U64 Traverses the Suez Canal!

[maillemaker]

So I was just east of Freetown and my boat got chewed up by some lucky merchants with their deck guns.

So I docked with the Python down south and patched up my boat, and then decided to round the cape of South Africa and see what it was like on the east coast of Africa.

In many years of playing this game I have never done that.

So I cruise up the coast...and it's rather boring. And it was non-stop rain. I bagged a couple of ships, and then wondered, "Hey, I wonder if you can travel through the Suez Canal?"



So I tried it.

As you enter the canal from the south, you pass a couple of gun emplacements on the way in. I submerged to get by those, but it was too slow being so shallow to go submerged the whole way. So I surfaced.

Everything went smoothly until you reach the little lake just inside the canal. The Brits had a surprise for me. Not one, not two, but three V&W class destroyers. Tried to sneak by them but they heard me and came after me. I nailed them all with down-the-throat shots, though they ran over me a couple of times. Fortunately no major damage.

It is 1941 after all.

So I continue along the canal and I took the branch of it that took me furthest away from Port Said. As I cleared the canal I could make out gun emplacements once again, so I ran decks awash, but again it was so stormy they never saw me.

Had to dodge an ASW trawler in the shallow waters off the canal, but I was home free in to the Med.

Bagged a small convoy on the way to La Spezia, and now my crew is on the Italian beach enjoying the sun and girls.

When we leave via Gibraltar, I will have completely circumnavigated Africa.

Steve

[Tupolev]

Better break out the Vaseline getting through Gibraltar! Especially in that fat IXB!

[kaleun Peter Gipp]

This is what I enjoy greatly in this simulation , a world of possibilities , do keep us up to date on how you reach the Atlantic .

[maillemaker]

I left La Spezia and headed for Gibraltar. I killed a lone merchant, and then resumed my course. Saw a merchant lead and trailed by an escort, so I turned towards them until they saw me and started shooting.

Ducked underwater and turned and pointed my stern tubes at them. Only the lead escort came, the trailer stayed with the merchant.

The lead got close, came straight in with no zig-zagging, so I easily hit him in the chin with a magnetic fish. Unfortunately it did not kill it, and, as is usual, when escorts get damaged they immediately give up the fight and go back into convoy formation. Then the trailing escort broke off and came after me.

Same deal - came straight in and this time my fish blew him dead.

I surfaced and manned the deck gun and put a dozen or so shots into the wounded escort and killed him before he ever hit me.

Then I turned my gun on the merchant and put it down also, and likewise they never hit me with their gun, either.

I turned towards Gibraltar again and made my run. As soon as I spotted a destroyer, I dove to 220m and creeped through the straight.

We surfaced on the other side, and I came to a stop in the darkness and pulled in my external stores. Then we started off again.

No sooner had we started out on flat seas, now outside the Med, we got an alert of a large convoy nearby heading towards the straight.

Went to flank speed and made a perfect intercept and dove silent, letting the convoy come right over us. I easily shot out the front and rear tubes, and reloaded and hit more ships as they passed by my nose and tail. Took down 4 merchants and damaged another when an escort was coming our way.

I turned fast and let him give chase, and fired a magnetic straight at him. Unfortunately, I forgot to set the target speed to zero so the torpedo swerved away in the wrong direction. We dove to 220 m and easily sailed out the rear of the convoy.

Surfaced a while later and looked back with the periscope and saw the wounded merchant sitting there. I surfaced and finished her off with the guns.

Then I turned tail west and ran before the help showed up again.

I just happened to come up on the bridge, and low and behold right there in the dark, not 1500 meters away, was a Black Swan burning and dead in the water. I assumed, since we were so close and they had not lit us up, that it was dead, but all of a sudden my WO finally woke up and said, "Ship sighted!!!". Holy crap it was alive!

We dove and headed towards it, and I easily put a steamer right into its side and blew it sky high.

I then turned north to follow the belly of Spain back to Lorient. Got a notification of a ship, so I headed towards it on the surface at flank speed. Perfect weather and daylight now, and we get attacked by aircraft.

I try to man the guns but we never get a hit. Well, we got a hit, but we never brought it down. They killed my AAA crew, including my qualified PO, though, and brought our hull integrity down to 72%.

I closed in on the target nonetheless, the aircraft was diving on us but was out of bombs, and I saw where the aircraft had come from. A CAM-2 freighter with a catapult on the front.

I dove and got into a perfect firing position and let lose 3 of my last 4 torpedoes. One miss, one dud, and one hit. I tried to follow up with my last eel with a snap shot and missed with that one, too.

I stopped and let it cruise on to about 3000m away, blew ballast and shot to the surface. I manned the deck gun and with my last 6 rounds sent her to the bottom.

Since I only had one external fish left, and we were down to 72% HI, I made a quick detour over to the Thalia for repairs and more torpedoes.

Steve

[Admiral Halsey]

NEVER FIGHT THE PLANES! Always crash dive the moment they're spotted! This is the once scenario where being less aggressive is the right approach.

[banryu79]

Nice story, maillemaker!

-- BE LESS AGGRESSIVE! --