Never again (or so I hope)

[VipertheSniper]

Ever attacked a convoy moments before they decided to do a course change? And I don't mean the usual zig-zag they do once they know you're there.

I can only say one thing, I hope I don't have to ever experience this again.

I was perfectly set to take out 4 ships in the convoy. First torpedo hit, target not destroyed but slowing (and subsequently coming to a halt). Second target in the periscope... slight zig zag. Zooming out because I noticed something odd when rotating the scope. A small tanker heading into my direction, and other ships turning like mad too. No chance for a shot, not yet, take the look of the target just to see that the Fiji that was in the convoy is on ramming course, immediatly I order to dive luckily the draft isn't that deep for the Fiji, I just made it under her keel without any damage...

Time to change the tactic, magnetic pistols in rough water, not ideal but the ships are going mad, absolute choas, not a single target with a nice AOB. After a while I spot a C2 that turns into the right direction, he'll still be turning when I shoot, and I dunno how much, anyways, since the impact will happen earlier than estimated I aim just behind his engine room, hoping that he'll not turn so much that I hit the stern but rather his engine room. Tube 5 fire, seconds pass that seem like hours, and he indeed turns too much, I hit him in the middle of nowhere... no secondary explosions, but it seems that I disabled his engines, he's slowing down.
I'm already setting up for my next shot, this time a C3 from the bow tubes, depth set, magnetic pistol, gyro angle 0.
FIRE

He turns, turns, accelerates, a miss. OK another try, but first I'll take a quick look around.

Waahh, C2 running straight at my position, DIVE DIVE DIVE. Must've missed me by a couple of inches, the whole boat was shaking up as he passed over me.

Coming up to PD again, the C3 is still in good position, I set up for attack again with magnetic pistol, running depth 13m.
FIRE

Waiting for the impact, I took another look around to see what the escorts were doing in this chaos. Nothing much, just helplessly circling the water, as I TRIED to sink some ships in their convoy... The stop watch is almost at zero, I take a look at the C3, the stop watch keeps running... impact 15 seconds due. He didn't change his course, nor his speed, I guess it was the depth setting. either too much or not enough..

Only 3 torps left now, I guess I have to settle for the 2 immobilized ships, I set the course to 90° to finish off that C2, suddenly I hear some pinging.
Ok, I'm still running at 1/2 ahead, and I'm not in the convoy anymore, set the speed to 1 knot and get down that periscope. The pinging is getting weaker, they didn't have a fix on me, phew...

Course on C2 is set so I don't bother looking what's going on above of me, the escorts are still circling around their spot, sonar man isn't spotting anything in my way, good.

Five minutes later I put up the periscope again.
The escorts are still there, but I'm away far enough to order slow ahead.
Finally, I'm where I want to be, approw 1000m off the C2, I aim for the fuel bunker and fire. Run time 45 seconds. I order rudder hard port, while I'm still watching the C2.
Impact, and a secondary explosion, the ship breaks in two, and I've finally sunk the first ship of this friggin convoy half an hour after my initial attack.

The escorts are still doing nothing.

Set course on the disabled C3.

Will take me half an hour to get into position, time to check what the convoy does...

They're still trying to get into formation, what's more, I only got 2 torps left, one of them will go into the C3, and the sea is rough, guess it's time to plot the course home...

Finally I'm into position, tube 3 FIRE.

Navigator return to course, we're sailing home. 1/3 ahead.

I take a look through the periscope, watching the stop watch counting down.
Impact.
The ship is breaking up... One escort is making a half assed attempt at finding me, turns around when he is about 2000m away.

Another ten minutes gone, the escort is out of sight.

Surface the ship, we're heading home...


That has to be my worst convoy attack ever, I hope the next time I encounter a convoy it'll be better timed.

[joea]

Wilkkomen to the war kaleun...the real skippers had to put up with all sorts of frustrations. Just consider it part of the game. :up:

[Enigma]

Ive had this happen....the 2 times it happened to me the convoy was listed as a task force...despite being lightly escorted and being made up vastly of tankers and c3's with tanks or planes ont he deck. They spent 48 houres making 360 degree trunes, 90 degree knuckles, etc...it was hell. :down:

[Der Eisen-Wal]

hey, at least you survived ;)

one time i was in the northern tip of england, AM51 was it? convoy coming throuhg, i could hear them but i could not see them, there was heavy fog, rain, u name it. the visibility must have been 100m because a few boats were upon be before i saw them. needless to say I got annoyed with the situation and since nobody could see jack ****, I surfaced and chased down the targets, using impact pistols and doing 15 second calculations... real rough estimate stuff. anyways this was in a type VIIB, 4 torps, I think i got 1 or 2 but it wasn't a good night. eventually I just slinked off because I couldn't see any targets.

[andy_311]

I don't get that problem if I encouter a convoy the lead escort gets it first then do a wide spread on anything infront of me @ around 3800m if I miss my original targarget the cances are I will hit something else and gives me a chance to reload I don't target crummy coastal merchants anything from a C2 onwards will do me but (each to there own ) if you can do a muliple hit on a couple of ships near enough 10-15 sec apart the escorts are lost depending on what year your in.
But then again it depends what mod you playing? Many a time I fire a fish at a cripple and 10 sec later I got target destroyed waste of a fish.

[Sacs]

Ever attacked a convoy moments before they decided to do a course change?
Had that once, I was set in front of the convoys predicted course, 2.5 km off the course of the outtermost targets. Not much chance of getting an eel into the center where the juicy targets were, so was planning on taking out a couple of the flanking Coasties and C2's.

Then they changed course.

Unfortunately, for them, their new course was right over top of me, I ended up in the middle of the pack facing a T3 and a couple of T2's from ~600m :arrgh!:

[Umfuld]

Ever attacked a convoy moments before they decided to do a course change?
Yup. But to be honest, I don't need that to come away from a convoy attack with zero sinks.

I can do that all by myself! :damn:

[Phylacista]

I had this too. Around me chaos started with ships turning in all directions. I was so totally confused I could not make another attack.

Heres a part of that chaos:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c212/phylacista/chaos.jpg

Some ships must have gone mad: they were heading in the opposite direction than others..
or do convoys sometimes divide into 2 - perhaps 2 convoys shared some of the same way (and escorts..)

[lonehawknz]

If the weather's cr*p I've learnt the hard way hat it's just better to set a course parallel to the convoy at "kleine fahrt voraus" (about 7kts) and shadow it until the WX gets better, then intercept. Attacking in bad weather is really hard because the 350m vis is only just beyond min range for the fish. Also, later in the war, the escorts kick the sh*t out of you with radar whilst for the most part you can't see them...

:damn:

As for the wierd "everyone go in different directions" behaviour, isn't that one of the shots on the "humorous SH3 screenies" thread? Something to do with major course changes?

[JSalinger]

I just had one of those times last night too...intercepted a convoy in AK (not Alaska, the grid :P) with 2x T2, 3x C3, 1x T3, 1x C2 and 2x Black Swan. Had 17 torpedoes left (finally got my IXB and I'm loving it! spent four torpedoes in Loch Ewe on my way to my patrol grid, nailed a C2 and a T3), and this convoy was coming virtually directly at me (when I got a periscope visual on the center column lead ship, the AOB was 002 degrees lol), so I went and set myself up thinking "Oh yeah, this'll be no sweat, they're coming directly at you!"

:damn: The leading Black Swan must've been pinging with her active sonar because the next thing I know, the guy on the hydrophones starts groaning about depth charges. Dived to 125 meters, rigged for silent running, speed 2 knots. Got DC'd for about 10 minutes real time, and then the convoy was literally right in front of me (range to lead ship in the center column: 450 meters).

So, the lead ship in the center column was a C3, and my AOB was 001 degrees. I wasn't sure if my torpedo would arm given that the convoy had an 8 knot speed of advance and I had slowed to 2 knots, so I set my first torpedo (tube 1) for magnetic.

LOS! First torpedo was running, so I turned my attention to my second target, a T2 right behind the C3. Again, I set it to magnetic, and set the running depth for just right under the T2's keel, set running speed to 44 knots and...LOS!

Right as I fired the torpedo, I heard a BOOM! Thought to myself, "Okay, you at least damaged the C3, maybe you even sunk it." Being me, I didn't take the time to swivel my periscope around and look. So, about 3 minutes later, I was inside the convoy. My only thought was "Otto Kretschmer would be loving this."

The next thing I know, I'm looking through the attack scope about to line up on the T2, and suddenly, a Black Swan comes into view, and he's at about 100 meters away and I started cursing fluently as I tried to dive to 25 meters. I swear, I must've taken out a good few layers of the paint job on the underside of that Tommy's keel because there was the horrid sound for a while there. So, went back to setting up my solutions, and the whole convoy was in a disarray.

