Quote:
The U-boats of course used tactics to evade the depth charges and Hedgehogs. The best time to act was when the attacking vessel had taken its lead angle and the ASDIC contact was just lost.
A very common German move was to run away from the escort and force it on a stern chase pinging through the wake of the U-boat which could give the ASDIC a hard time. Then at the moment of the ASDIC loosing contact the U-boat took a radical turn to left or right and more often than nor escaped out of the attacking pattern.
Another one was to turn radically with great power and disturb the water in order to confuse the ASDIC sometimes causing the attacker to be shaken off. The Germans also often released chemical pellets, which would produce clouds of bubbles to reflect the sound waves of the ASDIC. Yet another tactic was to dive very deep and under a thermal layer or beneath the depth at which depth charges were normally set to explode. From 1942 onwards depths of 200 meters (600 feet) were not uncommon in an evasive tactic.
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U-boat net for all your U-boat needs....to illustrate the asdic beam:
