What would "history" do?
 

Hi All,

I have just encountered a Large Convoy going West @5kts. It is guarded by 4 Black Swan Frigates and a light Dido class cruiser in the middle. The weather is perfect, sea state - 1 (flat & smooth as the skin of an 18-year-old girl...). My position is directly behind them. I'm closing @AK Vorraus with 11 torpedoes. It is just after 4 P.M.

What would a real U-boot Kapitan do?
- Go to the left/right; get ahead of the Convoy; wait till night comes; submerge and get between the ships real quite; fire all 5 tubes and flee to reload?
- Attract one excort after another and get rid of them; than surface and take out the merchants with the Deck Gun?

Hmmm, I suppose the first option is more probable... BUT!!! I recon, the score would be 3 sunk ships at best! When, after performing option two the Commander could score over 40 000 - 50 000 BTR with ease!

My questions:

A) Why did the Germans use option 1 instead of (more succesfull) 2?
B) What would YOU do in this situation Commanders?

Cheers!

Well, in reallity, without auto TDC and WO assistance, option 2 would certainly not be the most successfull. Even if you could sink one of the escorts, the others would swarm you and keep you down and away from the convoy long enough for it to escape. Also if a boat just surfaced in the middle of a convoy and started shooting, the ships in reallity would not behave as they do in the game. They would probably scatter in every direction and leave you with only one or two targets, or tried to ram the u-boat.

Most u-boat commanders didn't want those pesky 4.7 inch holes in their pressure hulls. That's why they went for option one.

I havnt studied / read enough U boat tactics to comment historically, however correct me if I am wrong, their primary objective was to put a strangle-hold on supplies to GB, so I would imagine a real U boat would want to get in, and sink as many supply ships as possible.

As much as I enjoy sinking an escort, they still complete their objective if I do, which is to lure (or chase) you away from sinking the supply ships. I try and remember its a waste of an eel every time I fire at an escort , especially when I am intercepting a convoy.

I'd go with your initial plan of attack - shadow the convoy, call it in to BdU so they can direct other U boats to also intercept. Get infront of it, await nightfall - then sneak in past the escorts, and sink them all :arrgh!:

Good luck, good hunting :up:

A) A U-boat was most vulnerable on the surface and no match for the firepower of a warship in a gun duel. If the pressure hull was breached it wouldn't be able to dive.
B) Option 1

Hmmm, I think not either historically or in GWX. IMHO no real Kaleuns would have considered sinking 4 Black Swans plus a Dido an easy task or a safe option.

Infiltrate the convoy and use your torpedoes for the merchants. In the dark on the surface is good and with one torpoedo one ship gives a good haul (particularly if you're into reloading in the middle of a convoy).

However, not everyone is Silent Otto, including me ;). I'll try it and have succeeded sometimes but if I fail it's still just a game. Most Kaleuns would probably fire a spead from outside the convoy and dive deep, particularly later in the war.

I don't know what realism level you alre playing and which mod you are using, but with GWX and 100% realism, forget about option 2 and go for option 1 still with fear in your heart, or forget about the convoy altogether.

with such escort I don t think they would have try to get to close range. Side shoot at 1500-2000 metters

Instead of asking "what would a real kaleun do?", ask yourself "if I was in this 'iron coffin' what would I really do?"

Pretty much the same thing, but if you try to put yourself there and think of your crew and (I know, we're not supposed to be cowards, but...) your own life, then you will be thinking of how to get the best shot and then escape.

Remember, once you're dead you're not going to be sinking many more of those fat merchants!

In real-life escorts were not so stupid as to wander off alone. Destroying a u-boat is a bonus but the survival of the convoy is of utmost importance. They would either come after you in force (unlikely, given the threat of diversions through wolfpack tactics) or not come at all.

I've started to think that convoys aren't the way to go when hunting.
If you are patient you can find plenty of solo targets and bring home some impressive tonnage figures.

But mainly for realism I still make convoys a priority.

Because of their low design, it was very difficult for the kaleuns to gather Fire Contol Data on escorts. Attacking other surfaced submarines likewise for the same reason.

Close range for a uboat was under 1000m.

This is what I do ..
put myself in a position where I'm at PD, 1kt, silent and waiting for the Convoy to approach me.
I let the lead escort run over me and once I've given him enough slack and he hasn't started pinging me, I start my attack on the Convoy.
I do not fire a torpedo at a Merchant until it is less than 650m and do not fire at an Escort unless it is 350m distance away as it is normally travelling at 11 kts.

The U boat job was and is, in our SH world, to sink merchies; not to alert escorts of our presense before firing torpedoes. :rock:

I would definately choose option 2. Systematic sinking of the escorts allows the convoy to get futher away, waste your torps and encourage further re-inforcements to turn up, which is exactly what happened in one convoy ambush I had in GWX off Halifax. DD after DD turned up, I would sink one, then there would be another in its place.