If you want to take out one of the escorts in a heavy guarded convoy, just wait for fair conditions. When you've got no heavy sea, just get near the escort and make some noise. Turn around and get away from it at max speed at perioscope depth, it should follow you in 180°. Flood your stern tube and select the magnetic detonator. Torpedo depth should be about one meter below the escort's keel. Show them your perioscope, still running away on max speed. Check if it hold's it's course at 180° to you (torpedo angel has to be 0°). Launch the torpedo at a range of 600m. Lower your perioscope and dive, do NOT change your course until the torpedo hits. When it misses, pray and dive.
Better option is to wait for moderate sight, not completely calm sea and some clouds in the night. Then perform a surface attack. If there is no space to slip through the defense line, try a submerged attack and engage the convoy at ~45° at silent running. Maybe you even want to dive deep to evade the ASDIC.
IMO it's not a very bad mistake to "waste" one of yout stern tube torpedos on a escort. You just need them really to attack when you penetrate the convoy formation. But until radar, I mostly perform surface attacks at night, shooting from a position outside the convoy, only using the bow tubes. According to that, I use the stern tube on single merchants, or an escort when I estimate some advantage from it.
P.S.: Never shoot a torpedo on these elco sissy's or trwalers. Otherwise the BDU would make a wise decision to degrade you into the position of the boat's cook : P
Gute Jagd und fette Beute!
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