Do you dive in crappy weather?

[Grifter808]

Just wanted to know what fellow kaleuns do. Usually, when the weather sucks, I dive so that I pick up hydrophone contacts. I've been surprised quite a number of times by destroyers and the like that just pot up through rain and fog. Any tips? This is a continous learning experience for me. :D

[SmokinTep]

Once in a while I will dive to keep from getting sea sick...... :lol: It also saves some fuel since rough weater will cause you to burn more.

[Detritus]

Everytime. Strong winds alone eat a lot of fuel. If visibility is getting bad, windy or not, I dive 20m and go ahead slow on TC128 to kill the weather. You can't see your targets anyway and chance of colliding with something or getting jumped by warships is not my idea of fun.

[Glassair]

How 'bout storm being your best friend..... :hmm:

[Detritus]

How 'bout storm being your best friend..... :hmm:

No, depth is your best friend :) What do you mean by that? Except that bad weather helps when returning to port late at war and such.

[Hawkers]

25m depth and 'ahead slow' for me!

Hawkers :up:

P.S. I also put the gramophone on.

[SteamWake]

Another aspect to rough weather is that it increases crew fatigue dramatically.

[Seminole]

When fog is heavy I just stay on surface....kill the motors...and go to 1024 TC until it clears to at least moderate fog....of course I keep waiting to get rammed doing this ...but so far it hasn't happened. I have been rammed trying to get within less than 400 yards of a target in heavy fog. :shifty:

For me it is a waste of time and fuel to continue ops in heavy fog..... results not worth the effort. An exception would be when assigned to a fuel critical long range patrol grid. Then I keep going despite heavy fog and ignore all reported contacts en route.

Heavy precipitation and high winds are of no major concern.

[DerKaleun]

I dive to 25m, and go slow ahead.

[jumpy]

I like to brutalise the bridge watch by making them stand to in all the worst weather -serves them right for failing to alert to collision course merchant in my 2nd or 3rd patrol in moderate fogg whilst I was busy at the UZO. The Uboat version of squarebashing- neverending bridge watch :arrgh!:
Ive also filled the crapper with food stores so the chaps up forward have to use a bucket, which is, I might add, prone to tipping up all over the deck plates in anything but millpond sea conditions :rotfl: try releiving yerself over the rail in a storm seamen stains! muhuhuahahahahahahahaaaah

In many ways I'm glad this is just a sim.

[Anakonda]

storm and nights.... 25 mt. ahead slow
storm and days... surfaced ahead slow (diving only for an hour to relax the crew, just like in Das Boot :|\ )

[Dowly]

Usually I dive to 20m and order ahead slow.

[Nopileo]

Pre-1943: 25 meters ahead slow.

Current campaign, Sept. 1944 in a XXI: I mostly stay surfaced and let the radar detector do its work for warning me of enemies, and the radar for spotting lone merchants/patrols with no radar.

Sometimes the waves are so big that the XXI is having problems staying surfaced without constantly switching back and forth from diesel/electric engines, and then I dive. This even when visibility is good. The battery bug of the XXI makes it tedious to keep ordering 'standard propulsion' constantly.

[Syxx_Killer]

I stay on the surface. I don't like to run submerged unless I have to. I'd hate to have a juicy target get away because I ran down my batteries. I have never, ever been rammed in fog, or even surprised. I don't know how you guys manage to do that. I've spent more hours playing this game then I care to admit. :oops: Not once has it happened. If it is foggy, though, I will usually let a target go. I hate trying to chase a target in fog. Radar is a huge help, though. It is a real pain having to dive to check the hydrophone bearings.

[Glassair]

Storm or bad weather is your best friend like in that as a counter measure to hydrophones you are actually more "visible" underwater then on the surface in bad weather.... :ping: And stalking a convoy at the surface can be done best with bad weather as you have a low signature and people (read the allied lookouts) do tend to dislike bad weather which is why the original writer posed his statement/question.... :lurk:

[SteamWake]

I stay on the surface. I don't like to run submerged unless I have to.--snip--.

Syxx not to hijack the thread but I had to ask.

How in the world did you get that picture in your sig ?

[Syxx_Killer]

Syxx not to hijack the thread but I had to ask.

How in the world did you get that picture in your sig ?

hehe Very carefully. :D :rotfl:

As I was leaving Lorient one fine sunny day, I came across that schnellboot that beached itself. I saw the smoke on the horizon and used the external cam to get a closer shot of it. I saw it was upside down. I didn't think much more of it. As I got farther out of the Lorient channel, two B-24s showed up. I was using the < and > buttons to get different target views. When I came across that poor schnellboot using those buttons, the camera was turned at that weird angle. I just had to grab a few screenshots. :lol: What puzzles me more, is how in the world did the schnellboot end up like that? :huh:

Here's that view with the camera right-side-up.

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1671/schnellbootsuicide0da.th.jpg (http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=schnellbootsuicide0da.jpg)

[The_Pharoah]

am currently reading 'Das Boot' and theres a chapter appropriately titled 'Storm'. It describes how they go through the storm ON THE SURFACE! :o lol...they only did practice dives.

hmmm....

[Laughing Swordfish]

You're right, stormy weather and high seas can work for you when attacking or running away, because you can hide in them. Fog banks are risky, but often a godsend for slipping away in a tight squeeze. On longer cruises, it's worth ducking under for all those good reasons. There was a boat in the war that sailed for nearly a whole watch without anyone on the bridge. They'd all been swept overboard even with their harnesses and nobody realised. Both sides should have called it the Battle With the Atlantic

[cAPS lOCK]

I usually raid ports in heavy fog. Since visibility is less than the torpedo arming range, you can't do much else (against moving targets anyway). You can get in really close to spot the docked freighters and mark their positions. Then cruise a bit further away and fire before you leave.

Disclaimer: I'm still in 1940, so this may be suicide once the enemy is competent.

[Grifter808]

I've been successful with my recent patrols attacking in heavy fog. I position my sub abeam of the target at about 350m, and when it shows up, just let loose. Sometimes, though, I've had to get a little bit closer because I can't get a visual. As soon as I do, I hit reverse flank and wait until the distance that the torpedo can detonate.

Hopefully, it keeps working for me. :ping:

[Tullaian]

I also find using the observation scope rather than the attack scope in bad weather increases the distance at which I can lock onto a target. since the weather is bad the chances of them spotting the bigger scope aren't good anyway so it is a good tradeoff. I find you can close to within medium range on the hydrophones in bad weather, pop the obs scope up till you can visually acquire the target to refine your bearing to shoot.

[Rosencrantz]

Usually I just do basic trim dive early in the morning. In bad wather it's the same but having just a longer period submerged (usually about 2 hours) and I also dive deeper (60 meters vs 40 m).