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Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit
Maybe you're right, but how come then the big tonnage sank?  |
Who said that U-Boats were scoring huge tonnage? Kapitan zur See Wolfgang Luth scored 226,671 tons in 16 patrols which gives an average of 14000 tons per patrol, and we're talking about the second best U-Boat Captain of the war. Early in the war where most of the high tonnage was achieved loads of ships were sunk by gun fire as well. In general though the amount of tonnage we score in SH3/GWX is totally unrealistic as any commander would not score 40, 50 or even 60000 tons in each patrol, and I am not talking about sharing targets in convoys, targets that got damaged but not destroyed, unsuccesfull attacks etc.
Also on the question of how many torpedoes they were firing on large ships, this is what I found in uboat.net:
Empress of Britain
Steam passenger ship 42.348 tons
On 28 October, two of three torpedoes fired by
U-32, which followed the convoy for almost 24 hours, struck the
Empress of Britain and sank her northwest of Bloody Foreland, Co. Donegal. 25 crew members and 20 passengers were lost.
Strathallan
Troop transport 23.722 tons
At 02.23 hours on 21 Dec, 1942,
U-562 fired a spread of four torpedoes at the convoy
KMF-5 about 40 miles north of Oran and heard two detonations after 65 seconds and another after 5 minutes 50 seconds. However, only the ship of the convoy commodore, the
Strathallan (Master John Henry Biggs CBE), was hit by one torpedo which struck on port side in the engine room. The explosion killed two engineer officers and two Indian crewmen on watch below, damaged the bulkhead separating the engine and boiler rooms and fractured a tank causing oil to enter the boiler room. The ship immediately developed a 15° list to port and the master ordered the nurses and troops to abandon ship in calm seas in the four motor boats, 16 lifeboats and rafts. All got away, except one lifeboat that had been damaged by the explosion and another that could not be launched due to the list. After it became clear that the ship would not sink fast, the evacuation was stopped and the troops ordered to the starboard side to help the stability. The about 1300 survivors in the boats and on rafts were picked up in the morning by
HMS Verity (D 63) (Lt J.C. Rushbrooke DSC) and taken to Oran.
Orcades
Troop transport 23.456 tons
At 10.28 hours on 10 Oct, 1942, the unescorted
Orcades (Master Charles Fox) was torpedoed by
U-172 about 280 miles northwest of Capetown. The U-boat had to fire five more torpedoes at 10.45, 10.54 (a dud), 12.49, 12.50 and 12.54 hours until the ship sank at 13.00 hours. 28 crew members, two gunners and 18 passengers were lost. The master, 289 crew members, 34 gunners and 693 passengers were picked up by the Polish merchant
Narwik (Master Zawarda) and landed at Capetown on 12 October.
Terje Viken
Whale factory ship 20.638 tons
At 05.05 hours on 7 Mar, 1941,
Terje Viken (Master O. Borchgrevink) in convoy
OB-293 was hit by two torpedoes southeast of Iceland. This must have been
U-47 (Prien), which is reported missing since this attack. At 05.50 hours, the ship was missed by a spread of three torpedoes from
U-70 (Matz), but at the same time
U-99 fired a torpedo that hit on the port side and the crew abandoned ship. Later a part of the crew reboarded the ship and tried to save her, but she capsized at 18.55 hours. On 14 March, the wreck was scuttled by gunfire of a British salvage tug. Two crew members were lost. The master, 99 crew members and five gunners were picked up by
HMS Hurricane (H 06) (LtCdr H.C. Simms) and landed at Greenock. At the time of her loss, the
Terje Viken had been the largest whaling factory ship in the world.
Duchess of Atholl
Steam passenger ship 20.119 tons
At 08.19 hours on 10 Oct, 1942, the unescorted
Duchess of Atholl (Master Arthur Henry Allinson Moore) was hit by one of two torpedoes fired by
U-178 about 200 miles east-northeast of Ascension. At 08.37 hours, a second spread of two torpedoes were fired of which one hit. Another torpedo fired at 09.18 hours missed, but a coup de grāce fired three minutes later struck. The vessel sank slowly until finally disappearing at 11.25 hours.
I think it proves the point. The list is really huge but they all follow the same trend. A salvo was fired, some torpedoes missed and usually between 1-3 hits did the job.