September 20, 1942, Brest
Having finally ironed out most of the bug-related problems that were keeping me from playing the game, I am now returning to my beloved Silent Hunter 5. While I was patiently installing and reinstalling mods and tinkering with the game's files, I was often enticed by the promises made by a much more stable SH4: Operation Monsun. However, having fallen in love with the graphics and atmosphere of SH5, I kept trying and trying, and it seems like I've finally managed to make the game stable enough to play uninterrupted for several hours. The mods I'm using are pretty much the same as listed in the first post, though some have been installed in a slightly different order and with some changed made in the files themselves.
As you can tell from the title of this chapter, I am restarting Dark Underlord's career in the much more interesting 1942, when things are finally starting to heat up. Most convoys are escorted and task forces are out on the hunt. Let's see how the brave souls of the U-boat Codexia fare this time around!
As you can see, we have two missions available, both of which put us in the Atlantic. I've chosen the one that requires me to sink merchants in a wolfpack, though I believe the tonnage counts even if you do it alone. I haven't tried linking up with other U-boats for a hunt, but I've seen others do it and it actually seems to work.
We bid Vaterland farewell. Who knows what awaits us on the treacherous Atlantic.
Our first day on the sea is uneventful. We leave the English channel behind us and we are not harassed by any aircraft.
The sun begins to set and we haven't seen any targets yet. We have been receiving radio reports from other submarines who are reporting great successes. No tonnage for us yet, though.
A friendly submarine is met halfway to our destination, but we decide against following it since it's moving in a totally different direction.
I love reading these messages that pop up in your "inbox". It's pretty cool to read up on daily events and the fate of fellow submariners.
The skies have turned black and we've reached our destination. This is terrible weather to hunt in so I guess we should be happy I'm not picking up any targets. We sail in concentric circles for a while, hoping to spot something on the horizon or on the hydro. We're not successful, and nightfall is fast approaching. I increase time compression and wait for morning.
The sea has calmed overnight, but heavy fogs have set in instead. The sea is very calm, but very little can be seen on the horizon. I speed up time, only to be interrupted when my watch officer reports a contact only 1500 meters away from us!
Oh crap, it's a destroyer. It hasn't spotted us yet, or at least it isn't firing on us. I order crash dive, quickly scanning the horizon to see if it has any buddies nearby. I doubt a destroyer would just be sailing out on the Atlantic for no reason.
Just as we're reaching 15 meters of depth, the destroyer starts to turn away from us. That seems like odd behavior. Shouldn't it be running straight at us if he suspects something? That's when I start panicking. I swing the periscope left and right, trying to figure out what's going on. And all of a sudden, on my 40 bearing (meaning on my right) the fog parts and two more destroyers come heading straight for me.
If this is just a task force consisting of a bunch of destroyers, then sinking even one of these bastards should save me from some pretty nerve-shattering depth-charging. I decide to send one magnetic torpedo at the turning destroyer just as I order crash dive. Maybe it'll scare him away for a little while.
I actually hit him! I noticed he'd slowed down a bit so I sent it closer to him, guessing that he'd move into its path, but I honestly didn't expect a hit.
The kill is confirmed almost instantly. Well, at least that's one down.
One of those other two destroyers that were heading for me passes very close to me, carpeting the area with depth charges. Several of those shake the boat, but no damage is sustained. I sink to 50 meters, deploy a decoy and speed away from the destroyers. I have a mod installed which makes sure that explosions from depth charges disrupt the destroyers' sonar readings. I make use of the tiny window those explosions create from me and slink away from them.
I emerge a little further on, just to see what's happening around me. That's when I catch a glimpse of this beast out in the fog. He's almost straight ahead of me and he isn't moving too fast. I guess that's what those destroyers were guarding. I don't have time to check my surroundings so I start to set my torpedoes immediately.
I got too cocky for my own good so I get depth charged before my preparations are done, but sustain only minimal damage. The crew is hurt, though. I decide to sit it out and send my torpedoes at the destroyer, only ordering a crash dive when another destroyer moves between me and the aircraft carrier. Hoping the torpedoes won't catch the destroyer, I order crash dive. They know where I am anyway.
The carrier is hit! We clipped his rear, and he's slowing down. Explosions from his hull reverberate across the black depths of the sea. I sink lower and lower evading depth charges left and right. The sea is boiling above me with splashes and explosions, since more than six destroyers have now converged on me. I may not live to tell the tale of this adventure after all.
The giant is burning! Airplanes slide from his deck and splash into the water, but I've got better things to do than watch him burn. Depth charges shake me from all sides, but all damage we take is dealt with quickly. We're not taking on any water, thankfully.
I take a peek at the carrier as I'm evading another wave of depth charges. His propeller is blown, but he isn't sinking. Crap. He'll need another torpedo, at the very least. Can we pull that off, though?
A glorious plume of smoke rises from the burning carrier as I finally break contact from the destroyers' sonar. They may be only turning for another run at me, but at least for now they aren't pinging me. I take the opportunity to position myself so I'm running back at the carrier. I need to take him down already. This whole thing is taking far too long.
Turns out I'm not free just yet. I was right and the destroyers were only turning. There's one of them, just above me, dropping his deadly load on top of our poor old bucket full of shivering Nazis.
They keep passing overhead and I just can't seem to shake them. I'm inching my way toward the carrier, so I'll have to go to periscope depth soon if I want to fire off another torpedo. I'm not even trying to run silently, since everybody in the ocean knows my position by now.
I spot a destroyer close by who's just dropped his last depth charge in a row, so I head toward him, hoping to pass under him and thus lose my pursuer. It's a risky move, since I can't really be sure the destroyer I'm heading toward won't drop another load just as I'm passing. But what the hell. Into the fray, brothers!
The risk has paid off and now I'm on the other side of the destroyer moving back toward the carrier. In the above screenshot you can see the first thing I spot as I raise my periscope: another destroyer that's getting in my path. God damn it, how many of them are there?
I manage to evade yet another carpet bombing and send my torpedoes at the carrier just as several depth charges explode all around us. Knowing full well that we shouldn't have survived any of this, I stop trying my luck and order 115 meters. We're going down for good this time, and the carrier be damned. If the last salvo doesn't hit anything, I'll just try to escape. That'll be a feat in and of itself.
Incredibly, the destroyers move out of the way of the torpedoes just as they strike the carrier, and he finally begins to sink.
The kill is confirmed, and this means we've got 24188 tons in the bag. Now all we have to do is escape an enraged group of destroyers. Yeah.
And this is all we've got left, by the way. No more lucky shots against destroyers, I guess. I dive deeper and turn on silent running. Our speed drops to a knot. We've stopped getting pinged, so now all we can do is pray.
We hear depth charges exploding in the distance, but nothing near us. I take a look outside using the external camera, hoping to see the destroyers moving away, but they soon catch up with me. I've managed to move away from the sinking carrier, but they're still up there, chargin' away.
After around half an hour of fruitless depth charging, the destroyers break contact and return to their group, which also consists of a battleship I only managed to get a very brief look at.
I wait for another hour, and then inch my way up. I can still hear the task force on the hydrophone, but they've moved away. We finally emerge, breathing in the fresh sea air. Brothers, we are victorious! A great carrier lies broken on the bottom!
Until next time, fellow wolves of the sea.
Or maybe he isn't very accurate?
A carrier and a 17 tonner. Good going. 
