Destroyer Chicken - my way of gettng rid of the damn destroyer screen

[chanbasti]

i'm now in mid 1943 as a member of the 7th flotilla form St. Nazaire. since the tommies have discovered radar and ASDIC by now convoy attacks are getting to be hard. so here is my method. run paralell to the convoy a a distance of about 6km. once you can based on convoy course and speed change course to get in front of it. all this time you are surfaced, or running decks awash. once you start getting closer like 4-5km and the DD screen starts picking you up dive to PD and keep going loud at AK. get as many of the DD's to come toward you. once they lock down your pos. with ASDIC set you Aal's for magnetic det and set for 1 meter under keel, open outer doors, go to 1 one knot speed, and wait for the first DD t close to about 400m. then shoot, target the next DD, same theory. this has worked well for me. once you have the DD's out of the way the convoy is easy pickings.

does anybody use this tactic, and is it a good idea?

PS: i know that once the brits also discover the hedgehog this no longer works. i dread that day!)

[Keelbuster]

Originally Posted by chanbasti

i'm now in mid 1943 as a member of the 7th flotilla form St. Nazaire. since the tommies have discovered radar and ASDIC by now convoy attacks are getting to be hard. so here is my method. run paralell to the convoy a a distance of about 6km. once you can based on convoy course and speed change course to get in front of it. all this time you are surfaced, or running decks awash. once you start getting closer like 4-5km and the DD screen starts picking you up dive to PD and keep going loud at AK. get as many of the DD's to come toward you. once they lock down your pos. with ASDIC set you Aal's for magnetic det and set for 1 meter under keel, open outer doors, go to 1 one knot speed, and wait for the first DD t close to about 400m. then shoot, target the next DD, same theory. this has worked well for me. once you have the DD's out of the way the convoy is easy pickings.

does anybody use this tactic, and is it a good idea?

PS: i know that once the brits also discover the hedgehog this no longer works. i dread that day!)

Occasionally I'll take down a DD, but in my Type VII, torps are so valuable that if I were to sink 3 or 4 DDs, that wouldn't leave a whole lot for real cargo tonnage. Plus, by 43, merchies are heavily armed so you can't really survive a deckgun assault on a convoy. Still, often I'll use the homing torp out the rear tube to drop a DD or two. Especially the lead DD - I'm not sure if they replace the lead DD, so if you drop him, then you can just merrily drive straight into the convoy from the front on the next attack.

[Sailor Steve]

It might be harder with manual targetting.

I don't use tactics like that because they didn't in real life.

But that's just me.

[chanbasti]

ya, i am a bit of a cheater. i like the auto targeting with lock on. and yes it cuts into your torp supplies. but i don't like the idea of using torps on tramp steamers. just better to use what you've got on big targets, like tanker's and large transports

[UnderseaLcpl]

I've tried shots like that from the stern tubes before, but their zig-zagging occasionally gives me a problem. I also tend to agree with keelbuster that doing this in 43' might actually cost you tonnage, depending on where you are hunting (in range of shore-based aircraft? Makes downloading torpedoes hard.)

I'm an avid destroyer-killer myself, but I usually find it more effective in the later years to try to avoid them. I only torpedo them if they won't leave me alone for a good while.

My preferred method is to sit at dead slow, perpendicular to the ship as it begins its' attack run. When it closes to about 200m, I go ahead flank, followed by hard rudder in the direction of the escort just before he passes over me. Once he is past me, I go full opposite rudder and dead slow again. Zero rudder when he gets to about 45 degrees or so off the bow. Prep a g7a, magnetic fuse, fast setting, set to 1.5-.5m under keel depth, depending on sea conditions. Gyroangle at zero, and set the periscope there as well. Open the torpedo door. When his prow crosses 10 degrees from zero, fire.
This works best in relatively calm seas, since, unlike your method, the torpedo is only under the ship for a brief moment, and a large swell can cause it to pass beneath the ship without detonating, or impact the hull. However, if the sea is that rough, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to hide deep and save a torpedo.


Well, you rate a in any case, just for sending those ********* to the bottom.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by chanbasti

ya, i am a bit of a cheater. i like the auto targeting with lock on. and yes it cuts into your torp supplies. but i don't like the idea of using torps on tramp steamers. just better to use what you've got on big targets, like tanker's and large transports

It's not cheating, it's gameplay! I use Weapons Officer assistance myself, because I'm lazy and play more for the history than for the game itself. On the other hand, I do waste torpedoes on small targets because that's also what they did in real life.

Way back in the days of Silent Service I used to dogfight with destroyers, because even when you were deep everything showed up on the map and that game would let you fire torpedoes from 300 feet. On the other hand when I played SH2/Destroyer Command online I wished that the guys playing the u-boats did have to do the targetting themselves, because they would wait until you came to investigate and then sink you every time, which was very annoying and not a real tactic that worked so well. Maybe that's why I treat the destroyers with more respect these days.

Or maybe it's because I served on one and they're still my favorite ship.

[A Very Super Market]

Most destroyers only take a single torpedo to sink... and they're pretty valuable ships, especially the Tribal class... I sink 'em

[danurve]

I use a similar anti DD/DE tactic. Especially in the Med later years. There, and if I'm lucky enough to get near a convoy it's usually means at the cost of fish for pesky escorts. Which can translate to 1 attack per patrol at times.

[chanbasti]

my VIIC is pimped out with the VIIC/3 tower. any damn polanes that have a prob with me destoying all three escorting destroyers, a med passenger liner, and a tanker 150 miles from Gib can go stuff it!!! long live the twin c/38 and M42 3,7 FLAK. i love o hear those things start to fire.

[Lt.Fillipidis]

I've tried taking out the escorts first too but in some convoys, the escort number is sometimes around 7 or 8 so it doesnt worth it...

The tactic i follow now is: Uboat type IXB
Loadout: 4 Falke or Zaunkoening on the stern tubes. (Only the second and external load)
All the rest G7e (TIII).

I always go a few kilometers ahead of the convoy before i attack.
I sink the leading escort from a close to minimum distance and wait for the cargo ships to pass above me. I choose the heavier ones of the first and second line max and sink them. Then i go at full speed, submerged of course, heading where the convoy is heading so my crew has time to load the next load. I take down another 2 on the next load and 1 on the next. This would get me 40.000 to 50.000tons aprox.
Next, if the convoy is heading east, i run south, or if its heading north i go east on full speed. This way i pick about 1-2 destroyers but im at about 100meters deep and on full speed so with some good manoeuvers i loose all DCs.
When i get a bit further, i go to periscope depth and sink the DDs that are hunting me.
Now i emerge and go further but without loosing the convoy, i reload and attack once again. I expend all my torps except the stern ones which are my ticket to home and im back alive and kickin'.

[chanbasti]

thats a good tactic. sadly i have only VIIC and no two stren tubes. i will have to get the acoustic homers soon. they will be a huge help.