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View Full Version : Lanes of convoys...


Zie Chuckinator
08-11-05, 04:31 PM
hokay so like all of the convoys that i meet are all in two columbs with like 10 ships in each columb. its really annoying since i cant do the "Kretschmer manuver" attack once then leave. any1 else got this?

TreverSlyFox
08-11-05, 05:06 PM
Hmmmm, I've never seen a 2 Lane Convoy of 10 ships per lane. Every convoy I've seen has been a 3,4,5 lanes of 4 and sometimes 5 ships per lane (usually the 5 ship ones were the inner 2 lanes with C2s following the normal 4 ships in the inner lanes).

I'm not sure what the "Kretschmer Manuver" is, unless your talking about attacking and then doing an "end run" getting ahead of the convoy again.

SmokinTep
08-12-05, 06:35 AM
I have never seen a 2 lane convoy. Most are multple lanes.

P_Funk
08-12-05, 06:51 AM
As I recall in the beginning the Allies had small convoys which ran in single file columns before they made them into wider columns. Is this early or late war?

As for the Kretschmer Maneuver, that's just, as I understand it, running real fast on the surface at night, penetrating the convoy and pounding multiple targets before escaping really fast and trailing the convoy for another try. This was a tactic bred from the early war inadequacies of Allied anti-submarine escorts. Once Johnny Walker got onto the convoy lanes the life of a U-Boat skipper was harder and that tactic became a suicide maneuver.

Nopileo
08-12-05, 08:05 AM
I've seen a convoy consisting of a single column. 12 ships, I think. All small/coastal merchants except for one C2. I think this was very early ('39-40).

Using RUb now, which has the Improved Convoys mod included. Most convoys I see now are HUGE. I saw a 8 column/4 ships per column convoy recently, and I've also seen a 6x6 convoy I think.

I'm in Dec. 1944, so the Kretschmer maneuver is not an option. I barely manage to sneak close enough to take out one or two ships before I have to run for my life.

Carcassonne
08-12-05, 02:44 PM
Sorry mate,

The minimal lanes I've seen are 4....came across a 6 lane last night, oh what a joy to have my IXB in '40 :rock:

If you're curious, I sank 5 ships during the first attack run, surfaced and sank 8 more on the second run. :up:

Seminole
08-12-05, 11:11 PM
hokay so like all of the convoys that i meet are all in two columbs with like 10 ships in each columb. its really annoying since i cant do the "Kretschmer manuver" attack once then leave. any1 else got this?


Never seen a 2 lane convoy...not even once....all have been 4 or more.

Would really like to run across one of these strung out convoy types when I am sumerged at a distance and racing in to get off a shot. Might be able to pick off the tail end Charlies instead of making desperation shots from a way too far a distance.

Zie Chuckinator
08-13-05, 06:26 PM
ah ha! a four lane convoy!

and the so-called "Kretschmer manuver" is going up and down the lanes of the convoy and expending all torpedos :|\

i forget who's sig it is or was in but, "One torpedo, one ship"- Otto Kretschmer

it just turned 1941. the two lane convoys were in 1940 so yea, early war convoys.