Under the Sea: Gertbeef in the Pacific

[Calis]

Well Gertbeef Roe has done the college basketball thing with the University of New Hampshire, he's done his time serving as God to a horde of Undead, what is next for the Adversary? More killing, that's what. Gertbeef Roe has earned himself the position of Captain of a Submarine in the Pacific Theater during WWII.

I think this will be an interesting dynasty, along the same lines as my Dominions 2 one as I'm a complete novice when it comes to submarines in general, and even more so to submarine tactics. I've always had a passing fascination with subs, but never really delved deep into it. The extent of my knowledge is having seen Das Boot, and reading the book. I also know very little about the PTO either, as I've always been fascinated with the War in Europe, and the East Front to be specific. So this will hopefully get me interested in that, and broaden my knowledge a bit.

The game used will be Silent Hunter 2, which I bought quite a while ago but never really played. With the upcoming release of Silent Hunter 3 I've become pretty excited. Mostly for the addition of crews and the RPG aspects involved with them. So I figure I'll "dive" in a bit before it is released. So I've been checking out SubSim.com, which is a great site, and I see this Pacific Aces mod they've done which is a damn fine looking mod by the sounds of it. So I plop down the 5 bucks and buy it. This mod adds a lot of new options, ups the graphics on nearly anything, adds a random campaign generator, and obviously adds the US/Japanese Subs and a new theater. It's one of the nicer fan made mods I've ever seen, they've put a bunch of work into it.

So the plan will be to follow me on Patrol for as long as I can survive. There's GOING to be restarting in this dynasty. These are tough enough to stay alive in for experienced folks, but for a greenhorn like myself I expect it to be near impossible. A patrol that we survive is a success.

The first couple I'm going to "cheat" a bit and take out some of the realism options, try to ease myself into it. There won't be fuel limits or such this first time. I might even go with unlimited ammo also, although I haven't decided. If I do I'll still try to keep it around the normal load out. The main point of this first one is to just get a feel for the sub, and the interface. As I get the hang of it we'll keep upping the realism, would like to get used to basically full realism before the new one comes out, although I'm not really interested in manually projecting torpedo courses and stuff like that. That's just too much like actual work for my taste.

Not sure how often this will be updated either. These patrols take quite a while to finish, and I think there's quite a few issues with saving on this game. So I'll try to play when I have the time to devote to a whole patrol, which might not be that often. Today however is free, so one or two will be fired up very shortly.

[sachmo71]

Gertbeef never finished being an undead pretender god. I don't see how he can hope to run a submarine.

[Calis]

Gertbeef never finished being an undead pretender god. I don't see how he can hope to run a submarine.

Gertbeef has the attention span of a 10 year old, so can't really hope to finish everything.

Gertbeef also lost his Dominions 2 CD when he moved. :(

EDIT: Forgot to add, don't even know if I like this game, so it could be REAL short.

[Calis]

-Great Start, I already wrote up the whole first report then managed to close it without saving. Grr...


We'll be starting in 1944 with a home base of Guam, because it's the closest to action, and I'm not sure I'm up for spending an hour getting to the patrol zone.

Ok, for this first patrol we will be in charge of the SS259 Jack, a Gato class submarine, which means almost nothing to me. With a slight bit of research I see it was the most commonly used sub in the Pacific for the US, and stuck around the whole length of the War. So we're a bit long in the tooth technology wise here, but we're tried and true.

The important specs I can find are a top speed while surfaced of 20.75 knots, and 8.75 submerged. We have 6 torpedo tubes(which I'm guessing I'll be using ALL of to land one), and a test depth of 300' which I'll be pushing to the limits I'd wager when I'm fleeing from the destroyers chucking depth charges at me. The max range we won't worry about yet as I'm leaving fuel consumption off for this go round. We'll add that in next time.

We have orders! We'll be shipping out the morning of November 29th to patrol the Yellow Sea. Bit of a nasty place to be, which of course is true for any place we go now with me in command, but this even more so because once we get there, we're boxed in. No easy escape back to our turf. Lets hope that doesn't become a factor though.

As an aside, anyone with any knowledge of this game or subs in general be sure to chime in with some info. I'm always up for some advice.

First Patrol coming up shortly!

[Calis]

We shove off first thing on the morning of the 29th out of lovely Guam. I set up a waypoint that will put us between Okinawa and Sasebo and into the Yellow Sea. I expect things will be pretty boring for a while. I set a leisurely 2/3rds power and off we go!


4 Dec 1944

BORRRRING. I spend most of his time asleep in his cabin, as a Captain must be well rested. I occasionally passes the time summoning long dead Archmages and the like and sending them back to the abyss. The normal every day routine you'd expect of The Adversary.

8 Dec 1944
1134

Lesson #1 in Submarine Usage

Diesel engines do occasionally need to be shut off. This is especially true after 10 days total of running. Our starboard diesel went south on us. So I order the Jack down to Periscope depth, and order my minions to initiate repairs. They make quick work of it and we're back up in no time. I do decide to submerge for an hour or so every day after this episode. Back to the boredom.

9 Dec 1944
1838

What I wouldn't give for another engine breakdown, SOMETHING. I finally get my wish a minute later as our sonar man reports a contact bearing 250 and about 10k meters away. Gertbeef laughs evilly and rubs his hands together very menacingly. We set a course almost directly to the west which should lead us right into their path with time to setup before they get there.

I decide to go up top and have a look see. I emerge and peer through the TBT, which is some sort of advanced stabilized binocular deal-io. I look around us. Water, lots of it....all directions. It's raining also, hard. It sucks up here. I quickly head back down, deciding it best for my minions to deal with that and not me.

1850

Thar she blows! A Japanese Merchant, big sucker. We watch her for a few moments, and she appears to be all alone out here. Even better.

1855

I make a turn to put us at about 170 heading, trying to close on the ship. This was my first mistake. I should have just waited as she passed by, but no patience.

1900

The merchant is about 2200 meters away and almost directly in front of us. I order the men to fire two torpedoes with a slight spread at them. Now to just wait for the fireworks!

We wait....

and wait....

No fireworks. I notice the wakes the torpedoes left well beyond the merchantmen now. My first two shots captaining the Jack did not go well. Understandable though, case of being too jumpy. I was facing nearly dead on with the ship, and I really should have maneuvered to get a clear broadside shot at her. That's ok, as we managed to find the perfect starter kill here, a defenseless merchantman with no escort.

1902

I fire a 3rd torpedo this time with a broadside shot, and with the ship at about 1400 meters range. Another lesson was learned here. Just because a merchant has no escort, doesn't mean you should just charge at it and start firing. I didn't bother to submerge or any of that because he could do nothing to me, other than ram me. This guy was like Barry Sanders out there, the jukes and the jives. He was truly in the zone.

1905

It became obvious at this point that the 3rd torpedo was a waste also, as Twinkletoes the Merchant was sitting at the wheel laughing at me now, LAUGHING! I'd had enough, I get the broadside in sight and put the ship to full speed. We close, and we close. I get to about 750 meters and unload torpedo #4. I quickly slam the rudder to 40 degrees right to ensure I don't run into this sucker. NO WAY this one misses.

Waiting....

waiting....

HIT! Aha! The explosion rocks the ship, and I can tell she's basically done for. I sit around taking a pull off my corncob pipe and stroking my beard. I put the ship to a halt and decide to wait and make sure my first victim was going down. She finally started sinking about 30 minutes later.

So, my first encounter while a success was pretty horrible. 4 torpedoes to take out a single merchant. Learned something from the misses though, wait for the broadside, and stay stealthy! The full speed head on surfaced routine probably won't fair so well when it's a destroyer coming at me and not a merchant.

I let out a quick HARR, and then order the ship back on course to our patrol area. We were lucky to get this first encounter with no escorts, a few minutes later when I'm radioed about a Carrier Group in my patrol zone, I know things won't continue to be so easy....

[Calis]

The sinking of Twinkletoes netted us 4424 tons. The minimum we can net and have a successful mission is 5000, but the more the better, as there is levels at 5k, 15k, 25k, 35k, and 45k. I don't think we'll worry about those top two or maybe 3 for a while. We're also about 82 nautical miles away from our patrol “objective”, once I hit that then we'll start our patrol in earnest.

9 Dec 1944
2321

I'm warned of a new sound contact- high speed screws bearing 110, and immediately told of another set of high speed screws bearing 105. I'm a novice and all, but I'm guessing this is bad. I hop to the map and see they're supposedly about 20 nmi away, so we're good for now. I maintain our course which actually puts us going opposite ways, but I slow down to 1/3rd speed for a while. If at all possible we'll stick with the merchants and avoid these nasty suckers.

10 Dec 1944
401

I decide to sneak up top and have a look around again. From the sonar reports those high speed screws mentioned earlier are heading with a quickness away from us, so we should be clear there. The weather is still horrible up here, heavy rains, but surprisingly little wind.

1527

I must have some 6th sense. I get the urge to put us down to periscope depth here, and about a half minute after I give the order we receive word from the radar man of a contact on the radar a whopping 25 seconds before we spotted it visually! So I will have to assume we were spotted here, and I will also assume that is bad. We'll stay under for a while here and try changing up direction a bit.

1530

Well, I nearly wet myself. I had just flipped the rudder over to 40 degrees left to change course when it happens. An explosion rocks the Jack. Depth Charges! Lots of 'em! I quickly order the Chief to initiate a Crash dive. We've taken a good amount of damage already. I should have dove deep right away, not a good move on my part.

I'm told by the men we're taking a lot of water on, and their screaming does little to easy my worries. (Great sound on this mod btw also, really adds to the immersion)


Taking a Moment

Ok, lets step back and evaluate the damage here. I'm told that we can't keep up with the flooding and upon inspection of the flooding meter in the damage control room being all the way to the right I'm inclined to agree. So a bit of a dilemma here, do I surface knowing that those planes are obviously right on me or do I take my chances down here and drown all my men? I'm inclined to think my odds are better under for a while, as I don't see anyway I survive surfacing right now. Any ideas?


Phew either way though, I know I don't do any justice at all describing it, but what an intense couple of minutes. I must admit I didn't worry much about the planes attacking as I'd read that the SH2 AI for planes mostly just relayed your position to ships, didn't attack you. Apparently that is something Pacific Aces remedied! Man, what a letdown though, just win I was bragging on myself so much for initiating dive before contact on a hunch, I don't take full precautions which might end in the demis of the Jack!

[sachmo71]

Suggestions? Summon a leviatian to drag your steel coffin back to the depth of hell from which you were spawned!!

Also, if you can't keep up with the flooding, you won't be able to surface, so either go up to the surface and swim, or drown.

[Calis]

I took heed of sachmo's excellent point that a boat completely flooded would find it very difficult to surface, so I ordered a surfacing.

The next bit happened pretty quickly and I'm not sure exactly what the cause was. The SS Jack is now stationed permanently on the floor of the Yellow Sea. What exactly led to this I'm not sure. About 1 minute after surfacing I ran aground. Now it is possible that my ship was actually sinking after I ordered the surfacing, or I the ground sloped up steeply in the middle of the sea. I really couldn't say for certain which it was. I didn't really have time to check as after I heard it hit I quickly tried blowing the main ballast as a last prayer. A few seconds later and we were stuck for good, and a minute after we had all drowned.

So this first patrol did not go well. Did learn a few lessons about firing torpedoes and a thing or two about the lethality of aircraft. Also learned that when the Chief says they can't control the flooding, to not take time to ponder surfacing, DO IT.

So, time for Round 2.

[Poli]

Interesting. I wonder if there's an aircraft carrier sim out there.

[Airhog]

AE: there is. Its called Janes Fleet command

[Poli]

Right on. I may have to take a look into that, being a carrier sailor and stuff. It better have IFF, or I'll be lost. ;)

[Calis]

AE just as a warning, I wouldn't call Jane's Fleet Command a Carrier simulation at all. It's basically an RTS with naval units, so while you do command Carriers, you also command the cruisers, subs, frigates, all that jazz.

It's also about the worst Jane's branded game around imo.

Not sure of any true Carrier sims out there. I've personally never seen one.

[Poli]

Duly noted. Thanks, Calis.

[Calis]

Take Two

Corrigidor
1942

SS178 Permit
P-Class Submarine
http://www.subnet.com/images/boats/178.jpg

The P-Class has a max surfaced speed of about 19 knots, and a submerged speed of 8. We still have the 6 torpedo stations. It's a pretty basic design apparently, made for long patrols.

Corrigidor is a small island in the Phillippines about 50 km west of Manila. It had a pretty impressive history record in the war, it held out against overwhelming odds for 27 days. It seems like something worth reading more about. It served as Allied HQ in the Pacific for a while also, but fell in May of 42, and we didn't regain control until March of 45. So we're in a tight spot here. We're alone out here, surrounded by Japanese holdings. So there's no “safe” spots for us, the whole area is a danger zone.


Orders

So lets get down to business. Our first mission is to patrol Formosa(Taiwan). The area of our patrol will the coast between Formosa and mainland China. It's basically a straight shot North for us about 560 nmi or so, so not too bad of a trip. Lets hope it doesn't end with our ship laying on the ocean floor.

[Calis]

17 Jan 1942
2111
Lesson Learned

Ok, another import thing in operating a sub is to not press buttons or set gages when you have no clue what they operate. I learned this the hard by fooling around in the navigation area and accidentally ordering the sub to a depth of 139m, I didn't realize it at first, but I noticed after I heard the loud crash and realized I'd just slammed into the ground. I quickly resurfaced, and surveyed the scene. Some slight flooding, a damaged air compressor, and two forward dive planes that look to be in terrible shape. Nice one on my part.

I slow her down to 1/3rd power and the men begin working to repair the damage I caused.

2150

The flooding is under control, good news there.

18 Jan 1942
0244

Damage is repaired on the air compressor and the two dive planes, we're in pretty good shape now, but we have lost a fair amount of hull integrity. I'm going to go ahead and stay out of the Nav room the rest of this trip.

0640

Caught completely by surprise here as we spot a group of small Japanese craft. I head up top and have a look through the UZO. I can spot one ship at about 12k meters, appears to be a small merchant. It's bearing 131 from us, and moving at 11 knots.

0646

Gap is closed to about 9700m. I can still only visually see one merchant, but I believe I also see smoke from another, but can't confirm that. Still closing gap, slowly, trying to arouse as little attention as possible. I set a course of 192 and maintain 1/3rd power. I believe this will put us pretty close to perpendicular when we're within torp range.

0656

I'm 99% positive she's a loner now. There's been no sign of any other ships. Looks like a smallish merchant all by her lonesome out here. We've closed to about 7k meters now, so we're close to letting loose.

0710

She's within 2500m so I decide it's time, I fire a single torpedo, hoping it'll do the job. We've got a nice clear shot, and she appears to be doing little to avoid us. I go ahead and order us down to periscope depth also, just in case. The engines need the rest anyway.

0713

We're down below now and I'm breaking out the periscope. I get a perfect view of our torpedo hitting and almost immediately confirmation that the merchant is destroyed. We hit 'er hard there. She was almost 6000 tons, so not as small as I originally planned. It's enough to clear our minimum tonnage for the patrol. Now we just have to get to our area and back, which is easier said than done.

[Calis]

Hmm, not sure I'm liking how this is going. Enjoying playing the game, but the dynasty definitely lacks. I don't possess the vocabulary and the general knowledge to make this sound like it should, so it comes across very dry.

[Calis]

1014

Uh oh, here we go again. Aircraft spotted bearing 145. I immediately order a crash dive, we're not taking a chance like last time. Once we get under I bump the speed up to standard and crank the rudder a full 40 degrees to the left.

1016

The depth charges begin. The good news is they appear to be basing off my original heading, as they're landing clear of us, but not by a whole lot. I straighten out and slow the speed again, we'll try to stay inconspicuous.

1022

We've heard nothing,so I'm going to order the sub to Periscope depth and have a look. We'll change course a bit before surfacing.

[/B]1035[/B]

Everything appears clear after 10 minutes of watching from the periscope. Going to go ahead and surface now. At least this air attack went better than our last one, we're getting better!


19 Jan 1942
0027

We reach our patrol objective. So technically all we have to do for a successful patrol is head back to home base. What's the fun in that though? We'll patrol around and try to learn a little more. I go ahead and set a zig zag pattern through our patrol zone, we'll see what there is to find here.

1014

Here we go again! Japanese Torpedo Bomber spotted coming dead at us! Crash dive ordered again and I hit the rudder full right and up our speed a bit. As I'm forced back below decks the last site I see is the plane approaching nearly directly over head. I know what's coming next.

1029

Here they come, and from the sounds they are hitting VERY close. Luckily they appear to be off on the depth, so we took no damage from the first salvo.

1031

More explosions heard, but very distant. Not sure what's going on, but apparently there were multiple bombers fixed in on me. I think we're safe though. We'll maintain this depth for a few minutes more and then move up to periscope depth.

1057

We surface again, unscathed from the torpedo attacks. It is a good day.

1447

Man, this is getting aggravating. Another Torpedo bomber spotted bearing 345. Same old routine, little slower on the trigger. We get hit, and take damage from 4 different depth charges. Our hull integrity has plummeted, one of the torpedo tubes is inoperable, and we're taking on water.

Getting sick of these planes! Was pretty interesting standing on the bridge watching it with my binoculars and knowing he was right over us the second we submerged, and knowing it was going to hurt!

Lets hope these boys can fix 'er up though!

[Eilim]

Will be keeping a close eye on this one. Been drooling over the release of SH3 for a while now.

