[desirableroasted]

I suppose there are worse fates... at least your relatives can console themselves that it wasn't some ASW trawler skippered by a half-blotto cod fisherman, that you were taken down by "der Hood, ja, der Hood!"

I, too, avoid the rear approach, but I recently came across a French convoy in November 39 that had only one escort, a highly-incompetent Bourrasque class up front.

I passed her, put a magnetic under an ore carrier, went deep and over to the other side, thinking I would have all sorts of folks interested in me. Nothing. Surfaced, finally, behind the parade, looked back and... nothing. No escorts except that Bourrasque up front.

Well, I sure joined that parade! Made a night of it, in fact!

Moral: early in the war, it's at least worth checking to see how heavy the escort is.