Seems we're really in general agreement. I thought you were indicated it was rarely or never done. Too bad SH4 does not allow contact reports after contact has been broken. I never do it because of that "feature".

Buddahaid

Yea... check this thread here http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=143683

I never make contact reports; this is Silent Hunter! .... lol

Happy Hunting!

Art

I don't report ...because I can never seem to remember to do so....I guess I have some wierd-o mental block about making reports....maybe it is a form of rebelling against authority that I never outgrew.

But since you mentioned this I am going to make it a point to report from now on, at least for a while, and see what happens.

I don't see reporting as brown nosing to authority. Reporting a fleet contact or major resupply run would be giving a heads up to your fellow servicemen, saving lives. The sad part is SH4 does not allow one to make reports as they were really done, as I understand it. I like to play according to the doctrine of the day, not using shortcuts or whatever else that makes 100,000 ton single patrols possible. As it is, I still come in with too large "bags". In any case, making a report before attacking cannot be good advice, so I wonder why Ubi even included it. Better wrong than not at all, or a trap for added combat excitement? As I stated before, I don't do it, I just pretend I gave one after breaking off.

Buddahaid

If I am not in my AO I will report a convey. Sometimes I am given the green light, sometimes not. BTW your report does give the speed which comes in handy.

This darn thread almost got me sunk last night :p

I was crusing to my final patrol area with a total of two torpedoes left on the boat. One in the fore tubes, another aft both Mk 28's. It had been a busy patrol and that 'last' convoy used up alot of fish.

Radar picks up a lone merchant cruising north so we plot and intercept it as we close and prepare the shot we dive to periscope depth set up the shot make the calcs and fire ! About 40 seconds of run, when ... contact, heading for us, another, then two others, then more !... Kaboom the torpedo struck the lone merchant which set ablaze, started to list and sail in circles.

I decided to surface and set for the convoy we had picked up on sonar. "Ahead full surface the boat". We wanted to phone this one in. As soon as we broke surface "Ship spotted... two of them... Both destoyers, well within 'sighting' distance! Dammit I guess the fireworks caught their attention. Well of course they both altered their course and headed straight for us.

Take her down, fast, steer course 270, make depth 180, ahead flank. We had a little distance on the destroyers, with any luck...

On crossing 80 feet we reduced speed and went into silent running posture the DD's within 1,500 yards now. Deeper we went yet the dd's close. We leveled off at 180 just as one of the DD's went into their run. "Ahead flank, Left full rudder" a few moments later dull thuds ... phew that was close. "Ahead slow rudder amidships".

Another DD makes her run, we evade as before but turned the wrong way, two DC's detonated close, popped a bulkhead, flooding, electric engines, diesel engines, all damaged. Not to mention flooding.

We come out of silent running and call GQ and assign the usual suspects to the damage control. Ahead standard... get that damn flooding fixed !

For whatever reason the DD's layed off for a bit and gave us time to patch things up, and start pumping out water. They returned though for several passes but never found their mark. Finally the bulkhead was repaired, flooding stopped.

We need to shake these guys before they get lucky again.

Take her down to 220, ... finally on passing 200 I hear passing thermal layer. We slowed, turned south, rigged for silent, and slowly left the DD's searching for us behind. The bulk of the convoy continued more or less SxSW right at us.

After a few hours sonar confirmed no real close contacts, we surfaced, again well within 'sight' range of 'coastal' escorts. This time though within sight range of the bulk of the convoy. We quickly called it in and dived again.

Sonar confirmed the DD's were still well north of us 'searching' in the same spot we were hours ago, the coastals stood dutifully with the convoy, on passing about 80feet we got the message "Good find". Thank goodness they dident want us to prosecute with one torpedo left :p

All was good, we stayed down at ahead slow turned west to seperate us from the convoy and counted our blessings.

Reporting contacts -- huh?
 

How do you report a convoy, ship or anytingh for that matter.? I could use all the renown I can muster.

Down on the right side the button that looks like a ships wheel, click it. It brings up the clipboard (captain's log) On the first page (the tab with the ! ) When you open that page you see an envelope on the left to report status (like mission completed or whatever your status is) and on the right is a picture of a ship to report contacts, but you must be on the surface to do it. And close enough to see the whites of their eyes, and if it's Saturday after a hard Friday night the eyes are all bloodshot so you are out of luck. :lol:.

Do I make contact reports....heck NO. I sink them...all of them...well ok 1 or 2.:roll:

Peabody

thanks grey wolf
 

thank you sir.

:D
Spirit: :up:
Implementation::oops:
We must form a clan or something! :yep:
As in: Sea-kings of the near-miss.!:rotfl:

We're sort of in agreement. If a USN sub made a contact report it was almost certainly after an attack, and only then if an end-around was no longer possible—the only exception literally being a handful of patrols that were explicitly ordered to report first, orders which were later changed since it was such an awful idea.

That said, such contact reports would be rare indeed, IMO, particularly earlier in the war (pre-1944).

Unfortunately the game mechanics for campaign design assume pretty constant back and forth with home, something that was entirely true of the KM and IJN, but something almost completely untrue of USN doctrine.

I imagine the number of KM and IJN subs sunk due to breaking radio silence is some multiple of the total number of USN subs sunk to all causes.

I agree with what RR and tater have been saying. I think the one time a report would be practically required is if something huge - a big convoy or a monster task force - was seen at a distance, and the reporting sub was in no possible position for an attack; or had attacked and there were still valuable targets to be reported. And even then it would be reported after it was well out of sight over the horizon, lessening the chance of retribution.

So that sums up the original problem: you can only make a report if the target is in visual range, and that is the one time they most certainly would not make a report.

I am not just a member of Sea-kings of the near-miss, I am the President.:rotfl:

Peabody

Actually, you can only make a report inside 4500m. I never make them, so I'm not sure, do you have to be surfaced, too? That's insanely close, regardless.