Escaping Destroyers -39'

[Spherical]

I'm having a fair bit of trouble. Kinda of new to the game, but am on my third patrol and have encountered destroyers, that I cant quite seem to escape.
Its easyer if I speak with pictures! (Using GWX 3.0)

http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg543/SphericalOrb/2012-05-30_00001.jpg

I'm having a bit of trouble shaking this pack. I picked up a British destroyer on the way through Dover and slowly accrued the rest (Including some Frenchies and two more smoke stacks on the horizon) after running into a merchant fleet with a dreadnought(?) at the narrowest point. Unfortunately the story doesn't end there. Before all this, on the way past Portsmouth (I think) I got pinged by another destroyer (and a ASW trawler came to the party) I didn't get hit by any depth charges, so spent 20 minutes trying to escape them. Ended up giving up and just sat still in the shallow water. Both ships saved me by running into my conning tower, ripping their hulls open and sinking. Giving me the tonnage! But this cost me the use of the periscope and radio. I have been using silent running but not In these Pics

http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg543/SphericalOrb/2012-05-30_00002.jpg

So my final question is how on earth to I escape them! :wah:

[runio]

Your depth is 24m? Not good. What is depth under keel?

[Spherical]

Depth under keel is a meager 10 meters.

[LemonA]

(and a ASW trawler came to the party)

ASW trawler?

A U-Boat's best defense is concealment. But once this is blown (with your desicion to attack), the next best recourse is to dive deep immediately. So what are you doing in the shallows of the English Channel then?

[runio]

1. Go deeper. Watch via scope distance to the bottom.
2. Enable silent run.
3. Set speed to ahead slow.
4. Switch to sonar station.
5. When you hear splash of the depth charge, set speed to flank.
6. When you hear explosions, change your course about 20-30 deg port or starboard.
7. A few seconds after last explosion, set speed to ahead slow.
8. Go to point 5.

It works for me, especially in '39. Good luck.

[Spherical]

@Runio - Sweet I'll give it a go!

@LemonA - I got a tid' bit side tracked and sunk 5 merchants before I got to exit the channel and just kinda didn't realise I was in the shallows. So I guess loitering in the channel even this early is a ridiculous idea? :hmmm:

So far I've been incredibly lucky to not have taken any serious damage.

[Spherical]

Also "ASW trawler" its just that ship that looks kinda like a tug boat, but with depth charges. I have no idea what they're actually called.

[Kpt. Weyprecht]

Well, as a matter of principle, going into the Channel was not a good idea. If the water is too shallow to dive deep, stay away if you can. If you can't (and early in the war when there is quite much to do in the North Sea it's often the case) by all means avoid warships and risk only attaching lone merchants.

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD! :sunny:


GWX Rule #1: STAY OUT OF THE CHANNEL!!!

[nutworld]

I'm glad that this thread got posted. I too am a newbie at this and was planniong on using the channel once my career got underway.

So if I am understanding things....

Channel = SUPER-DUPER-HUGE-TOTALLY BAD place to be?? :DL:DL:D

[Sailor Steve]

U-boats had standing orders to avoid the Channel right from the start. GWX, like other supermods, strives for realism. That said, navigating the Channel and raiding harbors are still far too easy. Both should be suicide missions.

[P_Funk]

Early war ASW was mostly "easy" for the U-boats because both the ASDIC and the depth charges frequently only went to a certain depth or saw to a certain angle/depth.

Basically, dive to 150m+, wait them out, ????, profit.

Even a yacht club armed with grenades could probably kill you in the channel.

[Osmium Steele]

GWX rule #2: If you MUST navigate the Dover area, only do so at night, on the surface, preferably in a driving rain. And, good God, do NOT attack anything.

Once past the Dover area, stick to the French side. Surfaced at night, submerged at 2 knots during the day.

Attack single ships, only at night on the surface.

Once the allies develop radar, SEE RULE # 1.

[Gargamel]

GWX rule #2: If you MUST navigate the Dover area, only do so at night, on the surface, preferably in a driving rain. And, good God, do NOT attack anything.

Once past the Dover area, stick to the French side. Surfaced at night, submerged at 2 knots during the day.

Attack single ships, only at night on the surface.

Once the allies develop radar, SEE RULE # 1.


Sigh, radar.

Went into the med before they had radar, no prob. Night, surface, fast.

Tried to leave the same way a month or so later after they deployed radar.

Nope.

[Tinman764]

Opps! That 1st picture looks remarkably like a bunch of Buzzards circling around waiting for dinner.

[Gargamel]

If you have more than one ASW asset hunting you in '39, you messed up somewhere.

[nutworld]

If you have more than one ASW asset hunting you in '39, you messed up somewhere.

Everyone has to "start" somewhere. Might as well learn early in the war how to avoid those pesky 'cans.

