How to sink warships?

[Gorkian]

Hello again. I come here yet once more to get some help from this great community.

I have just bought my first VIIB boat and loving it. Thoose extra eels make me able to sink alot more shipping. I even slipped into an english harbor today and got myself some tonnage to the record.

One thing I still find hard. How to sink enemy warships? I have tried to set up silent and planned attacks on DDs but everytime they evade my torpedoes. It seems it doesnt matter if its night or day. Or if I´m close or not. Is it cause I still use the original toprs? the ones that lets you see a white stream on the surface?

Do you have any good tactics for sinking a warship? for example a Destroyer?

[AVGWarhawk]

Of course the electric torps leave no trail. If I have the compressed air torps you can set the speed to fast and this usually does not allow the DD to move quickly enough. I get as close as possible and set them to fast. Most times you will hit it the screws with this setting.

For the most part, I do not pick a fight with the DD unless it is a win/win situation for me;)

[Captain_Stabbing]

I dont have too many troubles sinking them. Open your torp doors before the shot, then fire 2 electrics at it. I fire the first at the centre of the ship, and the second at the bow, and 9 times outta 10 I get to stick another flag on the periscope when I get home.

[melnibonian]

If you're hunting warships you should try to hit them in the amo bunkers or in the engine rooms. That way you can sink them with one torpedo. As far as DDs are concerned, make sure you set the running depth of the torpedo to 1m and the settings to fast. Also try to fire when the destroyer is between 400-1000m away from you. If it is further away he will listen to the torpedo and avoid it. If you fire from small distances electric or not the ship has no time to avoid the torpedo. Check out these links, they will help you aim at the correct areas

http://www.34thflotilla.com/resources/schiffskarte.pdf
http://www.34thflotilla.com/resources/shipchart.pdf

[nightdagger]

Only use steam fish at night. Even so, if you get within about 500m of their track and use fast, you can get a pretty good hit. Just remember to dive if they have buddies.

[USS Sea Tiger]

Maybe unortodoxed but it works

make sure your bow (or stern if you have stern tubes) is pointing straight at him, then when the dd is at 2000 yds or more , show my perescope until I know they see it,,

reverse engines for al they are worth, make him come straight at you, bow to bow Or stern to bow if you have aft tubes)

when he is at 450 yds, put the cross hair right on the tip of his bow, open the doors and turn loose your hound of war,, only one needed,

for me this is always a one shot one kill sur way to work, but you have to have nerves to not shoot too soon, 400 to 450 at the farthest.

I have killed about 30 dd's this way, only damaged myself once when his sinking hull drifted up and hit me,.

just my way though

[Torvald Von Mansee]

I remember I once saw a DD coming at me from straight ahead through my periscope. I did a 90 degree turn and cut my engines and waited on silent running. Sucker blew up real good!!!!

[TarJak]

I normally don't bother with DD's or DE's and only hit cruisers and up. That is unless the DD is a mug straight on stern shot from about 400m.

[Corsair]

Same here, don't see the idea about wasting torpedoes to sink DDs when you can use them on a large tanker or freighter ;)
As for warships, I would go only for light cruisers and above. Unfortunately when I meet them it's usually in bad weather, or they are too fast and off my course to catch them...:cry:
I normally don't sink them while they are in harbours are it's like shooting fish in a barrel, not much sport (except if it's a target of a specific mission order), and because historically U boats were not meant to raid harbours.

[peterloo]

Section A: Destroyers / Destroyer Escorts / Coverttes / Frigates

(a) Get close to them, more preferably <1500m

(b) Pop your periscope up, and open all your bow torpedo tubes

(c) Once the solutions are generated, input them into your fishs

(d) At this moment, you should be able to get very close to the warship (1000m)

(e) Fire a salvo to it. Use small salvo angle (You may wish to use magnetic detonators if weather allows for it) For T1, set speed to "FAST"

(f) Wait and see

(g) If the destroyers starts to evade (changing course and speed), that means that your torpedo are detected. Don't hesitate to rig for silent running and dive deep. (Pls notice that sometimes, even the destroyer starts evadion, he may not be able to escape from that fish.)

Section B: Other big stuffs

(a) Get close to target. Preferably <1500m

(b) Open torpedo tube doors, and fire a salvo to it

(No. of torpedoes needed for different ships vary. Usually more valuable ships such as carriers and battleships needs large amount to fish, however, for light cruisers, 2 working fish is enough)

(c) Wait and see

(d) After torpedo impact, destroyer will start to hunt for you. Dive deep and rig for silent running. Sneak away slowly. If you have BOLDS, try to eject 1 or 2. They help a lot

(e) Even the sonar contact of warships vanishes, don't attempt to surface at once, since other ships' radar may pick you up (especially in those heavy traffic places, where there are tons of patrol). Go back to periscope depth

(f) Only when you are >75km from the sinking place, surface and charge batteries, allow gas exchange... The most important thing --- put radar and watching crews on since planes will continue to search for you even though all destroyer have already left the scene

[deamyont]

A DD thats comming right for you can be distracted so you can evade him with a steam torpedo btw :O

[mookiemookie]

I normally don't bother with DD's or DE's and only hit cruisers and up. That is unless the DD is a mug straight on stern shot from about 400m.

Quoted for truth. In my opnion, the small amount of tonnage and renown earned makes it a waste of a perfectly good torpedo. Besides, you usually end up making more trouble for yourself than is necessary.

[Jimbuna]

Just a small hint/tip...when going for a stern shot try to ensure the eel can run for at least 300m thereby allowing it to 'arm' itself :up: