrs put one torp under her. No noticeable effect I fire a second but this misses. By now she has disappeared in the mist so I come to the surface and follow at max vis which is about 800mtrs. These 10,000 tonners have sunk before with one good hit under the keel it’s just a matter of waiting. I follow and wait; time passes, she is still moving at 4-5 knots. I work ahead and fire another torp at 1215hrs which hits midships port side; that should do it. But no; the blessed thing keeps going. Is she down by the bows? Possibly. The day wears on and I send the crew to lunch, Heinze beans of course. (I like to give the crew little treats like this to keep up morale).

In desperation I fire yet another torp at 1535hrs again a hit near the bows and at last she starts to slow. Finally at 1612hrs she goes under.

I raise my cap to her skipper, stubborn old bugger!

I think I have had an encounter with one of Churchill’s nasty little schemes. He advocated filling some ships with materials to render them difficult/impossible to sink, table tennis balls( yes) and other things, timber and such to tempt us poor U- Boat men to waste out torps trying to sink them.

On a serious note I wondered if this was, not exactly a Q ship but as she was painted overall in Admiralty dark grey I believe she was Royal Navy manned ship. Though she was flying the Red and not the Blue Ensign.

Note; The Grey funnel line was a slang term used by naval ratings when referring to the ships of the Royal Navy.

[Laufen zum Ziel]

Lots of fire power from a merchant usually means one of jimbuna's Q ships.
Do you have his mod activated?

[RoaldLarsen]

Liberty Ships (and Victory Ships?) have a lot of armament on them in the game. I think the designers found close to the maximum ever placed on any Liberty ship and put it on all the Liberty ships in the game. IRL, most Liberty Ships had fewer guns.

OTOH I have found that Liberty Ships are quite vulnerable to under-keel shots with magnetic pistol triggers.

Any chance your target was a Liberty Ship or a Victory Ship?

[Phobus]

No chance of it being a Victory or Liberty ship I've only got as far as August 1940 with this career.

I don't have the mod embodied, well not to my knowledge as a stand alone mod. Is it likely to be part of GWX 3.0?.

[BasilY]

Originally Posted by Phobus

No chance of it being a Victory or Liberty ship I've only got as far as August 1940 with this career.

I don't have the mod embodied, well not to my knowledge as a stand alone mod. Is it likely to be part of GWX 3.0?.

I don't remember any merchant ship being so fiercely armed so early in the war in GWX 3.0 Gold. But I did have a number of close encounters in bad visibility situations. And let me tell ya, at a distance of 300 meters or less, even a tiny machine gun can do major damage and wreck some nerves, especially when you are on a slow diving boat like the IX.