Ordered to attack the escorts?!?
 

On my second patrol I encountered a small but very nice convoy consisting of a large troop transport, a 10.T tanker (Nippon Maru) and two 8.T merchants and was escorted by 3 DD.

I reported the contact and got the message to attack the escorts instead of the tanker or troop transport.... Was something about softening up the defenses for later assaults.

That made me think....
Was this really done, sending men to their death like that?

Don't get me wrong, they took a chance getting killed every time they went out there and I salute them for their bravery and heroism but to give a order to the Cpt. of a sub to attack a Escort instead of the convoy is/was plain dumb imo.

I have never heard of such a thing. Are you running any mods? :hmmm:

Don't recall ever seeing that one4, but don't worry, radio message orders aren't connected to score, sink what you want.

I seem to remember reading/seeing doco's discribing U-boats, at one stage, getting orders exactly like that (maybe early war, or when accoustic torps were introduced? I forget.). For an order like that to be given in game sounds like an excellent peice of realism to me. Though like TorpX said I'm not sure if the yanks would've done that. Are you playing UBM's?

Even to take out one escort would give the next skipper a much better chance.

I'm running SH IV 1.5 with:TMO 2.5, OTC (for TMO 2.5 / 8 to 5 aspect ratio), Improved Stock ENV (for TMO) and DC water disturbance_V 2.0.


I Didn't know that :o ooh well...

I sunk the port DD with by firing all 4 bow torpedoes, spread at 0.5* angle interval to port with the third one set to 0.5* starboard angle just incase she decided to go for a halt.

3 out of 4 hit and obliterated her by the second torpedo.:rock:

I was getting greedy when the lead escort came looking for me I decided to lure her in and fire 2 aft torpedoes, both hit the nose and bounced off of her. (forgot to set them to magnetic).:/\\!!

After a few hours of dodging I finally escaped unharmed.

(On one of my earlier patrols, getting destroyed by my own torpedo when she exploded by the phrase "torpedo in the water" I went with 'no dud's'). :down:


The message read more or less something like:
"Attack the escorts, weakening the convoy for later attacks with other assets". So you have a point there.

Hasn't that bin saved somewhere in my SH4 saved games folder?


HJ

I have never been ordered to attack the escorts first but I have done it on occasion. :timeout:

If I felt the merchants were lightly gunned and escorted (one escort positioned in the lead and one to the stern of the last merchant) I would take the lead escort out first. Dive deep all ahead flank. When I felt the escort was within 2000 yards or past 120 degrees to my bow I would slow to 1/3 all quiet and if I am lucky it heads towards my firing position while I get closer to the merchants. I would ready the fish, come to periscope depth, fire towards my targets, angle into the convoy, and once the fish had hit ... or missed :har:, I would surface and try to fire using the stern tubes while the front loaded and the deck gun on the closest ship. When I would notice the escort coming towards me I lined up so that I could try to keep it dead astern while I fired at it with my deck gun. :shifty: The narrow silhouette made me harder to hit and even though it could outrun me on the surface flank speed could keep enough distance away that I could slow it down and sometimes destroy it with my deck gun with minimal or no damage at all.

The merchants would then be easier to pick off with fish or the deck gun.:arrgh!:


http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/pict...pictureid=4969

In 1943 the American subs were ordered to attack the escorts, in order to wipe them out, so that may be the case.

Cybermat, I don't mean to challenge you, I am just curious and would like to follow up with my own reading. Can you give us your source for that?

You may have radioed you sighted a convoy and then got the order to sink Escorts. I think what is suppose to happen is the convoy gets attacked by allied Task Force aircraft if they are in the area, after you sink the Escorts.

I never radio when I spot a convoy because I don't think it is realistic for the 'Silent Service' USN.... plus it may give away my position. I will radio for a new objective when I need to and I think it is safe.

The Germans radioed everything so they could report convoys and coordinate their wolfpacks. Although the US used them occasionally, most of the patrols were single boats in an assigned area/sector.

Happy Hunting!

Of course! It's in this really big book called 'Submarines: the illustrated history' by Richard Humble, and published by (my edition at least) Connoisseur.

Well I must be the other exception, I have been ordered to attack the escorts during my patrol's before, no problem sink them first and then you can really have fun with the rest of the convoy.:yeah:

Guess I'm the third .... TMO 2.5 - 1943

USS Harder, Sam Dealey, heard scuttlebutt that the Japanese were running short of escorts and made it a point to sink destroyers whenever possible.

http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/h2/harder-i.htm

Not necessarily a "suicide mission", after all as soon as you sink a merchant in a convoy with 4 escorts you have 4 escorts hunting for you to rain depth charges on your head. Sink one of the destroyers instead now you have 3 escorts instead of 4 since the one you sank won't be bothering you anymore. What I often do is dive deep to find out where the layer is, then attack a destroyer with two fish, down the throat with three at the next one, then go to flank speed, kick out a decoy and dive below the layer before slowing down. Sink all the escorts first and you can surface to clobber all the unprotected merchant ships with the deck gun, wipe out the entire convoy.

:arrgh!:

I've seen this before too. I've pretty much run some version of tmo since I quit stock.