Luftwaffe doing hellova job

[BasilY]

April 1943, Algier and Tripoli had fallen. I decided to take my VIIB to patrol the sea lane between Tripoli and ports futher east.

When I was passing south of Sicily between Pantelleria and Tunis, I got action. 4-5 ship convoys with ocean liners, small merchant with lone escorts, Almost every 8-12 hours, coming through. I was trying to follow some of these contacts, but the Luftwaffe, (or Italian Airforce) are always one step ahead of me. They was sinking ships left and right as soon as they enter my visual range:hmm:, A total of 4 ocean liner (big and small), 2 troop ships, 2 ore carriers, and numerous smaller vessels and escort ships. I almost have to conclude they sit right on top of me and do this to frustrate and entertain me at the same time. Quite a show, boys.

I did get credit for 2 kills, while I probably had a hand in the sinking of 4-5 more. kind of fun to see all those dead ship icon littering my route though. Some one tell the RN to stop sending live bait through here with so little protection.

However, through all this, I never see a plane doing the attacking, (I am at P-depth and I see plenty of AA fire not aim at me) So I don't know whether they are German or Italian.

Question: How does the game decide the awarding of sinking credits?

[KeptinCranky]

As far as I can tell from a similar experience to yours the one that actually causes the "enemy unit destroyed" message to appear gets the credit.

I once watched a Stuka divebomb and strafe a Large Cargo while my eel was on the way, it was fairly badly damaged but my eel hit and caused the fatal blow so I got the credit.

this is not 100% definite but it seems to work that way :hmm:

[Rommer69]

How do you get that message of "Enemy unit destroyed"? I´m running GWX2.1 no SH3 commander and the message is always "she´s going down". :hmm:

[Task Force]

Shes going down and enemy unit distroyed is the same thing just worded diffrent.

I once was being attacked by a distroyer. Then the luftwaffe bombed him and he was on top of me, so one of the bombs also hit me. KABOoM

[Brag]

Nut nice being bombed by one's own fuzzbooters.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by KeptinCranky

As far as I can tell from a similar experience to yours the one that actually causes the "enemy unit destroyed" message to appear gets the credit.

I once watched a Stuka divebomb and strafe a Large Cargo while my eel was on the way, it was fairly badly damaged but my eel hit and caused the fatal blow so I got the credit.

this is not 100% definite but it seems to work that way :hmm:

Spot on KC

[BasilY]

Can't there be joint credit? I pump 2 eels into a Ceramic Liner, A BF-109 straff it and they get credit? that's a bit hard to swallow. Especially they left just in time for me to fend off the destroyers myself...

[Jimbuna]

Nope....no joint credit. Goering always was a fat greedy bastid

In my game only the RAF does a hellova job.

[Kielhauler1961]

Goering liked loaning "his" aircraft to the KM as much as he wanted his teeth pulled out. Only about 40 Condors, most of which were unservicable at any one time (a converted civil transport???), were available to KG40, based near Bordeaux, and the crews lacked the navigation skills to accurately plot a spotted convoy's position so that U-Boats could home in on it.

The lack of co-operation between the Luftwaffe and the Navy amounted to gross incompetence (something we can only be glad that happened). The Luftwaffe had been designed as an extension of the artillery for supporting ground forces and could only be relied upon (H-U Rudel excepted) to hit something that wasn't moving! They simply never trained for maritime operations prior to the war, by which time it was far too late.

Training a naval aviator takes a minimum of two years, and that's with a fully equipped and professional organisation. I know this because my father took two years to train as a Fleet Air Arm bomber pilot (TBF Avengers) from 1941-1943, and as he admitted to me still didn't know his "arse from his elbow" when it came to actual combat for the first time.

Just my thre'pennny worth.

[Jimbuna]

In the middle of my latest reading (Bitter Ocean - David Fairbank White) in which the author states that some of the Condor pilots were so inept, they had difficulty in working out the course/direction some of the convoys were on.

[Kielhauler1961]

I remember reading in Blair, vol.1, that a Condor report of a particular convoy's position was about 300 nm out! The few available U-Boats were put on a collision course with the original report and by the time the mistake had been realised and corrected, no boats were in a position to intercept. Doenitz threw all his toys out of the pram.

[Leandros]

Originally Posted by Kielhauler1961

I remember reading in Blair, vol.1, that a Condor report of a particular convoy's position was about 300 nm out! The few available U-Boats were put on a collision course with the original report and by the time the mistake had been realised and corrected, no boats were in a position to intercept. Doenitz threw all his toys out of the pram.

That was the rule rather than the exception. Few Luftwaffe convoy position reports were such as to enable the U-boote to make interceptions. This was Dønitz's greatest nightmare. First he had to beg for Luftwaffe recce resources then they proved to be inaccurate scouts. Which isn't that strange considering the conditions.

[Leandros]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

In the middle of my latest reading (Bitter Ocean - David Fairbank White) in which the author states that some of the Condor pilots were so inept, they had difficulty in working out the course/direction some of the convoys were on.

Dønitz writes a lot about this in his biography - Zehn Jahre und Zwanzig Tage. Much of the problem stemmed from the fact that the Kriegsmarine were not allowed to uphold their Küstenflieger units which specialized in long-range trans-oceanic navigation.