Attacking Convoy Escort

[HikeMacD]

Bear with me folks as 'm still new to this game. I'm in the process of shadowing a convoy and waiting until dark to set up my attack. Convoy has 2 escorts, front and rear. My plan is to get ahead of the convoy and try to come in perpindicular but the darn escort zig zagging throws me off. If I wanted to sink the escort while it's zigging and zagging what is the best plan of attck for this? BTW I think it's a VW(?) class and I'm in December 1939. Can't remember since I'm not at that computer right now.

[GoldenRivet]

the escort will zig zag out ahead of the convoy... but he will make a Bee Line back to his station when he has zig zagged out a certain distance. the best time to engage him is when he is making this direct course back to the convoy.

I would NOT recommend shooting at him while he is maneuvering... he may detect the torpedo and go on alert and try to engage you when you miss.

good luck.

PS... also be aware that the other escort will respond by making as direct a course as possible to his stricken friend. so just because you sink one, dont assume it is safe. you can either wait for the other escort to approach or you can get out of the area and try another attack on the other escort later.

[Umfuld]

Are you planning a surface attack? If so, good luck. But I can't help you, I'm too much of a coward. :lol:

But if you can get into position underwater with silent running you should be able to get by the escort no matter what zig zagging he's doing.
As long as you keep your AOB fairly small to them as they pass they can sail by at 1000m and not detect you. That early in the war it shouldn't be a problem. Though sometimes they may get lucky. Just try not to cut it so close he blindly steams over you.


Moving so slow with silent running it can be tough to get close to your target that way. Tough, but not impossible.


As far as shooting at a zig zagging target - that's what multiple spread shots are for. Though who wants to use 3 torpedos on a small warship just before heading in to attack fat merchants? That's why it's best not to attack the escort unless you are planning on taking them both out.
If you can do that - the entire convoy is yours. Tempting, no?


If you want to try it with only one torp, anticipate the direction he is zig zagging.

In other words, if his AOB is 60, and then a few seconds later it's 63 then he's turning toward 90 degrees. Which means he will be further along than your solution is predicting.
If his AOB is 60 and then it goes to 57, he's turning toward you. And your solution will lead him too much.

So you can unlock your scope and either aim behind or ahead of what your solution is, depending on what way he's turning.

Basically, if you get 1000m or closer, just a slight adjustment should be okay. If he's much further away than that, it probably isn't worth the attempt.

[candy2500]

i don't know, if it was me i would forget the escorts and go right for the meat and potatoes, attacking the escort will most likely alert the hole convoy and they will all be zig zagging all over the place. and i like to shoot at the farthest target first and work in to the closest target so the torpedo's will get there around the same time cause once one torpedo hits they will all start to change course and if you have a torpedo that still likes a minute or so its almost always a miss.

[GoldenRivet]

i don't know, if it was me i would forget the escorts and go right for the meat and potatoes, attacking the escort will most likely alert the hole convoy and they will all be zig zagging all over the place. and i like to shoot at the farthest target first and work in to the closest target so the torpedo's will get there around the same time cause once one torpedo hits they will all start to change course and if you have a torpedo that still likes a minute or so its almost always a miss.

Typically this is true. and under most tactical situations your 100% correct.

But as Hike stated, there are only two escorts in this convoy, and seeing that it is December of 1939 if he rids the convoy of the two escorts the man stands a fair chance of racking up some decent tonage since the merchants are not likely to be armed. even if they did zig zag, they would only do so for a short period of time, or as long as the u-boat was detected and present... he could easily re-establish a firing position hours later and eradicate the entire convoy with the escorts out of the picture.

Normally, I would say ignore the escorts, and strike the merchants for all its worth. But in the given scenario... i might be prone to do just the opposite. even if there are only a hand full of merchants in this convoy, sinking the escorts would only consume two or perhaps three torpedoes... and the rest could be claimed with the deck gun and a few fish here and there on the fat ones.

By eliminating the escorts, he stands a fair chance of erasing the entire convoy from the war.

[HikeMacD]

Things didn't go quite the way I wanted. I decided to ignore the escorts because I only had half my topedoes left. I shadowed the convoy from about 11km away until dark. I set up the attack but didn't realize Bernard had snuck on before I left Kiel. :down:

I fired on eel and thought I had given the order to fire tube 2 but apparently Bernard never relayed it. :damn: So while I'm wondering why shot number 2 hasn't hit anything I'm not diving or evading. By the time I realize what I'm not doing the escorts are coming my way to say hello. I got lucky that time and got away fairly easily and set up another attck run for a few hours later. This time the attack went smooth. Sunk a troop transport and a tanker.:rock: But apparently Bernard had stepped in as navigator and didn't check the depth under keel. :shifty: So while I was diving and changing course I bounced off the ocean floor and damged my bow quarters. So much for silent running, I had to blow ballast to get up to 65 meters and stop some flooding. I might as well have sent up flare. The escorsts were after me for about an hour before they gave up. I only took minimal DC damgage to my deck gun but I figured after this adventure I wanted nothing else to do with this convoy. :D

[GoldenRivet]

a troop ship and a tanker is a good haul.

Axis annie is proud of you...

... http://www.thepinupfiles.com/images/KBS-Bawidamann-PanzerMadchen-LG.jpg