[peabody]

Just to add my 2 cents. I use a 'modified' version of Frame57's technique. If I have too much damage to risk a dive, I will try sink the DD's. But if you fire when they are too far away they will (can) swerve to avoid the torp. If you let them get too close, they speed up when they attack so they close the distance before the torpedo arms. So I put the sub in Full Speed reverse and then let them get closer before I fire without getting too close for the torpedos to arm.
I am talking 'stock' here, in some MODs the DDs are a lot more dangerous. And Webster has done some work on correcting the "Dragrace speedup" of the ships, not sure if he did the DDs, so they would be less apt to avoid.

But, a couple of things to note:

The Somers DD is dumber than a box of rocks. (There is a mod that fixes this somewhere) The Clemson is very fast and manuverable and always seems to know where you are. The Fletcher is persistant, it will follow you for a lot longer than the others. (usually).

Another thing to remember, if you know it. There is a disucssion in here somewhere. The steering has changed from 1.4 to the 1.5 add on. In 1.4 even going in reverse, the bow of the boat stayed and turned to stay pointed at the heading you incicate. In 1.5 if you go in reverse the stern will try to go the heading you select, which can create a big problem if you don't know it. For example, if you are heading north and then go into reverse, the game will turn the sub around so that the stern points north which would ruin your chance of firing at the DD attacking you. So if you go in reverse be sure to click on the bottom of the compass rose to keep the Stern headed in the correct direction, add use mouse click at the bottom of the compass to make the stern turn left or right to line up the shot.

Peabody