Escort Tactics

[Captain Nemo]

How do you expect an convoy escort to act if they spot you on the surface at night? To try and answer my own question, most of the time I would expect them to switch on their search lights fire a starshell and open fire (not necessarily in that order). However, a couple of times during my last career I have noticed Black Swan Class Frigates to turn towards my u-boat and approach directly towards me at medium to fast speed without doing any of the above. The first time this happened I turned away at ahead full and let him follow me. He was gradually gaining on me and when he got within 600 metres I fired a stern magnetic and sent him to the bottom.

The second time it happened, which turned out fatal for me and my crew, I was stalking a convoy and about to attack when the leading frigate at about a distance of 2000 metres turned towards me and started to approach at medium speed. Ah I thought, I've seen this before and rather than dive, I decided to fire four bow torpedoes at two ships I had previously selected to attack. That being done I dived when he was about 1,000 metres off. After being pinged he dropped his DC's which missed. On his second run one depth charged exploded close to the stern at just over 100 metres depth causing severe flooding and the uboat went down by the stern. The rest is history.

Oh well, it's back to 1939 and a new career for me. I should add that the above happened in April 1941. Has anyone else experienced this escort tactic?

Nemo

[Jimbuna]

On many occasions.

I've always been impressed by the varied responses/actions the AI can create.

[Zedwardson]

Sometimes the AI can be brillant, and sometimes not so smart.

My current guy is alive mostly do to a bad choice by a commander of a Tribal class. The tatics vary, which is good as you never know what you going to have. Sometimes your bridge crew is exposed by star-shells, other times i have been run down from behind with little or no warning, other times they will force you down and drop enough depth charges that you hop from Newfoundland to Britian without getting your feet wet.

The near worse is when you have three escorts, and one shoots star shells, one charges you, and the other circles to try to get good shots at you.

The truely worse is when you have about five escorts dropping depth charges and even if they are not close enough to hurt you, they keep you down with the idea of waiting you out till your out of air or power...

[K-61]

Sometimes the AI can be brillant, and sometimes not so smart.

My current guy is alive mostly do to a bad choice by a commander of a Tribal class. The tatics vary, which is good as you never know what you going to have. Sometimes your bridge crew is exposed by star-shells, other times i have been run down from behind with little or no warning, other times they will force you down and drop enough depth charges that you hop from Newfoundland to Britian without getting your feet wet.

The near worse is when you have three escorts, and one shoots star shells, one charges you, and the other circles to try to get good shots at you.

The truely worse is when you have about five escorts dropping depth charges and even if they are not close enough to hurt you, they keep you down with the idea of waiting you out till your out of air or power...

That's how it happened to many a U-boat crew, once the Allies had enough escorts to seriously prosecute a contact. Early war, there was a shortage of escorts for several reasons: the general lack of preparedness pre-1939, the necessity of maintaining escorts for task forces, to hold back destroyers against a German landing in Britain and for training and the overconfidence in ASDIC to the point that research into ASW suffered. As well, the "short legs" of many escorts meant they could not provide coverage for convoys throughout their whole voyage. On other occasions, such as the sailing of troop transport convoys for operations in Norway or reinforcement of the Middle East, escorts had to be pulled from the Atlantic lanes. As a result, the few long range U-boats enjoyed a Happy Time.

One stop gap measure was the destroyers for bases deal. As well, once the British realized there was not to be a Sealion they were able to release those destroyers held back for protection of Britain. Eventually, enough escorts were available to set up a training school, escorts were organized into groups which stayed together in training and active duty, endurance was added and new bases such as Iceland were made available for refueling, though the Royal Navy was never able to master during WW2 the American technique of refuelling under way. Thus, the opening of bases in Iceland and Newfoundland was important in order for their escorts to refuel. As well, a crash shipbuilding programme was enacted in Britain and Canada began to pump out corvettes in prodigious quantities. It is a little known fact thay we [Canada] had the third largest navy at the end of WW2, behind the U.S. and Britain. Japan, Germany and Italy had lost theirs.

Once sufficient escorts were available it was possible to successfully prosecute a contact to ultimate destruction or capture. Many times an escort had to break off a hunt in order to return to the convoy. This allowed the U-boat to survive and live again to fight, sometimes to re-establish contact with the convoy and attack. By a certain point the ASW forces were able to establish what the British termed "Support Groups" and what the Americans called "Hunter Killer Groups." These dedicated and highly professional units would sail independently and rush to reinforce a beleagured convoy, take over a hunt from them or reinforce a convoy's escort group if the Admiralty determined a sizable wolf pack was threateing it. These units were allowed to prosecute a contact for however long it took to get the kill, often going for over 24 hours. A U-boat captain was ultimately faced with having to surface and surrender or stay under and suffocate.

The British learned early in the war that ASW craft "patrolling" open seas to find U-boats was a waste of time and resources. A U-boat could easily avoid a single ship hunting blindly about in hope of seeing a U-boat. Being smaller and lower in the water it would almost always spot the patrol craft first and dive away. It was soon realized that a U-boat could not fulfill its mission unless it went where the targets were, which was in a convoy. Thus, it was most efficient to concentrate ASW units around the convoys. If a U-boat was deterred from attacking, its mission was a failure. The British realized they did not have to kill a U-boat to defeat it, merely deter it from approaching within striking distance. Aircraft were the most effective at deterrence, as no U-boat could remain surfaced with a patrol plane nearby. Many a convoy was saved because air cover forced a trailing U-boat to dive for several hours, giving the convoy enough time to slip away. Sadly, the U.S. would not learn from the British and wasted their meagre resources pounding up and down the empty coasts looking for the Paukenschlag U-boats. After six months of slaughter they finally realized that the British were correct and began to adopt their tactics, which finally resulted in U-boat kills.

In the game I have never had to surface during a hunt from low batteries or air, but I'm sure that my time will come.

[Snestorm]

I like that AI surface ships do not all act the same.

The old four stackers seem to be my greatest adversary in convoy attacks.