frigate taskforce

[cobalt]

i met a task force of black swans less than 200km W of brest last afternoon, surprised the crap out of me. anyone else see these differant types of TFs?

http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/6742/sh3img117200623475yj.jpg
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/8961/sh3img11720062347163980wo.jpg

[Wulfmann]

That is not a task force. It is a hunter killer group looking for you. Best to turn away silently and go very deep to be safe!

Wulfmann

[cobalt]

well a hunter killer group is still TF by definition. i just high tailed it out of there without them spotting me, it was kinda exciting seeing that though.

[Hawk_308]

Semi rough sea and late evening , ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK :arrgh!: . Send the allied a message that you will not be toyed with.

[tycho102]

It's a task force. There are battle-group task forces, and there are hunter task forces. The battle groups have battleship and carriers for surface attacks, and those are the ones that are scripted. I think there are also unscripted hunter task forces that just appear at random.

[Puster Bill]

I had a TF of Clemsons and Hunts cross my bow once. I took out a Clemson, then went deep and quiet. They never found me :rock:

[cobalt]

Semi rough sea and late evening , ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK :arrgh!: . Send the allied a message that you will not be toyed with.


had no torpedoes left :x

if only i had 5 falke torpedoes, hell would have broken loose.

[Wulfmann]

I real life as well as by designation in SH3 they are Hunter Killer Groups and not Task Force groups but if you want to call them that it is your game and do what makes you happy.
I was just referring to historic reality, sometimes over rated!
Most (not all) TF are in the SCR and the Hunter Killer Groups are in the RND.

I once changed the torpedo load out in CFG so I had 3 T4s in the stern and one loaded and 2 reserves in the front. I took out all five in a Hunter Killer group (one by a fan of 2 T3s), wiped them all out. Then it occurred to me that was so unrealistic that I removed the bow T-4s (1944) and raised the renown cost extremely high so I could not have but one such fish ready in the stern.
Actually I can hit them fairly well with my T3s anyway.
What I do is wait for him to make a DC run from my stern. I stay at 14 meters so he can’t ram me and the DCs will go off at 20 so usually the damage is manageable. When he goes by I wait to see which way he will turn and as he gets close to a 90% angle with his side I set the fish so I can fire when he is 20% away from my aim point (he would be going fast). It is like hip shooting in a way just pick a setting for the fish and wait for him to get to -20% and fire. I have miscalculated, sure, it is a guess but I bag a lot of DDs with this technique and my percentage is as good as with homi fish

Wulfmann

[Hawk_308]

Semi rough sea and late evening , ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK :arrgh!: . Send the allied a message that you will not be toyed with.

had no torpedoes left :x

if only i had 5 falke torpedoes, hell would have broken loose.

:arrgh!:You still had the deck gun , didnt you ?:hmm: :arrgh!::huh:



:roll::rotfl:

[andy_311]

I actually got caught off guard with this HK group and had to choice but to take them out.

[Threadfin]

Hunter killer groups have a carrier in them, I'd call this a task force. Or maybe just a killer group :)

[bigboywooly]

Hunter killer groups have a carrier in them, I'd call this a task force. Or maybe just a killer group :)

Historically speaking Britain didnt have enough carriers to be able to put a carrier in each Hunter\killer group

As convoy routes were defined and as was the frequency - with some variations - it was quite often the practice to sail Hunter\killer groups midway between 2 convoys to take over escort duties if needed - for refuelling purposes but more importantly to take over from the convoy escorts when a uboat was found thus allowing the convoy escorts to return to station

[Threadfin]

As I understand they were called hunter-killer because aircraft would hunt the sub and ships would kill the sub (if the aircraft didn't do it outright). Without the aircraft you don't have the hunter part, as least as the name is intended. Ah well, can call them whatever one likes I suppose.

[Sailor Steve]

They're called Hunter-Killer groups because of the new tactic. Earlier destroyers would attack individually. With the H-K group they would spread out 1000 yards apart and sweep the area. Whichever one found the sub became the Hunter, slowing down to match the sub's speed and guiding the rest (the Killers) in for...well, the kill.

Carriers and aircraft were added later, when escort carriers started becoming available.

[Seminole]

:hmm: All hunter killer groups are tasks forces but not all task forces are hunter killer groups.

[Threadfin]

Here's what uboat.net says

http://www.uboat.net/allies/ships/hunter.htm

You guys may be right and groups with no carrier were called hunter killer. Any sources to verify?

[Sailor Steve]

None that I've found so far, especially American and mid-to-late war; but I'm pretty sure Captain Johnny Walkers original groups in 1942 didn't have them.

However, every single U.S. group I've found says "built around carrier such-and-such", so it looks like you're right.

[Threadfin]

He was the man, no doubt. I'm sure he worked without aircraft too, but he's an interesting piece where he teamed with HMS Audacity.

http://www.mikekemble.com/ww2/walker.html


Can anyone tell me if there's a way to paste something into a post on this forum?

[Wulfmann]

There was more than one type of Hunter Killer groups in the RN.
The US came later and with more stuff off the bat.
HK groups were first small groups of DDs that searched the convoys lanes independently. Then they were placed between convoys to take over killing the U-Boats found by escorts allowing the escorts to stay with the convoy. Then they worked with land based planes and then with their own carrier.
All were HK groups in general or have so been described historically.
Whether there was a technical designation as to what one officially was made up I have never read but all mentioned were called HK groups but I never saw them referred to as a task force. Although one should never say never

Speaking of what I posted above on my superb ability to take out DDs with T3s.
Murphy was listening and last night I fired a total of 8 T3s at DDs and did not score a hit.:damn:
I believe that is the worst I have ever done and seems a bit justified by my boasting!:rotfl:

Wulfmann

[Sailor Steve]

Can anyone tell me if there's a way to paste something into a post on this forum?
What are you trying to paste? If it's text, just highlight it, right-click and hit 'Copy'; then when you are posting right-click again and hit 'Paste'.

If it's a picture you'll have to create a link to the picture. I can do that but describing it will take someone a little more computer-savvy than my poor self.

[Threadfin]

Yeah, just text like a link, or quote, that's all. Of course I do what you say, but there's no paste option when I try to paste into my post. Have you tried it, do you get the same thing?

[Wulfmann]

When you click reply and the window opens there is a small box in the upper right hand corner with 2 letter A, a small one and a bigger one. Click on that and it switches the editor mode and allows you to cut and paste.

Wulfmann

[Threadfin]

Ahh, many thanks.