Tactics vs Convoys

[ColonelSandersLite]

Ok, so I was thinking about something here in regards to attacking convoys.

Consider:
In general, the strongest possible attack you can make is generally your first when the convoy is not alerted and not squirreling around unpredictably. In this situation, I can hit my targets pretty reliably from 4,000 yards.

Ideally, you probably want to set it up so that you can hit two or three targets.

You probably also want all torpedo impacts to be within a few seconds of each other so that when the SHTF and the targets start evading, none of your shots are fouled.

Setting an attack up that meets all of the above criteria requires a fair amount of preparation and planning, with certain approaches lending themselves well to hitting certain combinations of ships in this manner.

Most convoys move fairly slowly.

In the era where you have good radar, you can figure out your approach and have it planned out well in advance of actually seeing the contents of the convoy, but the result is that you are picking an arbitrary setup without seeing what the targets actually are.



So the thought I had, and I've never really seen it discussed, is that it might be a good idea to dedicate the first pass on a convoy to reconnaissance. Suppose that the sub submerges and heads on the opposing course of the convoy, about 5,000 yards off their track. Maybe not that exact distance, but the idea being to be close enough to identify most or all of the targets, but far enough away to reliably avoid detection from the escorts. From here, the sub lets the convoy steam past and follows with an end around. The next time the sub is ahead of the convoy, it already knows where the choice targets are and has plenty of time to set up any desired approach accordingly.


Thoughts?

[TorpX]

Interesting idea, but personally, I would not approach a convoy without attempting an attack. Imo, you don't risk your boat, unless there is a prospect of doing greater harm to the enemy.

Generally, I find myself in a S-boat, so there is no guarantee I can even get one shot, and very difficult to get more than one.

The above is not to say I would not spend time stalking a ship/convoy from a distance on the surface, but this would have to be done at night.

[Havan_IronOak]

I generally try to set up a constant bearing solution ahead of a convoy then go deep and wait for the lead escort to go by.

Then rise up to periscope depth when the first row of merchants approaches my firing line. I start with the one nearest my firing solution and work back to the nearer ships. If they're all small fry, I can down scope and wait for line 2. Of course, I'm playing with map updates on so it's easier to do this.

[Fearless]

Sometimes I fire 2 to 4 torps at range 9000 yards usually at the furthest away if the column is at 3 abreast. One in three chance of hitting a merchant. It also tends to send the DDs in the wrong direction as they weren't alert enough to see from which direction the torps came from.

[Rockin Robbins]

My most successful attacks have been very different. I approach the convoy from the side with a Dick O'Kane attack, hull awash. I set up about 3,000 yards away with stern to the convoy and wait to take to shots at the largest target in the center of the convoy. I shoot two, surface and jet out of there at ahead emergency. When the torpedoes hit I'm already away at 21 knots. The escorts then swarm to where I was and begin depth charging the fishies.

But I'm doing an end around to the unguarded side of the convoy where I can attack at leisure, get super close and take out the two of my choice. If radar indicates the one I hit on the first pass is still afloat I'll mark him on my chart for later cleanup. Same deal, shoot, run end around because all the escorts are going to my new attack site.

You have over an hour to attack an unguarded side of the convoy every time. Your goal is to have all the untouched escorts just disperse when they have no merchants to protect.

Of course you do this in the early night time because the procedure is an all night party. In the daytime I don't believe that jetting out of there, even from a 3,000 yard shot would get you enough distance from the escorts to avoid annihilation. But that was with TMO. With other mods the procedure would be easier to pull off. I don't believe an initial reconnaissance would be helpful because my aim is to sink everything except the escorts anyway. What it is is what it is......or was.

[ColonelSandersLite]

@Torpex
The s-boats are a special case here. Their low peak firepower means that trying to hit more than one ship at a time is generally a waste, so you just pick the biggest and go. Any approach you want will work for that. Their low speed means it's often to your advantage to deliberately alert the convoy if you can't get into attack position. This will make them zigzag. In my experience, this slows a 9 knot convoy down to 5 knots, making them easy to catch.

In fleet boats, the point I'm trying to make is to not risk the boat until you know which targets are the best. You don't recon from inside the convoy, but from several thousand yards away. The possibility of detection in this scenario is remote. Essentially, they would have to change course and just by pure chance be in a perfect position so a DD just randomly plows right over you.

@IronOak
You're talking about shooting zero gyro perpendicular to their track right? This lets you simultaneously hit multiple targets in the same row. However, that's only one possible approach that achieves the goals above, and locking yourself into it every time is a waste of potential imho. For example, suppose that the best targets in the convoy are a nippon maru at r1c1 and a nagara maru at r2c1. Shooting at and sinking the nippon maru and, lets just say kinposin maru, at r1c2 is a sub optimal result.

@Fearless
I'm playing TMO, and my experience there is that mk14s on slow speed get spotted and evaded 100% of the time. Even ignoring that, I prefer better odds of sinking a choice target than 1 in 3. I figure that from 4,000 yards, with fast 14s or 18s my hit rate is about 90%. So if I fire at two targets the odds of sinking one of them is very high (assuming reliable torpedoes).

@RR
I prefer to save my stern tubes for destroyer defense if at all possible. Different strokes and all. I can say for sure though, that the number of times I have been depth charged when firing my my bow tubes from 3,000+ yards while submerged is very low. They basically have to get very lucky to find me at all in that situation.

While I agree that the best result is to sink all of the merchants, I always try to consider that making a second (or more) attack is not guaranteed. There are a variety of conditions that can prevent this, so I always strive to make my first attack hit as hard as possible.