SUBSIM Radio Room Forums



SUBSIM: The Web's #1 resource for all submarine & naval simulations since 1997

Go Back   SUBSIM Radio Room Forums > Silent Hunter 3 - 4 - 5 > SH4 Mods Workshop
Forget password? Reset here

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 09-02-17, 07:04 AM   #16
Rockin Robbins
Navy Seal
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: DeLand, FL
Posts: 8,899
Downloads: 135
Uploads: 52


Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by p.jakub88 View Post
Hello Napalm42,

i saw the End Around maneuver in one of the Let's Play videos of the user DangerDeadpan uploaded on Youtube. However, he played unmodded SH4.
I used this technique few times on lonely merchant ships with success.

There is no chance to overtake a fast moving enemy convoy while submerged - You will simply run out of batteries. So, when You fired Your first torpedo they will start evasive maneuvers and You will have usually all nearby escorts heading Your way (at least in TMO 2.5). Even catching up with surface merchant ships is hard. If they change the course on the last possible moment You will have very little time to react. So, setting up Your firing position too early could be a mistake. I am usually waiting when a ship is with 5 nm distance or less, but not so close that it could engage me with deck gun.
End around should NEVER be done submerged. Neither should patrolling during the daytime. The first principle of combat is that your batteries must always be fully charged, ready for a long combat.

So your end around must be done surfaced, at a range of at least six miles from the enemy. If your batteries are not fully charged during the end around you will lose at least a knot of speed, and that can spell the difference between getting a favorable position in front of the enemy and waving as they sail by. And you should get back to the target track out of sight of the enemy: at least six miles in front of them. If you have your tactics right, you're in that position so that they won't run over top of you until after sunset.

Then you have all night to decimate the convoy. Don't get greedy. Don't let the escorts pin you down. YOU are forcing them to play your game. NEVER play theirs. Hit and run all night.
Rockin Robbins is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-02-17, 08:38 AM   #17
p.jakub88
Gunner
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Poland
Posts: 93
Downloads: 123
Uploads: 1
Icon14

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins View Post
End around should NEVER be done submerged. Neither should patrolling during the daytime. The first principle of combat is that your batteries must always be fully charged, ready for a long combat.

So your end around must be done surfaced, at a range of at least six miles from the enemy. If your batteries are not fully charged during the end around you will lose at least a knot of speed, and that can spell the difference between getting a favorable position in front of the enemy and waving as they sail by. And you should get back to the target track out of sight of the enemy: at least six miles in front of them. If you have your tactics right, you're in that position so that they won't run over top of you until after sunset.

Then you have all night to decimate the convoy. Don't get greedy. Don't let the escorts pin you down. YOU are forcing them to play your game. NEVER play theirs. Hit and run all night.
Hello Rockin Robbins,

of course i always did the end around technique surfaced, unless i wanted to catch a single merchant ship that was running away.

When the convoy approached me i tried to position my submarine accordingly, so i was a smaller target for the enemy sonar just as written in the TMO 2.5 manual. Thanks to that, i was able to start my attack being undetected by escort ships.

When the escort started dropping depth charges on me i dived to a secure depth and waited there on engine off and run silent mode. Most of the time i received no damage at all. I deployed decoys when available to distract the escort. I waited few hours submerged till sunset to be sure that i will be safe when i surface. Usually i sunk 1 or 2 merchant ships from every convoy that i intercepted starting from late 1943. Once i sunk 3 ships from 8. One time i came across an unguarded (?) 8 ship convoy from which i sank 6 (!) ships, because i run out of torpedoes in forward torpedo room and those 2 remaining ships were heading to enemy port through shallow water. I tried to avoid intercepting convoys in shallow waters.

In total i sunk ca. 200 000 tons in my RSRDC career that lasted from 16 June 1942 to 15 August 1945. However, in the RSRDC You will have less ships to encounter than in the stock game. For example: a SH4 Let's Play Youtuber that played stock SH4, sunk about 1 000 000 tons (!) from 7th December 1941 to the end of the Pacific war.
p.jakub88 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-27-17, 01:41 AM   #18
Capt. Morgan
Commander
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Just east of the west coast.
Posts: 462
Downloads: 391
Uploads: 0
Default

Having done it (with the help of radar which makes it much easier), I have to admit that sinking a ship blind is very rewarding, but how realistic is it that a skipper would sunk an unidentified ship?

Maybe in certain locations the vessel would likely be a valid target, but even then, how would know it wasn't a hospital ship, or neutral? Did any skippers attack unidentified targets In the Pacific?
__________________
There are no great men, only great challenges that
ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.
-- Admiral William Halsey

Capt. Morgan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-05-17, 04:24 PM   #19
jcope
Bosun
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 66
Downloads: 34
Uploads: 0
Default

I agree with what Rockin Robbins said. In RFB/RSRD I find 5 miles distant from the target is sufficient to stay out of sight.

You could fire blind based on the fact that the passive sonar gives you the first sound on any target at exactly +/- 10degrees from it's actual bearing. Just set the hydrophone at 10degrees ahead of where you want to fire, and wait for the green light to come on, then go shoot.
jcope is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-06-17, 08:54 PM   #20
Sniper297
The Old Man
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Philadelphia Shipyard Brig
Posts: 1,386
Downloads: 160
Uploads: 19
Default

"Even aiming with periscope is hard and i am loosing (LOSING) the sight of my target, so firing torpedoes is simply a waste"

In real life if the waves were high, SOP was to decrease periscope depth to compensate. Standard periscope depth 66 feet was used when the target was close, at 15,000+ yards they would routinely go to 60 feet or less - 10 feet of periscope sticking up would not be a problem since it wouldn't be visible at long range. Same applies to heavy seas, especially with a lot of whitecaps, manually selecting 40-45 feet works just fine, even inside of 2000 yards. Rule of thumb, if the waves break over the periscope and you can't see anything but water more than 50% of the time, bring her up a couple feet.

As for attacking unidentified targets, subs on both sides were usually given a patrol area in which ALL targets were assumed to be enemy - the Germans in particular issued warnings to all neutral countries about "exclusion zones" where any ship might be attacked without warning, enter at own risk.
Sniper297 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:55 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 1995- 2024 Subsim®
"Subsim" is a registered trademark, all rights reserved.