Advice for harbour raids

[predavolk]

Thanks for the advice! I was able to raid Scapa Flow. I went back and did a retest after my successful run and confirmed that time compression indeed gave my position away to the destroyer. That sucks.

On the plus side, my first run was in normal time. It took almost four hours to do (this second half alone- it took me two more hours to get to this save point a few days before), but I slowly crept in. At times, the last moving destroyer passed within a few hundred meters of me, but I was dead still when it did so and made it by it unnoticed. I used a combination of 1-2kts at periscope depth and ahead 1/3 while running with the decks awash (6M). I tried 7M, but the boat kept coming back to 6M. Oh well. It was a crystal clear, calm night (3 knt winds), but I was able to get up to 3000M on the surface without being seen. Going on the surface made it much easier to get past the final active destroyer. And time compression on the surface does not appear to give your position away.


There were a host of ships stationary around the area, but I ignored them. I did torp the one destroyer sitting stationary in front of the harbor. Inside, i was robbed! NOTHING THERE! Well, there was a small 8K troop ship and a light cruiser. So I took two shots at each. My first torp hit a sub net. Second hit the troop ship. Third and fourth were set to run fast to match the troop ship shots, and they ran out of juice before hitting the cruiser! Fortunately, nothing seemed to be happening after hitting the troop ship other tham lights flashing around. So I waited, reloaded, and sent two more torps into the cruiser. Bye-bye Light Cruiser! On the way out, I torped one of the stationary ships, an auxillary cruiser- caboom! Another 10K! Unfortunately, that brought the attention of the one active destroyer, so I booted out of there. I went up to 5M, flank, and just all-out ran. It appeared he was starting to track me out! Fortunately, when he hit the wreck of the auxillary, he stopped to listen for me or rescue survivors. I didn't care which, I just got the hell out via the Western approach. On the way out I passed a cove with a stationary Minor Warship and a Destroyer or Frigate, but I kept going. Almost out into the ocean, I get a report that I'm under attack!! A star flare goes off, but I can't see any boats around!? Then I hear an air raid siren, and I'm totally confused. Are the brits? A shore light starts shining around. Panicked that it might spot me and reveal me to any nearby boats or planes, I man the deck gun and prepare for action! I start perhaps the first u-boat vs. ground target action of the war and land a couple of shells after sailing some high. But then a massive ground gun opens up on me, and I realize this isn't an even fight! Quickly I duck to periscope depth and run out on flank. I can hear a warship approaching from the distance, so once I'm 5km from the shore battery, I surface and run out going like a bat out of hell! Just as dawn arrives, an airplance is spotted in the distance! I crash dive without it spotting me, and after a few tense minutes, slow to ahead standard for an hour, then surface and begin working back to the North Sea. Good fun!

For fellow newbs, my lessons were-

1- Time Compression is your arch-enemy when you are submerged. NEVER time compress when submerged and destroyers are anywhere near you.

2- Running on the surface, even on clear calm nights, you can move at 1/3 speed when submerged at 6M and not be seen beyond 3000M. Maybe others have pushed the envelope further, but that was good enough for me.

3- Once you're inside the harbor, take your time. The enemy response was weak at best. In hindsight, I should've stuck around and sunk a few more cargo ships in the harbor, but I was just too anxious to stick around!

4- If you're thinking of raiding a harbor, read this thread to find out when big ships are in town. That was too much effort for just a silly cruiser- without the auxillary to boot I would've felt robbed! As it is, I'm still quite disappointed that I've yet to bag a big one. Oh well, something to look forward to!

5- NEVER engage a shore battery. I wasn't hit, but those shells looked (and sounded) like freight trains!

Good times!

[Danelov]

In many ocassions this raids in ports dont work good, in several ocassions I have see destroyers or patrols boats destroying self ramming the docks or others structures(Specially in close harbours),others exploding with his own DCs,patrol ships running aground; hits ships in harbour sometimes are not credited, or dont sink, I have aimed a small tanker with three torpedos in his vulnerables spots, with differents depths, all with contact pistols and all three were good hits, one a little ahead of the funnel, another in the bow and another in the stern, and after three hours in the bottom to wait, the tanker was still there laughing from my torpedo hits:p ;Situation is still worse if you have the bad idea of reload a saved game inside of a enemy port.

lerwik in 39..........

its a small dock for ships and subs. there is a anti subnet and that is sometimes not there. there is a s class and a t class and an anti sub tug (yo, yo) sink the ships then sink the cluster of fishing boats and call in the luftwaffe!!!. i did this in a iia.

in some russian port, u go under the subnets and the ships try go over but sink. there was about 10 dd buts sticking out of the water. on my way out, i saw a banana tug. its cabin was yellow and its hull was brown. some people complain there is no banana boat when there really is!!

