The doom of the depth charge.

[Kpt. Vindal]

My first career run came to a screeching halt today. Twas' only my second mission and last night i had played for 12 hours straight. It is not my fault that this game is so addicting... But, im abit confused to how i was sunk.

I had just sunk an ammunition ship. Previously before this ship i had sunk two other ships in the same sector. So i suppose the Brits were quite upset by this. After i had sunk the ammo ship i surface and start to head for home. Due to fuel and torp supply. As i chugged along suddenly my watchman screams out "Aircraft spotted!" Immediately i ordered a crash dive. There i am waiting for a depth charge attack from the plane. WHich never came to be. After about 20 minutes i surface again.

As i float along i decide to check my binocs. And there she is. A dido coming straight at me! Those damn brit planes and their radios. Crash dive! 60m I go ahead slow and silent run. He starts to drop DC's nowhere near me. I take the opportunity to go ahead flank and turn hard. This goes on for 50 minutes. I slowly get away from him. Then, my hydro's lose the warship. Then it picks him up again but at long range. Its been and hour. He's far away. Now my hydro's dont pick up the warship at all.

I suppose i can get off silent running. Ahead standard. I need more distance. Then it happens. "Warship closing. Medium range." Rig to silent! "Warship closing. Short range." About at the same time i hear planes above. Dropping depth charges ahead of me. THen i hear the dido engines right over me. "Depth charges in the water, sir!" Flank! hard to port! But its too late a depth charge rips into my diesel engine room. Flooding like mad. Its only a matter of time. At this part i sit and watch as my U-boat slowly fills with water. My repair teams working like mad to save the ship. But the damage is too great. I sit and ponder how i was never able to escape from this dido. Planes and all. Then it is over. U-35 lost at sea along with the brave 42 who manned her. What a cruel place... this atlantic ocean...

[Brag]

All I can say, is you lacked patience. At each stage you advertised your presense. You can't get away from a destroyer at flank. The best you can hope is drift away slowly, slowly.

Flank is used only for a few seconds to dodge DCs. Go silent the moment the things begin to explode.

[TarJak]

Welcome Vindal!

You have to be nice and quiet, as deep as you dare and creep away. Using flank to escape is not an option as even if you are rigged for silent your engines are whining away at high revs causing cavitation from the propwash. If a DD makes an attack run and drops her eggs on you hit flank then dive to more than 200m (depending on the state of your sub), the DD is deaf for about 30 seconds after each DC explosion so use the noise Luke!

But don't forget to drop back to <2kt before the 30 seconds is up or they will get andother bearing on you.

[Kpt. Vindal]

Thank you for the welcome.

Yes i know flank is not to be used to get away. Nor, did i try to. I was always running at 1-2 knots the whole time. I just thought since i appeared to be very far away he would not hear me anymore. I was wrong in assuming that. Is there any certain way to tell when he has lost me? Also, i did not know that after a DC explosion the DD is deaf for 30 seconds. I only went from slow to flank when it was exploding. Then from flank to slow after all the explosions were gone. i didnt know i had an extra 30 seconds after that.

[azn_132]

And dat dido ur talkin about dont hav DCs, Didos are CLs.

[TarJak]

There is no way of telling when they drop interest in you but I normally stay silent until I can't hear them on the hydrophones any longer. You can start moving faster again once they are about 10km away though I tend ot err on the safe side since I'm playing in 1944 now and there are plenty of other risks to worry about.

[Canovaro]

Too bad your boat had to go the way it did

You tell that the destroyer was going farther away from you and that you lost sound at a certain moment. It could be that it was going to your deaf spot* (180 stern) and closing in from there. Destroyers like to line up and coming from the stern for a depth charge run.

* Deaf spot because your own engines cover the sound of the enemy ship, at least for the sound officer. I suggest you man the hydrophones yourself when under attack.

Better luck next time Kaleun!

[ReM]

The U-boats of course used tactics to evade the depth charges and Hedgehogs. The best time to act was when the attacking vessel had taken its lead angle and the ASDIC contact was just lost.
A very common German move was to run away from the escort and force it on a stern chase pinging through the wake of the U-boat which could give the ASDIC a hard time. Then at the moment of the ASDIC loosing contact the U-boat took a radical turn to left or right and more often than nor escaped out of the attacking pattern.
Another one was to turn radically with great power and disturb the water in order to confuse the ASDIC sometimes causing the attacker to be shaken off. The Germans also often released chemical pellets, which would produce clouds of bubbles to reflect the sound waves of the ASDIC. Yet another tactic was to dive very deep and under a thermal layer or beneath the depth at which depth charges were normally set to explode. From 1942 onwards depths of 200 meters (600 feet) were not uncommon in an evasive tactic.

From U-boat net for all your U-boat needs....to illustrate the asdic beam: