What tactics do you use for Losing a Destroyer.

[Anachronous]

Its Oct 1940 and Im heading up the western side of the UK near liverpool, in the convoy lanes and its fairly shallow in places.

Now I had a destroyer following me and I was out of internal Torps after taking out a merchat convoy. Ive taken some damage and spend a couple hours trying to lose this destroyer with no luck. Eventually I surfaced behind him and took him out with my deck gun, though I lost a couple crew in doing so.

The problem is while I took him out, he must of called for help, as other destroyer turned up, this one with bigger guns.
Now Im heading slowly for deeper water, swapping between silent running and speed when I can. I am at 40m with 15m to spare and each time the destroyer comes close, i have to go evasive. Luckily I can out turn him.

I thought Id lost him for a while, as I was sitting on the bottom not moving, but then he found me again and I had to move.

My crew are tired and so am I. This cat and mouse game has been going on all night.

So what would you do?

[Oleif]

live and learn

[AO1_AW_SW_USN]

When I have a persistent DD on my tail, I normally change course so that I'm running 180 degrees opposite of the convoy's course. So if the convoys is heading 275, I run at 95.

I have found that even though the DD has you dead to rights, he still has to protect the convoy. So after a given distance, he turns tail to catch up with the convoy... even if he hasn't lost you as a contact.

For lone DD's, you're pretty much stuck until you can break ASDIC contact. If you can manage it, dive deep (deep = 150+ meters). If you're in shallow waters the best thing to do is to tun into the course of the DD to increase the closure rate while still at Ahead Slow. At +/- 500m distance go full/flank speed and change course to 90 degrees port/starboard and hold on. When he drops his DCs they should be well off your stern and you can change course and slowdown again. Rinse and repeat until ASDIC is broken.

[thyro]

This is what I often do to clear convoy protectors


1) remain at flank speed in one direction
2) keep your sub at periscope depth...
3) with the persicope out of the water
4) the DD will speed up in your direction (in zig-zag towards you)
5) keep steady at top speed and never change your direction (just adjust so that the rear torp doesn't need to curve)
6) open your rear torp tube but don't launch the torp
7) set your rear torp for "fast run" (to avoid missing the target)
8) once the DD under 400m from you... launch the torp
9) do crash dive (just in case of your torp missies)
10) do 90 degress turn in oposite direction from where the DD turns to avoid your torp.

Well offen point 9 and 10 are not necessary because the DD will be at 25kms/ns and at that distance (under 400m) doesn't have time to avoid the torp and it goes bang.

9 and 10 are useful if you use some other mod that makes DDs harder to be destroyed or if your torp didn't hit DD vital parts.

once on point 10)

11) run in silence mode and slow speed (remain in crash dive depth = 70m) ---- a termal layer seem to be around 50m --- so under that would improve your survival.
12) set up next guear once a DD is from 1000m from you, preferably if you are on its tail.
13) go to a complete stop if you are red and only go flank if you listen dropings charges (once out of the explosion area drop to slow guear)

I hope that this help

[AO1_AW_SW_USN]

Originally Posted by thyro

This is what I often do to clear convoy protectors


1) remain at flank speed in one direction
2) keep your sub at periscope depth...
3) with the persicope out of the water
4) the DD will speed up in your direction (in zig-zag towards you)
5) keep steady at top speed and never change your direction (just adjust so that the rear torp doesn't need to curve)
6) open your rear torp tube but don't launch the torp
7) set your rear torp for "fast run" (to avoid missing the target)
8) once the DD under 400m from you... launch the torp
9) do crash dive (just in case of your torp missies)
10) do 90 degress turn in oposite direction from where the DD turns to avoid your torp.

Yeah, but can you REALLY do this with manual targeting and no WO assistance? With auto-aim, it's simple, but with manual targeting... it's a longshot!

[Tonnage_Ace]

If he's right on your tail, lined up nicely, you don't need auto TDC. I've done this a million times although the only thing I'd add to this is to set the torp mag. depth at 5m so it doesn't bounce off the curved bow of the DD. Sliding underneath the DD, it'll go bang exactly midships, under the keel, that's one dead DD...

[AO1_AW_SW_USN]

You must time it right because I've tried it a couple of times in the past with a near miss both times.

Perhaps I was firing too soon or something.

[Anachronous]

Ok I reloaded the save from where I shot at the convoy. I was off to the starboard side of the convoy. Waitign for them to pass before i fired.

I didnt even wait to see if my torps hit (which they did). As soon as I launched. I headed straight under the convoy (Not the ones I shot). Towards the direction they came from, behind them. This way the DD closest to me couldnt follow and I got out of range of the front DD.

Now the I came back up to periscope depth at the rear of the convoy and shot my last internal front torp at the rear DD, killing it. By this time the starboard DD had caught up, which turned out being an armed trawler. I turned 180 and headed straight for him. Then when I was behind I surfaced, armed my deck gun and came about to chase his tail.

I only had 1 rear left, so I didnt want to use it unless i had to.

By the time I had destroyed him, I noticed some splashes and it seems the front DD had come back to find me.

It was a fair way off and only travelling at 12knots. So i set my heading at flank speed and headed off at 16 knots, away from him. Shooting at him as I did so. Lucky he was a bad shot.

So while heading away I took the time to get my external stores brought aboard and reload my torps.

He eventually stopped chasing and headed back to the convoy. I'm now back on my patrol route. Saving my last torps for protection or something really tasty.

[bigJ47]

WOW!

THNX guys,

now Ive got some-more pages I can print-up
for my strategy-guide

yes,, we nubees are listening,,,

This is a Great-group!!

BigJ47.

[Keelbuster]

It's all about getting far enough outside of the active sonar cone that he doesn't pick you up when he does his sweep. Here's my trick. First, start to dive, and go ahead-1/3rd with silent running on (i.e. no compressors, crew silent, etc. - just engine noise) - and turn so that the destroyer is 180 degrees to you. This minimizes your sonar profile. Now, you have to guess as to when he'll be 1km from you. At that point, go to ahead slow. Then wait. He'll ping you. Listen to the pings - if they get louder, more frequent, then he has you. He will line up to do a DC run. Let him do this. Listen to him on the hydrophone. When he stops pinging, he will accelerate and DC you. Go flank. This will pull you down to depth (165m) and his DCs will miss because the will be set to boom too shallow to catch you. Then, when you hit 160, change course 30 degrees. The choice of direction is important. You want to turn _with_ the destroyer when he does his turn following the DC run. If you turn away, on his first turn he will have you right away in the active window. If you are under him, you will have the advantage of him having to turn 360 degrees to get you in the window. I usually flank until the rudder goes to 0, then drop to ahead 1/3rd, wait for a few seconds then go ahead slow. If all works well, you have put some distance between you and him, and he's got to turn 360 degrees to get you in the window again. With enough distance, and with the newly acquired depth, he should have a hard time picking you up on his next sweep. If he fails to find you on this next sweep, you will probably escape because by the time he does his next rotation you will be even farther away. Always keep him on the hydrphone so you know where he is. Eventually, you want to have him at 180 and fading. That's the way I escape. If there are more than 1 DD attacking you it's way harder. you have to get lucky and sprint outside of both of their active cones. Tricky, and luck-based.

[Keelbuster]

one more thing - i almost never try to torp a destroyer. It often misses, and they aren't worth any real tonnage, so it chalks up to a waste of a torp. In a typeVII, every torp counts. I only torp a destroyer if it's an emergency- if he detects me at <1km and he's going to rush me before i can turn/evade/get depth. Or, if it's a TF and there's like 3 DDs that are going to end up searching for me, I might try to kill/damage 1 or two to make my chances of survival a bit higher. In that case, kill the closest one, and then proceed to evade in the way I described.

[Keelbuster]

oh - and in the later war, decoys become really important. But that's a whole nuther issue. I haven't mastered them yet.

[mike_espo]

You were able to take out a DD with a deck gun?? That don't sound realistic at all...Even the 105mm is not enough fire power to take out a DD....What realism are you at??

[Anachronous]

Originally Posted by mike_espo

You were able to take out a DD with a deck gun?? That don't sound realistic at all...Even the 105mm is not enough fire power to take out a DD....What realism are you at??

Two DD (front and rear) and two Armed trawlers (left and right). Took the trawler out with deck gun. As they arent as deadly as a DD. I Destroyed one DD with a torp and out ran the other.

[Suicide Charlie]

I'm currently at Oct 1939 and my orders now have me navigating the shallow waters of the English Channel. During my last patrol I sunk 11 ships before I even reached my patrol grid. A couple of them under the shadow and wake of a DD.

I learned from a reading a number of posts here that it seems that an ASDIC's abilty to pick you up heavily depends on an engine's RPM. So when I come in contact with a destroyer and he knows I'm around I switch my speed control from the Ahead Slow/Ahead Flank format to selecting specifc speeds in knots. I rig for silent running and go to 1-2 knots. I also tried to maintain a depth that was anywhere from 5-10 meters above the bottom (the water was about a total of 35 or 40 meters deep). This, coupled with turning into him when his search pattern brings him on a closing heading and continuing past him using his own screws to mask me.

The one thing you have to be careful about is if he does detect you and goes on a Depth Charge run is going to Flank speed to aviod the Charges. Timing is everything. If you're not careful he'll hear you after the last charge has gone off and come around for another run... which can happen more often than not.

I was able to slip away from a couple of destroyers doing this when I had little to no diving room (which made me nervous as all hell). Two of them I even put myself in a perfect firing position when I came up to periscope depth to check the surface. I don't really think that putting two of Winston's annoying destroyers on the bottom is a waste of an eel, especially considering the fact that all the merchant ships I encounter are still unarmed. Making deck gun operations perfect... weather permitting.