Can't use hydrophone?

[Gunnarr]

Is there no way to manually use the hydrophone?

I'm on grey wolf mod

There is a ship in front of my by sound, but we can't see it. We are surfaced. Sonar guy can only do reports, but can't click on any commands for hydrophone. So what is he using?? Can't do sonar commands either

Every time we hear a ship this way I never find them, since we never sight it even after I chase it! I want to hear It myself

[Gunnarr]

Like right now, sound contact of a slow moving ship, 355 bearing. Moving away. Long range. I should be getting closer to it right!? But now the sound contact just disappeared! What am I supposed to do with this info

[Gunnarr]

Emergency emerg ney! I just stumbled upon a large convoy, with a revenge class ship, and also a merchant ship just as big! I don't know what to shoot! I can shoot 4 torpedos in front. How many will it take to sink the revenge class? How many for the largest merchents ships? Not sure what kind it is, but it has two masts sort of things on its width! Very wide, seems almost as wide as battleship

I am in 1939 , I am almost in the middle of the convoy, the destroyer in front did not see me!

[Marcello]

H key brings you to hydrophone station. GHG on VII/IX should have a blind cone both forward and aft. Probably won't work on the surface too but I drive a XXI almost always underwater.

[Gunnarr]

Thanks for reply I will try that button when I play again

Also not her question, when shooting torpedoes should little time be given between each one or should they all shoot quickly?, I am wondering how best to sink this revenge battleship

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Gunnarr

How many will it take to sink the revenge class? How many for the largest merchents ships?

It varies. Sometimes more, sometimes less. If you're going for a battleship I'd use them all. If that doesn't sink him it should at least stop him, giving you time to reload.

Not sure what kind it is, but it has two masts sort of things on its width! Very wide, seems almost as wide as battleship

No way for us to tell unless you post a screenshot. Two masts side-by-side sounds like a tanker or whale factory ship, though some freighters have them as well. If they have a top cross piece tying them together at the top they're called "Kingposts". If you're using full manual targeting I can't help, but if you're using auto targeting or Weapons Officer Assistance you can click on "Ship" on the clipboard and it will identify it for you.

Originally Posted by Gunnarr

when shooting torpedoes should little time be given between each one or should they all shoot quickly?, I am wondering how best to sink this revenge battleship

Use the 'F6' key to go to the Attack Map. There is a dial that lets you select combinations of tubes. You can select all four to fire at the same time. The 'Q' key will then open all four doors, and 'Fire' will fire all four at once.

[Pisces]

It's simple, you have to be below 10 meters (caveat: I'm talking from type-7 experience) before the hydrophone (operator) starts to work. So being surfaced won't do.

[UKönig]

Early war torpedoes, of the kind that you are using in 1939 will have a few problems to overcome, i.e. their effectiveness can be wildly unpredictable.

If you are shooting them with the 'impact' or 'contact' fuse, then the torpedo must make actual contact with the target hull in order to break off those little 'whiskers' on the front, which triggers the detonation.
In that case, shallower is better. Set them for 3-4 m. A good way to estimate water line is to pull up your enemy ship recognition book, thumb through the pages until you find your target and go from there.

If you are shooting with the 'magnetic/contact' fuse, (one function does double duty), then for best results, you need to set your torpedo depth to about 1-1.5m below the maximum draught line. The point in this case is to send the torpedo under the keel of the enemy ship. When it gets into the sweet spot, it (should) detonate, breaking the ship's back, sinking it with greater certainty and in a shorter span of time. So if your target sits at 4.8 meters, set your fish for 6 m, and you should blow it in half with one shot.
The reason the magnetic/contact fuse does two things is in case the waves disturb the depth setting, and instead of passing under the hull, the torpedo makes contact anyway. Rather than cheat you out of a hit, the torpedo will still explode (all else being equal).

The pros and cons of each method are quite simple. If you rely on impact fuses -theoretically more reliable- then you may need to fire two, or even three torpedoes to sink a moderate sized ship. There, surfacing to finish it with the deck gun is a cost-effective method. Damage it first, slow it down, and finish it off when it can't run away. If you use the magnetic fuses -theoretically more efficient- then you normally need only one torpedo per ship. It saves on your heavy weapons, which you can now use on other targets. And for a type VII, with only 14 torpedoes on board, this is a huge increase in its fighting ability.
Aircraft carriers, Battleships, cruisers, even passenger liners can be sunk with one well placed shot under the keel.
The type of cargo being carried can also improve (or retard) battle damage. A tanker, for example, is nothing but a floating gas station...
As far as spacing out your shots goes, only experience can tell properly when it's better to fire singly, or a salvo. If I fire on a target, and I'm not sure if I will take it out in one hit, then I will line up two shots, but try not to wait longer than 5 seconds between launches. This is to make sure that two solid hits will be recorded one right after the other, and it keeps the target ship from being able to slip away from me later on. Less of a headache.
As Pisces says, you have to be at periscope depth (minimum) to use the hydrophones. Any time the waves/weather throws your boat out of the water, they become temporarily useless again, so factor that into your attack calculations.

