Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepFried
Yes I found this out last night, a plane found me on my 4th patrol en-route to intercept a contact. For some reason I decided to stand my ground and man the flak gun but that didn't go too well. Gunner got the plane alright as it was burning but it still managed to make a pass and drop a bomb practically on deck. Everything was damaged and the hull integrity was at 20%, I lost a third of my diesel in a few seconds. Somehow the plane was still flying and coming for another pass so I panicked and hit the crash dive button, hull popped at 30m. Thus ends U-03  |
When hull integrity gets below 40% you really have to be careful on how deep you dive; else exactly what happened will repeat itself. When my hull is that blown up generally only go down 1m per 1% to be safe. If you can go to at least 15-20m that's deep enough that ships can pass over you safely and won't damage you more.
While this isn't a fullproof method, it works for me 90% or more of the time coming out with no damage. Once you spot the plane (if you plan to engage it) slow down to 1/3 or less speed. When the plane begins its bomb run and starts to reduce his altitude slam the engines to flank and go hard starboard or port. You'll usually move out of position enough for the bomb to miss you as it'll drop behind you if you've done it right.
It can be easy to evade the bombs that way but there's really no good way to avoid their straffing runs. Using the same technique usually will come out without getting hit ~ 50%-60% of the time. While straffing won't annihilate your hull like you experienced with a direct hit, it can easily kill anyone that's on the deck and still cause 20%-40% damage. If my gunner hasn't been able to shoot the plane down by the time the plane starts making strafing runs he probably isn't going to down it' its generally time to dive and get out of harms way rather than hope your gunner gets in a couple of good shots.