@LGN1:
I have been on holiday, sorry for delay in reply:
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Do you have some more accurate information on radar usage? From what I gathered it seems that the first really useful device against u-boats was the 'Type 271' 10cm radar. It was first installed in March '41 on a ship and the first 'kill' attributed to it was in Nov. '41. I also found that by May '42 236 ships carried it. I'm wondering whether after spring '42 night attacks were still useful/possible? Do you know details about this?
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I can never remember the numbers of types of radar. However, the early successes by warships against U-boats were achieved with 150cm radar. The British had found a way to miniaturise the components, which previously had to be carried on very large warships. Thus, in March 1941, five U-boats were detected and sunk by surprise around just one or two convoys in the Atlantic, by only two radar-fitted destroyers. Three of the U-boats sunk were commanded by aces: Kretschmer, Prien and Schepke.
It was not until mid-1942 that BdU accepted that Allied warships were fitted with radar (still 150 cm), and by August 1942 Allied aircraft were carrying 150 cm radar too. This led to the development of the German radar detector Metox. The Allies introduced 10 cm radar to aircraft and warships starting around September 1942, but this radar only began to make an impact (compared with 150 cm radar) when fitted to aircraft over the Bay of Biscay in 1943. Metox could not detect the lower frequency.
Radar carried by destroyers was less effective at detecting U-boats, because the seas are high and the top of the destroyer is low (compared with an aircraft). Thus U-boat commanders continued to make wolf-pack attacks at night even when they knew that the escorts were fitted with radar. Firstly, the nearest warship might not have detected any U-boat. Secondly, even if it had detected 10 U-boats, it could still attack only one U-boat at a time.
As late as 1944, standard U-boat training emphasised night-surface attacks, and I have seen many accounts of U-boats that surfaced at night in 1944, even in calm waters, in order to attack a convoy or single ships. The U-boats were often detected by radar, but could still complete their attack, then escape detection (from long-range radar) by diving. The U-boats would hope to escape the subsequent asdic search, with its much shorter range.
@Hitman:
Concerning effect of time compression (TC) on aircraft attacks in SH3:
It has always been the case that high TC results in fewer air attacks. The reason is that U-boat and aircraft move in jumps across the sea (in SH3), and the higher the TC, the larger the jumps between each test of detection by the SH3 code. Therefore, the higher the TC, the more likely it is that the aircraft has jumped over the U-boat without either side being detected. (I'm sure you knew all this already. I mention it only for the benefit of newer players of SH3.)
However, I have found a more interesting discovery. With NYGM and SH3, it used to be that aircraft *never* attacked at TC above 1024. From NYGM 3.4, aircraft *do* attack at TC 2048 and 4096, although these attacks are much less common than attacks at TC 1024 and lower, for the reason stated above.
I have no idea why this change has occurred.
Stiebler.