[Gunnarr]

Hey guys thanks for the replies as always!

On the hydrophone, i was confused because how are they getting sound contacts then if we are surfaced?? And how is this slow moving ship gdtting away from me, when its sound contact is directly ahead??

On the convoy and tactics, i only saw it for a moment and saved and quit, but it was bigger than a large merchantman from whay i thought, or at least wider

I have been afraid to use the magnetic torpedos because i i keep getting radio messages complaining about various failures and premature detonations! Are they safe to use in grey wolf mod?

Gotta go thanks for all the replies and tips!

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by Gunnarr

Hey guys thanks for the replies as always!

On the hydrophone, i was confused because how are they getting sound contacts then if we are surfaced??

In real life GHG receivers were located around the forward diving plane, so they would be underwater even when the submarine was surfaced.
Thus they might still hear something albeit nowhere near as good as at depth.

[UKönig]

Originally Posted by Marcello

In real life GHG receivers were located around the forward diving plane, so they would be underwater even when the submarine was surfaced.
Thus they might still hear something albeit nowhere near as good as at depth.

I put those on the 125 scale model of the U99 that I did. The original hull did not include those, but I knew they were there.
You're likely correct too, the GHG probably would work from time to time while you were on the surface, but, you couldn't be going very fast, or else the water rushing over your own receivers would deafen them. It's worth to consider when searching for ships...

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by UKönig

There, surfacing to finish it with the deck gun is a cost-effective method.

If one isn't almost constantly stuck in bad weather with 15m/s wind in SH3...drives me crazy.

[UKönig]

I think the longest run of bad weather that me and my crew had to endure was something like 25 days in a row. According to the narrative 'das boot', that is not an unrealistic time frame for a north atlantic stormcell to continue. Then you get into the eye of the storm, and all goes calm for a day or three, then, bam! outta nowhere, the other wall of the stormcell hits, and there goes another 25 days of 15m/s winds, waves always breaking over the tower, forcing the watch crew under for minutes at a time, and hey, got enough water? How bout some rain? or if you don't like that, what about fog so thick you can't see the foreship? Yeah, this is a nasty business.

[CCIP]

Yup

Weather quite often wreaked havoc on U-boat operations, so your frustration is understandable but not at all unrealistic.

In theory, the GHG hydrophones are usable on the surface, but in practice you would basically have to be at a dead stop in completely calm water to get anything out of them - and even then, their performance would be far worse than a few meters under the surface. Cavitation, noise from the diesels, and the scattering effect of the surface itself would basically make them useless. On the balance of things, making the hydrophones usable on the surface in SH3 would basically be unrealistic.

Similarly, I have not seen any historical evidence of U-boats ever conducting attacks either by acoustic data alone, or even primarily by hydrophone or sonar. Even the Type XXI relied on periscope observations for shooting, and as for the older boats, neither the GHG nor KDB hydrophones were ever designed for targeting. So, don't expect a lot of success from blind shooting with hydrophone or sonar - there was none historically in WWII.

[sublynx]

Shooting by sonar plotting was used in WWII by the Allies, but very rarely. Here's one example:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-864

The British submarine HMS Venturer saw the periscope of U 864 and started making a plot by sonar bearings as the periscope was not seen anymore. The U-boat heard the submarine and started a zigzag pattern which didn't help. One torpedo of the 4 torpedo fan sank the boat despite it hearing the torpedoes and starting evasive action. The plot made by HMS Venturer can be seen in www.tvre.org (I don't remember which page but there is only about 10 pages in that site so it is easy to find).

Some of the newest released additions to U-boat KTB's reveal torpedo launches where the speed of the target was assessed by listening to engine revolutions per minute.

I'd say if one feels that the circumstances call for a totally submerged attack, go for it. It's a rarity, a 1 in 1000 situation that an attack by a plot made by hydrophone bearings is the best option. Basically one only uses that option when there is no other options to use.