Hydrophones

[Walruss]

I know baffles are modeled, but when depth charges go off, is it safe to assume that his 'phones are too full of the detonations to hear me slipping away?

[Lord_magerius]

Yep, you have a few seconds to slam it into flank to get those few extra metres away from the gits that are hunting you

[desirableroasted]

Originally Posted by Walruss

I know baffles are modeled, but when depth charges go off, is it safe to assume that his 'phones are too full of the detonations to hear me slipping away?

Originally Posted by Lord_magerius

Yep, you have a few seconds to slam it into flank to get those few extra metres away from the gits that are hunting you

Yes, if there is one escort. However, with two or more, the others can use ASDIC (and 'phones? Need expert opinion here) to triangulate you while the first DCs you.

Doctrine on my boat is deep silent running and 10 degree serpentines at 75 rpms away from the convoy (bearing 135 or 225, generally, from the convoy heading).

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

Yes, if there is one escort. However, with two or more, the others can use ASDIC (and 'phones? Need expert opinion here) to triangulate you while the first DCs you.

Doctrine on my boat is deep silent running and 10 degree serpentines at 75 rpms away from the convoy (bearing 135 or 225, generally, from the convoy heading).

Generally one will listen while the one that is making the run is the one that pings, then they switch off it seems so they can keep it up on you. Doing a knuckle manuever creates some a distortion in the water to throw the ping off however. Not sure if the game models that correctly though. But until the last charge goes off youre fine with the hydrophones, the same goes with as soon as their attack run starts, as soon as they slam the engines to full, theyre "blind" on the hydrophones.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

Yes, if there is one escort. However, with two or more, the others can use ASDIC (and 'phones? Need expert opinion here) to triangulate you while the first DCs you.

Early war this is less of an issue as most escorts are still rookies, but err on the side of caution (unless you have lots of water underneath). If you're evading multiple escorts just go slow, and change depth often. If it's just a lone escort, have at it

ALSO IIRC escorts only use either ASDIC or hydrophones, never both at the same time (coding or something). So, if they're pinging, they're not listening, and vice versa. Doesn't mean they don't take turns though.

[danexpat]

My limited experience early war is that you're golden at 180 m and just under 2 kts rigged for silent running. I get into a little trouble when I get impatient or greedy and "gun it" up to 3 - 4 kts w/o DCs. I always time a burst of speed with DCs and never have a problem (start immediately after first and get good at pattern recognition to time going to full stop and drifting just prior to last DC blast).

Again, early war, even when I get a little greedy the DDs and Flower corvettes seem to get a general sense of where I am but not a lock. So instead of being patient and getting free and clear earlier, I let them linger and lurk a bit longer.

The other thing I've found from a very small sample (i.e., anecdotal) is that if I'm in a slow (4-5 kt) convoy and there's a single DD tracking me in my baffles and I'm right behind a merchant running deep but matching her speed, the DD will lose contact.

[flag4]

...if you put the safety of your crew first, you will live longer.

[Damo]

As far as deafening the escorts with DC's goes, I read somewhere that you have about 10 seconds after the last DC explosion where they can't hear you but whether this applies to all the escorts or just the one dropping the DC's I'm not sure. Personally I run flank from the moment the first one goes off and no more than 5 seconds after the last DC explosion just to push the speed up and it seems to work eventually with them continually DC'ing and area that's increasingly further behind me, obviously the last point at which they detected me.