Ardent: One game you might want to check out is Dangerous Waters (http://www.battlefront.com/products/dw/index.html) . While not a carrier sim, it seems to be a decent modern naval combat sim. I ran across it while searching for SH3 info. You get a choice of what to command.. a sub, a frigate, a helicopter, or even a plane. If I can get a bit more comfortable with the demo I'll probably end up picking it up to carry me over until SH3 is released.

[Calis]

Within about 15 minutes we realize that things will be ok. The flooding can be controlled, and although the hull has taken a beating, it'll pull through. We spend the next few hours repairing what we can.


20 Jan
0520

Woohoo! We get a visual contact with a Japanese Merchant. We've still got some darkness to work with, so we'll try and close on him before sunrise.

0526

We continue closing, and have narrowed the gap to about 2400m, I'm going to play it safe here though and close even further before letting loose, to ensure a hit. He appears to have no help, and the darkness is a great help.

0528

We launch torpedo tube 2! The merchant is at about 1100 meters from us, and this should be a surefire hit. As I sit there awaiting the explosion of our torpedo hitting I'm shocked when our sub is reeled from a shell! The merchant is firing on us! I order a periscope depth dive and turn us more toward them merchant. I launch another torpedo just to make sure, wish we'd get under! There are fires now, and they're hitting us good.

Both my torps missed. We spent the next 10 hours in a pitched battle, me not able to get a good shot on them, and them pounding the hell out of me if I decide to surface. As sad as it is to say I lost a battle with a FRIGGING merchant.

Didn't take good notes on this one because I was having too much fun playing it. Real cat and mouse game. I swear this thing hit like a Destroyer. I had good shots on him also, but just couldn't connect. We'd taken heavy damage from the first salvo and were flooding. I eventually had to surface and by this point with the fires and flooding I was just going to flee back towards Corrigidor. Then the Merchant started chasing me! He was peppering me as I fled, and I couldn't risk submerging again. It was just a matter of time before it happened, and we were killed by a shell at 1600. Horrible fight on my part, but a lot of fun! I think this merchant was a bit more than he seems.

Man, I REALLY am a noob. A frigging merchant sunk me.

[Calis]

-Dangerous Waters looks to be a great game, but I had Sub Command which they made before which is an oustanding simulation of modern subs, but WAY too much for me. Would definitely recommend it for the hardcore though, and I think AE would qualify under that category. ;)

Also as an aside, I was hoping to pick up a good book detailing the Submarine war in the Pacific today, but had no luck hunting any down around here. I ended up picking up Iron Coffins, which is supposedly an outstanding account of a German U-Boat Commander in the Atlantic. I was looking to get Thunder Below! or Clear the Bridge, which from my searching seem to be the two best accounts of the Pacific, anyone read either of these?

Round 3

Ok, same patrol zone and same time as last. We're stationed in Corrigidor in '42 and we're tasked with patrolling Formosa. The difference will be is we're manning a Sargo class submarine though. It's a bit more evolved than the P-Class, runs a bit quicker with a top speed of 20 knots but the same submerged speed as the P-Class with an 8 knot max. We're sporting two more torpedo tubes though, which with my eagle eye, will definitely be needed.

The goal of this round we'll be to try and not do half the damage to our boat myself. We did good with the first lone merchant we saw last patrol, and did pretty well avoiding the torpedo attacks I think, but that last debacle was completely my own fault. Caught by surprise when that ship opened up on us, and never recovered. Got frustrated from the misses and put us in situations where they could pepper us more. We don't have the armor for that.

[Airhog]

Calis: I wouldnt reccomend surfacing during the day. Every time you surface you will be attacked from the air. Got to learn to rely on the periscope. You've got me itching to play this, so im gonna fire it up tonight and give it a go :D

[Calis]

Oh, thanks for the tip! I guess I just assumed from reading that I should try and stay on surface if possible.

I do know I need to work on waiting until nightfall to make my attacks, I keep just attacking ASAP, and I'm sure that's wrong. The problem is I'm horrible at plotting a course that'll keep me up with the convoy until nightfall! :)

Reason I decided to start this dynasty was the first patrol I had using the Pacific Aces mod. Was a true edge of your seat experience. I found a convoy with about 6 huge merchant ships and two destroyers escorting. What ensued was just great all around action, me sinking a couple and then being rammed by a destroyer, then playing an extended cat and mouse game with them, which turned into me pushing my boat to the absolute limits of the depth it could take while two destroyers circled me lobbing depth charge after depth charge. We eventually managed to elude them, and when I finally do risk a surface, who do I see? One of their convoy wandered off from the pack! So I take one last gift before another chase ensues. Great stuff though.

Wish I could get another patrol like that! These first few have not been pretty. So if you have anymore hints/tips, please feel free. I need the help.

