Just having read "QXP" , written by a former U-Boot radio operator, it was of course absolutely common to listen to the SOS messages sent by the attacked ship, feeling great relief when messages stopped being emitted because it could have been the begining of big troubles for the sub.Those who think that it is only of minor importance don't know how efficient were the allied ASW strategy and tactics.

Yeah, so despite the arcade-ness of aiming for a radio to stop broadcasts, it's a great feature. When you're spotted by an enemy, you may or may not have time to take him down before he gets an SSS out, and if you take him down quick enough, or get lucky and destroy his radio or kill the radio operator or something, no signal is broadcasted at all.

It works when it's reasonable - the sharp decline in land mine usage in recent years being a case in point.

Telling subs to not execute sneak attacks, on the other hand, is like telling fighter jets to not fly. "Now lemme get this straight - this thing flies over mountains that we have to trudge across, at a speed of several hundred knots, and then effortlessly fires guided explosives at our tanks and artillery? How shamelessly overpowered! I hereby declare that all vehicles with the capability of flight must be confined to roads from here on!"

The conning tower breaks the surface first. It takes several more seconds before the deck is above water. Twenty seconds to get the hatch open and get the crew out on deck. If the first man out unplugs the tampon, and the second man out opens the ready-use locker and grabs the first shell, and the third man out opens the breach, and the fourth man starts training the gun onto the target, it will probably still be more than a minute before the gun is ready to fire. Then you still have to deal with the fact that in anything but a dead-calm sea the submarine is a relatively unstable gun platform.

Then you have to find the radio shack.

:rotfl2::rock:

Of course the radio antenna is mounted to the mast, and the radio shack is somewhere inside...

Which would require 1000 morale points, btw.

:har:

Lets call it "plug" okay guys....


Andreas

I'm an old sailor. I call it what it is.:O:

Some young'un wants to make jokes, fine with me. I did it too.

By the way, Galanti, that was a good one...and tasteful, to boot.:salute:

It would be unfortunate for such a feature to be abused in a "gamey" kind of way but it's just as bad that the radioman happily reports you despite standing on the bulkhead as the flaming exploding ship is 70% sunk bow first.

I hated how the enemy guns, searchlights, etc were 100% operational well into a firey, sinky death and all turned off at once like a light switch.

I saw a documentary not too long ago about the battle of the atlantic. In the part about operation drumbeat they did an interview with Reinhard Hardegen who commanded one of the boats that started drumbeat (U-123). On his way to the US coast he ran across the SS Athena and torpedoed the ship. He then ordered his men to shoot the radio room in order to stop it from transmitting.

They did not manage to stop the ship from sending out their distress calls but coming from a real uboat captain of that time I take it that shooting at the radio room is not all fairydust but instead a valid (even if somewhat desperate) tactic for an uboat. And if it does not just blow to smithereens the second one starts shelling the ships I'd say its not arcade-style at all but a valid addition to a simulation. :salute:

I do however stress the if in that sentence. If it does not blow to smithereens the second one starts shelling the ships. ;)

I thought the term for that thing was Tampion, or something, but not...that word. LOL.