[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by ntz

hello there,

i'd like to share one my recent experience .. i crossed path to large marchant (10k tons) .. merchant had the best possible course to my position so i set myself standing still waiting for him until crossing my 0 at 600m range ..

i set by mistake reversed AOB and my salvo missed .. i was so frusrtated that i came surfaced and ordered my deck gun crew to target waterline .. she went down in 3 or four minutes (~ 40 shots fired) ..

is it supposed strength of deck gun that i put down 10k ship with VIIB default deckgun so easily ?

thanks

The deck gun is seriously overpowered in standard SH3 (ant SH5, by the way). Historically, it often took nearly 100 shell hits to sink a ship that was previously undamaged. Here's an example involving a ship that was already damaged by a torpedo:

" Grenanger (Master Finn Rusti) was hit on the starboard side betweeen the #2 and #4 hatches by one of two torpedoes from U-130. The explosion stopped the engines and the flooding caused a heavy list to starboard. While the U-boat surfaced to use its deck gun, the crew abandoned ship in two lifeboats with the radio operator jumping overboard as the first shells struck. After 20 minutes of shelling without much effect, the U-boat fired a coup de grâce at 19.20 hours, but this was a dud so they continued to shell the ship. After firing 18 incendiary and 37 high explosive rounds the vessel caught fire, capsized and sank by the bow at 19.48 hours."

That's 55 shells to sink an already-damaged, medium sized cargo ship (granted, there may have been misses). And I believe U-130 would have been equipped with the larger 105 mm gun - if she'd had an 88mm it would have been even harder.

If you'd like more of a challenge, try NYGM - this mod simulates the weakness of U-Boat deck guns very well, in my opinion.