Now I'm met with the dilemna of starting my next mission, or watching the Uncut edition of Das Boot I just picked up today! Also fighting the urge to fire up the normal SH2 game also, do you think doing the standard SH2 campaign might make it more interesting?

[Calis]

18 Jan 42

We put out at about 0600, and it's the usual, we push her to 2/3rds power and head towards our patrol zone. Nothing else of interest happens, as is usual for our first day.

19 Jan 42
1551

So, I decide to follow Airhog's advice and stick below during the day after the first day, figuring we're likely to run into Japanese crafts now. So I spend from 0700 to about 1400 under water, then I decide to let them up for a couple hours to charge the batteries. So what happens? We get a visual on an unknown Submarine bearing 10 degrees. I think it's relatively safe to assume he's not friendly. I order a dive to periscope depth.

1553

I get a good visual on him from our periscope and he appears to not have noticed us. Not sure how we managed that. It's raining pretty heavily though, and we're perpendicular to him, at a range of about 3000m. I don't really feel like getting into a protracted sub battle with him, as I've proven I can't even defeat a merchant, so I lob a torpedo at him and then cut to the left hoping to take my potshot and head out.

1556

My potshot was dead on, and oh was it satisfying to see it hit. Saw that sub go under immediately. There's a little over 2000 tons to add to our tally!

I decide to stay submerged for the rest of the afternoon and just keep trucking.

1818

Dusk hits and we surface and up our speed a bit. Great day for us here, first Sub I've ever sunk, and it wasn't even a fight! Lets hope things keep going well.

[Calis]

19 Jan 42
0811

Well I decide since it's pretty overcast and raining off and on. This was not the best idea. Of course we were strafed by a Japanese Torpedo Bomber, and we weren't even close to being submerged. Was in a sick way fun though to get to see the whole approach and see 3 of the charges hit in the water in front of me, and knowing that the 4th was going to be pretty damn close to dead on.

I of course was wrong, we did take some damage from the fourth but it was very slight. Just some hull integrity lost, and nothing else. We'll take that. We're going to go ahead and stay under now.

1033

The weather has taken a major turn for the worse, so I feel that it's safe to move up top for a while.

20 Jan 1942
1808

We meet our objective and set up our patrol course. We've had very little contact up to now, with that submarine being the only thing we've even picked up on. We spent most of the 20th submerged as the weather was surprisingly nice.

23 Jan 1942
2008

Still nothing. No reports of convoys and no sightings. Getting a wee bit boring floating around here. We finally get a message about a convoy that's actually East of Formosa and about 187 miles from us. We also have to circle around the island to get to it. I decide to go ahead and do so.

24 Jan 1942
0343

Another report of a task force East of Formosa. Looks like this is where the action is, good thing we decided to go there. I've been running us pretty fast to get around this southern edge of the island. Have to take advantage of this darkness.

2230

Contact! Woohoo! We pick up two sets of low speed screws bearing 25 and 35, a few seconds later and one is visually identified as a Japanese merchant, the other is still not seen.

She's coming roughly towards us, so I turn us on a course that should intercept her and I slow our speed, also put us down to periscope depth. No taking chances this time. It's pitch black outside and the rain is coming hard, perfect for us.

2237

We continue moving in, the second Japanese merchant is now visible, on the same course and about 700m behind the first. The first is now at a range of about 2400m away from us, and I plan to fire upon it very soon. No sign of an escort. If we can take this suckers down we'll be one trip back to Corrigidor away from a successful patrol!

2239

I have slightly misjudged our position, and put us in a spot where they're going to get away from us, so I go ahead and fire a torpedo at each ship when they're at about a 2300 range, which is more than what I wanted, but lets hope it works out!

2243

So now I get a good look at the merchant in front of me, and I can swear it's a sailboat. A few seconds later the first torpedo hits and we get a confirmed destruction instantly. Nice job eh? Then I look and notice it was whopping 24 tons. A few seconds later and another explosion, and another 24 tons added to my kill list.

Someone got a rude awakening on their weekend sailing expedition. Can't help but feel slightly guilty for killing two little fishing boats. So much for my dreams of this patrol coming to an end! We turn our course back to the reported convoys, with 2 torpedoes less than we had before.

[Calis]

25 Jan 42
0502

We pick up another set of low speed screws bearing 282. Sonar man seems to think she's a transport. Sounds good!

0513

We close in further, wanting to engage before sunrise. We drop to periscope depth and let them come to us. I go ahead and order tubes 1 and 2 both fired upon them, and now we wait!

0515

Well he's spotted us, or the fish at least. He gave them the smallest target to hit just before they were going to strike, both sailed wide. He's at dangerously close range now and I don't see him dodging anymore. I launch tube 3 with only about 1100m separating us.

0648

Well another embarrassing episode here, but this time we did come out victorious. I missed with 4 torps, and he was like butter out there. Sadly enough I ended up surfacing to keep up while I waited for my forward tubes to reload and ended up just plunking away at him with the deck gun. Hell I even spent some time unloading the AA gun on him. He had no defenses, so it was just a matter of time.

Not pretty for us though, but it does put us over the 5k ton minimum! I'm going to actually head back now although we're still good on torpedoes and fuel isn't a factor right now. I think I need the morale boost of actually surviving a patrol. Of course, who knows what we'll see between here and Corrigidor.

[Calis]

27 Jan 42
1116

We made it back home! Parades, women, booze..the whole nine yards. We have a couple weeks of leave and then we're sent back out again.

12 Feb 42

We've got new orders, come tomorrow morning we'll be pushing off and heading out to Patrol South Japan. Quite a bit further to go then our last patrol, and should put us through one of the heavier traffic areas. I expect this one to be a lot busier than last time! With our boat, the Sculpin resupplied and repaired, we push off the evening of the 13th.

Next stop, South of Japan!

[Calis]

Feb 12
1612

Well good and bad news, we've picked up our first boat on the sonar, low speed screws bearing 290 and 295. The bad news is that we've been submerged all day and our batteries MUST be recharged. So we're going to surface and try to keep just out of range of them until nightfall.

1638

Things don't always work as planned, the Japanese merchant is bearing almost straight for us. So I put us under and stop the motors. We'll just sit and wait. He gets closer and closer. Once they hit a range of 800m I open up. We score a direct hit and do heavy damage, but no sinking yet. This is a big frigging merchant. I fire another torpedo and hear another satifsying explosion and we're sure now that the sucker is sunk.

That puts us just a touch under 6k tons sunk. So we've made our minimum tonnage, but we haven't reached the patrol zone yet. Good start though! I don't pick up any sign of the second merchant, decide not to wait around to look for him, we've got reports of quite a few convoys in our patrol zone so lets make it there. Would really like to run into a monster convoy this patrol!

We return to our travelling towards Southern Japan. We've just crossed about 150 miles South of Okinawa and are heading 070, which puts us quite a ways south of our zone, but there's been some reports there I'd like to check out.

13 Feb 42
2001

We pick up another set of low speed screws, coming from behind us. I swing the boat around to have a look see. Sounds like it's a smaller sized craft. We spend an hour trying to make contact but I'm having no luck. I decide it's not worth the hassle and turn us back around to our destination. Bigger fish to fry out here.

17 Feb 42
0201

We reach our objective without any trouble. Good, now that's done and we can get to looking for one of those task forces. One good engagement and then we'll begin that long very boring trip back to Corrigidor.

19 Feb 42
0241

Pretty boring couple of days, no contacts but a couple run ins with torpedo bombers, both times we came away unscathed. Then early on the morning of the 19th we get a hit. It appears to be a Japanese tanker, about 5 nm away from us. They appear to be going away from us, so this could be a pretty tough chase, I kick things into turbo gear. Looks like they're heading to Iwa Jima.

0319

We're within 1900m of it and I slow speed, we've got a good shot on it and I give it a few minutes until it's bearing almost exactly 0. I then fire two fish at it with a slight spread and dive down to periscope depth. With my luck both of those will miss, but we'll try to work ourselves to a good position to surprise them with the third shot.

0436

Well I was right, we missed with those two. I did submerge and do some maneuvering to hopefully put us ahead of them. It didn't go perfect and we made quite a few adjustments but I wound surfacing and firing a shot from under 200m which was interesting, and which did result in a direct hit. All forward tubes were empty now as I'd wasted another shot during the chase.

0443
I didn't want to take a chance of this one hit not doing the job so I tossed another one out dead on from about 400m. Close range baby! Hard to miss from here, even for me. This one struck and the tanker was toast. This was an almost 11k prize. I think this'll do it for us, we've reached the 2nd plateau so we'll head back, and hopefully pick up another merchant as we pass Formosa!

[Calis]

1101

We hear a contact bearing about 290 and shortly thereafter get a visual. A small Japanese craft. Well we can't just let this guy get by now can we? I put us down to periscope depth and begin moving in. He appears to have not noticed us.

