Quote:
Originally Posted by Storm501
There was some discussion that in reality hydrophones were quite rarely used, especially outside combat.
What I don't understand that why didn't they submerge during night for hydrophone search. At night one would think that it is difficult to visually spot any blacked out ships, outside a range of few kilometers. So why not stay at hydro depth where you should be able to hear further?
Of course I understand that commonly at night U-boats charged their battery on the surface, but if batteries were full, why not hydro search the night if you are patrolling at station...
If someone broke light discipline like smoked on the merchant, then visual searching could grant a real lottery win. But it is my impression that blackout always held.
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Hydrophones were considered old tech and were not used in escorts sub hunting. Not heard of them not being used by subs unless you mean for attacking.
In terms of using them for night attacks, mobility was one of the very understandable main reasons for the surface night attacks. Once submerged that edge (u-boats on the surface were faster than some escorts) was gone.