its all about depth
 

was the "ping" the only way for U-boats to determine the depth of the water they were in? obviously doing this raises all sorts of problems particularly if you are under attack and need to go deeper.

Pretty much, yeah. They did have charts, but except for a handful of harbor charts the depths listed were mostly estimates. This is why shallow-water attacks were ill-advised.

In the game, if one is trying to determine depth and pings to the bottom, can ASW ships detect that ping?

Note wrong Rose they sure can. I never use the thing, its a sure way of getting detected. You just have to hope for the best when you dive in shallow water. I also think they can hear you if you hit the bottom. I've had them come after me like that even before I've ordered full astern to drag myself out the mud.

Of course one option is to dive slowly in increments if your not sure of the depth, and use the extenal cam. But I think some people might call that cheating.

Before you carry out an attack you should ping to know the depth beneath you. If you are under attack or already hunted it makes no difference, ping away.

Isn't there some kind of device that can measure the pressure of the water in order to know depth? I would expect such a device to exist.

yes, the current depth that you are sitting at, not the depth of the body of water.

a bit like an altimeter will tell you your current altitude's at 100m above sea level, but it won't stop you slamming into that mountain ahead of you that peaks at 1000m above sea level

The depth meter? :)

Recently, I've been trying to lure Destroyers in for an attack by pinging, but so far I've been unsuccessful, so I'm really not sure how and when the enemy will hear it.

In which year are you trying this tactic? As the years progressed the directional capability of the ASW listening device improved. At the start of the war it had a very narrow band, at the end of the war it's "perephial vision", if you will, was greatly expanded. Or so I read, but I was only a Boats'in mate so ...

In the game I don't last long in later years if I ping the bottom in the vicinity of escorts. Online anyway.






The engineering officer does a good impression of Mr. Sulu.

late 42

Knowing depth
 

Boats did of course have an echo sounder. Same principal as pinging but a much shorter transmission. Sounded more like a click. Alternatively, how about sending out a diver through the airlock to take a sounding with the good old leadline??????
RR:lol:

LOL yea that doesent help you much when you dont know how much water is beneath the keel.

Fred, someone on this forum once posted a link to a web site that had the developmental stages of ASDIC illustrated. It showed the listening cones of its corrosponding development in relationship to the ship's bearing. IIRC the cone started out very narrow covering approxiately 10-20 degrees on both bows (340-20+or - a few degrees on either bow.) As the years progressed that cone began to widen, until, and again IIRC, it was able to cover the ship from beam to beam. It could have been even more but this post was made awhile ago. Possibly even before SH2. The years you describe make me think the cone was still a tad on the narrow side.

Then again, didn't the allies develop a rotating sound head by the end of hostilities?

:rotfl: From BDU, attention all captains: In order to avoid detection when obtaining a sounding please implement the following standard operating procedures:

Step 1: Dive the boat. If depth exceeds crush depth, skip to step 5.

Step 2: Continue the dive until the sea floor is reached.

Step 3: Check depth gauge.

Step 4: Just to be safe, double check reading with fathometer.

Step 5: Place head between legs.

Step 6: Kiss your a$$ good-bye!