Red Storm Gathering 03 | Sink Another Convoy, Comrade...
700:00 Start
12-JUL-1984 1100L Just off Andoya
The Norwegian Oslo's captain knew his ship is doomed, as he recognized the wakehoming torpedo, the Soviet 65-76K ignoring the noisemakers. He already ordered the engineers to vacate the rear of the ship. He ordered a last second left turn while dropping another noisemaker, knowing it won't do any good...
Kaboom!
Even without confirmation from engineering, the captain knew the ship is done. In only seconds, the stern has gone underwater. He ordered the abandon ship alarm sounded, then sent his crew to the lifeboats. His only satisfaction was that his companion, the Nordkapp, did not have a torpedo after it, and at least one of the two freighters seems to have survived and is running south at 13 kts... And a P-3 Orion in the area is helping him hunt the Soviet sub...
Ten km away, S-355, Whiskey-class sub, under command of Kapitan-Leytnant Changov crept away from the area headed west at 3 kt. The surviving freighter is too fast to be caught, and the Nordkapp, dodging his torpedoes, had gone east...
Previous day...
01:00 North of Murmansk...
10-JUL-1984 1600L
S-355, under command of Kapitan-Leytnant Changov, has just left Murmansk with a full load of torpedoes with orders to intercept a NATO convoy leaving Bergen for Andoya.
02:00 Intercepted
12-JUL-1984 0500L
Multiple NATO subs in the area, and both of them converged on S-355's location, forcing the sub to dive and evade...
S-355 got away from one, then another NATO sub (the 2nd one took a while)
10:30 Convoy Detected
12-JUL-1984 0800L
S-355 finally was able to detect the convoy, or at least, the two convoy escorts, a Nordkapp and an Oslo, pinging away to the south. S-355 plotted an intercept, and finally detected the target, a NATO small freighter. Then it found ANOTHER NATO small freighter.
S-355 shot off multiple torpedoes, both to keep the escorts busy, as well as attempting an early intercept of the freighters. The range is not ideal, but even if only one freighter is sunk, the mission would still be considered a success.
15:00 One freighter down
The rear freighter was hit by a wakehomer, and was sunk. Another was launched, but probably will not catch the remaining freighter.
The two escorts had evaded the torpedoes fired against them, so another salvo was launched.
17:00 Nordkapp's doom
One of the wakehomers locked on to the Oslo, while the other failed to acquire the Nordkapp, which escaped to the east. S-355 headed west to evade.
With no chance to catch the freighter, and only 1 anti-ship torpedo remaining, S-355 disengaged and headed back for Murmansk. It has also received its latest order: Look for a NATO at-sea replenishment group (tender and escorts) near Andoya, Lofoten Islands and sink the tender.
Kapitan Leytnant Changov, upon docking at Murmansk, went to HQ, intending to "trade up" his command. He had hoped to qualify for command of a Victor I class SSN, but apparently none were available (in reality, he needed a higher rank), and he could only get a November-class SSN, a much older and noisier platform. At least it held a few more torpedoes (20, compared to Whiskey's 14), with much higher speed (30 kt) and depth (300m).
He accepted, informed the crew and moved his command. After changing the loadout slightly (more anti-ship torpedoes), it's time to go to sea again...
(Thus ended the 3rd patrol. The fourth patrol, with K-181 will be in episode 4!)
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This will be my third attempt of Soviet campaign. The year is 1984. After too many Yankee provocations, Soviet Union had enough and declared war. The Soviet Army can take Europe, if the Soviet Navy can stop or at least slow the amount of reinforcements reaching continental Europe from the US. And as a captain of a Soviet submarine, I will do my duty to the Motherland.
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