Anyone else use this convoy tactic?

[scalelokt]

I've been trying a new convoy tactic just for fun more than anything, so far it seems promising but I need to practice it more. Basically the idea is to destroy all the escorts and then the Convoy is unprotected. What I do is sit silently in the path of the convoy and then destroy the lead escort. Not hard to do if they dont know you are there. Its then that things get interesting of course, because usually 3 escorts start toward you full speed. So I've figured out a way to deal with them (using manual targeting). It's probably not realistic, I cant imagine a real u-boat captain ever taking this kind of chance, but what I do is pretty much let them know where I am on purpose and watch the TDC screen map. When they get close enough they stop zig zagging and make a straight line for you, at around 450 meters usually. When they do I fire a torpedo set to fast speed and magnetic pistol, I'd say at least 80% of the time I get a hit. Where I run into trouble is it never fails that at least one of the DD's comes at me at a 90 degree angle where I cant fire at him, and I'm forced to dive. But if I can just get lucky one of these times, and have them all come at me from the front or rear, I think I could take them all out with this method. How sweet would that be, to have the entire convoy unprotected, hell you could just do deck gun attacks and close range torpedo shots and take out the entire convoy. Definitly easier said than done though, like I said, I havent been able to pull it off yet. Just wondering, has anyone else tried this? Or any other strategy that involves killing off the escorts first??

[banshee555]

I think your tactic is more down to luck realy.i have seen some convoys with up to 6 escorts 2 black swans,2 flowers and 2 or more hunter class,so trying to take all them out is a near impossible task.but keep trying and see how you do.

good luck

regurds
karl

[GoldenRivet]

I have used this tactic in the past with a fair degree of success, the only problem with it is that it eats up a large number of torpedos if the escort group consists of enough ships.

One thing i used to do is pick off the lead around sunrise, then dive away and escape.

i would stalk them until about noon then pick off one of the smaller escorts, then dive away and escape coming back for another round at sunset.

It was an effective way to exterminate the escorts but they change direction frequently, and trying to get in close enough to place a shot can prove dangerous espeically using GWX. especially since you sink the escorts just to find out that half the merchant fleet is armed.

meanwhile the fleet steams on toward ever shallowing waters placing you in an increasingly compromising situation.

just remember, you can sink all the warships you want... they will be replaced by months end and your up against the largest navys in the world.

the real goal is to put rifles, ammo, shells, oil, food, trucks, tanks, guns, machine parts, tools, fuel and the like at the bottom of the ocean where the allies cant use them and the only way to do that is to sink merchants.

in short its a fair tactic if you find yourself in deep water against a small merchant fleet.

but if its a large fleet, the number of escorts may outnumber your torpedos! and even if you manage to take them all out you have to have smooth seas to use the deck gun... and there are only so many shells on your U-boat.

[mookiemookie]

Nope. I save my torpedoes for merchants. More tonnage and more renown! The only warships I go after are BB's, carriers and cruisers.

I'll put a stern shot down a destroyer's throat if I'm in a pinch and can't get down fast enough, but that's the exception and not the rule.

[Pevs86]

I will definatly be targeting the Escorts when I get some acoustic guided Torps, but only AFTER I've been detected, otherwise I'll slip away and rise again!

[scalelokt]

Good feedback friends

You all make good points, some convoys simply have more escorts than we have torpedos, in that case the whole idea of killing the escorts first is a waste of time. Early in the war though I see several convoys with no more than 4 escorts, I'm just waiting for the time when everything plays out perfectly and I wipe them all out, then the convoy will just be sitting ducks. Dont get me wrong though, I'm not trying to sell this as a good tactic, really its a terrible one that rarely works and most of the merchants end up going free. Just doing it for fun more than anything else. So have any of you actually destroyed all the escorts and had a convoy all to yourself? Thats one feat I have never seen anyone on this forum say they have done.