1107

We launch the first torpedo from about 800 meters, a few minutes later we get a direct impact. Heavy damage to the ship but she's still getting by, at 1111 I decide to close the deal and hit her with one more. She didn't continue after this one. A little under 6k tons, a nice trophy to add, but not enough to put us into the next bracket. Maybe we'll spot another.

25 Feb 42
2009

Corrigidor is in sight! We had a few detours to try and scroung up another Japanese merchant, but had no luck, and we were in quite a hurry to make it back home before I managed to run us into something. So another successful patrol! I wish we'd have hit a major convoy this time, but just no luck. When we caught those lone stragglers I figured it was smartest to just leave well enough alone, and that oil tanker was quite a prize.


We end up with 22700 tons sunk, and I'm awarded with a very nice shiny silver star. If only they knew...

Wonder where we're off to next?

[Calis]

27 Feb 42

Dang, they didn't mess around with our next patrol? We had a day of rest and we were off at 1 am the next day. Our mission is to patrol the Yellow Sea which we've done before. This is a LONG way from Corrigidor, and I'm not looking forward to the trip. Might as well get it over with.


1 Mar 42
1950

Well we've had pretty good running so far, and this is our first visual contact. Looks like a medium sized merchant.

1951

Uh oh, it appears I failed to notice the second ship in the group. Trailing right behind the merchant is another ship, hauling ass and looking MEAN. It's a Japanese Destroyer, the first one we've seen on these patrols. Odd that this one merchant has his own personal escort? Going to be hard to get at him, but we'll try and work our way in.

1953

Things get crazy, I tried to get to periscope depth but the destroyer caught sight of me first. Luckily they missed the only shot they got before we went under. The bad news is they're after us now. I only went to periscope depth and was still closing but trying to change up directions to throw off the Destroyer long enough to get a shot off on the merchant. I peak up through the periscope and can't find the destroyer at quick glance, I can HEAR us getting pinged though. I know we've got to be quick, and I fire 3 quick shots at the merchant with a spread, not a good shot and I don't expect any will come close, worth a shot though. What I feared comes to pass right after as I order us to a crash dive only to hear the sickening crunch as the Destroyer rams into us. The depth charges begin falling a few seconds later, but we're turning and diving as fast as we can. The preliminary reports show the forward dive planes with some serious damage, and our hull is not looking good. I order us down to 200 feet depth.

We stay down there for about an hour before risking moving up to periscope depth. No sign of our Japanese friends, they must've been in a hurry, the sounds are very faint and moving away from us. I'm not overly sad about that, we came out of this which is better than I thought it would from the start of it.


2 Mar 42
1822

We're very close to our patrol zone objective, and we catch the sound of high speed screws bearing 250. I turn to have a look see, we are at periscope depth now, so will hopefully be a bit more stealthy.

2047

I've found out what the group is, and it happens to be 3 Destroyers. Wonderful eh? I spent the last two hours closing in on them, only to find out I want to be as far as possible AWAY from them. There's one problem with this though. I have 3 Destroyers converging on top of me right now! I order a crash dive and crank the rudder to try and avoid them.

All hell is about to break loose.

[Calis]

2048

Ok, so we're crash diving to 200 feet, and I turn the rudder full right upon the beginning of our descent, and once we're below I crank it 20 degrees to the left. This probably accomplishes nothing, but it makes me feel sneaky. There are a number of shells striking the water around us right before we fully submerge.

2049

Depth charges are just nailing us. I try to push down further, to about 230 feet.We get real bad news, the sonar system has been damaged along with the dive planes. Our hull integrity is also down to about 20%. We're in big trouble here. I crank the rudder 20 degrees to the left and speed up a bit. We can't even pick up where the destroyers are now.

2050

Just a matter of time before we die here, the dive planes are kaput on one side, meaning we are now floating sideways in the ocean, and sinking. There's nothing to do here, I blow the tanks and tell the boys to surface, but it doesn't matter, the ocean floor awaits us, and we hit it hard. Then, nothing...



-Well this was a definite case of my curiousity getting the better of me. I couldn't pin down what this group was in the weather, and by the time I did they were all over me. No way I'm getting away from 3 of them. Funny thing was I was really trying to circle around and lay in waiting on their course, unfortunately they cut without me noticing and I got too close. Was a horrible patrol for me, with no kills, but man was it fun. I have a blast running from destoyers, I'm just apparently lacking in skill.

Think I might switch to Atlantic for a bit, either do the stock SH2 campaign, or I think there's some user made campaigns out there also, might look into those.

[sachmo71]

I miss Red Storm Rising.

3 destroyers = 3 Harpoons