Sad indeed. Hits home because I recently lost my own U, of 21 patrols.
About the convoy attack, I always attack from inside the convoy. If you mark out the convoy lanes with a lot of hydrophone readings and stay in between lanes, you be pretty sure to avoid impact. Also, the ship lanes prevent escorts from making a good approach and wreak havok on their search. I also feel that the combined engine sound of the convoy drowns out your own engine. Anyway, I always fire 5 torpedoes and then dive. That's not enough time to get run over by the next row of ships - i try to take out a row of ships. The only danger is in shallow water - i find that at 170m in silent running, escorts can't hear you.
In my last career, i did 21 patrols without getting seriously depth charged. I guess It'll be later - I've never survived past '42!
Are you gonna start over? what year/boat? Also, I've decided to eschew the IX, because of the shameful dive time. I really want a VIIC '42 which is listed as having a 25s dive time! Same as Type II!
However, nothing will save you from surfacing in a convoy! The only time i got away with that was when it was unescorted! And yeah - Liberties can be savage in gun battles. Gotta engage them from like 4 - 5km.
KB
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