To ram or not to ram?

[siber]

Grid Square BE63, July 5th 1941.

U-86 is returning from patrol, having sunk 52,000 tonnes. The ship carries no further torpedoes and has been instructed to return to St. Nazaire to rearm and refuel. Even though the boat's been attacking convoys, she hasn't even had a sniff of a depth charge. The British must be losing their touch...

At 5.15, the watchman sights a ship: A medium liner, 18,000 tonnes of troopship under a British merchant navy flag. The captain rushes to the bridge and curses his luck. With no torpedoes, and a 13m/s wind rushing over the bows, all the can do is watch as the soldiers sail away to the African front; the swell preventing use of the deck gun.

But the officer of the watch has an idea: "Herr Kaleun... Let us ram the liner!". The captain considers the plan. The bow, moving at 15kts, would make a sizable hole in the ship, but would probably cause serious damage to the u-boat. On one hand, thousands of troops arriving safely in timely fashion on the African front. On the other, the lives of his crew; the condition of his boat; the reprimand he'd get for taking the u-boat out of service for 6 month for repairs...

What to do, what to do? :hmm:

[papa_smurf]

Don't do it - that would certainly sink your U-boat.

[Redshirt]

Follow the sucker and pray for clear weather before you have to break off to refuel, and while trailing him send out a few contact reports you might at least be able to direct a friendly into do the dirty work

[ChrisG2100]

I rammed a destroyer and sank it. U boat was fine. GWX 1.03 and 83% realism. Just love the free view.

[Brag]

What to do? Head for your base and have a drink :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[Sailor Steve]

Indeed. The game lets you get away with stupid human tricks. I try not to do things that would get me killed in real life.

[NealT]

Would not do it. At least not in real world...and not when playing DID.

[-SWCowboy.]

If you can't dodge it, ram it!!!

Oh wait....wrong reference :nope:

[bookworm_020]

Trail it for as long as you can and see if the weather improves!

[siber]

The Kaleun made a snap decision: "Right full rudder! Make course parallel to the liner... Both engines ahead full!" U-86 throbbed as her diesel engines roared at high speed. Soon the sub was cutting through the water at 14 kts; a miracle considering the heavy seas...

But it was no good. The liner was off the bow at 100 degrees to port and 3km distant. Her weave showed that her crew had spotted us, yet regardless of her waving course, her powerful engines meant that she was slowly overtaking the u-boat.

The watch-crew looked on, powerless to stop or even slow her down. As the ship outrun the sub, the Kaleun knew that he pursued a futile cause: The liner was just too quick. Once again he cursed the weather for putting the deck gun beyond reach and ordered cruise speed and a course home.

Secretly, the crew felt relieved that the liner's speed made ramming impossible: they weren't particularly happy about colliding the front of their ship into the liner's hull - their bedding arrangements were nasty enough without the addition of flooding.

Two days later, they arrived back in St. Nazaire to a hero's welcome, penants flying for the ships they HAD sunk.

[BulSoldier]

I always leave one torpedo when start the long journey home.

[Gezoes]

Yep, me too :smug:

[Jimbuna]

I agree with both bookworm_020 and BulSoldier :yep:

However, the latter suggestion is often the hardest one to adhere to :lol:

[Jonathan]

Probably the smartest move is not the easiet to make.\

Also, the only time that I have rammed a ship...nothing happened to the ship that I rammed and my 'boot was damanged very little.

[GoldenRivet]

a 50K+ ton patrol is a good haul.

ramming the ship would do little damage to it in the end i think.

I used to consider the ramming tactic when i first started playing the game, but it didnt take me long to realize that i was simply surrendering to what i called "the white whale syndrome". Like captain Ahab... i would be obsessed with sending that last 7500 tons to the bottom - fixated solely on sinking that final boat often cost me injured crew, dead crew, or the whole boat and the whole crew... and very rarely resulted in any sinking results and even when i did manage sinking results it was NEVER worth the damage and lost crew.

occasionally that last 25% hull integrity (if you play with that option ON) would be the difference between surviving a close call air attack or never making it home.

sometimes you just have to stare at the targets through the binoculars with a look of patient dissapointment on your face.