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Post by keyboy on Oct 28, 2016 11:20:09 GMT
Patrol Results Due no later than November 4th 2016.April 2nd Gentlemen, I won't take up much of your time, as I know that you are preparing to get underway. I can assure you that the depth Mechanism has been fully corrected (MK14 dud rate is now 1-3 on D6).
On PatrolUSS Weatherfish - nfiltr8tor USS Guardfish - tamari USS Green Bay - keyboy Currently at Sea
USS Skipjack - Silentshark USS Humunuku - tyo RefitUSS Angelfish - privepilot - May 1943 USS Bristlemouth - crushedhat - June 1943 USS Tiger Shark - jcook119 - August 1943 Late and Presumed Lost Shoot me a PM and I will get you onto the next patrolUSS Nutshell - kos83 USS Stingray - haplo02 USS Triton - Falto USS Trumpet Fish - blaird Special InstructionsLCDR Marshall, as the only Narwhal class submarine in the SUBRON 9 you will be on search and rescue every time you go out, and looking for passengers to transport. [P1p] Patrol Assignment 1943 Jan-JunPatrols
China SeaNone China Sea - MNone MarianasUSS Guardfish - tamari EmpireUSS Weatherfish - nfiltr8tor Empire - MNone PhilippinesUSS Green Bay - keyboy
Marshalls
None Marshalls (T)None
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tamari
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 38
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Post by tamari on Oct 29, 2016 2:03:10 GMT
Boat ID: USS Guardfish Successful Patrol: Yes Number of Freighters or Tankers Sunk: 5 (Otori Maru, 2,100 tons / Nichiei Maru, 5,400 tons / Taichu Maru, 3,200 tons / Nanrei Maru, 2,400 tons / Heiwa Maru, 5,600 tons) Number of Warships Sunk: 0 Capital Ships Sunk: Total Tonnage Destroyed: 18,700 Special Assignment Completed: N/A Refit Time: 1 month (no damage) (back in service July 1943) Awards Requested: Battle Star, Sub Combat Patrol Insignia, Navy Cross
Posthumous Purple Heart for XO John Gonzalez - KIA
Expert 3rd Officer Ray Hanson will take over as Expert XO - replacement 3rd officer needed
Guardfish patrol record and notes: Fourth Patrol - April/May 1943
Our repairs completed, we get our patrol orders - Guam again. Don't mess with success it appears. A lot of damaged boats have limped in to harbor recently - the Japanese are improving their ASW skills. We will have to be sharp at all times.
I have heard nothing about my report about our torpedo successes. Maybe it got buried in a file cabinet - I hope so, for the Chief's sake.
Guardfish sets sail in the early morning on April 5th, 1943.
Our trip to the patrol area is routine. We take our station in the shipping lanes, and wait.
April 17, 1400 hours - radar picks up a group of ships heading south. We follow them into the evening, and pick a small and large freighter as our best targets at 2300 hours. I decide not to get fancy - 2 torpedoes out the front at each ship from standard (medium) range. I will stay on the surface for an easier shot, and trust my crew is ready to crash-dive quickly if needed.
Both torpedoes run true at the large freighter - and nothing happens! Great! One fish goes wide on the small ship - but the other hits her square on, and the explosion causes the ship to split and sink in quick order.
Otori Maru - 2100 tons sunk
We manage to evade the escorts before they locate us. I decide to try to follow the large freighter - and it is not a problem.
April 18, 0300 hours - we get to another firing solution against the freighter. I decide to fire 3 torpedoes out the nose at long range, surfaced - I think we were lucky to evade contact, so I want it to stay that way, and I think my XO can make the shot.
Yes, he can! All three fish run true, and all three explode with spectacular results. What's left of the freighter disappears quickly, leaving only a flaming oil slick. The escorts are too busy rescuing survivors to search for us, and we open the range to a safe distance.
Nichiei Naru - 5400 tons sunk
May 4th, 0015 hours - Lt. Hanson wakes me up with a report of contacts on radar - more than he's seen since Midway! As the convoy sails into range, I pick out suitable targets - a larger freighter, and what looks like a pair of smaller troop ships.
This is as good a chance to use our fore/aft attack as we are likely to get on this patrol. I quickly explain to the XO what I intend - 3 at the large ship, 2 out the front at one troop vessel, and then a hard over and 2 out the back at the other troop ship, and 2 more at the nearest DD, all from standard range. I don't expect to hit the destroyer, but if we get lucky it may buy us time to escape. The crew prepares quickly, and with no questions asked - I can't ask for a better group of men, and I only hope my decision proves worth it. They know the risk in doing this.
We get hits on the Large freighter and one of the small ones - but they are only damaged. The second one goes up in a fireball that lights up the whole convoy - and us. The sonar picked up two impacts on the DD - but nothing happened. Damn!
I take that back - something happened on the DD, they got angry and started bracketing the boat with gunfire! We get off the surface as fast as possible and prepare for the depth charges while trying to get out of the area in one piece.
This Japanese skipper knows his business - we are hit HARD by a salvo of depth charges. Two of our engines go down, as the aft section reports major flooding. The XO forms a damage control team and heads to the back - when another DC close abeam pops off a shutoff wheel, and hits John square in the forehead. Rest in Peace, Lieutenant - at least it was quick. The shock causes the entire bridge, myself included, to freeze up. That may cost us our lives another time, but it may have saved them this one time - as the "sitting duck" strategy apparently didn't occur to the DD captain, and he continued his attack where we probably would have been in the water if we all weren't in shock. We escape with no further damage. The Chief Engineer gets the engines repaired with little difficulty.
Taichu Maru - 3200 tons sunk
May 5th, 2300 hours - We are able to follow the damaged ships, who break from the convoy but still have DD escort. As night falls, I decide to take 2 more shots at each freighter from the aft tubes. We will stay submerged at standard range. I will save our last four forward torpedoes and see what develops.
The 3O puts all four fish on-target. The large freighter is hit again, but does not sink. Damn! The small ship is hit twice and does come to a stop, slowly settling into the water. The escorts ping away in our direction, and approach...
Luckily for us, they don't really come close - some of the flooding repairs come loose, but the Chief quickly patches the boat back up.
Nanrei Maru - 2400 tons sunk
May 6th, 0430 hours - The large freighter didn't get very far away in the condition she's in. One more good torpedo should finish her off. The escorts keep a tight course with her, not allowing for a Gun attack that would be preferable. Well, I can't let her go - we'll take 2 more shots at her, submerged at standard range while it is still dark.
We catch an unlucky break - one of the torpedoes is bad, veers wildly off course, and makes a lot of noise on sonar. The other one is fine - but the freighter stops for some reason (damage?) and the torpedo misses off her bow, right where she would have been if she kept her speed. Damn, this Japanese freighter is becoming a Gremlin ship.
The off-course torpedo attracts the escorts into the off-course area, and they don't find us. In fact, our bad luck may have - YES! The escorts are chasing after the torpedo, and the now-not-moving freighter is wide open to our Deck Gun! We don't have much time, before dawn and before the escorts come back, so I order flank speed and a surface attack on the double!
The 3rd Officer, who is normally in charge of the Deck Gun anyway, performs superbly, as he always has on our patrols. The freighter, which we can see is the Heiwa Maru, lists to starboard with only a few hits, and turns over soon after. We get as far away as we can on the surface before the escorts make it back, and submerge and crawl away to safety.
Heiwa Maru, 5600 tons sunk
May 29th, 1943, 0830 hours - We fail to pick up any more ships in the short time we had left on our patrol, and return to base with no encounters and our last two fish. Guardfish has only minor battle damage, and should be back out in July.
It is noted in the log that I will ask for Lt. Hanson to be promoted to XO of the boat, for outstanding performance of duty and capably filling in for the tragic loss of Lt. Gonzalez.
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Post by keyboy on Oct 31, 2016 12:23:59 GMT
Boat Name and ID: USS Green Bay Commander's Name: Mitch Crump Patrol Assignment: Philippines Successful Patrol: Yes Number of Freighters or Tankers Sank: 2 Unkai Maru #5 (2800t) and Zuiyo Maru (7400t) Number of War Ships Sank: 0 Total Tonnage Destroyed: 10,200t Special Assignment Completed: N/A Refit Time: Standard
Award Requests: crew advancement roll Battle Star for Sub Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia for crew
Crew Names: CDR Mitch Crump Chief Engineer Wayne Willis - EXPERT Pharmacist's Mate Felton Masterson Executive Officer Wallace Brooks 3rd Officer Jonas Salmon
April 3rd 1943 Having left Pearl and out to sea, we headed for the Philippines for the very first time.
