The u-boat is consistently doing 8 knots submerged. I decided to get behind him and slow to 1/3 speed to see if the distance increased or decreased, but it always remained at 600 yards over three sonar calls.
If the u-boat is cruising at no less than 8 knots, this makes it really difficult to get depth charges to land in his path when he makes a turn to evade, which he always does.
The destroyer can't turn tight enough to get charges directly in his path if you start the turn as soon as you hear (or see it on the plotting table) that the sub is making a sharp turn.
At 8 knots, the sub will be laterally out of the path the destroyer can make in its own turn.
No wonder I keep missing my depth charge attacks. The few times I've managed to get hits and make an oil slick appear is when I guessed which way the sub would turn ahead of time (which is a 50/50 guess) and try to guesstimate his path and drive over it with a shallow pattern.
Also, you can see from the screenshot that the u-boat was driving in straight line at a deep depth.
Even coming up on him from directly his stern, preparing a deep pattern, and dropping when the printer showed the contact pattern crossing the dotted black line, I could never get the depth charges to hit him.
Right now I'd say it's impossible to hit a deep sub using the visual cues from the equipment. Something is off.
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