[Wreford-Brown]

This post moved to first post.

[Tessa]

Scapa Flow always is a gamble as to what's actually in there, sometimes its full othertimes empty. Dealing with the aircraft patrols just to get into the west channel can take forever. One nice little trick I found is being able to reload your torpedo's safely while in the harbor. After you sink something large, a battleship or carrier move your sub right up to it and start reloading; haven't had any DD's even notice I'm there while reloading.

Loch Ewe is great as its easy to get into, and has those 2 floating docks-almost 60k in tonnage for just 2 torpedo's

[Sandman_28054]

Sink the Nelson and the Revenge over and over again, up to 4 times.

See my post here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=134585

[Captain B]

I just sneaked into Plymouth very early in the war (12/10/39 VIIB second Patrol, GWX II). It was not that difficult.

I had been patroling between Southern Tip of Ireland and the entrance to Der Kanal, and decided to give it a go. I moved up the coast during the night, and took out 2 small coastal vessels with the deck gun on the way. I dived at about 6:30am (dusk) south of Plymouth and proceeded towards the harbour. Sonar picked up patrol craft and small merchants, no destroyers, I took a look through the periscope at aroud 6000 yards from the entrance. There were 3 merchants -could not make out the flags at that range and the Battlecruiser HOOD . Sneaked into 3000 yards for another look. Still all quiet one patrol craft to the south no other traffic, only 3-4 mtrs under the keel. The harbour wall blocked a good shot at the Hood and the impact angle would have probably meant the torp would have bounced off the hull. To shallow with the draught for Magnetics (dont trust them anyway) So only one thing for it creep inside the harbour, go astern into firing posistion let go a spread of four and retreat. 48,000 tons latter I'm back in the Kanal heading out to Ireland. The escape was easy, the Patrol craft tried to get at me inside the port but rammed the harbour wall instead and sunk (Bug?) probably be dead if he managed. Took a look at the merchies on the way out but they were all nuetral.
Can't wait for my next port!!
However I have tried Scapa in a previous career - much harder lot of Naval Traffic and that was before GWX, Maybe I just got real lucky with Plymouth.
Rgds,
Captain B.

[John O]

Originally Posted by d@rk51d3

Ahhhhh, Freetown.

That's a fun raid.

Yes, very much so. And like some others, it can be accessed through it's back or side entrance.

[John O]

Most harbors after '42 in GWX have walls/nets. The entrance can be found quite easily by going in submerged and using the F12 key, pointing the boat, and then using the End key on the number pad to submerge the view and shift/arrow to advance the view. Manipulating the arrow keys will find the entrance. A little cheating for sure but the captain is always right.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by John O

Most harbors after '42 in GWX have walls/nets. The entrance can be found quite easily by going in submerged and using the F12 key, pointing the boat, and then using the End key on the number pad to submerge the view and shift/arrow to advance the view. Manipulating the arrow keys will find the entrance. A little cheating for sure but the captain is always right.

At least yer honest

[Kaleu. Jochen Mohr]

i mostly do it hard core and view trough the periscope.. and yes, i have ran on a few mines and bumped a few subnets in the progress

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by John O

Most harbors after '42 in GWX have walls/nets. The entrance can be found quite easily by going in submerged and using the F12 key, pointing the boat, and then using the End key on the number pad to submerge the view and shift/arrow to advance the view. Manipulating the arrow keys will find the entrance. A little cheating for sure but the captain is always right.

I've run into em as early as 40' in Scapa Flow and Gibraltor, combination of either running into em or watching the torpedo impact onto them. Best method I've found to get around em is to raise the scope up just a meter so that you're able to see what's right in front of you. Then just follow the net till the end or there's a break and move on through.

[gord96]

i have a career in a type IID that I use for harbor raids on Brit ports. Its small and can get away from DD's much easier. You only have 6 eels but its still fun to sneak in and out. This boat works only around Britain. Lots of work in the Channel and the ports. I dont even bother trying to harbour raid with a type 7 anymore. If i feel the urge I just used my trusty type II

[Bosje]

does the game feature the tides or something? or is it simply a matter of choice, luck or mods?

I once went into scapa 1939 but my boat was destroyed by scraping across a net

just now i went into loch ewe late 1940 and i was able to sail right across the nets. the boat cleared them with about a meter to spare under the keel. there were mines but they too were too deep to hurt me while i remain on the surface

any clues?

[Kaleu. Jochen Mohr]

Originally Posted by Bosje

does the game feature the tides or something? or is it simply a matter of choice, luck or mods?

I once went into scapa 1939 but my boat was destroyed by scraping across a net

just now i went into loch ewe late 1940 and i was able to sail right across the nets. the boat cleared them with about a meter to spare under the keel. there were mines but they too were too deep to hurt me while i remain on the surface

any clues?

what side of scapa you used ?