Well for those who are interested, I succesfully attacked a large convoy in August 1943. I'm using real nav now, so got the convoy course and position from BDU, intercepted it and ran alongside hull down at distance until I got in front of it. This was for around 2 hours approaching dusk.
I got into an attack position 90 degrees on at around 10,000m at periscope depth.
Unfortunately 2 out of my 4 torpedoes were electric so they didn't have the range but I scored two hits on 2 cargo ships with the G7s. This was at twilight.
I dived immediately and went to silent running, turning initially to 270 degrees and eventually to 245 degrees.
I heard some depth charging at long distance so I knew I'd fooled them.
I took the advice from folks here and didn't report contact. I've kept all status reports to a minimum too.
I'm currently set up for a similar attack 24 hrs later. I'll try the same tactic. All G7s in the cans this time.