The Anatomy of a Submarine Patrol: Part 1

Game: Silent Hunter IV Wolves of the Pacific

Hello folks, hope everyone reading this is happy, whole and healthy in this damned COVID-19 mess. Like many of you, I am using the time 'wisely.'

Keeping that hype train chugging for the promising (and hopefully soon to come) new naval wargames, I've dipped my big toe back into Silent Hunter IV. This marks a much-delayed return to this game, in which I had previously spent an embarrassing amount of hours playing before I became licensed with the Law Society of Upper Canada (as it was then known) and began my practice in 2016. That was then, now I'm in a different country and we're all stuck in self-isolation, so let's make the most of the time!

To my pleasant surprise the boys over at subsim.com have kept SHIV alive and well, asides from the legacy 'mega-mods' there's (excuse the cliche name) The Fall of the Rising Sun Mod which remains in active support and which I'm running for this career. My last successful career, way back in 2016, saw me commanding the Sargo-class Sculpin. I decided to spoil myself with a more modern, wartime designed Balao-class submarine. Also in contrast, where I did a 1941 start (that saw me promoted out of a job after refusing to take a new boat in late '43), I've decided to start in 1944 and see if I can't stay in it to win it. Who said quarantine was all stress?

Newly minted as a Lt. Cmdr. I have been ordered to report to Midway and assume command of the veteran boat USS Skate. The AI  crew has excellent and efficient ratings and junior officers. Our initial task was to patrol to the northeast of Formosa (Taiwan), rich hunting grounds in 1944. We departed from Midway January 11th. 1944.

Asides from sinking a hapless Japanese crabbing vessel, and dodging a few aircraft, the trip to the zone was uneventful. Luckily, the monotony was broken quickly when a small convoy of three merchants was picked up by radar. While I am delighted to report my ability to do basic trigonometry and plot intercepts remains intact, I was still shaking off the rust regarding accurate torpedo solutions and in three attacks on the convoy was only able to sink a single 6700t ship - a second merchant was hit near her bow but kept on trucking. Frustrating and inauspicious, but good practice. When we ran into an unescorted oiler later in the week the accuracy was much more telling, with both stern tubes fired scoring hits. The stubborn beast was finished off later with the deck gun after she went dead in the water.

Skate knifes past survivors of the sunk tanker.

That's where this post finds the Skate now - en route to its new assigned patrol zone, just off Luzon, to patrol for 5 days. This is also, at the time, rich hunting grounds for a Sub commander and my hopes were high. Arriving on station February 3rd, foul weather gave way to clear, glass-like water that befits the Pacific ocean. Enemy air activity was thick and we became largely nocturnal, running on the surface by night and taking regular radar sweeps at depth by day.

The first few days on station were uneventful, having failed to intercept a radio-reported convoy apparently entering the area. Convoys change course, especially in such crowded waters, so radio intercepts are rarely a sure thing.

Our luck changed for the better with a second radio report. Again, a small convoy was reported in between the new zone and old one over the radio. This one is even more promising than the last, the math suggests I can intercept it at cruise speed (10 knots) if it holds its course. The intercept point would make it a daytime attack. As we approach the plotted intercept, radar shows two targets; it isn't a convoy, per se, but rather two ships travelling together.

As intelligence comes in over the radio (left) the Officer of the Deck (right) begins plotting an intercept course.

Soon enough, we have the targets within visual range. It's fully day now and the conditions remain ideal, so there is a real chance these merchantmen will spot us if we don't run under the surface as soon as possible.

We break away, pull ahead and then go to periscope depth. An hour later, we were ready to attack. Two torpedoes each were launched from a range of 3000 yards and then...nothing. We missed. The two merchantmen were under armed, I could clearly see only on their bows single guns. So in frustration, more at myself than anything, we let them pass and surfaced at general quarters. They were sunk over the course of 20 minutes after sterling work by the deck gun, which was now much depleted in its merchant-killing high explosive ammunition.

Deck Gun crew at battle stations.

It was only well after that I realized why my accuracy had been so hit and miss thus far: I had been 'guesstimating' the angle on bow(AOB) of my targets based on how they viewed from the periscope, rather than where they were in relation to the fore or aft of my boat. It's a bad habit that a lot of players do in the heat of the moment. Accuracy of torpedo solutions would improve noticeably for the rest of the patrol after this personal eureka.

The rest of the time on station was relatively uneventful, although we added another pair of Japanese-flagged fishing vessels to our growing list of victims.

(Artificially brightened) Finger food.

With plenty of torpedo reloads and fuel left, and our time off Luzon at an end, we are re-directed to the Sulu Sea to continue anti-shipping operations.

That's it for now, we'll join the Skate again as she transits into the Sulu Sea.