Anyone else use this convoy tactic?

[scalelokt]

I've been trying a new convoy tactic just for fun more than anything, so far it seems promising but I need to practice it more. Basically the idea is to destroy all the escorts and then the Convoy is unprotected. What I do is sit silently in the path of the convoy and then destroy the lead escort. Not hard to do if they dont know you are there. Its then that things get interesting of course, because usually 3 escorts start toward you full speed. So I've figured out a way to deal with them (using manual targeting). It's probably not realistic, I cant imagine a real u-boat captain ever taking this kind of chance, but what I do is pretty much let them know where I am on purpose and watch the TDC screen map. When they get close enough they stop zig zagging and make a straight line for you, at around 450 meters usually. When they do I fire a torpedo set to fast speed and magnetic pistol, I'd say at least 80% of the time I get a hit. Where I run into trouble is it never fails that at least one of the DD's comes at me at a 90 degree angle where I cant fire at him, and I'm forced to dive. But if I can just get lucky one of these times, and have them all come at me from the front or rear, I think I could take them all out with this method. How sweet would that be, to have the entire convoy unprotected, hell you could just do deck gun attacks and close range torpedo shots and take out the entire convoy. Definitly easier said than done though, like I said, I havent been able to pull it off yet. Just wondering, has anyone else tried this? Or any other strategy that involves killing off the escorts first??

[banshee555]

I think your tactic is more down to luck realy.i have seen some convoys with up to 6 escorts 2 black swans,2 flowers and 2 or more hunter class,so trying to take all them out is a near impossible task.but keep trying and see how you do.

good luck

regurds
karl

[GoldenRivet]

I have used this tactic in the past with a fair degree of success, the only problem with it is that it eats up a large number of torpedos if the escort group consists of enough ships.

One thing i used to do is pick off the lead around sunrise, then dive away and escape.

i would stalk them until about noon then pick off one of the smaller escorts, then dive away and escape coming back for another round at sunset.

It was an effective way to exterminate the escorts but they change direction frequently, and trying to get in close enough to place a shot can prove dangerous espeically using GWX. especially since you sink the escorts just to find out that half the merchant fleet is armed.

meanwhile the fleet steams on toward ever shallowing waters placing you in an increasingly compromising situation.

just remember, you can sink all the warships you want... they will be replaced by months end and your up against the largest navys in the world.

the real goal is to put rifles, ammo, shells, oil, food, trucks, tanks, guns, machine parts, tools, fuel and the like at the bottom of the ocean where the allies cant use them and the only way to do that is to sink merchants.

in short its a fair tactic if you find yourself in deep water against a small merchant fleet.

but if its a large fleet, the number of escorts may outnumber your torpedos! and even if you manage to take them all out you have to have smooth seas to use the deck gun... and there are only so many shells on your U-boat.

[mookiemookie]

Nope. I save my torpedoes for merchants. More tonnage and more renown! The only warships I go after are BB's, carriers and cruisers.

I'll put a stern shot down a destroyer's throat if I'm in a pinch and can't get down fast enough, but that's the exception and not the rule.

[Pevs86]

I will definatly be targeting the Escorts when I get some acoustic guided Torps, but only AFTER I've been detected, otherwise I'll slip away and rise again!

[scalelokt]

Good feedback friends :)

You all make good points, some convoys simply have more escorts than we have torpedos, in that case the whole idea of killing the escorts first is a waste of time. Early in the war though I see several convoys with no more than 4 escorts, I'm just waiting for the time when everything plays out perfectly and I wipe them all out, then the convoy will just be sitting ducks. Dont get me wrong though, I'm not trying to sell this as a good tactic, really its a terrible one that rarely works and most of the merchants end up going free. Just doing it for fun more than anything else. So have any of you actually destroyed all the escorts and had a convoy all to yourself? Thats one feat I have never seen anyone on this forum say they have done.

[Khourieat]

Good feedback friends :)

You all make good points, some convoys simply have more escorts than we have torpedos, in that case the whole idea of killing the escorts first is a waste of time. Early in the war though I see several convoys with no more than 4 escorts, I'm just waiting for the time when everything plays out perfectly and I wipe them all out, then the convoy will just be sitting ducks. Dont get me wrong though, I'm not trying to sell this as a good tactic, really its a terrible one that rarely works and most of the merchants end up going free. Just doing it for fun more than anything else. So have any of you actually destroyed all the escorts and had a convoy all to yourself? Thats one feat I have never seen anyone on this forum say they have done.