April 23rd 1943 Nearly three weeks of drills and little else, our lethargy was given a jolt. Just after dawn we reached our second patrol area and immediately a light was spotted on the horizon, and whilst the Green Bay was slotted into position at medium range, the escorted ship was identified as: the Unkai Maru #5 (2800t). I got the XO to plot a solution for a surfaced attack and test out the improved Mk 14’s once again. Four were fired from the aft at the cargo ship. All four MK 14’s hit ship and whilst there was an audible klunk from three of them, the other one did explode and rip a hole in the port side of the freighter and it took less than five minutes for the crew to jump overboard and about an hour for the Unkai Maru #5 to sink below the waves. The escort couldn’t get a bearing during this time and we made our slow and quiet escape from the scene.
May 10th 1943 A fortnight had passed and there had been no contacts at all. Just after lunch there was a ping on the radar; it was a single ship with escort and so I decided we would wait till night and make a surfaced attack and see if we could sink the cargo ship from medium range once again.
As soon as it was dark, the Green Bay slowly surfaced and got into position, before all six Mk 14’s were fired from the bow tubes, with four heading for the Zuiyo Maru (7400t) and two heading for its escort. Three torpedoes hit the cargo ship; one just plopped towards the sea bed and the other two broke the ship in two. Both of the Mk 14’s hit the escort and once again one was a dud. Whilst this slowed the escort down, it still steamed towards us. Needless to say, we were detected and evasive manoeuvres prevented the depth charges from taking out anything other than one of the diesel engines. I took her down to near test depth and the escort had lost our trail. Even though it circled the surrounding area for some time, our silence prevented further detection and we stayed put until the escort was out of range. The early morning saw us surface and my genius engineer and his crew fired up the damaged diesel engine and had it running efficiently before noon.
May 20th 1943 About ten days later we reached the end of our patrol and started to make our long way back to base.
May 30th 1943 Arrived back at Pearl Harbor, after traversing the rest of the Tropic of Cancer without incident on our way back to the Hawaiian Islands. Refit will be completed during June.
I will need to report the data for the torpedo results of this patrol, as things seem to be getting worse, not better:
Torpedoes Fired: 10 Torpedoes on target: 9 Torpedoes on target and failed to detonate: 5 Failure Rate of Mk 14 Torpedo: 55% (30% worse that the last patrol)
USS Green Bay will be ready for the July patrol
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Post by nfiltr8r on Nov 3, 2016 16:24:27 GMT
Boat Name and ID: USS Weatherfish Commander's Name: Marshall Patrol Assignment: Empire Successful Patrol: Yes Number of Freighters or Tankers Sank: 2; Choyo Maru F (5400t) and Hokuroku Maru P (8400t) Number of War Ships Sank: 0 Total Tonnage Destroyed: 13,800 Special Assignment Completed: Complete Refit Time: Standard
Award Requests: Battle Star Combat Insignia
Crew advancement roll
Side note: Saw in the forum boat notes we were fitted with a 5" gun and a 40mm/20mm AA gun outfit. Looking at the rulebook that outfit can apply to Tambors, Gatos, and Balaos. The refit rules for the Narwhal class are after the refit we just completed, we are brought up to 10 tubes; 24 torpedoes, and get extra diesels (per the sub chart).
Are we deviating from the standard rules? I tend to like my dual 6" guns if i never need to gun down an un-escoreted freighter.
----------------------------- Came under heavy fire in route patrol are from air attack. Sustained damages to periscope, radio, SD radar, and after torpedo tubes. All damages were fixed at sea thanks to our chief engineer. The rest of the patrol was uneventful until we were nearing the end when we came up on a two ship group with one small escort. Fired all 10 tubes at the two targets and put two meatballs on the bottom. We only came under sporadic depth charge after that attack. I don't think those japs ever got a fix on us. The return to port was uneventful. Overall a good shakedown cruise for the new tube and engines for the Weatherfish.
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Post by keyboy on Nov 3, 2016 21:39:43 GMT
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