GAAHHH!! December 23, 1942!
 

Didn't even make it to 1943 this time.

Massive convoy. About a day off of the coast of Spain. Huge, huge ships in this convoy. 3 Whale Factory Ships. At least two Ceramic Ocean Liners (14,000+ tons).

I made a perfect approach at night, flat seas. I put two into one Whale, two into another Whale, spun around and put my stern two into a Ceramic. All three sank. All torpedoes exploded.

Went deep, but they were on me like white on rice. 5 escorts pounding me. I went down to 200m, but the charges were raining all around me. Prior to this they never seemed to drop this deep. Now they were all around me. I got hit a few times causing damage, but no loss of hull integrity.

3 of the escorts left me, leaving only two. They kept at it. Suddenly, both my sonar and radio man are DEAD, and I have massive damage to the boat - 67% HI and dropping fast. I'm blowing like crazy but things keep cracking and popping and my hull integrity is dropping 10% every 15 seconds. I think it got down to about 20% at 180 meters when it crushed.

It was my 30th patrol. I was WEEKS into this campaign and had an absolute expert crew. Nobody fatigued anymore. GAH!

Back to 1939.

Steve

:nope::nope::nope: toom de doom.

Ouch, bad luck... sinking more than 30k grt in a single convoy attack at the end of 1942 was a big achievement but you paid it the hardest price... We'll remember your boat and crew.

But flat seas are not our friends as they make detection way too easy for escorts and once they start to pound you with depth charges or worse, hedgehogs... well, you know the story. I never attack convoys in flat seas past 1941, luckily weather is bad most of the time in my patrols!

To bad mate, that's a tough one to swallow. But yes attacking convoys from '43 on is dicey business at best. To many escorts with better Asdic and as unterseemann said flat seas are better for escorts. BDU should have given you a desk job. :haha:

Better luck next time maillemaker. :salute:

ASDIC can find you at over 200 meters in ideal conditions in the late war. BOLD dispensers and a codified escape plan are a must before attacking the convoy. BOLD 1 canisters really do not last long enough, but it is better than nothing. It gives you a chance. Even so, if the seas were perfectly calm, the odds were against you from the get-go. Just out of curiosity, what type of torpedoes did you use and what range did you engage from?

Know your enemy.

For every bold released an other escort comes after you.
Deal with one watchdog as long as possible and let the others sail with the convoy. Finally they'll need some time to come close to support number one dealing with your first bold.
Your chance to sneak away.

After 8 to 10 attack runs your friend is short on stern rollers and shoots only with k-guns. Now let him pass directly over you - from bow to stern or vice versa if possible - to ensure the cans won't hit your bow or stern. Shortest shooting range for k-guns is 36 meters - that's half the length of a type VII u-boat.

(GWX)

T3s. I was inside the outermost column of ships in the convoy. I hit the first whale factory ship on the opposite side of the convoy, perhaps 1500m away. Then I nailed the other two at 500m or less.

Steve

That explains how they got a good bead on you. The destroyers reverse- projected the torpedo course. You may have been better off calculating some high-risk long range shots to avoid the destroyer mob. I have done this before and the success rate for hits and kills are mixed, but destroyers are less of a problem if I am shooting between 4-6km.

The best you can do is take it as a lesson learned for your next career.

When you have a hunting pack after you, you must play from the hydrophone position, keeping track of all boats.
Only one boat will attack at a time, and there will be one standing watch, pinging you.

I have mentioned this tactic about 2 years ago..
What you do is race for the 'standing watch' ship while the other is attacking you.... with any luck they'll ram each other, sink each other with DC's or just be put off from their attack.

I survived about 8 hours (real time) doing this, with 3 ships after me, escaping after I broke through their 'cordon', sneaking away silent running at 1-2 knots and about 200m+ depth . I was playing at 100%+ so had no idea what happened to the ships, but I could still hear them on the hydrophone , circling my last known spot 6 hours after escaping.

It was a total of about 16 hours until I broke the surface again.
:)

Wait. What?!?

Are you saying that instead of masking my position releasing Bolds simply draws more escorts from the convoy to come search for me?!?! What a disaster?

Yes, I have used this before. If a DD is chasing you and you are at periscope depth, drop a bold, and the DD will stop on top of it, listening to it. You can then nail him with a torp.

I decided to give myself a do-over. I had a save game just after the radio contact of the convoy, but before contact. So I reloaded and tried again.

Same result. But this time after I first took some damage, I came to periscope depth and sank 3 of the escorts with magnetic torpedoes shot down their throats. Then I surfaced and ran from the last escort that was coming in to help. I got away at 19 knots.

My next mission I loaded up with all FAT steamers. I attacked my next convoy from 8000m. I scored hits and the FATs never even had to track to do it. The destroyers never even came close to getting a lock on my position. I got away scott-free.

So my new rule is, after mid 1942 no attacks at less than 5000m Preferably 8000m.

Steve

Take it this way: if you release a bold there seems to be a second U-Boot suddenly - of course the escort calls for support.

Caught surfaced by a single DD?
A bold covers your signal, if you keep it in a direct line between an incoming DD and your stern (at periscope depth). You can power up to leave the last known diving area quickly, until the DD starts ziggin' or passes the bold.

I started in '39 and have slugged my way to Jan '41 now with my shiny new VIIC, traded to me in exchange for the II-D. I am allready starting to notice the escorts getting tougher, bolder and, most noticeable of all, not entirely blind all the time like '39 and early '40. Back then i could just steam into the middle of a convoy at full speed, calmly place my torps into the fattest ships i could see and then gracefully sail away in peace and serenity, now i must actually start to plan approaches, escape routes and always dive to at least 150m to escape the furious DD's...

What you are writing here is really chocking and startling me badly... I am very bad at long-range engagements, preferring 2000m as the farthest distance i even try to torpedo something from, and by reading this i realize that the golden days are soon over and i must practice hard on my 2000m+ aim. And as the DD's in early '41 isn't tough enough, you are telling me i have to push 200m+ in a dive and manouver like a parkour-runner trough the inner city to get away after '41? I am having a hard time allready! Time for retirement much? :-P

I was pushing 220m without damage to my type IXC, but it was not enough to evade detection at night with calm seas, December 23, 1942.

They were pinging me left right and center.

Steve

From what I have observed in 3 and 4, this is the case. A well-planned, well-timed BOLD drop can sucker and entire escort screen away from its posts under the right circumstances, leaving the convoy exposed. Likewise, the destroyers seem to follow the strongest signal, so if the BOLD is shallow enough compared to your relative depth, destroyers tend to favor it for rather obvious reasons. The big challenge is finding the maneuvering "hole" in the attack cordon while presenting the narrowest profile. I have escaped many a nasty attack by turning towards destroyers at certain points in its attack run, as insane as that sounds.

I gather you haven't been around long enough to see this :)

As I said, sit on the Hydrophone station and you'll pick this all up... it's not rocket science...