How do you take down a destroyer? Any tips?

I was joking about the deck gun. I only do that when it's blow ballast or die. Then it's blow ballast, shoot off a few shells then die.

[Erich dem Roten]

Originally Posted by nirwana

From late 40 with better electronic and better skilled crew they get smart, zigzagging towards u until they are below the minimum range for arming the eals. Then they go straight for u with flank and try to overun and wabo ure sorry bud. No frigging way to to hit them unless u throw a full spread of eals at them before they are too close.

True...but those turns are almost always predictable...they always swing x degrees to port and x degrees to starboard...with a little calculating you can get a straight on shot.

My preferred method for taking out escorts is firing down the throat with the torp running about .75m below the keel using the magnetic pistol. Speed varies on the distance, but I usually use medium and only fire after the vessel is committed to its attack run (about 800 meters or less is where I draw the line, though I let zig-zaggers get as close as 400m for the shot I want). I set two torps up, if the first misses I fire the second and crash dive, twisting like a madman. Very risky, but also very effective in my opinion...I would wager I hit with the first or second torp 8 out of 10 times.

Of course, as others have said, I feel it a waste of a torpedo under most circumstances.

[geosub1978]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

most of my comrades have the good common sense to avoid such entanglements. however, there are also a good number of my comrades who rest in the silence of the deep because they lacked the aforementioned common sense

furthermore ... my comrades are better aware of our strategic mission objectives,

As I pointed in the very second line of my first post....."Of course this is not a realistik procedure, as normally you should try to get away,"

I agree with you that you should not challenge your faith. However anyone of us, at least for self defence, has attacked against a destroyer. And here the method that I described comes and it works very well up to the end of the war because the behaviour of the DDs after the dropth of the depth charges is the same, they turn to reattack!

[geosub1978]

Originally Posted by Flamingboat

Geosub1978, how do you have such wonderful shadows in that screenshot? Does it look like that in game or is in enhanced?

Well this is another one Christian Zaber's creation enhanced of course! You will find many of them in the site!

[HunterICX]

Unless necessary, I just dive to safety and be very very quiet.
especially along the british coast if I missed my shot and I get detected sure the Destroyer will call in his buddy and blast me to kingdom come.

HunterICX

[meduza]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

most of my comrades have the good common sense to avoid such entanglements. however, there are also a good number of my comrades who rest in the silence of the deep because they lacked the aforementioned common sense

furthermore ... my comrades are better aware of our strategic mission objectives, which are to;

1. deprive the British of the war materials with which they may...

a. build machines of war
b. fuel said machines of war
c. arm their soldiers
d. replenish their losses

2. Win the war though the accomplishment of the tasks laid out for us in objective 1 above.

but like i said... im old guard, hard core, historical reality, play it by the commanders hand book type

you feel free to chase destroyers and let the important stuff sail by unscathed all day long.

I agree with you, and like yourself, I consider myself to be an old guard, concentrating my effort to sink the merchant ships, and during the years of silent hunting I probably sunk less than 5 DDs.

I only once engaged a DD in self-defence when I was surprised by a lonely DD in shallow waters. After depth-charging me for hours, she finaly spent all the ammo, but still kept pinging me. I was unable to lose her, so I went to PD, making all the noise to attract attention, and when she turned towards me, I fired a stern torpedo down the throat, sinking her.

But, The Submarine Commander's Handbook, Section VII, C, says:
331.) Troublesome sweepers of the enemy escort must be destroyed, if an opportunity offers
to attack them. The destruction of covering ships, above all, of cruiser escorts, destroyers, etc.,
is in the interests of all the submarines which are already in contact with the convoy, or are to
be used to attack it.

[geosub1978]

The American Admirals encouraged their Captains to attack against DDs also.

[Brag]

I have attacked and sunk a few unsuspecting DDs. But I will not engage a DD who is after my butt. After all, I'm playing DID.

[Darksun]

If you are trying to get a down the throat shot two things help a lot. 1. Go at flank speed. You get more time to line up the shot. You can manuver much better and you can dive much faster. 2. Use a TI on the fast setting. Makes it much harder for the escort to dodge.

Due to the unrealistic nature of the way naked convoys will stick together I will consider removing the escorts from a convoy. Especially early in the war if none of the convoy ships is armed and the weather is suitable for the deck gun. I realize it's not a terribly historic approach, but it sure is fun to come into the convoy deck gun blazing and nothing they can do to stop you.

My method is to ambush the biggest escort with a TII to the engine. Then if the other escorts come after me I use the down the throat method.

Lastly, if a single escort hounds me for a while and we are far behind the the convoy I sometimes try to take them out right after they give up on me. I line up a 0 deg shot from AOB 180 on magnetic. This very often blows the screws off the escort leaving it dead in the water. It's not a kill, but makes engaging the convoy much easier the next night.

[nirwana]

Originally Posted by Darksun

Especially early in the war if none of the convoy ships is armed and the weather is suitable for the deck gun. I realize it's not a terribly historic approach, but it sure is fun to come into the convoy deck gun blazing and nothing they can do to stop you.

If it would be a deckgun and ships with realistic damage factor u are able to down 2-4 cargos with all the ammo u carry. So there would be no point to waste all ure eals stripping the convoy off the escorts. A pair of battlecruisers sink 7-10 merchants of a convoy and u equipped with a minigun should be able to copy this ? Play NYGM with 100% realism with recommended reload time u will get the real picture. It takes me a minimum of 25 rounds to take out a 2kt freighter 50+ rounds for a 5k merchant.

[predavolk]

1- It was realistic to attack destroyers, as has been stated. Numerous destroyers were attacked (3 in the St Lawrence alone).

2- They're worth the same renown as medium merchants.

3- Hedgehogs make dogfighting insane without homing torps.

4- A decoy often gets them to hang stationary over it, making them sitting ducks. Literally.

[Erich dem Roten]

Just thought I'd mention here, last night I sank an A&B Class with my deck gun. He caught me on the surface rearming with external torps and I had 3 minutes left...I decided to gamble and stay surfaced. I go flank and take off, but my IXB is no match for his speed. I spin around, more for fun than anything else, and zig-zag toward him. I open up at 6000m. After adjusting my aim, the next two shells are directly on target and the destroyers is engulfed in a massive explosion. One more shell for good measure and down she goes...must have left some shells exposed on the deck (could the 10.5 cm gun penetrate armor like that on a destroyer? I assume I must have hit her forward magazine).

I would never do this in my DiD career...but no harm done + another hunter out of the game for good.

[Jimbuna]

The deck gun whether 88mm or 105mm is well capable of penetrating the armour/hull of a destroyer, but the destroyers armament far outweighs your firepower....on this occasion I think you have been fortunate