Whats the biggest tonnage you racked up on one patrol?

[U777]

I racked up 13K from one large merchant, one medium cargo, one ASW trawler, and one coastal tanker.

[KeineK]

Just made the jump from auto- to manual-targeting. Second patrol landed me seven ships at 44500 tons, excluding the third and latest patrol where I came across a Hood led task force, that has been my highest tonnage for one patrol so far.

[desirableroasted]

My best evers have been over 100K, and in this career I have two 50K+ patrols. (but then I have a 969 ton patrol, too!)

It depends on so much: skill, luck, how long you stay out, the number of torps you carry, how good your gun crew is, your acquired knowledge of where to hunt, which mod you are using (GWX, here).

In a VIIB, in 39-40, I've gotten good enough to where I consider a 30K patrol to be rather modest, and a 50K nothing surprising. By late 1944, I count myself successful if I can limp back to base.

What works for me (your mileage may vary):

1. Stay out as long as possible. If I sail at the most-fuel efficient speed, a VIIB in GWX can cover 30K km... more than enough to run across convoys, lone tankers, etc.

2. Patience! With only 14 torps, I don't do "snapshots" or spray salvos. I take the time it needs to set up the shot with 1 torp per ship, and I am willing to hang around hours and hours for it to sink.

3. Use every torp. A stern shot is no different than a bow shot, yet many people here don't use them, which is 21% less tonnage right there.

4. I don't waste time or ammo on warships, which are generally low-tonnage. Yes, their job is to sink me, but my job is not to sink them. Exceptions are, of course, BBs, carriers, maybe a cruiser.

5. I read these forums, which are full of tips on tactics and good hunting areas.

6. And I have several patrols saved over the years that I use for training. Running approaches against the same convoy or task force 10-20 times is excellent practice.

[K-61]

Having a stern tube is like having a third hand, very useful! If I get inside a convoy box, I can fire in both directions; as well, it can be a handy ace up the sleeve. On one patrol I encountered one of those small three ship convoys with a lone escort. I torpedoed two of the ships, during which time the escort turned about to hunt for me. She approached within 500 metres of my stern tube and had no idea where I was. The temptation was too great for me to resist and I launced a G7E at her. Boom! And now I had time to finish off that third merchantman.

The stern tube is also nice for attacking lone ships. One of my preferred tactics is to lie submerged in wait ahead of the track of my target, with my stern tube pointed at her. As she approaches, I fire, then commence a high speed turn in the same direction of travel in order to bring the bow tubes to bear, in case the lone torpedo is a dud. She can't hear me as she has no escort, so I can make all the noise I wish.

[Jimbuna]

I once notched 1/2 million tons but that was because I was testing the cross Atlantic liner route :DL

[U777]

2. Patience! With only 14 torps, I don't do "snapshots" or spray salvos. I take the time it needs to set up the shot with 1 torp per ship, and I am willing to hang around hours and hours for it to sink.

I use the one torpedo per ship policy as well unless she's a huge one. After the hit I use the deck gun to finish her off unless conditions prohibit it. (Still in early 1940).

[JokerOfFate]

About 45,000 tonnes from a large convoy (12 ships)
I attack surfaced because there no escorts 10 seconds later
4 destroyers out of nowhere start shoting at me I fire off a load of eels and sink'em all.

[ediko]

I once notched 1/2 million tons but that was because I was testing the cross Atlantic liner route :DL
Care to share? I am still hunting trawlers :haha:

[sergei]

Running type VII's I seem to average about 20-30,000 tons for a patrol.

Most successful patrol was about 40,000 tons.
In a Type IID.
Go figure.

[Jimbuna]

Care to share? I am still hunting trawlers :haha:


We randomized the routes further for GWX3.0 because people playing GWX2.0 and 2.1 were occasionally coming across them and posting the information :DL

One tip: There is many a convoy to be found if you lie approximately 250km west of Gibraltar.

I'm sure there may well be a number of posts advising happy hunting grounds following this post :03:

[Gerald]

We randomized the routes further for GWX3.0 because people playing GWX2.0 and 2.1 were occasionally coming across them and posting the information :DL

One tip: There is many a convoy to be found if you lie approximately 250km west of Gibraltar.

I'm sure there may well be a number of posts advising happy hunting grounds following this post :03: :yep:

http://imgur.com/dEaAj.jpg

[ediko]

That's impressive! Max I got was 100k tons I think. It was 39 so I was mostly blazing with my gun. Now it's the first month of 42 and I'm happy if I even see an unescorted ship. I am terrible at attacking convoys, if one torpedo get's to the target I'm already happy since I mostly get misses, duds, premature's and DC in my coning tower :nope: