Sinking a merchant with AA gun?

[Ronin1975]

Hi, yesterday I encounterd a merchant and fired my last torpedo at her. It was a hit, but she didn't sink. So I surfaced and orderd my deck gun crew to open fire upon the merchant. It did take a long time...too long for me and I decided to help by shooting with the AA gun. The merchant was shooting at us as well.

All of a sudden explosions occurd everywhere I shoot and she started sinking.

So my thoughts are:

1) When i order my deck gun crew to shoot at her water line, can I shoot at the Merchant gunners with the AA gun. Can you actually kill enemy sailors (specially their gunners?)

Usually I never use my AA guns, when a plane contact is made, I dive and I dive deep. So it would be kinda nice to use the AA gun at merchants.
:arrgh!:

[Sledgehammer427]

answer to question (1)
for some odd reason, when i try to hit the men crewing the guns aboard enemy merchants, they just dont die....but, again for some strange reason, all the other men cower in fear and subsequently die when i hit a bunch of crates nearby

odd occurances, i keep hearing "the philadelphia experiment"....invincible DG crews.

-edit: of course i forget the point behind this reply, but every person has their tastes about sinking island-nation steel. if i get mad i rake the decks with the AA so dont feel alone, but im not sure if you would want to just use AA rounds, but im sure you know this, therefore negating the last remark

[Mush Martin]

its been my experience that you can knock out individual gun mounts.

[Overkill]

its been my experience that you can knock out individual gun mounts.

With the deck gun or AA guns?

[Schnee]

....I guess it depends on the calibre of the AA gun. With .50 cal/20 mm, I've found them to be borderline useless even on fishing vessels. However, once I acquired a Balao class and upgraded the AA mounts to 40 mm, its easy to sink fishing vessels.

Don't know how effective it would be on merchents - I suspect the ship would have to be really crippled and you would have to get pretty up close and personal to do thew job. Even then it would take awhile.

As an aside - does anybody find the Jap gunners to be a little TOO good? Even at 2500 - 3000 yds?

[Ronin1975]

Thanks for the replies fellows

As an aside - does anybody find the Jap gunners to be a little TOO good? Even at 2500 - 3000 yds?

Yeah I do, even when the weather is bad they shoot very very good. Lots of hits on my beloved sub

[Tim Stan Armstrong]

Yeah i'll second that they are extreamly accurate, i had a DD land all shells from two salvos at about 8000yards:o Starting to think the japs really do have radar.

[les green01]

i have kill crew with the aa my tatic is to manuver where i can bring every weapon to bear on the sailors and bridge and let it rip from bow to stern as the deckgun allso firing if they not dieing they sure a dodging lmao

[JoeCorrado]

You can sink a Saipan with the 20mm - that's about it.

[banjo]

You can polish off a damaged merchie with the 40 mm. I don't know if you can sink an undamaged one. I frequently man the 40 mm and help my gun crew finish a already damaged ship.

[tomoose]

I've nailed the deck guns found on some merchants with my own deck gun but they continue to fire so, in my experience, you cannot "take out" a merchant's armament, the damage is only against the ship proper.:-?

I've seen the AA cause damage (small explosions) to merchants but I've never wasted a lot of ammo from my own AA on a ship as I might need it against aircraft if I'm limping home etc.:hmm:

[Bulleye]

You can take out the deck guns on enemy merchants, it's tough, but it can be done.
The deck guns are small targets, so to hit them you have to get very close and even then it'll take a lot of rounds 'cause you'll often miss them.

I've taken out enemy guns with my deck gun, and the 40 mm AA gun.
20 mm wont cause any damage to the gun, it won't even hurt the gun crew even though you see your rounds hit those guys. I think its probably realistic that you can't destroy an enemy deck with your 20 mill, but knocking out the crew should be possible. (Unless the had 20 mm resistent special kevlar body armor.)

O, and yess you can strafe the decks with your 20 mills and shoot the crew, but whats the point? I my opinion it's a waste of ammo, better used on enemy aircraft (if for some reason you do not decide to dive).

And finaly, yes you can sink the realy small stuff, quite easily, with the 20 mm's.
It's actualy faster to sink 'em with the 20 mm's then with the deck gun. That's because you can pour a whole lotta rounds in short time. You chew up those sampans and what not in no time at all.

[Red Devil]

You can sink a Saipan with the 20mm - that's about it. .............. a whole island!!!!! :rotfl: