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Banned
The "Ruptured Duck" (U-150) is off the western coast of Ireland in the Spring of 1940, and this patrol has been going OK. (Sank one large merchant with two torpedoes, sank a passenger/cargo with another fish, and I let Socko shoot up four small coastal vessels with the 20mms.)
I'm off watch, trying to grab a little sleep, and feeling pretty good about things, when suddenly, here's the radio guy yanking on my sleeve and waiving a contact report in my face: ....I grab the report, smack him, and order him to "switch to decaf!".
Hmmmm........., Intel says there's a warship in our area: ...I get up and go to the Nav Station. Looking at the charts I see that it's REALLY in our area!! Not just "in the area", not just "down the street", but right next door selling war bonds!
I race to the bridge to make sure the watch isn't on the aft deck playing shuffleboard again.
Much to my relief, I find them all at their stations, and three out of the four are even awake. I take a good look around for myself, and satisfied that nothing is visual yet, I order us to periscope depth, and head for the hydrophone station.
The operator is sitting at his station (surprise!), with headphones on and a dreamy look on his face: ......Suspicious, I pull one of the earpieces away from his head and listen. Sure enough, ....he's listening to his collection of favorites! (Current selection playing: "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, ...I've got love in my tummy"!)
I relieve him, and inform him that he's on report. He shuffles off dejectedly. I turn to the Chief and instruct him to tell Socko that I just promoted the sonar guy to First Officer.
I take the sonar station myself, and start sweeping: .....Almost immediately I am hearing sound contacts that are obviously warships; ....lots of warships. Looking at the plots, I count at least eleven ships. From their frenzied, mindless patterns, I figure that at least eight of them are escorts.
Thinking about it, I realize that this is both good news and bad news: .....Eight escorts imply a really important target: .....That many escorts also means that we're going to die.
....I briefly consider simply listening to "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, ...", and forgetting the whole thing.
I snap out of it, with my resolve hardening: .....I have my Duty to do! (...and besides, if I pass this one by, Socko will probably murder me in my sleep.)
The sound plots now indicate that the Task Force is less than 12,000 meters away, so I assign some petty excuse for an officer to the hydrophones, and take my place at the periscope.
Visibility is good, but the wind is up, and the Sea is rough. We have to set for "Ahead 1/3" just to be able to maintain depth. I start sweeping, hoping to catch a glimpse, and soon I am rewarded. The first thing I see is the Escort Screen. (Screen! .....That's a joke! .....a screen is something you can see through: ....this was more like a wall!)
I start sweeping for whatever the escorts are guarding; ...and soon I find them. A Dido, and then five degrees to the left, a second Dido, and just to the left of that; ...THE ILLUSTRIOUS !!!!!!
The Task Force is at a bearing of 225 degrees, and they are running a course of 045, with no zigging: They are headed straight for us. I order "back standard" in the hope of avoiding a straight-on bow shot.
The Illustrious is now about 8500 meters away, and only visible in short glimpses; but I can tell that she's holding a straight course at 17 knots. There's no chance of just sitting and waiting for a classic "good shot": ....too many escorts. Glory and Duty notwithstanding, ....I'd like to survive this.
I say to myself; "Aw, what the heck", (or something like that) "This isn't Vegas, but I think I'll gamble anyway." .....So, at a range of 8000 yards, during one of my occasional glimpses of the Illustrious, I fire my last two "steamers", set for long range, with magnetic exploders "on", and a running depth of 9 meters.
As the second fish left the tube, I scream "ALLLAARRRMMM", and order us to 100 meters. I figure the only chance we have is to get deep and quiet before the DDs realize that there is an attack under way.
The predicted torpedo run time was over four minutes, and Socko spent the whole time telling me what an idiot I was for not having more torpedoes on board:
...I was about to ask him where I was supposed to have put them; ....but I stopped in time, realizing that I didn't really want to hear the obvious answer.
To my everlasting amazement, both torpedoes not only made it to the target, (one apparently passing right under an escort) but both of them actually went off! Within minutes we were hearing the unmistakable death rumbles of a big ship. In spite of being rather busy, I managed to get one picture.
Socko was demanding that we surface so that he could "finish off" the DDs: ....I stuffed him in my underwear drawer, and wedged it shut with the rusty bayonet the cook usually uses to chop meat and stir soup.
We stayed at 100+ meters, running silent, for more than ten hours before the DDs finally left: ....apparently satisfied that they had created a ten mile wide "Sea Life Free Zone" with all the DCs they dropped. (Lucky for them this is 1940! .....Just Imagine what Greenpeace would say!)
As I slipped back into my bunk for some well earned sleep, only one thing was troubling me: ....According to the Chief's report, no one seemed to be able to find our new First Officer.
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Senior Member
Thats awesome! I havn't seen the ilustrius anywhere yet 
So far I've only seen the Hood Moored in Scapa
Great read too 
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Member
an 8000 yard steam magnetic shot, and both hit...with a confirmed carrier kill...will you go with me to Vegas your next shore leave? I've got a crisp dollar bill handy....
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Member
Good Read - Good Kill 
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Banned
Pondafarr;
I'm not sure that would be a good idea; .....I suspect that shot used up all the luck I have left! 
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Junior Member
LOL nice one, ive not seen much in the way of big warships either. Except a nelson class battleship anchored in loch ewe, dont know if it was the Nelson or Rodney.
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Senior Member
Nice kill! You beat my personal long range record of 7500 metres on a destroyer.
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Banned
Thanks Kaleun1961, ...but I'll be the first to admit that skill had nothing to do with it: ....It was strictly a "Hail Mary" play!
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Senior Member
Manual or autotargeting? Mine was an auto shot.
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Banned
I "cheated" and used the auto utility.
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