Submarine in convoy
 

Did a quick search and didn't find any threads on this, so here I go.

I've just started using GWX (just got a PC good enough to run games on it again, after my laptop motherboard fried :damn: ) Just started a career. It's 1939, so I mostly get to pick off lone merchants, but I have encountered two convoys on two separate patrols. The weird thing is that in both those convoys there was a (presumably) British T or S-class submarine as last ship in one of the columns.

So my questions are: Was it normal for submarines to join convoys? Did it ever happen at all? And, does it have hydrophones? I was making my escape under, and out behind the convoy, running silent. From what I could gather the escorts weren't close. But just as I passed under the last ships in the convoy, I got pinged and all hell broke loose, two destroyers double teaming me.

I've seen it too but don't know how historically accurate that is if I'm honest. Though it would make sense since it's easier for a submarine to attack a commerce raider then for DD (if the raider is something bigger than a DD of course)

Submarines were used to escort early transatlantic convoys and the Arctic convoys to Russia. They were not a success because sub-to-sub warfare was just not as feasible in those days, due to low submerged speeds & primitive sensors. By 1944-1945 I am reasonably sure that the Allies stopped using them.

As far as I know, the submarines in game aren't much of a danger to you because SH3 does not simulate AI torpedoes.

The first was in a convoy in the Irish sea, the other in the Atlantic, west of the Bay of Biscay.

I was pretty sure it wasn't much of a risk to me. If torpedoes were simulated, I'd be killed all the time by those pesky MTBs and Elcos that sneak up on me all the time :P Correct me if I'm wrong, but they can't dive either, right? But do they have working sensors?

It sure simulates AI deck guns though :o I caught a lone T-class while heading towards the BF grids, which I thought would be easy meat... that thing must've absorbed several dozen rounds, and took out a good number of deck gunners...

Submarines did initially form part of the escorting role, as did BB's.

The submarines can't use their sensors because they are unable to dive, nor can they fire torpedoes....but beware their deck guns are fully functional.

They can be real annoying to sink with their small profile if you're trying to continue on the surface and go into the columns after taking out the main DD escorts.

Hence one of the reasons they were scripted in :DL