Excerpt from "Silent Sea" about Tankers

[banjo]

From "Silent Sea" by Harry Homewood:

"We've had reports from submarine Captains who tell us of hitting a tanker with as many as six torpedoes, hitting them in the sides of the hull. Those tankers are so compartmentalized that they can suck up a half-dozen torpedos at or below their waterlines."

Remarks from Admiral Christies staff.

[AVGWarhawk]

Just bought this book today:up:. Now I guess our tankers are set up like the RL counterpart.

[banjo]

I found the Prologue very insightful.

[AVGWarhawk]

I found it on Amazon for $12.50 and that included shipping:up:

[Silence]

So, what is the best way to sink one of these compartmentilized torpedo-proof ships?

[banjo]

I just tried something I discovered in SH3--shot torps at 3 tankers at the default depth. Sank two with two torps and one with 1 torp. It was always my opinion in SH3 that the default depth setting was as effective or more so than messing with them. I am beginning to think that's true in this game as well.

[Canonicus]

Thats a great read, mates......

...Homewood spins a story that's right up there with Beach :yep:

[sean705]

I only go for un-escorted tankers, the one in convoys I usually leave alone. I've found the best tactic for me is to put a few fish into the tanker to slow it down (usually trying to aim for the aft end) and then surface and use HE deck gun ammo to set her ablaze :arrgh!:

[Silence]

I only go for un-escorted tankers, the one in convoys I usually leave alone. I've found the best tactic for me is to put a few fish into the tanker to slow it down (usually trying to aim for the aft end) and then surface and use HE deck gun ammo to set her ablaze :arrgh!:

Thanks for the tip sean! Seems the deck gun is getting a lot of use. During my current mission I have sunk seven ships with it, and only used one torp!:D Saving me torps for the big stuff that shoots back. :ping:

[NefariousKoel]

I just tried something I discovered in SH3--shot torps at 3 tankers at the default depth. Sank two with two torps and one with 1 torp. It was always my opinion in SH3 that the default depth setting was as effective or more so than messing with them. I am beginning to think that's true in this game as well.

I've been mixing it back and forth too. It kinda seems that at default depth (or only slightly lower) it is most effective.

[donut]

The consensus is correct, they are tough! Tactic:the engine rm.is under the stack,
fuel storage,is right aft of crude bunkers,& 10 ft. below waterline,just fwd of aft bridge.try 2 torps in that sweet spot,leave her hove to,& gun her down,after you clean the convoy's clock,& all is cool. We did a photo op,and there was a lg.Tanker
in-port.After 2 fish to the fuel,she lit up,but had to shell her to get destroyed!:lol:

[Cap'n Crabs]

I agree with Banjo, large tankers aside, cause they are tough. But any other ship, I set my torps at 8-9 in depth and seem to have much more success than trying to set them deeper or under the keel. Shallow for the win! :up:

[Sailor Steve]

So, what is the best way to sink one of these compartmentilized torpedo-proof ships?
Try to break his back. Nobody sails away when he's in two pieces.

[Capt. D]

Thats a great read, mates......

...Homewood spins a story that's right up there with Beach :yep:


That's the sequal to Final Harbor another great read. If you read that first Silent Sea will fall in place very well.

Happy Hunting :ping:

[-Pv-]

If I get a good keel shot, it's very rare when I can't put a medium or smaller ship down with one or two torps. I've never had to fire more than 2 on large freighters or cruise ships if one of the hits was under the keel. I've never had a ship break in half unless one of the hits was a keel and those are satisfying enough to try for. I've also never had a ship keep going for very long after a keel hit even if the damage from it wasn't enough to sink it outright.
-Pv-

[gi_dan2987]

Every ship has some amount of armored plating set to a certain depth below the waterline. Some more than others both in thickness and depth. Your fish with impact fuses need to be below that armored jacket to be truly effective. The SH4 user manual comes with all that information, and how many evenly spaced torps it should take to sink various types of ships. It is effective and usually works to specs if they're deep enough and you've got enough hits according to tonnage and type. One thing I don't agree with is a 4"/50 Cal. Deck gun taking 90 seconds to reload :nope: specifications put the test fire rate at 8-9 shells per minute, or a shot every 5-6 seconds or so. I can understand bad weather increasing that time somewhat, but if it's calm enough to man the guns, then it's calm enough to keep up with those fire rates. Sure I can see ships taking multiple hits from AP shells at the waterline and still staying above water, but it shouldn't take no 100 shells to put down a fishing trawler :nope: IMO there is some tweaking that needs to be done with these issues in RFB 1.4

[Sailor Steve]

1. You're responding directly to a post made three years ago. This can be confusing unless you announce it first. I started to read the thread avidly and was thrown off when I saw I had posted in it all that time ago.

2. Since you're new, I'll explain the history of the deck gun problem in Silent Hunter. That discussion started late in 2005 when Beery created his Real U-Boat Mod, the first supermod for SH3, and picked up again in 2007 when he started Real Fleet Boat for SH4. The problem is that the game doesn't take into account diminished reload speeds with increasing weather, nor does it account for the time involved in targetting. Beery read every piece of information he could find and concluded that on average the guns were fired every ninety seconds or so in actual combat. This was confirmed by Der Teddy Bar when he started the work expanding RUB into NYGM and then took over development on RFB.

Yes, they could be reloaded and fired in four-to-six seconds, but in the Second World War no guns were gyro-stabilized. Gunners had to fire "on-the-roll", just as they had in the sailing-ship era. This involves waiting until the hull is, in the gunner's estimation, perfectly level. Prior to the war US battleships had what they called the "stable element", a gyro-computer which kept the guns from firing until the ship was level, but this applied to battleships only. Immediately post-war a gyro system was developed that synchronized the fire-control periscopes and gun barrels so they could be fired at any time and any angle, but submarines had long since done away with the deck gun and never had an actual gun fire control center anyway. Also the submarine is a very poor gun platform.

In calm seas the guns could be fired quickly, but the ocean is rarely calm and the gunner has to wait. I don't like waiting that long either, and in SH3 have mine adjusted to fire every 15 seconds for the 8.8cm and 20 seconds for the 10.5cm guns, roughly equivalent to the 3.5" and 4" guns in SH4. Then again I rarely use the gun if the weather is anything but calm.

[Daniel Prates]

Of course, everything said below will only make any in-game difference if the player is using some real-damage mod. Stock and TMO, as I understand it, do not depict specific softspots in the ships and damage is calculated bluntly.

[TorpX]

Sure I can see ships taking multiple hits from AP shells at the waterline and still staying above water, but it shouldn't take no 100 shells to put down a fishing trawler :nope: IMO there is some tweaking that needs to be done with these issues in RFB 1.4

I play RFB 2.0 and I consider it to be too easy to sink things with the deck gun (4 inch). Once, the crew of the Tang had a gun duel with a armed yacht. They ran low on ammunition and had to submerge without sinking it. On the other hand, in the game, I was able to chase down and sink a medium sized freighter and sink it with 60 rds. or so.



(BTW, I made the same mistake Sailor did reading the thread from the start as though it was posted recently.)