Pls help following a convoy

[overandout]

I fired my last three bow torps at some merchants. I sank one and damaged another. How do I stay close to the convoy (going SW) to avoid getting detected and then sink some more using my aft torps?

Cheers,

Lee

[howler93]

I fired my last three bow torps at some merchants. I sank one and damaged another. How do I stay close to the convoy (going SW) to avoid getting detected and then sink some more using my aft torps?

Are there any escorts? How fast is the convoy going now? If there ARE escorts and the convoy is moving faster than 8-9kts, I'd slink out of visual range (7-8miles?) and do and end around on the surface- repositioning your boat ahead of the convoy's course for a second attack.

Good luck and good hunting!

Howler

[MonTana_Prussian]

Originally Posted by howler93

Are there any escorts? How fast is the convoy going now? If there ARE escorts and the convoy is moving faster than 8-9kts, I'd slink out of visual range (7-8miles?) and do and end around on the surface- repositioning your boat ahead of the convoy's course for a second attack.

Good luck and good hunting!

Howler

Good plan Howler,I had to do that last night,except I wanted to finish off 2 damaged Merchies. Worked great and got away clean!

[Quillan]

Year? Model of boat you have? SJ radar or not? All these influence it. As a basic idea, get 5-10 nm away from the convoy and head in the direction they're going. When you get far enough ahead, duck back in towards their course and set up for your next attack. This is called an end around.

Visual range depends on light and weather conditions. The enemy can see your boat up to about 5 nautical miles away in daylight with good weather. At night in bad weather they might not see you at 500 yards, so it's all variable. Escorts do patrol away from the convoy so you have to stay far enough out that they won't see you either.

If you have SJ radar, this will be a lot easier, because you can track all the ships on the radar while staying out of visual range of them. However, starting somewhere in 1944 the IJN escorts start getting surface search radar that can pick up your boat.

Try this reading stuff for a starter:

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/uboat/index.htm

Its the american writeoff of the "U.Kdt.Hdb." called The Submarine Commanders Handbook.

Paragraph 112--> deals with the overhauling maneuvre


112.) The overhauling maneuver requires a high degree of tactical ability; its success is the pre-condition of the following underwater attack, and therefore the success of the operation. As a tactical masterpiece, the overhauling maneuver is therefore the exclusive business of the commander, and its preparation and execution require his unremitting attention.

113.) In fighting its way forward to the position ahead of the beam of the enemy, in borderline conditions of visibility during the day, the submarine is engaged in a long, drawn-out and extremely tiring overhauling operation. It is an incessant "nibbling at the horizon" [i.e.; to keep the enemy on the dip of the horizon] - going in again and again as soon as the tops of the masts get smaller, and sheering off again at once, as soon as they rise higher again. These strenuous efforts to overhaul the enemy are continued, in the Atlantic, hour by hour, and can only succeed as a result of indomitable resolution and an unchanging, obstinate refusal to let the enemy escape, even when the submarine finds that progress is very slow. Any change of course on the part of the enemy, or engine trouble, etc., occurring on board the enemy ship, may immediately alter the position in favor of the submarine.

114.) The overhauling maneuver should always be exploited, in order to obtain the particulars of the enemy (course, speed, pattern of the zigzag course) by careful observation of the course of the submarine itself, exact D/F of the enemy ship, estimation of range and position at regular intervals of time. These particulars are almost always more reliable than those obtained underwater.
115.) The overhauling maneuver and the attack should not be abandoned even when the bearing shows little movement of the enemy. Do net let the difficulties wear you down!

[-Pv-]

In other words, the ol' "End Around." Yes, it takes skill, determination and a lot of time, but at the end, a simple 90 degree turn on your part and wait for them to cross your stern is an easy kill.
-Pv-