Sneeking inside a 1942 convoy

[Weisia]

Recently I tried to attack two convoys in late 1942. As a result two perfect commanders were lost with all hands on deck.Can anyone give me some advice (I am using NYGM)? This is what generally happens:

Both convoys I tried to attack were very large and had one escort in front and one in the back. There were also three escorts on both sides, making the total number of escorts 8.

I drove my sub on both occasions within the escort screen on the port side of the convoy. All this time I wasn't detected. And suddenly, when I am only 1,000 meters (or less) away of my targets and seconds away of emptying my tubes I get pinged (i think by the escorts on port of the convoy). You might guess what happened next: panic, fired all my torps blindly hoping they would hit something, crash dived, Dc'ed, flooding, DiD.

Silent running was of course enabled, all engines didn't exceed 1000 rpm, and my periscope use was kept to a minimum. At the moment I tried to fire my torps I was of course at pd (between 12 and 15 meters), but when I sneaked into the convoy I was at 40 meters.

So should I even try to penetrate the escort screen or only try to fire outside the screen? And is there even a way I can enter a convoy without having to die?

[Synthfg]

Go in from the front PD on silent running
Only one escort to evade
Set yourself to engage the biggest targets you can find,
Fire your eels so that the impacts are almost simultaneous

As soon as the eels are launched dive deep, don't stay to watch the fireworks and aim to evade out of the rear of the convoy

[mookiemookie]

Get dead in front of the convoy and face the lead escort head on, go to 100-120 meters deep and silent running. Once the lead escort passes over and you're in his baffles, come back up to PD and you should be right in the middle of the convoy.

[Kipparikalle]

Go from front, dive 80(minimum-120m. Stay silent.
Once the DD has gone over, start going up. And if you time it right, in the time you reach PD. You are in the middle of the convoy.

Happy hunting mate

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Kipparikalle

Go from front, dive 80(minimum-120m. Stay silent.
Once the DD has gone over, start going up. And if you time it right, in the time you reach PD. You are in the middle of the convoy.

Happy hunting mate

Uhh...yeah, that's pretty much what I said.

[RoaldLarsen]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Get dead in front of the convoy and face the lead escort head on, go to 100-120 meters deep and silent running. Once the lead escort passes over and you're in his baffles, come back up to PD and you should be right in the middle of the convoy.

Originally Posted by Kipparikalle

Go from front, dive 80(minimum-120m. Stay silent.
Once the DD has gone over, start going up. And if you time it right, in the time you reach PD. You are in the middle of the convoy.

Are you guys sure? How fast do you have to be going to get from 120m to PD in time to line up some targets?

I prefer the following:

Originally Posted by Synthfg

Go in from the front PD on silent running
Only one escort to evade

I presume this means that you have to be off to one side of that single lead escort, but not too close to the path of the side escorts.

[Synthfg]

True,
If he doesn't know your there, you should be safe so long as you don't get too close. or have your periscope constantly at max extension,
and at PD you are ready to take him out if he spots you,

Tho the deep method is probably safer, coming in at PD allows you more freedom in picking which area of the convoy to target to get the big ships

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by RoaldLarsen

Are you guys sure? How fast do you have to be going to get from 120m to PD in time to line up some targets?

Sure I'm sure! Last time I pulled this off, I was going about 2 knots and made it up in plenty of time. Of course you need to make some quick decisions once you get to PD, but you'll be right in the middle of the fattest targets in the convoy. See here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...5&postcount=11