Quote:
Originally Posted by Walruss
Ok, first an excert from my log
0300- made contact with lone merchant north of shetland islands, est. GRT 4900. Submerged to make attack as sea is too rough for deck gun. Visabilty to 4,000 meters, foggy.
0404 Two torpedoes launched at short range, one hit observed well aft of boat. Second torpedo assumed to have missed, speedmis-estimated.
0420 ship not slowing appreciably, slight list. decided to attack again with stern torpedo
0510 Stern tube fired at short range, impact observed dead amidships. Ship immediatly slowed to ~ 2 knots or thereabouts. Dropped back to 1500 meters astern of target to observe
0815 : ship still making headway at 2 knots, afire and listing but not seeming to sink at any apreciably fast. Decision to attack again.
0845: Fired 4th torpedo at target from fore tubes, hit observed just aft of funnel. Ship immediately slows to 0 knots, lists heavily submerging her port side. Crew abandon ship.
My question is this: Would you have done that differently? I screwed up my speed estimate on the initial attack, elsewise I'd have had a lovelly setup of one eel below the funnel and 1 eel halfway between the funnel and her stern. I find this the best way to at least totally disable the ship, and normally sinks ships up to about 7,000 grt. I was in a bit of a hurry because that close to the shetlands, with daylight just breaking, i figured that aircraft, or maybe a destroyer, would soon be on their way to help the strickened ship. However 4 torpedoes for a paltry 5000 GRT does make me feel a little... sad. I've not even made it to my patrol zone and I'm down to 7 torpedoes all up (it's been a good trip out though- I've racked up 20,000 GRT in 6 using those torps). The bugger of it is, if the weather were any better I'd have just surfaced and put a few holes in her hull with the much cheaper.
How long do you wait before you put another torpedo in a wounded ship? if it's a lone merchant do you even stick around, or just continue on your merry way?
Walruss
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Playing GWX:
1 ship, 1 torpedo, is my goal. A magnetic under the forward crane (or 2nd forward crane if there are two) or the stack can kill any merchant under 12K.
Flooding is what kills in GWX. Ships don't flood instantly, and early flooding doesn't remarkably reduce speed, but flooding will bring them down.
For a 4900 tonner, in that area and conditions, I would have put one magnetic under her forward crane from 500-1000 out, submerged. I never send two torpedoes out, unless it is a fast moving capital warship.
I would then lay off 4000 m, trail her and observe. Diminished speed, listing, etc are good signs that they will go down. I have seen listing Empire freighters and large merchants chug on at 7 knots for hours until they suddenly sink. Patience works.
I consider firing a 2nd torpedo at 3 hours, but if I have lots of night, or open sea, ahead of me, I will wait. At 12 hours, if it is still afloat, I fire a 2nd, if I don't have deck gun conditions before.