In 1939 and 1940 I usually attack convoys on the surface. The Escorts are not that good and you have high maneuverability when you're on the surface. For such an attack to be a success you have to follow these simple rules:

1. Wait until is dark enough so that it is difficult for the escorts to see you visualy.
2. Always approach at decks awash in order to minimise your visible cross section.
3. Try to approach at an angle of approximately 45deg towards the convoy and pass behind the nearest escort.
4. As soon as you've penetrate the escort shield line up the boat and fire your torpedoes in quick succession. Try to make them hit at the same time if possible
5. After the torpedoes are fired turn around quickly and fire onle last shot from the aft.
6. Now depending on the weather conditions you can either go away at full speed on the surface or dive deep and escape silently.

Today after oblitareting small convoy i surfaced only to find i took damage from debrees and lifeboot witch i hit at some point :D That was quite a surprise for me...

I just found a small convoy and decided to "be more Aggressive" :arrgh!:
So i surfaced about 3 k out and took out the escort ship with the deck gun and two off the ships.
I ended finishing the other two with the deck gun and heavy Flak.:rock:
In all five kills with no eels sent.:up:

Yesterday (Oct. '41) I went after a small 3-ship convoy in CO51 in the dark. Targetted the small freighter in the center. Approached at flank speed with decks awash. Still wasn't seen at 2500m so I submerged & reduced speed to slow. Launched a T1 at the small freighter and then targetted the Black Swan that was trailing her. Shot another T1 at her and went deep (100m+). Both eels hit their marks & that small freighter and HMS Woodcock suddenly became artificial reefs.:D Easily evaded the surviving Black Swan.

Got my first Escorted convoy kills last night.:salute:
there was about 4 escorts so I went ahead and went to 12 meters deep and all stop and just waited. an hour or two later I got the first reports of ships sighted.
I just kept waiting almost got detected a few times:o there was about 20 ships in the convoy I picked a large merchant and let a salvo of 4 eels go.
and set depth to 60 meters and just slipped away. I got 2 ships totaling about 10k.

Yea I could have got more but I was not going to get caught this time.:arrgh!:

Sorry I am not good at doing detailed reports.

the convoy I just attacked in september '41 already had some radar-equipped escorts, judging by how I kept having corvettes running behind me on the surface, 200 meters behind my stern, following every turn I made, in very thick fog/rain (no visual sightings from crew, no gunfire from corvettes, just a look behind and a heart attack when I was staring right at a warship's bows :)

so from there on, surface attacks are more of a challenge. then again, i remember doing a successful surface run in bad weather in late '43. they weren't paying attention that day or something, very cool.

so judge the situating carefully and be aware of their and your capacities. convoy battles in the mid-war are the best thing in GWX for me, challenging but rewarding. as some said before, if you are having trouble with convoys in the early war, you're doing something wrong. practice makes perfect, keep at it

Bosje

ps i really must confirm what i said about using TC. when all is quiet around you, it's not such an issue (i.e. the approach may be done at TC) but when the enemy is 'on alert', things change. I spent last night hunting single ships off the US coast and every single time, after my first torpedo hit, when leaving the periscope up, they started firing at my periscope head when i used time compression. every single time.
While i can stay in real time for an hour, monitoring the effect of the torpedo through the periscope without trouble... as soon as i use TC to speed up the sinking they detect my periscopes.
same goes for escorts. after they lost me and turned away, use TC and they sometimes come back
anyway...