First Sonar Kill. Exciting Stuff!

[skookum]

Got my first blind sonar kill today.

Near the Marshall Islands in August '43. Fog rolled in and my sonar man calls out a merchant coming from the southeast. No hope in hell of seeing her in the pea soup so I start taking sonar fixes every three minutes. She was moving pretty good (14 knots) which left me little time to set up my attack. She crossed my bow at 1100 yards and I let a couple of fish go. A few seconds of silence and WHAM!!! Both eels hit dead on.

Surfaced and followed the last sound contact bearing till I made visual contact just in time to see her slip under.

I've played SH3 and SH4 for several years now. As yet nothing has been as satisfying than sinking that merchant today. Really cool.

[magic452]

Very good shooting there Skookum. Nothing like a very tough shot to get the jucies flowing.

I just pulled off a similar attack. Very heavy rain at night, visibility less than 500 yds.
set up a vector analysis attack, moved in close to his course because of the low visibility, about 600 yds. Just as I was about to shoot I realized he was zig zagging.
Had to go full back to keep torp arming distance. Fired 3 fish on sonar calls and got
three hits. Never saw the target only a little fire on his deck. Scratch 1 large mordern freighter. I have noticed that these ships must have sonar as they will start zig zagging as they approach. I was at zero knots but had not rigged for silent running and I think he heard me some how.

If you haven't tryed Vector Analysis Attack you might take a look at it, very useful in these conditions.

Nice shooting and good hunting Magic452
SH4 1.4 TMO RSRDC

[RSColonel_131st]

Congrats to you guys, but you both just sank an allied ship each

Seriously, shooting blind is a great skill but with no positive ID to the ship, how can you be sure that you are shooting at the enemy?

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by RSColonel_131st

Congrats to you guys, but you both just sank an allied ship each

Seriously, shooting blind is a great skill but with no positive ID to the ship, how can you be sure that you are shooting at the enemy?

Skookum mentions being in the Marshalls in August '43. You shouldn't run into any friendly surface traffic there as that was deep within Japanese controlled waters. It might be a problem in the Philippines and Indonesia during the beginning of the war when your dealing with Dutch and US friendlies.

Congrats on the 'sound' shooting.

[Fincuan]

Originally Posted by RSColonel_131st

Seriously, shooting blind is a great skill but with no positive ID to the ship, how can you be sure that you are shooting at the enemy?

You can't. As Torplexed said you just look at the map and consider the odds. In one of my first careers as a u-boat in the U-Boat Missions addon I sunk a Japanese carrier in heavy fog in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I only saw the target when I came right alongside it, and then it was time for a little "Ooops... I'm terribly sorry for your carrier sir!"

[ReallyDedPoet]

Nice work


RDP

[AVGWarhawk]

This is the area I lack and it is the area of patience. For me to sit and use the watch every three minutes to get the speed, etc. is just very hard for me. One of these days I will force my self to stay away from the time compression buttons.


I bet it was exciting when it all comes together. Cool

[skookum]

For me to sit and use the watch every three minutes to get the speed, etc.

I only timed one interval to get the speed. After that, I just pinged a couple of more times to make sure she was tracking where I thought she was. All in all, I was surprised how simple the process is.

[Soundman]

Yeppers, congratulations! I remember my first sonar only kill. It's very rewarding. I bet you a beer, you whooped and hollered out loud didn't you? Along with a "fist pump" or two. Hope you were alone..:rotfl:

[skookum]

In fact I did. The joy was short lived however. I was attacked by a plane last night. Though I'd duke it out and lost. Now I have a problem. After securing the pressure hull and pumping out the water I decided to return to pearl harbour and end my patrol (hard to hunt with 10 destroyed torpedo tubes). But upon arriving at Honolulu, I find the "End Patrol" selection greyed out. Why can't I end my patrol??

[Soundman]

But upon arriving at Honolulu, I find the "End Patrol" selection greyed out. Why can't I end my patrol?? __________________

Make sure you went home to the proper base. You may have been transfered without knowing. Your home base will have a "tilted" anchor, whereas the others will be straight upright. Look closely at your navmap.

Those planes aren't generally worth the trouble, they are fun, but best to avoid them at all costs.

[skookum]

I'll check that when I get back in the game. Thanks.

[magic452]

I was about 60 miles east of Tokyo so I doubt any allied shipping was there.
But as Torplexed said you got to be careful. I did line up on a allied freighter once
but saw his flag in time. That was around New Guinea. Wouldn't shoot blind there.

I take my speed readings over 9 or 12 minuted and go to 4x TC if I can, patience is not such a problem then and you get very accurate speed and heading that way.

There was a lot of fist pumping and hollered to be sure and one of the best beers ever.

magic452

[surf_ten]

Originally Posted by Fincuan

You can't. As Torplexed said you just look at the map and consider the odds. In one of my first careers as a u-boat in the U-Boat Missions addon I sunk a Japanese carrier in heavy fog in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I only saw the target when I came right alongside it, and then it was time for a little "Ooops... I'm terribly sorry for your carrier sir!"

LOL did the Japanese ambassador say something along the lines 'with alllies like you who needs enemies'.