Anti Destroyer Tactics

[Kapitän Cremer]

Hi all

Just wanted to drop a thread about how to fight the destroyer escorts...

When I approch a convoy, I start my attack run from the side firing at the small boats first (Coastal Merchant, Small Merchant) then while reloading i follow the convoy under water and move into the center firing salvo torpedoes at big ships (C2, C3 and tankers) before I dive to 50 meters and one third speed while set on silent running.

I found this the best way to escape from the escort ships since they can't hear me from all the ships cracking up and all the ship propeller noice never minding conducting depth charge attacks on me because of all the ships moving around on the surface.

Nice and easy slipping out on harms way...Some times I even go to periscope depth again to conduct a final attack if I have any eels left :P

What are your tactics against escorts and lone destroyers.....

[HundertzehnGustav]

lol i drop in from the front, pointing my tubes at the lead escort tribal or VW.

once that one sunk, from 320 meters range(silent running scope low over water etc) i hit the armed ships and or T3 tankers.

by then i usually run out of torps, but soon have a few reloaded, usually 4 or 5 minutes to go for my first fish up front.

by now the DDs close in on me, as i wake them up to play with some stage-5 afterburner.
I take down the DDs one by one, behind the convoy till i run out of eels

After diving down and escaping the DDs, i surface jhust at visibility limit, and follow the convoy at 4 to6 kts, reloading and repairing

using the external cam; i check for anw other armed ships, or escorts, and take them out; 1 by 1...

the remaining T2 and C-series ships get to taste the deck gun, as i dont have any Torpedoes left usually.

Return to base :P

[HundertzehnGustav]

Lone DDs get one long range shot, if possible no closer than 3000 meters, always as far as possible.

In bad weather, i jhust avoid them as fgood as possible.
Dive often, you hear them coming far away...

[bobo]

Anti DD tactics . . .

hmmmmm

I tend to avoid the lone DD's. To me the low tonnage isn't worth the torp.

When it comes to convoy's my attack runs start 90deg off their course (Fast 90).
I target the 2 largest ships first and try to time the hits to coincide with each other. When the fireworks start and the escorts are on alert, depending on weather/daytime-nighttime/behavior/location of escorts I may run with the convoy and reload or dive deep and run the path of least resistance on a course that puts my stern to the most/closest escorts for minimal ASDIC return.

In the event I'm being hounded & pounded by multiple floaters I play the position game and try to keep my back to the closest one who's pingin me and try to get seperation as they drop charges by running flank during the DC explosions.

Of course before being able to gain separation one has to dodge the initial barrage of barrels if caught off guard or the escort knows what he's doin. As usual I try to give them minimal ASDIC returns but if thats not possible I'll maintain course and speed to give them a target. Once they stop pinging and start their DC run I'lll wait until I hear their engines overhead or DC splashes and do the following: Ahead Flank + Hard to Port or Stbd 45deg course change (depending on the situation) and occasionaly a depth change as well (up or down dependent on current depth) . . . . With multiple good AI escorts this can take a while....and has. Had one battle that started out with 2 dd's lasted so long that one after another reinforcements arrived in the form of a C class, a V&W, and a Tribal. Trying to shake 5 floaters was hardwork. They were all one after the other pinging and making their run then circling around. Was like a conga line of tin cans. lol. Any attempt to approach periscope depth in order to fire a torp would have meant a one way trip to Davey Jones locker.

[FAdmiral]

I always target the largest Merchants & Tankers first. Then I
work my way down the tonnage list. (Being very careful to
exclude the neutral ones) I hide under ships dead in the water.
I NEVER waste my torps on escorts, not worth the tonnage.
I use the deck gun (when weather permits) on ships that are
dead in the water or moving very slow (when escorts have left
the area, of course).....


JIM

[JohnnyPotPie]

ya i avoid fights with DD's at all cost... its not worth it no matter how you look at it... if attacking a convoy i take them from the side, basic hit and run. I never seem to have trouble dodge'n DD's. If one does try and attack me I just go slow and dive up and down. If he drops on me I go all out and turn against him... but its best not to let him get close because they will kill you. So far im at 1943 and have only been depth charged twice.

[urseus]

Why would you waste torps on ****ty coastal ships?

They have a shallow keel so you can fire under them if they are in the way. Always go for the Tankers/Big Merches.

[Kapitän Cremer]

Originally Posted by urseus

Why would you waste torps on ****ty coastal ships?

They have a shallow keel so you can fire under them if they are in the way. Always go for the Tankers/Big Merches.

True, but I have exprienced too many times when I aim below the keel of the big ships to magnetic impact, they quite often explode under the Coastal Merchants and Small merchants althought they should pass several meters below them....Plus it can be really difficult to target a T2 if its hidden behind a Coastal Merchant....

[FAdmiral]

I have observed something about the escorts. They tend to ping
much more in the daytime. At night in the dark, they tend to use
the searchlights much more....


JIM

[rik007]

As soon as you have made your attack you have to turn your smal site to the DD's. It learned it helped for me in 1943+.

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

go on the offensive...

if you have Fa T torps and things look really desparate, set the straight running range real short and fire em off to port and stbd patterns...

then i turned towards one of the patterns and waited for one of my pursuers to get lucky

read my exploits here --> http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=42109


--Mike

[kholemann]

I rely on contact reports to setup my attack. I typically triangulate their future straight-line course with where I want to 'greet' them. Then, when I get in front of where I think they are, I frequently dive, using the hydrophone to find them. When they get cose enough to hear but you can't see them, you can line up your submarine using the hydrophone. The columns will coalesce as the convoy gets closer. Typically, you will see many contacts and when you line up with a column, you will know it because it will become just one dark contact line and there might be a few close contacts that almost form a single line on either side. I like to line up with the middle when possible but usually wind up on one side or the other.

I dive deep and go into silent running and wait.

When the red lines of the lead escorts go beyond my sub, I go to periscope depth (sometimes at 1/3 [one step above slow to help reduce time]).

Getting to periscope depth is the tricky part. It is nerve-racking as I have to be sure not to get runover by ships. Most of the time, I am already in the middle of the convoy so I have to be extra careful on the hydrophones to not line my sub up with a ship coming my way. It seems like my periscope will never breach the surface. I also turn the sub so that the bow and stern tubes will have a good chance at getting close to a 90 degree shot at the boats. Once at periscope depth, I cut to either 1/3 or all stop.

Then, the fun begins....

I do target the biggest ships I can, first.

Once the last torpedo has left the tubes, I crash dive and follow a victim down into the depths. My sub seems to hold together just fine at 200 meters so I creep off from there. If I haven't been spotted, I let the torps reload just in case I have a second chance.

I wouldn't say that I would never waste a torpedo on a destroyer. I did have Acoustic torps at one time while in my VIIB (I am in an IXC now) and used them primarily to get rid of chasing escorts if they were of a class faster than my sub (surfaced) could escape. Acoustic torpedoes can be a pain because they seem to head for any nearest noise. I once sent one out to kill a destroyer that was chasing me and it just went right by . . . much to my immediate dismay, only to drop a t-3 tanker in the convoy which was barely within visual range of my sub.

It is a funny thing how the torpedoes seem to work. I can hit a T-3 with one torp and it will blow to pieces and other times it takes 3 or more. I don't do manual targeting, I leave that to my XO.