DDs responding to distress calls

[BettingUrlife]

I've never really hunted the coastal areas of England, usually preferring to go deeper water in search of big convoys, but to break up the monotony I've decided to to do some coastal waters as well. On my current mission, I've sunk a few merchants, and then a little later will get a report of an approaching DD. Does anyone know if these DDs are responding to distress calls or are just purely random encounters? Would be nice if they are responding to distress calls.

[Sailor Steve]

I know that planes will show up in response to a U-boat attack. I'm not sure about destroyers, but why not?

[CCIP]

If a destroyer is within 25km, it'll respond. They won't show up like planes though - it's more if one just happens to be in the area at the time.

I had some interesting encounters. I remember one day off Curacao, I was about to jump a single defenseless merchant, only to be driven off by a Catalina as soon as I got near it. And before I had a chance to surface again, an American DE was already speeding in from the west to drop charges on me. Very neat! The merchant got away...

[andy_311]

It's like hitting a T3 on a clear day the smoke can be seen from miles away , for a DD it's like a shark smells blood in the water it will investigate.

[Cpt.Thorne]

I once surfaced after hiding under a troopsship for hours DCs dropping near by. A slight noise from convoys gone could be heard so I decided to surface..10 minutes after I am attacked by a fighter in a middle of atlantic (no carriers in the convoy) and 10 minutes after that watchcrew spot 2 DDs heading from teh convoys general direction. I had hen sun one of the stragglers and then went hiding under the otherone for few more hours of DCs....in the end a day later sunk the 2nd straggler dead in the water. Lucky break to have 2 sunny days in the mid atlantic in a row. Deck gun crew was working a good days job from 200m.

[HunterICX]

:up: just go mess around in the English Chanal....I was busy with an Merchant by shooting it with my deck gun...and all of the sudded an Speedboat came .... I really laughed is this the best the english can do? Suddently my Sonar guy ''Warship! bearing 039, Warship 034, Warship 030'':o I looked on that dirrection...and I could tell...I really was like....holy f*ck! and its only 30 meters deep :shifty: After 2 hours 2 other Destroyers came to help...I hold on for 4 1/2 hours before they finally gave me the final blow.

[Rooks]

Can I ask what DD, DE, CV are for? Destroyer Carrier etc. Where can I find info on this? thanks guys.

[Belze]

In the same aera of question: if you report a lone merchant to the BDU is it true that the luftwaffe might attack it? (in vanilla game)

[BettingUrlife]

In the vanilla game I have seen the Luftwaffe attack solo shipping, but I am not sure if it is a result of me having reported it or just a chance encounter.

[Gizzmoe]

Can I ask what DD, DE, CV are for? Destroyer Carrier etc. Where can I find info on this? thanks guys.

http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/index_ships_list.htm

[BenG]

And http://www.communitymanuals.com/shiii/index.php?title=Category:Terminology

[Khayman]

I crash dived to avoid a destroyer. It went by me and I surfaced again. Not long after I found a lone passenger ship and let fly my remaining 3 torps. It was dead in the water, but not sinking. I was thinking of surfacing to use my deck gun but I thought a deck gun would be useless against such a huge target, plus it had some nasty looking guns.

Still, I didn't want to let such a huge target go without giving it a try. I stayed submerged and waited for nightfall. Lo and behold the destroyer that had been patrolling turned up as if to investigate the attack. It didn't hang around for too long, but I figured it might come back if I started shelling the liner. So I cursed my lack of torps and headed back to base.

I can certainly confirm aircraft turning up if a merchant has seen you for a while. If you do want to use the deck gun then approach it submerged and wait for it to come in range. Blow ballast, man the guns, let fly then get the hell out of there once it's down.

[Safe-Keeper]

What I miss, though, is warships attacking map contacts.

I once put a destroyer down in the Mediterranean with contact updates set to every five minutes. It came very close to a map contact of a merchant, practically within visual range, and just continued its patrol.

Shouldn't warships so and so far away from a contact move to intercept it?

[andy_311]

I crash dived to avoid a destroyer. It went by me and I surfaced again. Not long after I found a lone passenger ship and let fly my remaining 3 torps. It was dead in the water, but not sinking. I was thinking of surfacing to use my deck gun but I thought a deck gun would be useless against such a huge target, plus it had some nasty looking guns.

Still, I didn't want to let such a huge target go without giving it a try. I stayed submerged and waited for nightfall. Lo and behold the destroyer that had been patrolling turned up as if to investigate the attack. It didn't hang around for too long, but I figured it might come back if I started shelling the liner. So I cursed my lack of torps and headed back to base.

I can certainly confirm aircraft turning up if a merchant has seen you for a while. If you do want to use the deck gun then approach it submerged and wait for it to come in range. Blow ballast, man the guns, let fly then get the hell out of there once it's down.

I learn't that the hard way, but leaving a liner never if am out of fish I gunner downs and have my flak gunners at hand if need be.

[Redbear]

I've seen DD's break away from a convoy and lay quietly in wait near a disable merchant. It seems to be waiting for the U-boat to return to finish the merchant off. I've also seen ships approach very close to a disable vessel for a period of time, then return to their previous course. That looks like it was 'picking up survivors'. Both are neat effects, and obviously responses to the damaged ship.