BEST BATTLE EVER!!

[woodenboat]

I'd like to know about some of the best battles anyone has fought. Tell me what happened.

I ask this because I just fought one AMAZING fight and lived to tell about it. I just GOT to tell someone! Here's what happened.

I'm in the Celebes sea on a normal patrol mission running on the surface at night. I'm on a NNE heading and I run up on a fat convoy with nine merchants and four Fubuki class escorts running in a perfect diamond formation around the merchants. They are covering each of four corners of the convoy. The convoy is on a SSW course - right down my throat. I go below the thermocline, go silent and finally to full stop to wait until the lead escort passes overhead. Then I float up to periscope depth when I figure the escorts have passed overhead. It's still difficult for me to see all of what's happening because of still being new at this but I look for all of my sonar contacts to be splaying out like spokes on a wheel. That's when I figure I can come up for a Peek-a-boo. I don't really know what has tipped off the destroyers but three of them have zoomed in to the middle of the convoy and are all but waiting for me when I pop up. The fourth escort is on her way and coming at flank. Dammit! I HATE when that happens! In the fray that follows, I try to shoot one of the destroyers off of my tail and, of course, I miss! Dang it. You people didn't really believe that I was going to brag about what an incredible marksman I am, did you? However, as luck would have it, that fish still hits an old split freighter. The freighter goes dead in the water but she doesn't sink. She doesn't even catch fire but she does come to a full stop.

As the fur ball continues, I'm trying to keep from getting hammered by four angry destroyers and things are happening so fast that I can't even get any sort of shot in. All the destroyers are too close for my fish to even arm. I can see that this doesn't look like it's going to end well at all. But then, I suddenly see myself lined up with this freighter that is not moving. I pull immediately along side and go to full stop. I even have to apply a little reverse to stay alongside.

Now, you gotta picture this. I'm on an exact parallel course with the freighter. My periscope is almost scraping her hull because I am THAT close. It is the perfect wall of protection. WHAT A STROKE OF COMPLETELY FANTASTIC LUCK!! The Fubukis pass both in front of the freighter and behind her laying patterns each time. Oh sure, there's a lot of noise and smoke but I'm not taking any damage at all! Then I realize that these guys are running the same circular patterns like laps in a race car. And they cannot get in close enough to kill me. Two of them are going clockwise and the other two - counterclockwise.

Now remember that, in another thread, I quoted what Master Sunzi said in his teachings of The Art of War - "Never Become Predictable."

I simply line up my torpedoes right where I know the Fubukis are going to be - two with my bow tubes and two with my stern tubes. I simply wait for each escort to come around the stern of the old freighter or by the bow. I get a gorgeous, beautiful, green triangle on every shot. I shoot four torpedoes and four Fubukis die in four glorious balls of flame and exploding shrapnel. Does anyone think it possible to actually perfect this technique? Hmmm

With no more threat, I pick the rest of the convoy off one by one until I have sunk all of them. Yes, that includes the old split freighter that provided my shelter. It sort of broke my heart but I got over it.

So tell me guys, what was YOUR best battle ever?

[Cybermat47]

My best battle was SH5, not 4, but I'll post it here anyway

I get a contact report for a convoy, and plot an intercept course. I make contact with the convoy, and make a contact report. BdU orders me to keep contact without attacking, which I do. By early evening, U-339 arrives and attacks, sinking a freighter. While the escorts are busy with U-339, I move on the now unescorted convoy, and sink three freighters. With my tubes empty, I make my escape, with no offensive action at all taken against me.

BTW, good work using the crippled freighter as cover, I'll have to try that.

[Majestik 909]

Nicely done, Woody...

Sometime, read about Kretschmer's attack on HN-12 in U-23 in which he stalled and sank the destroyer HMS Daring....you could hear the excitement in his voice when he described the hunt....

[Majestik 909]

"As long as there is a slow moving vessel afloat, you are never out in the open....."

Often I will cripple one ship, in a heavily escorted convoy, and use it for cover, picking off escorts one by one....

[woodenboat]

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

...with no offensive action at all taken against me.

It's like getting a Get Out Of Jail Free card. Those are the best ones.

Well, the using a crippled freighter as cover is a repeatable tactic. I tried it again and it works. This time I intentionally put one fish into the stern of the closest merchant and then went alongside. After a while she caught fire and began to list. So this time around, I knew my time was going to be limited at best. I don't know if it matters one way or another but this next convoy didn't have Fubukis as escorts. They were Akizukis and there was also a light Agano class cruiser in the fray. The Akizukis didn't run laps around me like the Fubukis had done before. I tried to pick them off but missed on several tries even though I was shooting with a full green triangle and from between 350 and 400 yards. How can I miss under those circumstances? I don't get it!! Finally, I shot both of them but MAN I sure wasted a bunch of torpedoes. Meanwhile, the Agano came to a full stop and just stood off about 1500 yards to my stern. By this time, I had run out of torpedoes in my stern tubes and only had two fish in my bow tubes. It looked like it was going to be a waiting game. The merchant finally succumbed to her injuries and slid under. That's when the light cruiser came on in. I had to crash dive and get out of there cause I didn't figure that I stood a chance against that cruiser.

So, this time in the end, I only got credited with one merchant and two Akizukis for an entire sub's worth of torpedoes. I guess what goes around, comes around. I still have a lot to learn.

[Cybermat47]

Personally, I would've tried to get the cruiser. With no anti-submarine capability, it would've been too tempting to not put the last two fish in her. But that's just me

[Majestik 909]

Woody - In general, I watch escort movements from the attack map while submerged and "blind" so to speak. I then plot a solution to where the ship will eventually be so the escort enters the path of the torpedo. Keep in mind 10 knots is 17 feet per second, so using this as a reference, along with range and target speed, it is easy to plot a solution. Basically, you are shooting out into the open ocean, but the escort will cruise right into the torpedo....

[Majestik 909]

Originally Posted by woodenboat

It's like getting a Get Out Of Jail Free card. Those are the best ones.

Well, the using a crippled freighter as cover is a repeatable tactic. I tried it again and it works. This time I intentionally put one fish into the stern of the closest merchant and then went alongside. After a while she caught fire and began to list. So this time around, I knew my time was going to be limited at best. I don't know if it matters one way or another but this next convoy didn't have Fubukis as escorts. They were Akizukis and there was also a light Agano class cruiser in the fray. The Akizukis didn't run laps around me like the Fubukis had done before. I tried to pick them off but missed on several tries even though I was shooting with a full green triangle and from between 350 and 400 yards. How can I miss under those circumstances? I don't get it!! Finally, I shot both of them but MAN I sure wasted a bunch of torpedoes. Meanwhile, the Agano came to a full stop and just stood off about 1500 yards to my stern. By this time, I had run out of torpedoes in my stern tubes and only had two fish in my bow tubes. It looked like it was going to be a waiting game. The merchant finally succumbed to her injuries and slid under. That's when the light cruiser came on in. I had to crash dive and get out of there cause I didn't figure that I stood a chance against that cruiser.

So, this time in the end, I only got credited with one merchant and two Akizukis for an entire sub's worth of torpedoes. I guess what goes around, comes around. I still have a lot to learn.

You are learning! Good work!

I attack at very close ranges to conserve torpedoes....even when attacking escorts. My last mission alone netted 22 ships sunk, over 90,000 GRT, but it takes a lot of stalking....

[Sniper297]

"I was shooting with a full green triangle and from between 350 and 400 yards. How can I miss under those circumstances?"

Because the target was turning. The green triangle merely indicates you have a target that is within the limitations of the gyro angle for the tube you have selected, the solution light on the TDC is the same. For a middle of target hit on a target holding a steady course you merely hit the L key to lock the crosshairs in the center of the target, but for "Kentucky windage" you need to compensate by unlocking the target and moving the crosshairs. The TDC is aiming the torpedo using the target's speed and course NOW, not what it WILL BE when the torpedo gets there. Most warships seeing the wake will speed up, so moving the crosshairs forward of center, even slightly ahead of the bow of the target, will compensate for that. To fire a spread I don't bother fooling with the salvo spread settings, I just aim, fire, W to switch to the next tube, move the crosshairs a few degrees and fire again, repeat until all four tubes (I'm a SARGO driver) are fired.

In the case of circling destroyers when I'm in the center of the circle I want to start the spread with the first shot BEHIND the center of the target and shift the spread aft. In other words if the target is broadside to my forward tubes with a starboard 90 AOB (Angle On the Bow) and he's turning starboard towards me, if I aim at the center all the shots will miss to my right because he's turning to my left - so I have to aim off to the left where he will be when the fish get there. Aim to the left or right of the target indicator depending on which way he's turning, spread the shots out in the direction he's turning, you'll get a lot more hits.

[Maserati]

I was outbound on a North Atlantic patrol in my trusty Type II. I see a radio report of British destroyers making a raid near Heligoland. A few hours later, sure enough my lookouts spot two RN DDs in position for a long range shot. I fan four torpedoes and them and...

All four miss. Now I'm stuck, in a flat calm sea with little more than my grandmother's height under the keel. Here they come. I send the contact report, get my keel down in the mud and start sweating. They knock me around a bit with depth charges, prosecuting their attack more than is wise near an enemy shore.

After about 40 minutes of creeping around I start hearing explosions not preceded by splashes. I switch to an external camera and find...

I'm looking from right behind a Ju-87 in its dive. All told I count at least 16 dive bomb attacks, sinking both destroyers. I have never skipped a contact report since !

[woodenboat]

Maserati, that's an AWESOME story! I'm going to have to try the German perspective soon. When Stukas have your back, you're in pretty good shape.

Majestik, I fully understand about Kentucky Windage in real life. It never dawned on me that it would apply to this sim as well. I won't be missing any more enemies in that situation.

Also, I didn't know that the Agano class didn't have any anti-sub capability. I was going on the fact that it was pinging the heck out of me just like the destroyers do. Live and learn.

[Majestik 909]

February 28, 1940 - 0117 hours - 50 miles S/E of the Orkneys - HN-12 comprised of 20 ships in 3 colums, with destroyer escorts at each corner, making 7-1/2 knots. The lead destroyers are zig-zagging and the trailing destroyers are on a steady course. An 'L' class submarine (Thistle) is sailing between the rear escorts.

Kretchsmer manuvered surfaced to place the dark horizon at his back. Kretchsmers submerges and attacks the rear portside destroyer, HMS Daring, from 800 meters. The single torpedo #E-2749 strikes HMS Daring port side aft with a tremendous explosion. An immediate secondary explosion breaks the escort in two. Both sections capsize. Forward sections sinks with half hour, rear section sinks, leaving the tip of the stern floating like a bobber.

The convoy maintains its course and Kretchsmer is attacked by one escort that drops 5 depth charges, all of which miss U-23...

[woodenboat]

Well.... that's a target rich environment for sure. Is the L-class sub any real threat?

Correct me if I'm wrong... but didn't Kretchsmer survive the war to open a chain of delicatessens? He was really famous for his ham, I think but, since the Nazis didn't succeed in wiping out the world's Jewish population, Kretchsmer also introduced a line of Kosher meats. Right?

Ok, I'm kidding.

I'm pretty disgusted right now. Factoring in Kentucky Windage, I'm still missing slow ships at virtually point blank range. I think it's probably time for me to learn how to do manual targeting. I'm still using the automatic settings. I am either failing to take SOMETHING into consideration OR there is a bug in my system. Right at the moment, I am so mad that I need to walk away from the sim and do something else for a while. I did a save right before I took on a huge convoy. I went deep, came up between several rows of merchants, had beautiful firing position, missed everything I shot at. So, I ran it again and missed everything AGAIN! Finally, the third time, I not only missed everything in sight, but the destroyers killed me. I went deep and silent, dropped decoys, changed course and was doing fine. I was watching my sonar blips on the map and suddenly....... I just died. It was a pattern of tin cans dropped from a destroyer that was right above me. One second it was all clear and then, the very next second, there he was and I was immediately dead.

Oh well, that's enough for today. I'll come back and play again tomorrow but right now I need to think about something else. I need to go play my guitar. That is so much more productive.

[Sniper297]

Couple items;

1. If you note the small half circle of the escort's active sonar and can maneuver to stay outside that arc, it's not usually necessary to dive below the layer every time.

2. If you do dive below the layer, on the way back up switch to external view and check that the outer doors on all tubes are open. Or hit the Q key and check the message box to see if it says "opening tube one" or "closing tube one". If it says closing, obviously hit the Q key again to make it say opening before shifting to the next tube.

Reason I stress that is because the game is set to automatically open the outer doors if they're not already open. Why that's a problem - when sitting in the tube, there is a spindle sticking down into the gyroscope on the torpedo which sets the gyro angle according to the data coming from the TDC. As soon as you hit the firing button that spindle retracts, so the gyro angle is set and stays at that setting until the fish leaves the tube.

The programmers got this wrong in the game, if the outer doors are shut and you hit the fire button, the gyro is set, there's a few seconds delay while the outer door opens automatically, then the fish is fired WITH THE GYRO SETTING THAT WAS VALID 3 or 4 SECONDS AGO.

This almost ALWAYS results in a miss, so I used Silent 3ditor to edit all the subs' SIM files to change auto_open = True to auto_open = False. There's no point in having the auto open feature if it means the tube will fire with outdated data, so I turned it off in my game. Can't upload a mod for that since many of the supermods edit the same files, but once you learn Silent 3ditor it's easy enough to do it yourself.

Before that, one thing you can do is simple text editing in notepad.

Open windows explorer, browse to \Silent Hunter Wolves of the Pacific\Data\Submarine\NSS_Gato

Find the file named NSS_Gato.cfg, right click and select OPEN WITH and choose NOTEPAD.

Find the line that says;

TorpLaunchMaxDepth=30;meters

Change that to;

TorpLaunchMaxDepth=99;meters

Save, exit, now you can dive to 326 feet before you're too deep to launch. If that's not enough make it 150 meters or whatever you want, the idea is to open ALL tubes when you first come in contact, and not have them automatically closing when you go deep. Do the same for any sub class you drive in game.

[woodenboat]

Ok, I'm back. There are some good suggestions here. Thanks guys.

Sniper, I've been real conscientious about opening my torpedo doors before I shoot but you are correct in that, once I fire, several seconds pass before I hear the first officer (the one that sounds like Worf) says, "Torpedo in the water!" It's at times like these when my butt gets really chapped. Like, I'll turn on the stop watch to get an idea of when I will hear the explosion but the watch won't have the red indicator. I've already come to understand that, when my stop watch has no red line, it's going to be a miss. GREAT! Then I will watch the destroyer merrily circle around to pound my tail and next, after I'm trying to recover from all the damage and somehow keep the boat afloat, Worf will come back and say, "Torpedo Missed, Sir!"

No REALLY? Jeez, tell me something that I didn't already know!

I went into the files just like you said but when I try to save the change it gives me a message that says "Access denied."