I'm still learning, for sure, but I guess I have been fortunate to not attract as much attention this U-boat is receiving.

[Sailor Steve]

GWX rule #2: If you MUST navigate the Dover area...
Actually I do go that way, but only after leaving Wilhelmshaven on August 19th. Everybody is still at peace.

Of course Doenitz' standing orders forbade even that. He didn't want anyone knowing what he was up to. :shifty:

[Spherical]

Well quite a learning curve. But definitely good to learn it now!

Cheers for the responses!

[boonie]

in my experience with 1939 destroyer AI:

- you can avoid them very easily if u set silent running and manually set speed to 0.5 knot (click on the spedometer btwn 0 and 1).
- do not turn off silent running to attempt to reload.
- you can only do 'ahead slow' once they are more than 5km away.
- do not use observation scope (O) or attack scope (F3) when your boat is moving.
- only use observation scope when u are stationary (0knot), avoid using the attack scope like the plague, they can see that very very easily it seems.
- do not fully extend the observation scope, only extend enough so u can see things.
- avoid using scopes if can be helped, use sonar contact to update their guestimated location.

general steps to lure and kill destroyers (1939 period only, havent experiment with late stage dessy):
- when they are coming for you from like 6-8km range dive and set speed to 0.5kt + silent running, this will make u disappear from their sensors. When you initially dive, you should should still have pretty high speed for a brief moment (5-6knot), make use of this speed to get to a favorable angle/firing position.
- bear in mind they will usually head straight to the last spot where u were detected and will travel straight to said spot and start their scan from that spot. Make use of this opportunity when they are on this headlong path and torp them.
- if they are already there and are running in random circles looking for u, use patience and dive away to about 600meter distance from their circular search pattern, stay on periscope depth as often as possible. their asdic seems blind vs close to surface depth @ 0.5knot. swing around to wait for oppotunity.
- at around 600m to 1km, with your bow facing their general direction, set torp to high speed and shoot when their hull is about to circle to (not after) directly 90 degree facing you (broadside), at that angle and close range it takes a miracle to avoid ur torp. Note when u are doing 0.5 knot ur boat turn slow as hell, you will need to use judgement on whether if they will still be there after the turn is completed. use the rear tube to shoot them to avoid making this long turn if u still have a fish in there (having a fish in rear tube always means the first destroyer that come for u is a free kill).
- when shooting your torp, only surface ur observation scope for a brief moment, dont linger the scope above water to see explosion, instead retrieve it and wait til 10sec before impact and raise it again to see the impact (if u really want to see them asplode).
- watch ur depth very very carefully, when u travel below 2 knot, the boat depth can change 1-2meter on random chance. this can make ur conn tower go above water, especially when coupled with rough/semi-rough sea condition.

additional info:
- at around early november 1939 the channel is mined according to BDU radio message.

edit:
disclaimer: if u use the above tactic and gets killed. do not blame me :D

happy hunting.

[Soviet Creeper]

I tend to, should a destroyer catch me with mah pants down, evade his first attack and then while hes coming around nail him with 2 fast moving fish while praying they dont dud. If they do dud, then Im in for a bad time :dead:

[Sailor Steve]

I never shoot my torpedoes at destroyers unless I feel I have absolutely no choice. Every eel fired at an escort is one less merchant sunk.

[Gargamel]

I never shoot my torpedoes at destroyers unless I feel I have absolutely no choice. Every eel fired at an escort is one less merchant sunk.

But sometimes hitting that lone convoy escort is worth the extra tonnage.

[nutworld]

I would tend to agree, that if I can take out an escort, that gives me the chance for extra tonnage on the merchants. I don't want to use up 8 eels on an escort, but if taking one out gives me the ability to sink an extra merchie, even if it has to be by deck gun....seems worth it.

In my humble opinion.

[Soviet Creeper]

Yeah wasting a few torps on that tiny 1000 ton DD so that you can sink the rest of the convoy with a mix of torps and deck gun is a very effective tatic. Now when theres multiple DDs thats an entirely differnt story, as once you shoot one the other come arushin and things get quite hetic. And scary.

[boonie]

i dont pick targets, if they fly a hostile flag, i will shoot them if they come near.

RP wise i think letting them live just give them a chance to become better at hunting u down, and when they have u pinned under they wont let u go, so why let them live?

[Harald_Lange]

GWX Rule#2

If you must insist on breaking rule #1 by entering the English Channel, ditch the TypeVII and get one of these:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f28/Waybully/RH%20Piccies/TB07-TheMole.jpg

[Red October1984]

Since we're on the topic of evading destroyers....I got a doozy.

