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nodlew · 01-01-10, 07:33 AM

Put to sea in 1944 in a Type XXI, which I'd never tried before. Trusting to its submerged speed, I drove into a very large, well guarded convoy. Bombed and badly damaged by fighters on my approach, made repairs and ran right past the attacking destroyers and struck. My attack left 5 large merchants sunk or sinking, including one Ceramic Type 15,000 tn vessel--lucky hit by a roaming FatI or II. Damaged again, and again by destroyers, finally dove to 160m to try to break off. Scared to dive deeper due to damaged hull. 160m is not safe in 1944--depth-charged to death while trying to sneak away. Bold apparently completely ineffective.
Lessons learned: even with a XXI, batteries run down quickly at flank speed. Battery upgrades would probably improve the sit.
Enemy depth charge attacks later in the war are far more lethal. Need more depth maybe, like 200m.
Don't attack without acoustic torpedoes loaded to deal with escorts.
Maybe wait a patrol or two and upgrade the boat, even a XXI, before attacking large, well-defended convoys.
Maybe 17Kts submerged, while great, does not render good attack position unnecessary.

01-01-10, 07:33 AM	#601
nodlew Engineer Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Virginia Posts: 202 Downloads: 572 Uploads: 0	Settling to the bottom of the North Atlantic Put to sea in 1944 in a Type XXI, which I'd never tried before. Trusting to its submerged speed, I drove into a very large, well guarded convoy. Bombed and badly damaged by fighters on my approach, made repairs and ran right past the attacking destroyers and struck. My attack left 5 large merchants sunk or sinking, including one Ceramic Type 15,000 tn vessel--lucky hit by a roaming FatI or II. Damaged again, and again by destroyers, finally dove to 160m to try to break off. Scared to dive deeper due to damaged hull. 160m is not safe in 1944--depth-charged to death while trying to sneak away. Bold apparently completely ineffective. Lessons learned: even with a XXI, batteries run down quickly at flank speed. Battery upgrades would probably improve the sit. Enemy depth charge attacks later in the war are far more lethal. Need more depth maybe, like 200m. Don't attack without acoustic torpedoes loaded to deal with escorts. Maybe wait a patrol or two and upgrade the boat, even a XXI, before attacking large, well-defended convoys. Maybe 17Kts submerged, while great, does not render good attack position unnecessary.