The strangest thing happend.
 

Hi.

I´m in dec-39, playing GWX in a VIIb.
I come across a convoy south of Ireland.
It´s heavy seas and strong winds. Fog light.
As usual, a destroyer in the front, a couple on each side and one in the rear.

I manage to sink a Large Merch. and a small one. Missed a couple of torps.
Craschdive to 160m, thinking all hell is going to break loose.......
Nothing happens. Not a single one of the destroyers is taking up the hunt on me.
They didn´t even come for a look.
I sneak out in their baffels.

Good for me, but strange I think. :-?

/VV ;)

Maybe they were in hurry for Christmas? ;)

"U-Boat - Christmas presents... U-boat - Christmas presents... Nah... Keep the course, boys!"

Humm, looks to me like they are the ones who will entice you into the dreaded
2nd Patrol Your Dead Club! :rock:

:rotfl:

I agree...pretty strange :hmm: ...but another part of ma keeps saying "lucky you" :yep:
Make the most of it because before long things are sure to 'heat up' as/if you progress through the war :arrgh!:

1st Patrol VIIB 2nd Flotille U45 Wilhelmshavn

0948 H

Escort taking me out of the harbour

0951 H

Escort Changing course into the wrong dirrection

0952 H

Colision against the Escort

Radio message
To: BDU
from: U45
Donitz you MORON! WHO MADE THIS IDIOT A CAPTAIN OF THE ESCORT

Radio Message
To: U45
from: BDU
Bernard was in charge of the helm,not Donitz

Heavy seas are always good for loosing escorts, in the early war years anyhow. One odd thing which happened recently to me, attacking a convoy in a stormy sea, during the escorts repost, a corvet partialy sank but didn't go down. It was making the metalic 'ship going down' noises though, just not sinking. One of the black swan frigates kept circling it dropping deapth charges, presumably the game modelling was telling it that the noise was it's target. Was able to escape at flank speed underwater.

As long as you don't get heavy fog, bad weather is your best friend...;)

If you hit a ship and it doesn't sink... like in just the screws have stopped, hide under it. The escorts will run circles around it droppingf DCs. After awhile they just leave, but you should wait longer. Then when they're 20kms away you can finish it off. But becareful, later on in the war, they might have deckguns to give you a hard time.... stay submerged to be safe. ;)

Not always good to sit under a stricken ship
Sat under a T2 a while ago to avoid the 3 escorts
They raced around the tanker for a while before trying to DC me
Blew the tanker with them
No kill for me plus 3 angry escorts to evade
Oh and a rapidly sinking T2 to get out the way off

@priater

"They all float"

RE: Hiding under a ship. I've done this. 40 m depth under a small merch, thing blew up, I have massive flooding and took my HI down to about 59%. Not a good idea always.

RE: Destroyers. Yeah, I've found this has happened to me before. My tactic is get in front of the convoy, run orthogonal, go to pd + 3m, engines all stop, rig silent. When the convoy gets close, align myself so I am between the largest ships (Cruiser > Whale Factory > Large Tanker > Pyro > Medium Tanker > Large Cargo etc...). When they run close, pop and and set my torps ablaze. I get huge tonnage this way, and can reload too.

Now, I find if you aren't seen in middle of the convoy, the destroyers typically only search outside of it, so you can do this over and over without them doing anything actively against you.

The Murmansk convoys appear to lose you in heavy seas, too, even in 1943. I'm playing Wolves at War and I've noticed this....

And I've NEVER been that lucky in '43 anywhere else on the map. Dunno.

I read a few books where in heavy sea's light fog etc a ship would be taken out by a wolf and no one in the convoy would notice till the next day....creepy. They say due to the wind noise, large waves, fog, most of the crew were inside the ship and not outside due to safety reasons of loosing a man overboard, alot of ships would go to the death either unseen or not heard or both, thats why so many saliors where lost if they survived the intitial torpedo hit. Escorts would back track to try to find them, but there would be no sign of wreckage....the wolf would be still stalking after having a snack and now the hunter would move in again because a poor mistake by an escort to leave the convoy to look for the missing ship had now weakened the defence of the convoy.