I was feelin proud at the helm of U-96. I get a contact report of a convoy entering Firth of Forth area. Well, that's where I was headed. So I make contact and manage to sink 2 merchants. Bad idea. There were 2 destroyers with that small convoy. I eventually had 3 destroyers, a Flower Corvette, and an ASW Trawler pinging me all at once. Well, the depth here is about 17 meters. Crappy evasion water. The Large Merchant and Large Tanker I sank each had just the bow under water so they were mostly still above water, but resting on the bottom. I puttered my way alongside the large merchant and dived right there so no ships could DC me. Well, they eventually stopped and nightfall came. The ships were just waiting me out. Pinging away. All 5. I floated up to scope depth and took a look around. The ships had their lights on. I managed to torp 3 of them. All I had left were my external reloads. Now, what happens next isn't realistic at all. I decided to surface for 7 minutes to get my external torpedoes. Right as I broke the surface and the watch crew crapped every pair of pants they owned, the threat indicator went green. ..... I was shocked. The remaining DD's were lighting me up with searchlights. But. Somehow, I got "lost in the outline" of the large merchant. I torp one more DD. The other one just motors away. I sat there in disbelief. 1941 and 2 DD's with searchlights cant see me. ASDIC couldn't get me on the surface I guess. I survived that mission with 20% hull integrity to spare. It took 8 hours of game time to evade. It's prolly my best story since I broke I into Scapa and got 40K tons of ships.

[nutworld]

Since we're on the topic of evading destroyers....I got a doozy.

I was feelin proud at the helm of U-96. I get a contact report of a convoy entering Firth of Forth area. Well, that's where I was headed. So I make contact and manage to sink 2 merchants. Bad idea. There were 2 destroyers with that small convoy. I eventually had 3 destroyers, a Flower Corvette, and an ASW Trawler pinging me all at once. Well, the depth here is about 17 meters. Crappy evasion water. The Large Merchant and Large Tanker I sank each had just the bow under water so they were mostly still above water, but resting on the bottom. I puttered my way alongside the large merchant and dived right there so no ships could DC me. Well, they eventually stopped and nightfall came. The ships were just waiting me out. Pinging away. All 5. I floated up to scope depth and took a look around. The ships had their lights on. I managed to torp 3 of them. All I had left were my external reloads. Now, what happens next isn't realistic at all. I decided to surface for 7 minutes to get my external torpedoes. Right as I broke the surface and the watch crew crapped every pair of pants they owned, the threat indicator went green. ..... I was shocked. The remaining DD's were lighting me up with searchlights. But. Somehow, I got "lost in the outline" of the large merchant. I torp one more DD. The other one just motors away. I sat there in disbelief. 1941 and 2 DD's with searchlights cant see me. ASDIC couldn't get me on the surface I guess. I survived that mission with 20% hull integrity to spare. It took 8 hours of game time to evade. It's prolly my best story since I broke I into Scapa and got 40K tons of ships.

Awesome story. I think I'll stay straight away from Jolly ole England. Especially after 1941.

How do you get your crew to get external torps loaded in 7 minutes. I'm in 1939, a VIIB boat, and its almost 10 minutes for me to get my external torps loaded.

[Sailor Steve]

External torpedoes? Realistically they should take an hour to load.

[nutworld]

External torpedoes? Realistically they should take an hour to load.

Realistic load times, what are those?? :har:

[Red October1984]

I think I have realistic reloads off then. With full crew effectiveness, it takes me 6-7 minutes to load my externals. I'm in a type VIIB (I know the U-96 is a VIIC, but make do with what you got) on 50% realism. My first career was transferred in June of '40 to training duties. (sh3 commander) So I copied and pasted my XO's name and continued the career as Karl Heinz-Broda instead of my name. That epic story happened to be Broda's 3rd. I was lucky there.....Im in the process of saving up for an IXB (7500 ugh) so I've been harbor raiding for tonnage. I kept hearing that Firth of Forth was good so I decided to head there. Then, that happened. :arrgh!: I am going to check up on my realism settings and switch realistic reloads on.

[nutworld]

Red October,

Please don't change your settings because of my attempt at a joke. I don't use realistic load times, and I'm certainly not advocating anyone else.

Play this wonderful simulation/game the way YOU want to, just as I play it with the settings I want.

I was just "poking fun" at not only myself for not using that option, but because my friend Sailor Steve made a comment about load times.

[Red October1984]

I'm changing my settings because I want to. I didn't realize I was playing with reloads off. I'm not changing it because everyone else does. :D I always play the way I want to. Sometimes I recreate history, sometimes I play normally.

[nutworld]

I'm changing my settings because I want to. I didn't realize I was playing with reloads off. I'm not changing it because everyone else does. :D I always play the way I want to. Sometimes I recreate history, sometimes I play normally.

Fair enough, mate. Best wishes and good hunting. :|\\