[Khourieat]

Originally Posted by scalelokt

Good feedback friends

You all make good points, some convoys simply have more escorts than we have torpedos, in that case the whole idea of killing the escorts first is a waste of time. Early in the war though I see several convoys with no more than 4 escorts, I'm just waiting for the time when everything plays out perfectly and I wipe them all out, then the convoy will just be sitting ducks. Dont get me wrong though, I'm not trying to sell this as a good tactic, really its a terrible one that rarely works and most of the merchants end up going free. Just doing it for fun more than anything else. So have any of you actually destroyed all the escorts and had a convoy all to yourself? Thats one feat I have never seen anyone on this forum say they have done.

I did once when there was only one escort

[scalelokt]

There was only one? Wow havent seen that yet. So I assume afterward you wiped out whatever it was protecting?

[Brag]

Skalelokt:
I think your tactic would work , if you do it in three diffrent attacks (assuming 3 escorts). Take out the unsuspecting lead first, then repeat the performance for two successive night attacks Look ay my thread of Enough DC's

[bb-subs]

I just did a patrol of AN 81 and picked up a big convoy, fun times begin.

I hit a transport, then I stern shot into a V-W dd, then I had to take on the next V-W and sink it. This left the back of the convoy to me.
As I went in I got a large cargo ship, when the corvettes started after me they were dropping DC's in the wrong place and I was watching them, suddenly one has an explosion and is dead in the water.
This left two dd's and two corvettes so I went in again, this time a passanger/cargo. The escorts came after me but this I decided enough and left. The reason the first corvette blew when I went external view. MINES!!!
What brush with death.

But yes sometimes it is nice to even the odds a little. Convoy before this I sunk a armed trawler and a dd before going in.

Grant+

In my Karlün days we never wasted torpedos on escorts. They were soly used on the transports.

What i did was the overtake and slip in through the usual gap in the forward quater of the convoy. Then i would shoot rear torpedo first, then the front torpedos. Then move submerged at 20 ft. and Flank speed for about 1-2 min's in the direction of the convoy. That would most of the time have the side DD's and rear DD's react to my first attack and steam in on the "last known position" that i was racing away from. But they would rearly get close enough to get a soundlocation fix on me before i slowed down again. AKA i was in the clear for a new attack while they droped DC's on the wrong spot and generaly just made a mess up for the convoy and slowed it down letting me get into an even better position.

Racing at 20 ft. was allso my favourite tactic in the overtake it self in the event that one of the DD's protecting the side of the convoy detected me somehow. If a DD started to beam in on me i would first change course to directly away from the DD (usualy a 80 - 90 deg turn away from the convoy) and race ahead on Flank speed. Then i would dive at the moment he made his first gun shot at me. Dive to Periscope depth. Still in Flank and then make a turn back to convoy heading. I would then periodicaly check the DD's distance to me and when he had closed to about 4000 meters i would decrease the speed down in steps to 2 kts. and then slowly tiptoe away. This maneuvre would make the DD "calculate" a "proberble spot" for me that would be off with 90 deg's and the speed vector of 19 kts compared to my real course and the submerged Flank speed. The submerged Flank speed were sufficient to take me out of his search pattern and leave him searching for nothing while i could continue on convoy course (albeit on 2 kts untill i was either far enough from the DD or he left to join the convoy again).

[Pevs86]

I've only ever had one occasion of a single escorted Convoy, was Stock SHIII, somewhere in the Atlantic - forget where - anyway it was in 1940, so I bumped off the DD and just surfaced and pounded the convoy with my 88... good times...

[kiwi_2005]

I will do that tactic only if theirs 1 or 2 escorts. Usually tho its more like 4 to 6 escorts.

[STEED]

I only target one ship and that one is a big one, give it a full salvo then move off to hide from the angry destroyers. Or if I am lucky like the destroyers are X,Y and Z reasons I may target a second ship.

[andy_311]

I have in the past took the escorts out,but now I try and leave them aloneand concentrate on the merchants, apart from the lead escort will take him out 90% of the time because I normally attack a convoy head on.