Historical Hunting Techniques

[BillCar]

Those of you who have read the U-Boat Commander's Handbook have doubtless noticed the recommendation of BdU to spend as little time possible underwater, and to always forgo hydrophones when it's possible to have your watch crew up on deck instead.

The longer range of the hydrophone makes me wonder why that is, exactly. Is it an issue of efficiency? Not wanting to have to dive and surface repeatedly throughout the day? I am also curious as to whether or not we know how often these U-Boat commanders followed this advice from the U-Boat Commander's Handbook.

Does anyone here happen to know what the most common methods for hunting were? I know that in Das Boot, they are also shown having the boat surfaced almost all of the time, only doing a hydrophone check once or twice in rough weather – but then, I don't take Das Boot as a perfectly historical document.

As for me, I personally enjoy having my ship on the surface as much as possible. I'll do a hydrophone check every few hours, but most of my contacts come from the watch officer shouting at me, or from intercepting a convoy after it has been radioed to me.

If we could get a discussion going in this thread about actual historical methods, as well as the preferred methods of forum members, I think it'd be pretty interesting. I found a couple of older threads on the subject of gamer preferences, but none that actually examined the most likely scenarios and techniques for actual Kaleuns. Hopefully our resident experts can weigh in, as I think it'd be very enlightening to discuss this fascinating topic!