What do you do when damaged?

[meduza]

What level of damage would you consider as critical, enough to force you to return home?

In my previous careers I hardly ever returned home even with heavy damage. Once I was bombed while schnorkeling, lost both periscopes, but continued patrol, hunting on surface at night.
Attack on a convoy with damaged boat spelled the end of my last career :dead:. I think I'll have to change something. :D

I wonder, what do you do in similar situations? Return home, continue patrol but avoid danger, or act as if nothing has happened?

[Contact]

I would return home immediatly if I loose the ability of stealth fight. Since it is the major priority of the every submarine. Wounded wolf is a bad hunter, so it is wise to know when to retreat and instead of try fighting today and die, have another go tomorrow with double luck :)

[Jimbuna]

I consider critical damage is when I estimate hull integrity to be approx 30%.

If both scopes get destroyed I do what happened in RL.....consider myself blind and return to base.

[Task Force]

For me, It depends on where im at, if I can rest on the bottom and repair, I will. If the water is too deep, I attempt to maintain depth untill my flooding has stopped.

If im too damaged, I will RTB, and if I am lightly to moderately damaged, I will continue patrol. (ex: DC hits above deck gun, sub shooken up by a close DC hit.)

[mookiemookie]

Depends on what the damages are. If your hull integrity is low enough so that you're going to have trouble getting under 100 m, I'd head home. Deck gun, aft torpedo tube damages....meh, doesn't matter much. Periscope damages are a definate RTB.

IRL Peter Cremer of U-333 stayed on patrol in the Caribbean after being rammed by the SS British Prestige causing this damage:

http://www.uboat.net/photos/u333-damages.jpg

[Task Force]

:o wow, his bow was split open. just goes to show, uboats can take a beating.:yep:

[Hanomag]

Using GWX, if a Seagull craps on my bow it usually causes enough damage for me to return home... :lol: JK!

Seriously... No scopes, I am outta there!! Or no functional tubes!!!

I wonder how that Uboat pictured above kept there bow above water all the way back from the Carib! YIKES! :up:

[meduza]

Thanks for your input, mates! It's just hard for me to return to base with torpedoes in the tubes. I say to myself I have to go home and repair, but there's another voice saying - sink just one more ship. :lol:

[Task Force]

Using GWX, if a Seagull craps on my bow it usually causes enough damage for me to return home... :lol: JK!

Seriously... No scopes, I am outta there!! Or no functional tubes!!!

I wonder how that Uboat pictured above kept there bow above water all the way back from the Carib! YIKES! :up:

I think that it got home with this damage without sinking because it didnt breach the pressure hull. (Ill see what else I can find out on Uboat.net, or the web.):yep:

[Brag]

The damage to that boat is on the casing, not the pressure hull.

As far as me. If I have something like 20% estimated damage, this seriously diminshes the depth one can dive to. Time to go home.

[meduza]

Isn't 20%, or 30% too much damage to continue patrol? I guess that would mean that the crush depth is somewhere around 50m.

[Silverleaf]

If I can stay at Periscope depth and have 1 torpedo tube and 1 periscope working, I'll continue to fight.

If I lose either of the latter, and repairs can't fix it at sea - it's RTB

[A Very Super Market]

Honestly, I've never been in a situation where I could go home. I either take no damage at all (or very little), or get Depth Charged to bits.

[Weiss Pinguin]

If I lose my scopes, part of my engine capability (Especially any damage to batteries), or steerage/depth control, well, game over - I'm headed home. Unless there's a carrier/battleship right on top of me, and then I'm going to take her down or die trying. :lol:

[mookiemookie]

Using GWX, if a Seagull craps on my bow it usually causes enough damage for me to return home... :lol: JK!

Seriously... No scopes, I am outta there!! Or no functional tubes!!!

I wonder how that Uboat pictured above kept there bow above water all the way back from the Carib! YIKES! :up:
I think that it got home with this damage without sinking because it didnt breach the pressure hull. (Ill see what else I can find out on Uboat.net, or the web.):yep:
I took this from U-333 captain Peter Cremer's book U-Boat Commander:


Seen in daylight, things were bad enough for us and we lost no time in effecting jury repairs with whatever lay to hand. In the National Socialist state, 1 May was known as Tag der Arbeit (Work Day) which it had certainly become for U-333. While the sun shone down on us and a fresh breeze aired the surfaced boat my people toiled away until sweat ran down their naked chests. Two thirds of the conning tower casing, which had crumpled like paper, was burned off, the rotating direction finder was made watertight with wooden pegs and cement, the conduit in the conning tower was welded together, and various other repairs carried out. In our area of operations we hardly needed net cutters, direction finding off the Spanish coast lay a long time ahead and by then I would have thought of something. In place of the underwater aiming sight I set some binoculars on top facing forward, meaning to aim with the whole boat and hoping that the greater accuracy would enable me to get within a stone's throw of the enemy.

Although the crew's manual abilities proved themselves once again and we were fully optimistic, a subsequent test dive produced an uncontrollable leak. From somewhere there was a continual trickle which collected below in the bilges and required constant pumping, without which it would have built up dangerously-and increased the weight of the boat. We could hardly think of lengthy passages underwater or lying on the bottom, and at greater depths the pumps would barely be able to work against the outside pressure. On top of this, we had only three torpedo tubes in working order, numbers one, three and five. The other two refused to budge.

Strictly speaking, we were operational to a limited extent. No one would have reproached me if I had broken off the patrol and turned back. It had not been my fault. All the same, in war one may count on some luck and I had already heard so much about the Straits of Florida that I hoped to recapture it there. This was the summary of my thoughts and I wrote briefly in the log: "Intention - ahead into the Straits of Florida. Surfaced by day and in no circumstances return home without steamer."
I think it's safe to say that Peter Cremer had a set of brass balls. :o

[Paul_IronCoffin]

If I lose my scopes, part of my engine capability (Especially any damage to batteries), or steerage/depth control, well, game over - I'm headed home. Unless there's a carrier/battleship right on top of me, and then I'm going to take her down or die trying. :lol:

I'm with this... if I lose my scopes then I'm headed back to bed. The only other time I gave up was after losing both my port and starboard rudders; I could go wherever I liked as long as it was in a straight line!

I'll fight as long as I'm manoeuvrable, have sight, and have an operable torp tube. Worst state I was ever in returning to port was 16% hull integrity and half the crew dead.

cheers
Paul

[U-84]

any damage past 50% hull damage is enough to send me home

[Chisum]

I go home immediatly when my sonar-officer spot a contact, it's more secure !
:lol:

Hum...
Seriously, if hull integrity is to low, around 50%, that means I can't plunge securely and it's time to return kissing Frida.

[onelifecrisis]

I play with HI hidden. After survining an attack I pause the game, go to the bathroom, undress, and put my underpants on the weighing scales. If they weigh more than 2lbs I go back to port.

[meduza]

I play with HI hidden. After survining an attack I pause the game, go to the bathroom, undress, and put my underpants on the weighing scales. If they weigh more than 2lbs I go back to port. Most interesting method, but IMO not a very reliable one. The outcome would depend on how long since you had eaten, and when was the last time you visited toilet. :rotfl:

[Jimbuna]

I play with HI hidden. After survining an attack I pause the game, go to the bathroom, undress, and put my underpants on the weighing scales. If they weigh more than 2lbs I go back to port.

Why not just throw them at the bedroom wall and if they stick.....it's time to return ;)

[onelifecrisis]

Most interesting method, but IMO not a very reliable one. The outcome would depend on how long since you had eaten, and when was the last time you visited toilet. :rotfl:

Good point. Maybe I should make a spreadsheet. :hmm:

Why not just throw them at the bedroom wall and if they stick.....it's time to return ;)

Okay, I yield. You win the most disgusting joke competition.

[Dimitrius07]

It depends on situation, but mostly its hall damage (depends on level of damage and year), both periscops destroyed and fuel lost during an attack.

[Iron Budokan]

When I have damage I usually go home for repairs. I figure my best effort can be given in a boat that works than one that's damaged. (I'm also a coward. I play DiD so anything like damage lessens my chances of survival!)

[Freiwillige]

When I get damaged thats usually when I do something real stupid! I dont know how many times ive injured my sub and managed to escape only to think that was easy and go right back in for more abuse trying to get that one last ship!:gulp:

[meduza]

I just had my Das Boot moments. :D After a convoy attack, I was depth-charged, sank to the bottom (170m), with heavy flooding, destroyed both periscopes, hydrophones, radio, forward batteries and whatnot. Don't know how I survived. After the repairs, I stayed down until the nightfall, not having a clue what's going on above.

To answer my question, I returned to base. :yep:

[Lanzfeld]

Are any of you using LRT or is this all GWX 3.0 damage???

Just curious.

[Weiss Pinguin]

I'm using LRT w/ seabed repairs, but thankfully I haven't had the chance to try it out, as of yet. ;)

[Contact]

When I have damage I usually go home for repairs. I figure my best effort can be given in a boat that works than one that's damaged. (I'm also a coward. I play DiD so anything like damage lessens my chances of survival!)

it's not a cowardness. I think when you weight the risk in certain situations and decide not to engage, it is rather cautiousness if you ment to say that way :)

[Iron Budokan]

Haha, thanks, of course that's what I meant to say! Why, if truth be known, I am a brave and heroic Kaleun who has not one cowardly bone in his body! :yep:

[Redshirt]

Sure you just found a nice fat convoy and your first attack run sunk 3 good sized ships but after enduring 2 real time hours of being depth charged to hell without hydrophones, busted scopes, a busted diesel engine, forward torpedo tubes wrecked, deck gun smashed... its generally a sign of its time to get the hell outa dodge and make for port.

Although you should still consider targets of opportunity fair game... just watch out for deck guns when trying to use the uzo! and you probably want to try longer range shots at night if possible to allow for an easier escape.

Oh and even thought its late 1941, you just survived being depth charged & bombed to hell by the RAF and your only 100-200km from port dont ASSUME that plane that was just spotted is friendly... *sign* - got the damn bligther at the last moment as he released his bombs... lol killed the my flak crew and officer - i swear it would have been faster to scrap the sub when he made port and build a new one :o

[Paul_IronCoffin]

I don't necessarily head home and end the patrol, though. I would usually pop in the nearest welcoming port for repairs if the damage is to a degree/to specific systems, where I feel it's best not to go on as-is.

[FIREWALL]

CRY ALOT. :cry: :rotfl: