Are small ships worth torpedoing?

[anthrax]

My situation is as follows. What would a experianced captian do? Do you think its time to leave this convoy and hunt for other targets around the british coast or should i use my last torpedos to finish off the rest of the small ships?

My situation is below.

Time & Date : 18:00 in April 1940
Location: AMxx of the Western Coast of the UK.
Weather : 12 m/s no fog. (but also no deck gun)
Uboat: VII b with 100% intergrity. > 75% Fuel.
Torpedo Load remaining:
Bow: 3 x G7e T2 and 1 G7e x T2 external reload
Stern: 1 x G7e external reload.

Convoy Targets sunk: ~ 57,000T
1 x Flower Covette (900T)
1 x V&W Destroyer (1300T)
1 x T3 Tanker (11000T)
1 x T2 Tanker (10000T)
5 x C2 Cargo (~ 6200T)

Convoy Targets left: ~ 16,000T
3 x small merchants.
4 x costal merchants.

[_Seth_]

Hi anthrax!

You got a good catch already, so i dont think you should waste those torps on those dinghy's.. But thats just my opinion.. Go and seek out å battleship or something similar, and keep in mind that you should have some ammo on the return trip to base...

Happy hunting, herr kaleun! :D:D

[STEED]

Are small ships worth torpedoing?

NO, but on saying that I must admit I sunk a coastal vessel in the Med after eight days of dreadful weather. I suspect I did it out of boredom. :lol:

[Dantenoc]

You would've gotten more tonnage out sinking the smaller merchants than the escorts you took the time to sink, so why pretend to be picky now?

It's a shame you don't have the deck gun, but unescorted ships are still worth torpedoeing, any day. No decent kaleun -I beleive- would have left that kind of a chance pass by.

[CWorth]

Sink 'em
Any Uboat captain worth his position would blow those merchants away.Your mission is to starve Britain of supplies and any merchant you sink does that.

You wasted the torpedos going after the destroyers when you would have been better off going after the merchants.

[mookiemookie]

Heck of a patrol already! I'd say go ahead and sink 'em. I'd imagine a real life Kaleun would puff thoughtfully on his pipe and say something along the lines of "Eat now, you don't know when you'll get the chance to again."

EDIT: The U-Boat Commander's Handbook backs us up on this one: "Never delude yourself by assuming that it is right not to attack on the instant, or not to hold on to the enemy with the utmost determination, because there may be reason to hope and believe that there will be a better target subsequently found elsewhere. What you have got, you have got."

[bigboywooly]

The smaller merchants left were the the uboats bread and butter
Heaps more of them on the seas than the big targets
Make the most of an unguarded convoy and sink em

Why no DG BTW ?

[Biggles]

I say blow up the lot o' them. You have nothing to lose. If you meet a ship on the way back, just dive and rig for silent running, and just go away, you can't always engage targets, how good position you may be in, but finnish them off I say.

[Hylander_1314]

You've got enough torps left to darn near sink the entire convoy. If aimed right, you can get five more and only leave 2 to reach their destination.

Think of the glory and medals, and Frauleins. You'll be a national hero! T.V. commercials, toothpaste endorsements, strasse named after you!

And when you return to base, Uncle Karl will smile, and give all of you a warm welcome.

[Boris]

TV commercials, LOL? if only thay had TV back then :lol:

[Dantenoc]

TV commercials, LOL? if only thay had TV back then :lol:

Unless I mistake history for some weird dream I had, I seem to recollect that, as a show of german supremacy, the Berlin Olympic games (before the war) were televised with a signal strong enough to be picked up internationaly... As a matter of fact, It seems to me that that was the first time in history when man kind broadcasted a TV signal strong enough to be picked up outside of our world... no?:yep:

[Boris]

I stand corrected... apparently Germany had the very first regular television broadcast in the 30s... even if it was only to a few thousand viewers.

[melnibonian]

Hello

It’s just my opinion but I never let any target get by, no matter how small or big it is. The reason why BdU have you out there in the miserable mist, cold and rain is to track down and sink ships!!!! :o On a serious note though, I do understand your concern. Try to think how you will feel if you let those ‘small’ targets go by, and never find anything bigger or better until your return to home base.:oops:

That’s of course just my opinion, you're the captain of the boat

so................................................ ......

Good Luck and Good Shooting

[HunterICX]

Mmm...I would chase them , in 1940 the merchants are unarmed so I would chase them for a while untill the Weather changes so you can use your Deck gun. so Shaddow them from 10 - 15 km distance and when the wheater is in the favour for the Deck gun go right towards and Its price shooting :up:

save the torpedos because I,m not sure but its posible that the merchants has contacted the coast guard, And believe you dont want Baywatch behind you :p

[Patboot]

Hehehe...once, just to be a bastard, I torped a fishing boat. The detonation literally shoved the poor thing about 2 meters under the surface.

View from the scope: BOOM... boat just dissapeared. Had to use freecam to find out wtf happened.

[Biggles]

Yeah I did the same thing once! It flew away (no it really did:lol: ) crashed in the water some 50 meters away, flew up again, down,up down and
stayed down:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I was just outside Cuba:cool:

Let's just hope I didn't sink Ernest:o

[SteamWake]

Are small ships worth torpedoing?

NO, but on saying that I must admit I sunk a coastal vessel in the Med after eight days of dreadful weather. I suspect I did it out of boredom. :lol:

Ditto,

After weeks at sea and seeing not much more than a tug boat those lil flower corvettes look like an ocean liner :p

[Jimbuna]

I would sink em if the patrol was tedious...but looking at what youv'e already sunk I would be tempted to look for bigger prey :arrgh!:

[SkvyWvr]

SINK THEM ALL!!!:arrgh!:

[Rose]

Ditto,

After weeks at sea and seeing not much more than a tug boat those lil flower corvettes look like an ocean liner :p

I call this phenomena "long-patrol goggles." :D

[Yahoshua]

I remember when I sank my first C2 cargo.......I was in the English channel at night in a type II sub.

I had 1 torp left and so I took a chance on magnetic det. under her keel.

It blew her in half and a great fireworks display ensued.

It was glorious.

[catar M]

All I want to know how the hell did you sunk 9 ships and still have torps left:hmm:

[Redbear]

I'd have to agree with the majority of replies so far. You have valid targets in sight, so sink them. Early in the war, if you have a deck gun, you can use it on small ships in hopes of finding a bigger target later for torpedos. Later in the war the deck gun is basically useless, and targets are harder to find, so I don't think and Kaleu would pass on anything because it is 'too small'.

[Eichenlaub]

So far I've played at 79% realism, and have passed up smaller targets in favour of bigger ones, but when I start playing at 100% DID, the game will be different: I shall no longer pass up smaller ships (except perhaps coastal vessels) for the real U-boat commanders did not enjoy the luxury of continuing patrols until better targets appeared. Considering that the majority of U-boat commanders did not achieve a sinking, partly because of the difficulties of finding targets, passing ships up really isn't realistic or correct from a military view point.

And another thing: in reality, Germany had a chance to win the war by U-boats because of their ability to vastly reduce English imports, for which every ship was important. A ship sunk in 1940 counts more heavily towards the general war effort than one in 1944 due to the fact that early in the war, Britain had to rely on her own merchant marine.

So sink those ships!

Kind regards,

Eichenlaub

[U-104]

As BDU says over and over and over and over again, "BE MORE AGRESSIVE"!:arrgh!:

[Jimbuna]

As somebody or other once said: "Little fish are sweet!" :arrgh!:

[STEED]

As BDU says over and over and over and over again, "BE MORE AGRESSIVE"!:arrgh!:

I am, I ram fishing boats to the bottom. :arrgh!:

[Takeda Shingen]

I always sink the merchants, regarless of size. For a real captain, he would have to answer to BdU for passing up targets in search of 'better' options. This means that you may not get 80k tons in every patrol (what boat had those kinds of numbers?), but you will be acting in accordance to operational reality.

In the same vein, I leave fishing boats, trawlers, coastal boats and escorts unmolested, as per Kriegsmarine standing orders. The only variant to these operations is in the late war, where the T-V was instituted specifically as an escort-killer. Then, and only then will I attack a destroyer or corvette.

[The_Blockade_Runner]

Its hard for me to let any enemy target pass by. Weather it is a coastal merchant, fishing boat or tug boat, I will usually kill it, unless DD's are in the area

[graybeard]

I feel really guilty...heck, I torpedoed a tug boat in really bad weather. I couldn't man my deck guns because of the weather.:up:

[DanBiddle]

What do you mean, small ships?!! They looks absolutley huge after the fishing boats I usually see :D

I'll attack almost any ship regardless of size, other than tug boats and fishing boats and small fry likfe that. I'll obviously be more selective in convoys, but I find it hard to pass up the chance to put another ship on the bottom.

Cheers,

Dan Biddle

[Grrbob25]

I torped a 86 ton trawler, with a mighty IX-B, my god it was fun! (a waste of a torp though)

this wasnt a waste though: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f308/tommyisgod446/SH3Img23-9-2006_1.jpg (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f308/tommyisgod446/SH3Img23-9-2006_1.jpg%5B/IMG%5D)

notice the flying enligsh men???? I love the real damage mod!!! (with krillers sreaming mod and real damage, the flying sailors scream :rock:)

[Kingcobra24]

A target is a target is a target....:arrgh!:

If it's an enemy unit, it gets sunk. I use the torps for the merchants and larger, and the guns for the smaller units like tugs, trawlers, and fishing boats. If the seas are too stormy to allow manning the deck gun or flak units, I go to full speed and ram them. I avoid a direct blow, like ramming him in the stern, or a 90 degree broadside. Rather, I prefer to use a "glancing blow", something along the lines of a 20 to 30 degree contact hit. In all the careers I've gone through, I've sunk every unit I've rammed, and never once had any damage done to my boat. Size matters...a glancing blow will cause my bow to "bounce" away after making contact, with no damage done, but because of the much smaller size of the target, my glancing blow rips him open. I've seen smoke and flames from some, oil slicks from others, etc. In the end, they've all sunk within 5 minutes of the ram.:lurk:

[U-104]

A target is a target is a target....:arrgh!:

If it's an enemy unit, it gets sunk. I use the torps for the merchants and larger, and the guns for the smaller units like tugs, trawlers, and fishing boats. If the seas are too stormy to allow manning the deck gun or flak units, I go to full speed and ram them. I avoid a direct blow, like ramming him in the stern, or a 90 degree broadside. Rather, I prefer to use a "glancing blow", something along the lines of a 20 to 30 degree contact hit. In all the careers I've gone through, I've sunk every unit I've rammed, and never once had any damage done to my boat. Size matters...a glancing blow will cause my bow to "bounce" away after making contact, with no damage done, but because of the much smaller size of the target, my glancing blow rips him open. I've seen smoke and flames from some, oil slicks from others, etc. In the end, they've all sunk within 5 minutes of the ram.:lurk:

that is the way to do it.:rock::rock: