Urgent Flash! Convoy must be sunk..what would you do?

[Armistead]

Date: September 29, 1943

Flash:
Convoy consisting of lage Euro Liner and large tanker, leaving Shantou harbor, proceeding NNE @ 17kts hugging the China Coast. Expected to port at Fuzhou late 10/2/44. Euro liner suspected to be carrying over 3000 elite Japanese marines and filled with ammo, tanker rinding low, suspect full cargo of fuel oil. Expect heavy escort protection including radar DE Matsu with radar. Aircover expected heavy around this group. Minefields suspected!


I order flank. My guess is the convoy will pass somewhere near Xiamen. We arrive on stations with the view of Xiamen lighthouse off the coast. There is a small island, I'm guessing the convoy will pass between it and the China coast. We're forced to dive 5 times due to plane coverage.

Conditions:
Light fog
Partail Clouds
250-350 ft deep water at our location, water more shallow along convoys suspect route.
Wind- 6-8meters

Finally, radar contact, we have two large contacts and multiple small contacts. This could be our group.

The situation...


At about 17:00 hours we ID large Euro liner.

Sonar reports 5-6 Escorts, We finally visually ID 2 DD's, 1 DE Matsu and 1 Type AB, cannot ID other escorts.
Wow...they're guarding this group with everything but the kitchen sink...

Group is turning ENE heading in our general direction.



What would you do? Just so you know this is one of the groups I added to RSRD which really contains no convoys hugging the China Coast, it contains 6 escorts, 4 with veteran crew ratings, 2 with elite ratings, both liner and tanker set to elite rating.

[I'm goin' down]

I would hop on the tele, and call the famous warrior/submariner armistead. He always knows what to do when the heat is on.

[EricW]

You've got some chop on the water.....but not enough to evade at higher submerged speeds, they will hear you.

You've got some depth....but probably not enough to evade deep and silent.

Recommend maintaining contact for a night surface attack. If you can avoid air patrols, you can wipe out the entire convoy after dark.

Base out

[Rooster]

I’m not the go to guy in knowing what to do, but what I might do is tuck in behind them follow them until they port or I have a chance to snap shoot one or two of them.

[Hinrich Schwab]

Had these missions before both in the American and German missions. The destroyers are at least veterans. They are bad boys. Expect detection.

Speaking from experience, the best option is a night submerged attack. Position yourself windward enough of the convoy to ensure that you are inside the destroyer formation when they pass by. You want to position yourself to unload all of your front tubes at around 500-700 yards as close to zero gyroangle as possible. When in initial position, go silent and wait. If you are detected, go ahead and take the shots as soon as practicable. Odds are in favor of a kill if you take your shots at no more than 1500 yards despite detection. Crash dive under the wreck and drop a decoy. Go deep, get skinny, get quiet and let the escorts bumble about while you slip away. The transport should be the only kill in this engagement. The rest of the convoy and the escorts are not worth the risk.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Looks like the time on the clock says 1629 hours. Not sure cause of my eyesight. If that is correct, darkness should be approaching soon. I'd shadow the convoy until then and conduct a night attack.

[Rockin Robbins]

Agree 100% with Hinrich. Night submerged attack. Get in close. Unload all you have on the main target. Wide spread, twice the length of the target to ensure hits. Begin evasion before the fish even get to the target. You'll get no second chance anyway. Then evade.