Need advise\help on shaking a destroyer mid patrol

[Chewsmoka]

I have my current patrol paused right now as I successfully attacked a large convoy sinking 2 large tankers and 2 medium merchant ships, as well as two destroyers.

While trying to sneak away, I am being hounded by a lone destroyer that keeps circleing/depth charging me. I'm running silent at 103 meters and need to tips on how to shake this desy and proceed back to port. Have 2 compartments with major dmg the most being port diesel destroyed.

How should I proceed? any help from the pros on the forum would be greatly appreciated.

[Rafael]

What mod do you have?

[Brag]

Can you go deeper?

Take a look at my Kielman webbie (link on my sig).The moment DC are in the water go ahead flank back to silent running as DC stop exploding. have your rudder at 5 degrees port or starboard.

Good luck!

[Von Talon]

What is realism? Can you see your stealth meter? If you do, dive to 200 meters and complete silence. Or year and date? Does your destroyer have asdic? How much torps you have. If your destroyer has asdic or he just detects you from 200m you shuld just rise to periscope depth and when the destroyer is making her final attack run (when she stops doing patterns and heads towards you (usually when she is about 500m after you), fire your ass torpedo. If you havent got stern torpedoes, use you bow torps.
Rise to 30 meters and try to evade the DCs. When she has passed you, and she is turning for another attack run, fire torpedo.
If you have no torpedos at all, go to deep as possible, silent running, and when you are about 1-16 km away from her (depending from the weather and sky), SURFACE ! When in dark or storm, she can't see you. Move slowly away when she is searcing you from below the surface!

[Chewsmoka]

Since I'm brand new to SH3 I am using easy settings. I can see my stealth meter which is red. I tried diving deeper but I can go no more then 102m. I'm in a IXB in March 1941 time period.

First I'll try Brag's suggestion and see if I can slip away, if not, I will try to goto 30m and get a stern shot off, but it seems that destroyers that are following you avoid torps most the time because of their speed ( for me at least )

Thanks for the help and I'll let you know how it turns out.

[JohnnyBlaze]

Hi there, Chewsmoka!

I think you can only open the tubes at 20meters or less. Atleast on a type 7!

You're on pretty shallow waters, but good luck with the evasion

[Brag]

Originally Posted by JohnnyBlaze

Hi there, Chewsmoka!

I think you can only open the tubes at 20meters or less. Atleast on a type 7!

You're on pretty shallow waters, but good luck with the evasion

I never attack anything with escorts unless I have 200 meters, or more, under the keel. As far as trying to duke it out with a destroyer actively seeking me, forget it! I like long careers and parties at Chez Margot

[TarJak]

Good advice. 102m is too shallow for attacking something with an escort. best you can hope for is to go silent running stay below 2kt and change course every time you hear DC's being dropped over head. Always change course using the rudder control NOT the compass and keep your rudder angle at less than 10deg Starboard or Port to make sure you don't lose speed in the turns.

TBH your chances are slim but particularly if there are multiple escorts nunting you even in 1939, but it is possible to escape if you are lucky. Take it as a lesson and move onto the next career.

[Bosje]

I generally give it hard rudder when the destroyer is overhead and then go to 10 degrees or amidships as soon as i'm turned away from the destroyer's course (all of this at ahead flank of course)

for your predicament: while the destroyer is closing in, try to start to turn at 10 or 20 degrees while going to 2/3 - standard - full as the DD is getting closer and closer, that will screw him up a bit

lastly: often they are depthcharging a spot where you were a while back but not anymore. only turn and run when you're sure he's actually on to you. if he's not sure where you are, stay silent and still until his asdic actually hits you

I remember one episode when I got away from a bunch of escorts in '43 while i could only dive to 150m but that was really lucky

in '41 it should be possible to stay ahead of one destroyer

good luck

Try this link.


U-Boat Evasive Tactics

A U-boat’s best defense is concealment. But once this is blown, the next best recourse is to dive immediately. Ironically, if a U-boat is spotted on the surface, the first thing the escort will do is to shell it immediately and force it to submerge. This will break up the attack sequence and neutralize any threats of torpedo attacks. If given the opportunity, escorts will even ram a U-boat, whether it is on the surface or at periscope depth. The resulting damage will put the escort out of action for many months, but if that could sink a U-boat, then the price was considered well worth it.
Once spotted, a U-boat requires at least 30 seconds to crash dive to a depth deep enough to evade the resulting depth charges. If the attacking vessel is too close, it might have better chances running on the surface to build up sufficient speed before ordering a crash dive. A U-boat can outrun most escorts, including corvettes, but not modern destroyers.
Once underwater, the cat and mouse hunt begins. The escort will be searching for the U-boat by listening in to the hydrophones and pinging with its sonar. On the U-boat, the hydrophone operator too will be listening in for the escort’s screws. He will be able to determine the location, speed and the type of ship (merchant or warship) on the surface. These will provide the only clues as to the activity on the surface.
Depth reduces the effectiveness of sonar. The deeper the U-boat, the more difficult it is to locate. A good evasive measure is to dive as deep as possible and as quickly as possible. This not only reduces the sonar signature, but also provides more time to evade depth charges and will keep the enemy guessing on the U-boat’s location by the time the depth charge reached the desired depth. Also, since sonar is more effective when pulsed at flat surfaces, a skilled commander will try to keep its bow or stern pointed towards the attacker as much as possible. U-boats are capable of very silent operations. But in order to remain undetected, it had to move very slowly underwater, which meant a low speed of only 2 knots. If this was not silent enough, the commander could further order the boat to run on silent mode. In this mode, all non essential activities are halted. Torpedo tubes are not reloaded, bilge pumps are run by hand and all non essential personnel are sent to the bunks. Silent operation keeps the U-boat’s noise low, and also helps to conserve battery power.
There are several occasions when an escort will lose contact with a submerged U-boat. During the explosion of a depth charge, an intermittent blackout occurs, deafening the pursuer’s listening devices until they calibrate themselves. When the escort passes directly above a submerged U-boat, both sonar and hydrophone contacts are lost. Sonar is useless at short ranges and in addition, the U-boat’s position would be out of the sonar’s arc of detection when the ship passes directly above. Also, due to the interference of the ship’s own propeller noise, hydrophones cannot pick up any sound coming directly from astern of the ship. This provided several window of opportunities for a U-boat to change course or to run at high speeds without being detected.
U-boats could also launch BOLD canisters to confuse their attackers. Consisting of a chemical compound which emitted large quantities of gas, the resulting bubble cloud could resemble a submerged U-boat. Unless the sound operator was especially skilled, it was often difficult to distinguish it from a real U-boat. The allies called this a “Submarine Bubble Targer” (SBT).
It was not an easy task locating and attacking a submerged U-boat. Much skill and persistence was needed, and was especially so if the U-boat had already dived very deep beneath the sea. Sometimes escorts forced a U-boat to the surface by waiting it out. Since U-boats had very low underwater speed, escort captains knew that it could not travel very far. In addition, it could not remain submerged for very long periods. Appreciating the fact that carbon dioxide levels will start to rise, escorts will often wait in silence until the U-boat was forced to surface by itself due to the lack of breathing air. During the war, more than a handful of U-boats were defeated by sheer patience.


(Taken from the link above)

[Jimbuna]

I think your best course of action would be to kiss your sweet bottom goodbye, start a new career and learn from the experience.

In RL, Kaleuns never got a second chance.

[maxextz]

ive found if i go to 80mtrs and with silent running but set the speed to 1 kts while zig zagging it works for me one night i spent 2 hours doing this and got away in the end. but 1knot is the best speed imo.

[JohnnyBlaze]

Yup take this as a lesson to gain experience. That experience can save your butt later on

@Brag> ah those parties..

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Chewsmoka

I can see my stealth meter which is red.

Red means you're making a lot of noise. Go to Silent Running. You're not safe unless it's green. Even then active sonar can find you, but at least they have less chance of hearing you.

[Damo]

Originally Posted by Brewtality

During the explosion of a depth charge, an intermittent blackout occurs, deafening the pursuer’s listening devices until they calibrate themselves.

In real life yes but is this true to the game? I thought I read somewhere on these forums that the explosions had no effect on a warship's ability to hear you. Fair enough, if there's only one hunting you then you're in it's baffles when the DC's start going off so you can go to flank speed anyway, but what if there's 2 or more? Can they still hear your engines at flank during DC explosions even though the vessel that dropped them can't?

I'm interested to find out as not modeling a DC 'blackout' seems a rather dumb oversight on the part of the programmers.