Flooding equals death

[Nangleator]

Died just now, my 12th patrol in my fat pig of a IX boat. The very first detection of my boat in all those patrols results in my death.

I've probably completed over fifty patrols now, and never once survived once I get damage to anything but the guns and the conning tower.

This time, a single destroyer separated from the convoy I was hitting. I had no trouble seeing me, or knowing my depth. The first cans passed within a few meters of my hull before blowing up under me.

When it got bad, I headed for periscope depth and readied my eels. Before I got to PD, the flooding caused me to start sinking again. So I blew ballast. Once I got a visual on him, my eels were away. (I don't do manual calculations.) I bobbed to the surface and took a few more hits from his guns before I blew him out of the water.

All this time, my damage crew (three damage-rated PO's, a damage-rated officer and about six sailors) was working on the most damaged compartment. Well, I had about fifteen seconds of peace while I waited for the damage crew to make some progress.

*Blink*

Mission ended. 44 dead.

So tell me. Is there any point in qualifying anyone for damage control?

[GoldenRivet]

those pigs are too big... the DDs might as well be pinging a submerged mountain.

[A Very Super Market]

There is, it just means they'll work faster. And is a real bonus. You're real problem here is evasion. You can go deeper in a IX, but cannot turn as sharply. Remember, the goal of the escorts is to get you away from the convoy, so you must do that. I believe in-game, once the convoy gets a certain distance away from the escorts, they all just turn around and head back.

[Nangleator]

So don't bother trying to hide, just power away and zig when the cans come down?

[Synthfg]

Mehh Sink the Escort before he gets you

[Lt.Fillipidis]

Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

There is, it just means they'll work faster. And is a real bonus. You're real problem here is evasion. You can go deeper in a IX, but cannot turn as sharply. Remember, the goal of the escorts is to get you away from the convoy, so you must do that. I believe in-game, once the convoy gets a certain distance away from the escorts, they all just turn around and head back.

Strange... In my last patrol i got about 100km away from the place i sank three ships of the convoy (so my distance from the convoy itself would be 200km +) but 2 of their escorts were still hunting me...
EDIT: And that was in June '42, in a VIIB...

[Shantyman]

I have found that flooding does not always mean death. Many times I have fought it out with aircraft and took a few stray hits which caused flooding.

However in all cases the crew got the boat back into service pretty quickly.

Depth charge induced flooding is a different matter

[Sharkley]

I have had many a strange thing happen to me while flooding or trying to repair the flooding. I dislike the sudden death screen as I never seem to know what really caused it.

I use LRT v2.02 so my repair times can be hours, one of the stranger things I see is that even when the repairs are complete the flood remains and yet I cannot repair the area again.

Mind you I have never lost a patrol do to flooding only, I think damage plays at least 80+% in my patrol deaths.

[Sensekhmet]

I'm so scared of flooding and sinking below crush depth that I'm scared of going deep in the first place and that means I get damaged and get flooding... the circle closes

[Synthfg]

TBH I rarely go below periscope depth On a side note has anyone else noted that hitting the bottom of a Clemson class with your conning tower will more often than not cause it to sink, I know there old and rusty but

[Nangleator]

Well, the deeper you are, the longer you have before the cans sink to your depth. My first death in SHIII involved thinking that when the contact lines got shorter, that meant they were getting fainter. Then I popped up my scope and saw a Flower 30 meters away...

[RoaldLarsen]

I always try to have at least one officer qualified in Repair if not two. I have saved several damaged boats with only a few seconds to spare by having a fully green crew efficiency bar in the Damage Control team

[subvers4]

After serving my time patrolling the North Sea in a type II, and the North Atlantic in a VIIB, I transferred to the 2nd flotilla out of Lorient sailing a type IXC. Yes these boats are very big, slow and cumbersome, and not the most agile, but after 3 patrols I have grown used to the handling of them.
I have found it better to change my tactics to suit the boat rather than the other way round. While normally a cautious Kaleun anyway, I have become almost paranoid in a IX, especially when there are escorts around.
Once they get a fix on you, they are very hard to shake off, a IX's sonar signature is big, and the underwater speed and manouverability are not the best.
You have to avoid detection at all costs, stealth is the key here, you have to plan, replan, check and recheck every step of the way. A cavalier approach or gung-ho attitude will get you killed very quickly.
But things can and do go wrong with even the most carefully devised plan, and when they do, a fully qualified and efficient damage control team will be the only way you'll get to see the surface and breath in fresh air again

[Synthfg]

The extra punch of a IX more than makes up for the detectability and handling.

Having a significant number of reloads means that you can attack 2 large targets in a single patrol rather than the 1 that is possible in a VII

Still the damage control crew is important, Use the estimates of how long it will take a compartment to flood to decide where best to employ them, Remember you don't need to completly fix one compartment before moving onto the next. It is often necessary to juggle them between 2 or 3 compartments, always dealing with the most critical issue

[Nangleator]

I did notice little numbers or something changing in the damaged compartments, but it was like hieroglyphics to me. I simply couldn't understand what I was looking for. Are they numbers that represent how soon the compartment would be flooded? That's useful. Just repair the lowest number?

My tactics for using a IX from now on will be: Go to a busy traffic lane, pick off singletons and mini-convoys, avoid real convoys unless seas are heavy, and take your time. Use that big gun whenever you can. Aim for +50k tons every patrol.

To get the bad taste of death out of my mouth, I started a new career with a VIIC in '43. Straight out of the Bay of Biscay A convoy walked right over me. My front eels went to two T3's and my back eel went for a C2 (ambitious, I know!) Both tankers broke in two and the C2 came to a stop.

Three escorts found me and started circling. I picked up some damage and repaired it. I was sure I was dead, but they kept hammering the same place while I slipped away. I came back for the C2 after they got bored.

(Now, I'm just trying to get back home with Catalinas finding me every time I come up for a breath!)