1) What am I supposed to learn from this?
That you're never safe, even in the middle of the night on high seas, I had a similar encounter off Japan recently, I heard a convoy of three merchants plus a guard of 4 DDs. I decided to let it pass, suddenly one of the DDs turns out to be a patrol from the mainland and closes to within 400 yards before he finally goes away. If you get a contact dont run high TC, always pause check where the contact is in relation to you and monitor for a few minutes to determine a rough course, then decide if you want to chance a look or leave it alone. Leaving it alone, especially if its a warship is generally a better option.
2) How do you handle your searches in 1941? By this I mean Time Compression, sonar sweeps (I don't think any boats get surface radar in 1941, right? That was developed in 1942, wide-spread in 1943; or do I have my dates wrong?), visual sweeps, surface running vs. periscope depth vs. running deep, etc.
Surface running vs periscope vs running deep. I prefer surfacing at night to recharge the batteries I nearly flatten during the day running between periscope and deep at 3 knots. Thats just my way though. I preform hydrophone checks every 2 hours but generally leave it up to the sonarman to alert me to any contacts that come close enough to intercept.
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