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Originally Posted by joho
On my last patrol Jan-Feb -40 it was heavy fog, storm (15m/s) night and raining.
In short terms it was zero visability. YET the brittish escorts managede to locate me on the surface long before I could even see them. Radar so early? or a bug? I dont know I tried for two days to get in a good position but had to give it up. A large convoy.  |
As frustrating as it may be, personally I wouldn't even attempt to attack a convoy in such weather conditions, I would try and keep contact and hope for an improvement in the weather. However, that doesn't answer your question regarding the destroyers ability to detect you under such conditions, which I can't fully explain. In my experience I have managed several surface attacks on convoys at night (pre-radar). The key for me is to approach the convoy at ahead slow (below 5kts) no faster as this will increase your bow wave and make you easier to detect. Only yesterday a Flower Corvette was zig-zagging and came within 1,000 metres of my position and just sailed on unaware of my presence. Weather conditions were on my side in that it was overcast and heavy seas. On another occassion when sailing back to Lorient at night, the weather was raining and thunder and lightning, visibility no more than 350-400 metres when my watch officer shouts "ship spotted" and I immediately thought this must be close! Up on the conning tower I spotted during a flash of lightning a destroyer very close that was escorting a convoy. Luckily he didn't spot me, a close shave but I got away with it.
If you're interested I did post sometime ago a picture of my uboat in the midst of a convoy to show how close you can get if the conditions are right, here's the link
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=139413.
Nemo