The death of another fine uboat and its crew 1940

[redsocialist]

So, I was on my 4th 1940 beggining patrol. Anotherwards, I can't survive past 1940. The reason for this? Because 2 ships does not mean success for me, I want a convoy. So after gunning down 2 lone merchants and patrolling my grid I decide to take her out to the north of ireland, convoy rout on the port coming out of liver pool. We spot a ship on the horizon. I see 2 of them. I'm like great! 2 lone merchants with no escort, so I foolishly order full speed ahead and intercept course. then they start turning towards me, and I'm like Awsome, this will be easy now I can really intercept them. Then I get a closer look, Low bow, with smoke stack in the back, :hmmm: I take her down to periscope depth and shut off the engines. Sonar man picks up contact closing, merchant. So I decide its safe to surface. But, before I go to the hydrophones and take a listen myself and I hear a fast swooshing and cranking noise. I'm like WAIT now, this is not a merchant! Then after 2 mintues of listening, he finnaly classifies it as a warship, and announces its closing. CRAP! I ordered ahead slow and a depth of 40 meters not changing my course. i think all is fine so I foolishly speed time up to x8, then I hear a doppler affect, then BOOM! I go to x1 and the uboat is nearly destroyed with flooding in almost all compartments. I ordered ahead flank to dive, which was useless and obviously made it worse, then blowing all my Ballast, before we sunk to the aybass.

I was pretty upset seeing this is the 3rd time on my patrol that I was killed. I have about a month of experience but I play with 95% realism and I like to go by the "did" and "dead is dead rule". I think I learn more and become a better commander that way. I heard no pinging what so ever, but in reality those 2 "merchants", were RN patrol craft, and there must of been a merchant behind them in the distance I have no clue. I learned my lesson though now. Silent running doesn't mean silent speed..:nope: So if I run into this again ill be sure to take her to the bottom at 1 knot!

[Sailor Steve]

If an escort is approaching, go to at least 70 meters, as fast as possible. Only go slow and silent when he's looking for you. If you hear his propellors (in the Control Room, not on hydrophones) and they're accelerating, immediately go to flank speed, turn hard toward him (you can hear which side he's coming from) and drop 20 meters or so. After the depth charges start going off, then go back to slow speed. At slow speeds it takes longer to change depth.

The stock game has a problem that they can hear you anywhere and the depth charges never miss. In GWX the listening cone is limited to historical parameters, which means they can't hear you while they're on top of you, and are dropping blind.

Also, while the soundman may not properly report the things he's hearing, they do show up on the Nav and Attack Maps. Keep an eye on those and you'll know what you're dealing with.

Of course the above tactics need to be modified when there are two or more attackers, since while one is blind the other can hear you accelerate and take appropriate action.

[redsocialist]

Okay thanks man. But does silent running not silent? I think its only 1 knot that is silent correct?

[Schöneboom]

Ciao Red,

If you don't mind my pointing it out, looks like there's much more in that "lesson" than the part about silent running. For ex.: Now you know not to act upon what your sonar man says -- you must listen for yourself first.

Also, 40 meters is nothing when evading a warship -- unless you're in shallow water (in which case attacking may be the better course of action). I don't have to mention the part about time compression -- I would never use TC with an enemy warship in the area, ever.

BTW, I often think that had the Kriegsmarine had GWX as a training tool, their U-boat survival rate might have been higher. That's how good I think it is.

Viel Gluck,
Wayne

[Schwieger]

Okay thanks man. But does silent running not silent? I think its only 1 knot that is silent correct?

Has to do with RPMs I think... takes time to adjust the RPMs; is not instant

I usually won't go above 2 knots when running silent, unless I'm flooding and can't maintain depth or something like that.

[redsocialist]

Ciao Red,

If you don't mind my pointing it out, looks like there's much more in that "lesson" than the part about silent running. For ex.: Now you know not to act upon what your sonar man says -- you must listen for yourself first.

Also, 40 meters is nothing when evading a warship -- unless you're in shallow water (in which case attacking may be the better course of action). I don't have to mention the part about time compression -- I would never use TC with an enemy warship in the area, ever.

BTW, I often think that had the Kriegsmarine had GWX as a training tool, their U-boat survival rate might have been higher. That's how good I think it is.

Viel Gluck,
Wayne

Ahhh danke mein freund ;)

[Sailor Steve]

Okay thanks man. But does silent running not silent? I think its only 1 knot that is silent correct?
Silent Running means that all noise-making activities cease - no loading torpedoes, no repairs, people talk in whispers. The engines make as much noise as they make. Silent Running or not, you need to go very slow.

[Missing Name]

Manually adjust the knotmeter to 1.5 knots. You will actually go around 1.2 knots due to water resistance. I find that is the best mix of true stealth (absolutely nothing running) and depth-keeping speed.

[gazpode_l]

I am wondering what effect the knuckle starboard/port manuvre has when trying to evade ASW ships? :hmmm:

Also my tactic atm in 1941 is to dive to around 108m or 120m (depending on how deep the sea is) and stay that deep for a few hours, running at 1knt and speeding up if I know they are depth charging my exact position. :ping:

Managed to evade an attack lasting three hours (sat in over two 1.5hr sessions played at real-time) in my last patrol.. :arrgh!:

[Tessa]

Silent is (generally) between 0.8 - 1.2 knots, your target is to get the engines down to 40-55 rpm. Some mods disable the ability to inspect the dials at point blank (where you would pretty much have your face right in front of the dials) and can only see them from the CE's pov making it tougher to actually correctly set silent speed. Running stock or basic GWX am pretty sure you can zoom into all the dials to see up close; where you can keep adjusting your speed down until the engines get into the right range.

Even using the larger dials it can be difficult, I usually error to the side of caution and kill the engines after the 2nd to the last dc explodes and then adjust speed back up once it gets to or below 1 knot.

If you want to set your controls up so that when you hit silent running it goes to real silent running you can modify the submarine's cfg file. You'll need to do a little math and adjust the silent speed down to what 1 knot is for that particular type of boat.