[Drakken]

Originally Posted by notanameleft

As GWX doesn't show on the map if a merchant is allied or enemy - could anyone tell me if i'm doing something wrong, I'm having difficulty when lining up an attack at night. I have to get pretty close to be able to see the flag at all but in particular I'm finding it difficult to tel the difference between Irish, French and Italian. In the daylight it would be easy but in the dark the colours don't show up - I torp'd an Irish merchant by mistake thinking it was french. As it was going down i surfaced right by its stern and still couldn't properly make out which flag it's mean to be. Almost feel like my watch crew could do with a torch - although i suppose that's not very stealth like!:rotfl:

Is this just one of those situations where the game is just being realistic? Or is there something I'm missing?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!!

It is realistic. And not all merchants had their true country flags. Use of false flags and lights in the night to hide the fact that the ship was an enemy merchantman was a real possibility. Unless you had updated ship registries inside your submarine to check the ship's identity, property and country of registration, you could never be sure if the ship was really neutral. But of course, in the game the ships always display their real country flags.

In the Buchheim's novel Das Boot, such a near-miss happened. On their way back to the Bay of Biscaye they stop a ship which seem a Spanish neutral. However the 1WO cannot find the ship in the Uboot's registry book, so Der Alte instructs the target to put a canoe on the water, or they will sink the ship. They do not act fast enough to his liking, so the sub shoots a torpedo to sink it. Fortunately, the eel is a dud, and the Spanish captain finally puts a canoe at sea to join the submarine.

In the end the Navigator finds the ship in the updates annexed to the registry, confirming that it was an old American ship that was bought by Spaniards fishermen, and thus really a neutral ship. Useless to say, the 1WO got severely reprimanded for his oversight. Just imagine the consequence if a German ship had sunk a Spanish vessel in Spanish waters.

However, it all depends on position. You always want to be abeam of your target.

a) Take marks and compute the target's course and speed as far as possible. Make sure the course line is dead center on the middle of the target ship's bow and stern. When you have the target's course, turn on the same course yourself a faster speed to place yourself abeam of the target. Take the time it takes to reach a position in front of the target to enter the target's speed in the TDC.

b) When in position, veer to place yourself in front of the target's course at a 90 degrees angle from the target's course, then go in periscope depth. Try to get within a very close range from the course line (800 to 1200m) and wait for the target to get closer following her course.

I usually use the compass to delimitate a "kill zone" with the center of the compass directly on the course line at a bearing I'd like to fire at. This zone is generally 1000m wide, and when the ship enters that zone it means I can fire at will if I ever identify it.

c) Compute the fire solution in case of positive identification, either at a point in advance or directly on target. You already have the speed and range (hopefully), and since the course is drawn you can calculate the AoB on the navigation map. You may even predict what the AoB the ship will be at a given point at if it continues on its predicted course. That is a killer if your data solution is made to fire at a preselected bearing.

d) Go to periscope to check from time to time if you may see the flag. Each time that you cannot see the flag, update the fire solution to be ready to fire anytime. Usually, you'll be able to see when the AoB becomes closer to 90 degrees, because the target should be getting closer from you.

e1) If you see it is a neutral, pull down the periscope and let is pass.
e2) If it is enemy, update the data one last time and shoot away.
e3) If you cannot see, take a decision. Either shoot anyway, or evade the target.