I did once when there was only one escort :up:

[scalelokt]

There was only one? Wow havent seen that yet. So I assume afterward you wiped out whatever it was protecting?

[Brag]

Skalelokt:
I think your tactic would work , if you do it in three diffrent attacks (assuming 3 escorts). Take out the unsuspecting lead first, then repeat the performance for two successive night attacks :D Look ay my thread of Enough DC's

[bb-subs]

I just did a patrol of AN 81 and picked up a big convoy, fun times begin.

I hit a transport, then I stern shot into a V-W dd, then I had to take on the next V-W and sink it. This left the back of the convoy to me.
As I went in I got a large cargo ship, when the corvettes started after me they were dropping DC's in the wrong place and I was watching them, suddenly one has an explosion and is dead in the water.
This left two dd's and two corvettes so I went in again, this time a passanger/cargo. The escorts came after me but this I decided enough and left. The reason the first corvette blew when I went external view. MINES!!!
What brush with death.

But yes sometimes it is nice to even the odds a little. Convoy before this I sunk a armed trawler and a dd before going in.

Grant+:doh:

[Mav87th]

In my Karlün days we never wasted torpedos on escorts. They were soly used on the transports.

What i did was the overtake and slip in through the usual gap in the forward quater of the convoy. Then i would shoot rear torpedo first, then the front torpedos. Then move submerged at 20 ft. and Flank speed for about 1-2 min's in the direction of the convoy. That would most of the time have the side DD's and rear DD's react to my first attack and steam in on the "last known position" that i was racing away from. But they would rearly get close enough to get a soundlocation fix on me before i slowed down again. AKA i was in the clear for a new attack while they droped DC's on the wrong spot and generaly just made a mess up for the convoy and slowed it down letting me get into an even better position.

Racing at 20 ft. was allso my favourite tactic in the overtake it self in the event that one of the DD's protecting the side of the convoy detected me somehow. If a DD started to beam in on me i would first change course to directly away from the DD (usualy a 80 - 90 deg turn away from the convoy) and race ahead on Flank speed. Then i would dive at the moment he made his first gun shot at me. Dive to Periscope depth. Still in Flank and then make a turn back to convoy heading. I would then periodicaly check the DD's distance to me and when he had closed to about 4000 meters i would decrease the speed down in steps to 2 kts. and then slowly tiptoe away. This maneuvre would make the DD "calculate" a "proberble spot" for me that would be off with 90 deg's and the speed vector of 19 kts compared to my real course and the submerged Flank speed. The submerged Flank speed were sufficient to take me out of his search pattern and leave him searching for nothing while i could continue on convoy course (albeit on 2 kts untill i was either far enough from the DD or he left to join the convoy again).

[Pevs86]

I've only ever had one occasion of a single escorted Convoy, was Stock SHIII, somewhere in the Atlantic - forget where - anyway it was in 1940, so I bumped off the DD and just surfaced and pounded the convoy with my 88... good times...

[kiwi_2005]

I will do that tactic only if theirs 1 or 2 escorts. Usually tho its more like 4 to 6 escorts.

[STEED]

I only target one ship and that one is a big one, give it a full salvo then move off to hide from the angry destroyers. Or if I am lucky like the destroyers are X,Y and Z reasons I may target a second ship.

[andy_311]

I have in the past took the escorts out,but now I try and leave them aloneand concentrate on the merchants, apart from the lead escort will take him out 90% of the time because I normally attack a convoy head on.

[difool2]

just remember, you can sink all the warships you want... they will be replaced by months end and your up against the largest navys in the world.

the real goal is to put rifles, ammo, shells, oil, food, trucks, tanks, guns, machine parts, tools, fuel and the like at the bottom of the ocean where the allies cant use them and the only way to do that is to sink merchants.

Strategically you could make the argument that it might make sense for Doenitz to
have his boys focus on killing escorts for say a year, then ravage the escort-poor
convoys after that. The Germans made the same mistake in the air in 1943-44 by
pretty much ignoring Allied escorts and beelining straight for the bombers.

[The_Rus]

Well I was AM52 and ran up on a convoy, in perfect weather that had only two escorts.:D This is the convoy, all British and full of large merchants and large cargos, it also had a medium tanker and a whale factory ship.:o Line a shoot the lead escort one with a trop and the other with the deck gun. After that went to town, sank like 5 C3 and 3 large merchants. :up: That patrol I finally got 100k. Actually I got about 18 ships, all in AM52. After I ran out of ammunition two planes showed up and I dived.

[C-4]

Once I encountered a convoy early in the war. It overtook me and I got frustrated, so I surfaced at all ahead flank, armed my deck gun and fired away at the Flower, managed to put her on fire and possibly sunk her (can't recall). In any case she was disabled. :)

The plan worked perfectly until another Flower and a Black Swan decided to join the party. My deck gun didn't fare well against those guys. I managed to retreat to the depth and repair damage, and once I got back to base, I had something like 2% hull integrity left, as I recall.


I'll never try that one again.
C-4

[mookiemookie]

just remember, you can sink all the warships you want... they will be replaced by months end and your up against the largest navys in the world.

the real goal is to put rifles, ammo, shells, oil, food, trucks, tanks, guns, machine parts, tools, fuel and the like at the bottom of the ocean where the allies cant use them and the only way to do that is to sink merchants.
Strategically you could make the argument that it might make sense for Doenitz to
have his boys focus on killing escorts for say a year, then ravage the escort-poor
convoys after that. The Germans made the same mistake in the air in 1943-44 by
pretty much ignoring Allied escorts and beelining straight for the bombers.

They had way more destroyer escorts than you could sink without crushing losses to your U-boat fleet. Meanwhile, the cargo tonnage would be getting through, and they could rebuild DE's a lot faster than they could ever be sunk. Would never have worked.

[AndyW]

The escorts I like most are the ones most far away from me. :know:

As I'm playing in 1944 anyway, I'd have to use all my torps on convoy escorts. I don't even have a deck gun anymore.

Cheers,
AndyW

[Brag]

Well I was AM52 and ran up on a convoy, in perfect weather that had only two escorts.:D This is the convoy, all British and full of large merchants and large cargos, it also had a medium tanker and a whale factory ship.:o Line a shoot the lead escort one with a trop and the other with the deck gun. After that went to town, sank like 5 C3 and 3 large merchants. :up: That patrol I finally got 100k. Actually I got about 18 ships, all in AM52. After I ran out of ammunition two planes showed up and I dived.

Welcome aboard this nest of ruffians. :up:

[RawRecruit]

Well I was AM52 and ran up on a convoy, in perfect weather that had only two escorts.:D This is the convoy, all British and full of large merchants and large cargos, it also had a medium tanker and a whale factory ship.:o Line a shoot the lead escort one with a trop and the other with the deck gun. After that went to town, sank like 5 C3 and 3 large merchants. :up: That patrol I finally got 100k. Actually I got about 18 ships, all in AM52. After I ran out of ammunition two planes showed up and I dived.

I've encountered such a convoy too, but I was running low on torps so I concentrated on the big merchies. Some were armed so the deck gun wasn't an option.

[Hans-Ulrich Rudel]

In the early part of the war, it makes sense to try and sink all the escorts, since armed merchant men are far and few between. I have on several occasions wiped out the entire escort, which of course lets me tackle the unprotected convoy at leisure. See below at patrol no 8. as can be seen 11 ships were sunk, the computer program refused to give me the three destroyers I sunk, 2 were sunk with a deck gun and the other tried to ram me, and it sunk itself with its own its depth charges, that what I call justice! So yes I sunk the entire convoy lol.

PERSONNEL FILE

Name: HANS RUDEL
Date of Birth: 18MAR17
Place of Birth: BERLIN-SCHÖNEBERG
Date of Intake: 01APR34 (CREW 34)

Promotions
15DEC34 SEEKADETT
01DEC35 FÄHNRICH Z. S.
01JUL37 OBERFÄHNRICH Z. S.
01DEC37 LEUTNANT Z. S.
27OCT39 OBERLEUTNANT Z. S.
29AUG40 KAPITÄNLEUTNANT

Medals
09OCT39 IRON CROSS, SECOND CLASS
27OCT39 IRON CROSS, FIRST CLASS
11NOV39 GERMAN CROSS
13NOV39 KNIGHT'S CROSS
04JAN40 KNIGHT'S CROSS WITH OAK LEAVES
19JAN40 KNIGHT'S CROSS WITH OAK LEAVES AND SWORDS
02MAR40 KNIGHT'S CROSS WITH OAK LEAVES, SWORDS, AND DIAMONDS
23JUL40 KNIGHT'S CROSS WITH GOLDEN OAK LEAVES, SWORDS, AND DIAMONDS

Badges
26SEP39 U-BOAT FRONT CLASP
27OCT39 U-BOAT BADGE

U-Bootwaffe Postings
11FEB39 U-Boat Flotilla Weddigen (Commander training)
01SEP39 2nd Flotilla (19 patrols)

U-Boat Commands
01SEP39 U-52, Type VIIB (19 patrols)

Patrol Dates Ships Sunk
(Merchant/Warship) Tonnage
(Merchant/Warship) Comments
1 01SEP39 - 13SEP39 (13 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0)
2 14SEP39 - 26SEP39 (13 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0)
3 27SEP39 - 09OCT39 (13 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0) U-Boat damaged (H.I. 94.68%)
4 15OCT39 - 27OCT39 (13 days) 4 (4/0) 13087 (13087/0)
5 28OCT39 - 11NOV39 (15 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0)
6 12NOV39 - 12NOV39 (1 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0)
7 13NOV39 - 13NOV39 (1 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0) U-Boat damaged (H.I. 79.10%)
8 06DEC39 - 19DEC39 (14 days) 11 (11/0) 51327 (51327/0) U-Boat damaged (H.I. 99.88%)
9 20DEC39 - 04JAN40 (16 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0)
10 05JAN40 - 12JAN40 (8 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0)
11 13JAN40 - 19JAN40 (7 days) 2 (2/0) 9670 (9670/0) U-Boat damaged (H.I. 73.68%)
12 15FEB40 - 20FEB40 (6 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0)
13 21FEB40 - 02MAR40 (11 days) 1 (1/0) 5374 (5374/0)
14 03MAR40 - 09MAR40 (7 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0)
15 10MAR40 - 10MAR40 (1 days) 0 (0/0) 0 (0/0) U-Boat damaged (H.I. 26.46%)
16 31MAY40 - 18JUN40 (19 days) 2 (2/0) 4766 (4766/0) U-Boat damaged (H.I. 88.19%)
17 30JUN40 - 23JUL40 (24 days) 1 (1/0) 2303 (2303/0)
18 24JUL40 - 15AUG40 (23 days) 2 (2/0) 12613 (12613/0)
19 16AUG40 - 29AUG40 (14 days) 4 (4/0) 27749 (27749/0)
TOTALS: 19 patrols (219 days) 27 (27/0) 126889 (126889/0) 0 enemy planes downed
0 crew lost

I of course have made mods to the program, I only spend one day in port. Note the dates, it has only been one year, and I already have 127,000 Tonns. And have set my 88mm deck gun to fire at 1 second intervals. I use the deck gun when ever I can.

I have found that the best way to tackle a Destroyer is to head at it, flat out moving the scope up and down to see where he is, as he is coming straight for me, I set up the rear tube torpedo at 1.5 meters depth and make sure the tube door is open. When he is approximately 300 meters away I will bring my U-boat about 15 degrees to port, I will then raise my scope up to it full height and lock on and identify him. If you do it right he will not have time to ram you, as that is what he is trying to do,(sometimes he will ram you and sink only himself, but that is rare) As he passes you keep locked , and identify him, as he begins his turn let loose the torpedo at about 65 to 80 meters. With practice you can kill him 50% of the time, saving your game will of course give you as many shots as you like. I am well aware that NO commander would in real life attempt this as it would be madness, but this is a game, and to me the idea of the game is to beat the AI of the program. I found though that maybe the AI learns, what you are about and that after sinking lots of destroyers that the AI will not allow you to do it anymore. Well that is what happened to me, I had to save my games with commander, and reinstall the game, now I find that the destroyers are easy meat again. Please note that this is only my opinion, feedback would be appreciated. Thanks again for the forum guys and gals. Lol I became so addicted that I lashed out $3400 on a new computer, I think that in the past three weeks I have logged about 250 hours real time on this game. I think I have a problem!!

[STEED]

23JUL40 KNIGHT'S CROSS WITH GOLDEN OAK LEAVES, SWORDS, AND DIAMONDS

Hog Wash. :rotfl: :rotfl:

http://uboat.net/men/decorations/ritter.htm

[winniepoo10]

Steed,

What is Hog Wash? The medal is valid or the fact he won it in 1940!!

Jason Winthrop
Nooblietnant 1st class

[mookiemookie]

Steed,

What is Hog Wash? The medal is valid or the fact he won it in 1940!!

Jason Winthrop
Nooblietnant 1st class
I'm guessing that he's laughing about that fact that only one was ever awarded, and it went to a pilot and not a U-boat man