What tactics do you use...

[Rosencrantz]

for the approach?
Let's say you spot a single smokecloud on horizon, in daytime?
What actions you would take to catch the loner?

-RC-

[bigboywooly]

All depends what time in the war, the weather conditions and how close I am to land as well as ships relative bearing and heading to me

Early war if weather permits will surface and deckgun if not too big a ship
If I can get the heading will try to outflank on surface at a decent distance away to avoid being spotted then try to move in at PD with a good AOB - but again if too close to air bases and in broad daylight will just try to shadow till nightfall
If they are closing will normally plot their course and try to get a 180AOB at PD - like to use stern when I can or end up with just those left when I need a bow

Theres a lot of factors as to why every attack is different

[Rosencrantz]

I meant just how do you carry on your approach...
I mean, like in the situation I mentioned, do you have some basic rules how to get closer. Like I prefer to use OAC with high speed - usually never get any problems to get ahead or at least reach the target. Not even the fast ones like task groups.

-RC-

[Mooncatt]

i normally run kinda parrallel to target at flank speed to get in front of it, once enough in front i make a 90 degree turn to intercept i then dive periscope depth and by the time im 1000m away the target is ready for a shot easy works with all targets no matter what

[Rosencrantz]

To mooncat:

But you don't know target's exact course fm long distance, right? So how do you find the proper parallel course?



-RC-

[Puster Bill]

Originally Posted by Rosencrantz

To mooncat:

But you don't know target's exact course fm long distance, right? So how do you find the proper parallel course?



-RC-

I think I can answer that. Put your bow right on the target, and increase speed to full (no need to go flank at this point). Wait a while, and see which way he drifts, port or starboard. Don't get too close though. Reduce speed if necessary.

For example, if are heading due East when he is on your bow, then he drifts a bit to starboard, he is heading somewhat South. Contrarily, if he drifts to port to there is a northern component to his heading. If he stays directly on your bow after several minutes, you are either on the same or the reciprocal course.

Lets say that after a few minutes he drifts 10 degrees to port. Swing your bow 20 degrees port, then see what happens. Adjust course and speed as necessary.

Once you get close enough, you can get the course by taking two marks on him (separated by three and a quarter minutes to get speed), from them you can get the exact course, and plan accordingly.

[DIRTY DEALER]

At first sighting, I mark the position on the map.

accelerate time for a while, make second and third marks on map.

use the "ruler" and draw a straight line through those marks and that gives me the targets coarse. At that point I run a paralel course at flank speed untill I'm about 10 km ahead, do a 90 turn into the target coarse and run on the surface untill I'm about 3km from intercept point. Submerge to periscope depth at 1/3 untill I'm 1km away and wait.

I do a visual inspection, look for guns on the target. Large ships get at least one fish, try to hit fuel bunker or break the keel. sometimes second fish needed to stop it. small ships get one fish, unless trawler/tug/fish boat, dont waste ammo on those little ones. most ships that survive one or two torpedoes can get finished off with deck gun.

NOTE: If ship has guns, surface on the other side of tilting deck, guns can't tilt down low enough to hit subs !

[greyrider]

i use the hydrophones, and sound cones.
i divide that into two parts, the sound cone that the sonar operator measures himself
which starts at approx 7500 meters, with a one degree sound cone.
by the time a contact gets within 1 km of the u-boat, the sound cone measured by the sonar operator is now 10 degrees wide.

the second part is the part of the sound cone that i measure myself
those ranges are from 7500 meters out to 34 km, the maximum range of the hydrophones.
i am also able to determine speed by this method .
if a sound contact has a one degree sound cone as measured by the sound operator, at say 0:800 hours
then when the sound coune becomes six degrees in width, and the clock is saying 08:10
the sound contact moved 3400 meters in ten minutes, that would give the sound contact a speed of 11 knots
because when the sound cone is 6 degrees, the range to target is 4100 meters.
ive also been using the hydrophones to judge AOB

[U-104]

Originally Posted by mooncatt

i normally run kinda parrallel to target at flank speed to get in front of it, once enough in front i make a 90 degree turn to intercept i then dive periscope depth and by the time im 1000m away the target is ready for a shot easy works with all targets no matter what

[Mooncatt]

yes this tac works even at long range because the target doesnt usually change course. the tip using 2 marks and then drawing a line through is also very good but you dont really need to be so accurate, just estimate really and your crew will pick the target up again once youve made your 90 turn and heading torwards your estimated intercept point, if you run at full speed you will nearly always end up in front of the target and have lots of time to set up ya eels and do whatever you want

[Rosencrantz]

Puster Bill wrote:

I think I can answer that. Put your bow right on the target, and increase speed to full (no need to go flank at this point). Wait a while, and see which way he drifts, port or starboard. Don't get too close though. Reduce speed if necessary.

For example, if are heading due East when he is on your bow, then he drifts a bit to starboard, he is heading somewhat South. Contrarily, if he drifts to port to there is a northern component to his heading. If he stays directly on your bow after several minutes, you are either on the same or the reciprocal course.

Erhm... I said before, you don't know target's exact course at this point. I wasn't talking some overall "somewhat" heading.
Good try, but you actually didn't answer my question...

-RC-

[Rosencrantz]

BTW, is it true no one ever use OAC or NAC?

I just watch his drift to get a general idea of the direction, then start running the same way. It doesn't matter if it's precise; just get ahead of him, dive and close in. Sometimes I blow it; most often not.

[CruiseTorpedo]

I try to follow the guide lines in the book uboat commander's hand book. The stuff in that works really well, when you see a target move towards it noting as others have stated how it's moving or if it's moving from one side to the other, but mostly you just dont want to lose contact. Dont get too close but do work on tracking the target on your map as your overhauling. Get along side of them where all you can see is the top of the enemy ships or the smoke and work on passing them. Once you guesstimate your 30-60 degrees off their bow then turn for an intercept course. I dont think they simulate the profiling on the edge of the horizon so I usually dont dive till I'm within 6km or so in daylight. This is a very easy way to attack enemy ships, the overhauling can be a little frustrating at times but once you get their approximate heading it's very easy! They say in the handbook to use torpedos on pretty much everything as opportunities to attack in real life were much less often than in SH3 so I go with that mind set, use salvos against everything but the very small vessels.

[Darksun]

Originally Posted by Rosencrantz

Erhm... I said before, you don't know target's exact course at this point. I wasn't talking some overall "somewhat" heading.
Good try, but you actually didn't answer my question...

-RC-

So much depends on your realism setting and mods you have enabled. I don't think your question is specific enough for a precise answer.

Are you doing everything manually on 100% realism? Do you have realistic torp damage with something like NYGM? What sub are you using? A type II needs different tactics than an IX. And so on. All these things effect, to one extent or another, how people make an approach.

The U.S. Navy WWII manuals suggest running a "box pattern" to intercept shipping. Determine heading and speed, get ahead of target on a parrallel track, wait for them to run past you, blast them with a spread.