First of all, I experienced a bit of lag while watching those surface ships firing on one another. Great viewing entertainment, BTW.
I failed the mission the first two times I started. Some CV always got me with charges.
The third time, having more of an awareness in advance who's heading where, I set heading for 30 degress. The oilers are heading north. One naval enemy force was looping around the oiler's east side to swing around and challenge another enemy force heading NE, that were hot on my tail.
I soon got caught between both side at periscope depth. I mainly drew the attention of the CVs and took them out with fore and aft torps while pivoting in both directions at flank speed.
In between my encounters with CVs I kept trying to get closer to the oilers. When I was sure enough, I fired off 4 fore tubes. That worked but there were still more left.
I kept this up until it was me and 4 oilers advancing north, with 2 CVs hindering me from advancing. One of the CVs I sank easy. The other I really blew my shots but I eventually got him with my last aft fish.
The problem was that there were only 4 oilers left and I had only four fish in the fore. That alone is OK but my hull was ready to give in should I be hit by a pea shooter and my battery was way way down.
So, I went flank on surface and followed the 4 oilers from behind. I knew at some point they would start firing their relatively small calibre rear-mounted guns at me and I would have to go to periscope depth to avoid being hit by even a single round.
That worked. The rear oiler went down easy.
With three fish left for 3 remaining oilers, I headed startboard for the next closest ship. Just then, someone came into the room and said hello. I said hello back and something that I said caused one of my last 3 fish to be fired. I was soooooooo upset. crybaby: But miraculously, it hit the mark as my sub was pointing at just the right angle when the fish was fired.
That left 2 fish and two oilers. The next one went down easy. Then came the last one.
Just as I was about to fire, the battery died. I issued the fire order but the sub had drifted slightly to port. My last fish missed the last oiler. Watching this through the scope was a truly depressing occasion.
But learning from experience, I decided to surface when the last oiler was out of range for its rear gun. I turned my sub broadside to the evading oiler, cut the engine and gave the fire orders to all my guns to attack the oiler. The sub's rear gun finished 'er off.
I even got a citation for my clumsy, almost bungled, assignment. enigma!:
Don't let this happen to you! eh:
