Troop Transports

[H2OsKT]

This is just a note to anyone who is relatively new to this game. Be very afraid of Troop Transports. Last night, I was conducting my 10th patrol off the west coast of Ireland and stumbled onto a large Convoy with a Passanger Liner, two Troop Transports, two or three T3 and T2 Tankers, five or six C2 Cargo ships and a handful of other assorted merchant ships. It is around September 1940 and this convoy was lightly guarded by two V&W Destroyers along with a Tribal Destroyer Escort. I was excited and am sailing in a VIIB with a well seasoned crew, running around 80% realism. (I still let the computer calc my torps.)

I decided that I would run ahead of the convoy, catch the escorts at daybreak and then surface and have a close range target practice with the handy deck gun and flak. I settled in and took out the lead V&W Destroyer with no problem as he was running in a straight line. The left flank V&W steamed right to the spot where I was (I used a gas torp), so I dove to 25 meters and repositioned myself. I noted that the boat was making some kind of a circular search and was pinging me. Back to parascope depth and I lucked out. He was steaming towards me at an angle at about 600 meters. I launched two torps in a spread and nailed him. At this point I was feeling good and noticed the Passenger Liner was floating into my range for the aft torpedo. I took a shot and dove again as the Tribal was now on my higny. One thing I did notice is that all of the ships were traveling in random paterns and blocking one another before I went back down.

I again manuvered around into the middle of the swarm of merchants and rose to parascope depth. I lucked out again. The torp hit the Passenger Liner and the Tribal ended up perpendicular to this ship. I realigned and basted the Destroyer with one torpedo. At this point I was confident that there were no more "warships" on the surface. I ordered my crew to reload all tubes, return to normal running and surface the boat for a little fun. As soon as I hit the surface I was getting blasted as if a Destroyer was right next to me. I conducted an emergency dive and assessed the damage. Every single compartment suffered some form of damage. I set crews to repair and sailed at parascope depth to the flank of the convoy. When I was about three meters out, I resurfaced, only to get blasted again! Back down and off a little further I went. Then I tailed around on the surface and made it to the front of the convoy.

The Troop Transports are heavily armed and will destroy your boat in a heartbeat. They should be handled just like a warship rather than a merchant. By the time the convoy caught up with my, all my tubes were reloaded and all damage had been repaired. I sat submerged and waited for the transports. One took two of three fish and sank, the other had one hit (my aft torp.) I again sleeked out of the convoy underwater and repositioned at the front of the convoy. Fired two more at the remaining transport and destroyed her.

At this point it was three am and I needed some sleep. I had only two torps left (the external reserves). I surfaced to see what would happen and none of the other merchants attacked me, they just ran scared all over the place. I saved at this point and plan on having a little turkey shoot with my deck gun tonight!

I look forward to tonight, but I think you all should be aware that the Troop Transport is not as docile as you may think!