:damn:

In between partially ignoring my mother chastisiting me for cursing at the computer, I accidentally fired tube 3 (was setup with default settings) and I figured, great, just wasted another torpedo (found out later it blasted open the fuel bunker on one of the Black Swans ::grins:: ). Went and took a look at the surface area around me and saw that I had hit a Black Swan (the stray torpedo) and she had a severe list to starboard, the C3 was damaged and drifting along at 3 knots, and the T2 I had shot at was sinking.

About 30 seconds later, I nearly got cut in two by a charging C2 and a T3 that I swear must've gotten a fix on me. Once they got clear of me, I set up tube 5 on the C2 and tube 6 on the T3 and fired them both with magnetic detonators. I missed the T3, but the C2 lit up quite brightly when the torpedo caught up with it and blew a boiler. Went and finished off the the C3 I damaged earlier with the deck gun.

End result: one Black Swan-class sloop, one T2 tanker, one C3 cargo, one C2 cargo sunk.

I know it sounds really good, but when I saw that there were THREE tankers and FOUR cargo ships, all greater than 5,000 GRT, I thought I was going to put in a big contribution to our war effort by pulling a U-515!

::Mutters:: Damned Britischer dummkopfs!

[SkvyWvr]

It happened to me last night. They all started sailing in different directions before I launched my first fish. Damn near impossible to get a hit.:damn: :mad:

[andy_311]

I just screw up April 41 ordered to patrol Grid CG77 by the time I got there it was pouring down with heavy fog and stayed like that after my 24hr stint decided to take a peek what's happening in Gibralter and set course there until I bumped into a convoy, oh sorry the convoy bumped into me a clemson rammed me takeing out my deck gun we started to go down but repaired the damage(flooding) fired of a stern shot at the clemson and she was torn apart what I didn't know that there was a black swan heading towards me by the time I realised it it was too late how he missed my peri and connin tower I do not know then it started raining dc's crew trying franticlly to fix the damage opened tube 6 and waited for the range to open up fired at 295m and she joined the clemson.So with 2 escort down decided to have a bash a the convoy but had to do flank speed to get within range first into view at 395m was a C2 heading toward my bow fired and hit her but she didn't sink then the last escort turned up a flower corvette dispatched her I forgot I was at flank and a crippled c2 heading for me reduced speed to "slow" too bloody late again the c2 decides to sink now on top of me more bloody damage by the time I regained control and got to pd had to go flank again to catch up sunk a few c2 and a couple of tramp steamers one fish left in the forward tubes before I had to reaload then noticed a C3 at 350m to my port side fired my last fish hit her but she did not sink I thought not again and yep it happend again she started to sink on top of me but this time ordered Emergency back.
Surfaced made the repairs reloaded my tubes and with 36%hull integrity went to seek out the rest of the convoy but failed to find them.
U-123 returned to Lorient and docked in fowl weather.

[CybrSlydr]

I just screw up April 41 ordered to patrol Grid CG77. by the time I got there it was pouring down with heavy fog and stayed like that. after my 24hr stint, decided to take a peek what's happening in Gibralter and set course there until I bumped into a convoy, oh sorry the convoy bumped into me. a clemson rammed me takeing out my deck gun we started to go down but repaired the damage(flooding). fired of a stern shot at the clemson and she was torn apart. what I didn't know that there was a black swan heading towards me. by the time I realised it, it was too late. how he missed my peri and connin tower I do not know. then it started raining. dc's crew trying franticlly to fix the damage. opened tube 6 and waited for the range to open up fired. at 295m and she joined the clemson.So with 2 escort down decided to have a bash a the convoy but had to do flank speed to get within range. first into view at 395m was a C2 heading toward my bow. fired and hit her but she didn't sink. then the last escort turned up a flower corvette and dispatched her. I forgot I was at flank and a crippled c2 heading for me, reduced speed to "slow" . too bloody late again. the c2 decides to sink now on top of me. more bloody damage. by the time I regained control and got to pd had to go flank again to catch up. sunk a few c2 and a couple of tramp steamers. one fish left in the forward tubes before I had to reaload then noticed a C3 at 350m to my port side. fired my last fish hit her but she did not sink. I thought not again and yep it happend again she started to sink on top of me but this time ordered Emergency back.
Surfaced made the repairs reloaded my tubes and with 36%hull integrity went to seek out the rest of the convoy but failed to find them.
U-123 returned to Lorient and docked in fowl weather.

omfg... Use periods!!!:damn::damn: