Merchant Marksmen

[UnderseaLcpl]

Some of you have seen the recent post where I complained about being shot in the periscope. Well, now I'm complaining about being shot on the surface.

Just today I attacked a convoy westbound in grid BF15. It was a big one and contained 4 large merchants and an ammunition ship along with a plethora of medium-sized vessels and 4 escorts of various classes.

I botched my approach because of a target course miscalculation (tried to compensate by making decent submerged speed) and alerted the lead escort.

So I sunked the escorts, one at a time and made an two end-arounds blowing off all my torpedoes.

I was not happy with the results. 2 good sized ships sunk but the 3 mediums I hit only damaged and showing no loss in speed.

A sizeable contingent of fat merchants was at the rear of the convoy and I decided to shadow and attack them by deck gun at night, keeping a range of about 3000m. Impatience prompts me to attack slightly before sunset and I cripple a tramp steamer with the gun.

Overtaking her underwater I surface and dispatch her aft gun with my twin-20mm cannon. I then sink her at my leisure. Pleased with these results I repeat the process with a Granville type freighter and set my sights on a large merchant.

I surface around 3500m astern of her and try to close to 3000 before opening fire.
To my unpleasant surprise she fires on me at around 3200m and scores a hit on my stern with the first shot using some type of small cannon.

Undaunted, I order the deck gun crew to open fire and target the waterline when I am hit a second time. The impact killed my whole deck gun crew.

Thinking this poorly-trained merchant crew couldn't possibly be so lucky as to hit me a 3rd time I continue the attack. The next impact hits the conning tower and kills my watch officer and another rating. I decide to abort immediately and dive to escape.

---------------------------------

So, what is going on here? My boat is sighted at 3000m and fired upon, successfully, at night? By a merchant gun crew? 3 times in a row? Yeah, my a$$.

Maybe I am just very unlucky.

[Cezbor]

War is a hell, isn' it. Now you've learned an old truth "always respect your enemy". More seriously, in GWX ships are more stable platform for deck guns than uboats. sensors works the same for you as they work for your enemy, if you can see him - he see's you too. Be more aggressive, but it doesn't mean to be stupid. Large merchants are equipped with two deck guns. They can be devastating.

[Sailor Steve]

Running gun battles are always a bad idea. The reason they 'saw' you at three kilometers is that they knew exactly where to look. You had already fired on one of them, so the AI on the others was in 'Alert' mode.

Instead of wasting your torpedoes on the escorts you probably should have just targetted the merchants and been done with it. Also, merchant gun crews were better trained than you might think, especially as the war progressed. Deck guns are for sinking helpless victims, not ones who can shoot back.

Here's a very good discussion of the subject.
http://www.uboat.net/forums/read.php?20,64443,64448

[note] This is actually a response to a question on that forum. The original question and other answers are also interesting.

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Also, merchant gun crews were better trained than you might think, especially as the war progressed.

In fact, I believe in a lot of cases, merchant gun crews were trained RN or Army personnel rather than full time merchant navy men. Hence they were good at their job.

Nemo

[msalama]

Here's a very good discussion of the subject.

Sorry to butt into your discussion, but just as an aside thanks for the link Steve. An interesting topic this...

S!

[Platapus]

You should also consider where the merchant's guns are located. Many merchant ships only have one gun hard point.

If they are located on the blunt end, perhaps you should attack from the pointy end?

[UnderseaLcpl]

Meh.... I still don't think they could have seen, let alone hit us. It was dark by the time I engaged that big ship. All they would have been able to aim at was the muzzle flash from my gun, and I was moving at a good clip. All I could see of him was his silohuette.

Instead of wasting your torpedoes on the escorts you probably should have just targetted the merchants and been done with it. Also, merchant gun crews were better trained than you might think, especially as the war progressed. Deck guns are for sinking helpless victims, not ones who can shoot back.

As I said, I botched the approach and was sighted. I would have just attacked the merchants but the destroyers kept trying to drop some kind of exploding barrels on me.
Even a well-trained gunner has to be able to see you to hit you. Especially 3 times in a row.

Oh well. I guess I just wanted to let off some steam. I hate it when things don't go the way I say they're supposed to.