Dunkirk destroyers

[Parachute]

By luck the start date of my latest patrol coincides with the Dunkirk evacuation. I headed straight over from Wilhelmshaven, and after a few attempts managed to get through the CTD ring which seems to surround the harbour by sitting it out on the bridge at x16 & x32 time compression on my approach.

As soon as I spot the harbour lights in the distance, I drop to periscope depth and move at ahead one-third. However, even if I keep the periscope down for the entire approach, at least one of the stationary destroyers detects me well before I can get anywhere near torpedo range of the juicy targets, and since there's no room to dive it seems to be pretty much game over as soon as this happens.

I feel like I must be doing something stupid, because I've been able to slip between convoy columns in the past without being noticed by the escorts, and doing that required getting much closer to them and moving at higher speeds than I'm doing here. I'm a relatively new player so I imagine there are some differences between these scenarios I'm unaware of. Could anyone explain what's going wrong? And is sinking the troop ships at Dunkirk pointless anyway because it's impossible to get away afterwards without being sunk by the destroyers?

I'm using GWX amongst other mods.

[K-61]

Are you going into silent running? That quietens down the boat somewhat. As well, go the free roam view [Shift + F2, I think?] and manually move over to the engine telegraphs and click on the RPM dial to drop your e-motor revs down to about 50. It's slow, but much stealthier than the 100 RPM or so from one third ahead.

[Aktungbby]

Parachute!

[Sailor Steve]

Have you done any research on Dunkirk? Were there any U-Boats there? Are there any reports? Maybe you're doing about average for that battle.

[Kapitän]

Calm seas + shallow waters = Danger!
Try to identify the patrol vessels. That should display their different detection ranges on the F5 map view and help you to stay outside of those.
After the attack, you should apply the different evasion tactics, described in other threads in this forum.

[blackswan40]

Hi Parachute Re Dunkirk research check this out


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_evacuation

[Parachute]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I suppose the key question I have is this: Why can I remain unnoticed by convoy escorts despite moving quicker and being much closer to them, when the destroyers at Dunkirk seem to have a sixth sense for my presence in contrast regardless of how stealthy I attempt to be?

Does the game (or do any mods) model 'alertness' of some kind, by which warships expecting trouble (say during an event like Dunkirk or recently following a convoy attack) are more likely to detect you? Could this be the explanation?

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Parachute

Thanks for the replies everyone. I suppose the key question I have is this: Why can I remain unnoticed by convoy escorts despite moving quicker and being much closer to them, when the destroyers at Dunkirk seem to have a sixth sense for my presence in contrast regardless of how stealthy I attempt to be?

Does the game (or do any mods) model 'alertness' of some kind, by which warships expecting trouble (say during an event like Dunkirk or recently following a convoy attack) are more likely to detect you? Could this be the explanation?

The game's escort behavior can be whacky at times, regardless of megamod or mod(s) used. I.e., sometimes one may think they've pulled off a great night surface attack, only to be able to pull up alongside an escort without them reacting at all anyway.

There's a lot of variables that go into their behavior and that's part of the problem imo; to many "cooks in the kitchen". One of them is the crew rating, so maybe you're running into some "elite" crews vs. what you have in the past. Four crew ratings, with the "bottom" two beings basically worthless. You can throw rocks at them and they won't notice. Upper two are "veteran" and "elite" with veteran being so-so and elite being the best.

But to answer your question, yes the game is supposed to model alertness. I.e., if you've attacked already and come back, escorts are supposed to be more alert. I've never noticed it myself.

Or maybe I'm mistaken; thought I'd read that somewhere. Anyone ?

[Fifi]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

But to answer your question, yes the game is supposed to model alertness. I.e., if you've attacked already and come back, escorts are supposed to be more alert. I've never noticed it myself.

Or maybe I'm mistaken; thought I'd read that somewhere. Anyone ?

They should be supposed to...but they aren’t. In any silent hunter 3/4/5.
After some time (usually around half an hour up to more than an hour, depending the mod) they come back to previous normal state.
Of what I’ve experienced, in fact they come back to normal state when stopping zigzagging.
That’s the way game is coded, and I’m afraid no mod can alter it.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Fifi

They should be supposed to...but they aren’t. In any silent hunter 3/4/5.
After some time (usually around half an hour up to more than an hour, depending the mod) they come back to previous normal state.
Of what I’ve experienced, in fact they come back to normal state when stopping zigzagging.
That’s the way game is coded, and I’m afraid no mod can alter it.

That's right; that time limit that they have unfortunately. Causes more problems than it solves.


Thanks.