Hedgehog in shallow water
 

Has anyone else experienced being attacked by escorts with hedgehog in water less than 300 metres in depth? When they hit the bottom its like 20 depth charges going off simultaneously. Quite nerve racking to say the least!

Nemo

Yeah, I had a Flower class nail me at periscope depth once while I was scouting out Cape Town. She then proceeded to strike the tower at full speed and sink. We managed to get out, but were left deaf, dumb and blind. (No radio, no guns, no scopes.) And 10 dead.

Had this happen recently in one of the shallower areas of the north sea in a Type II late 1944. IIRC the depth was maybe 180 meters.

Surprisingly every one of the hedge hogs missed me and sank deep exploding beneath me... the warhead is smaller so the shock wave is nothing like a depth charge.

I did go as deep as i could in an attempt to evade the destroyers, at one point i was only a few meters above the sea bed. yet i was doomed, they were dropping hedge hogs and depth charges with some serious accuracy.

In fact, during one depth charge / hedge hog run I swear my II sub was rolled completely over.

they eventually destroyed me, but yes, if these hedgehogs hit the bottom they blow up. its just not a very forceful explosion unless you are really close

It's generally the norm that the deeper you are the more chance you have of evasion but the odds aren't improved all that much because of the hedgehogs rapid rate of decent.

A Type XXI with it's fast submerged speed is your best hope.

It would seem that I had a lucky escape then!

Nemo

I would reckon so...what sub Type?

The following happened to me today :

Bermuda Bay , shallow waters , July 1941
U-505 IXC sailing on the surface
My crew spots an ASW trawler at medium range bearing 322
I dived at periscope depth and start turning to present my stern tubes , in case he decides to attack me.
And so it happened: The trawler turned on me with lights and guns flashing
Both my stern TIs either failed to explode or missed.
The trawler passed over U-505 BUT NO charges were dropped.
So I surfaced on his 6 and sunk him with 5 well placed 10,5cm shots.
I had to pay a price though : 3 men dead from machine gun fire.

My luckiest escape so far!

Type VIIC. I had headed down at flank speed to a depth of 160-170 metres when the hedgehog projectiles hit the bottom and had used a couple of decoys (bold 2) to throw off my pursuers, which might have helped.

Nemo

Rgr that.