tactical question vis-a-vis historical/realistic

[schlechter pfennig]

Originally Posted by Capt. Morgan

Historic or not - I cannot say, but in SHIII's world, the instant you reveal your self to the enemy (through exploding torpedos for instance) every ship with searchlights will turn them on, and the escorts will fire star-shells, turning the night into day. You don't want to be on the surface at that time.

Quite the prophet I see!

I'd stay submerged, listening to the escort (a nasty Black Swan at that) slowly cruise by, then altered course back and forth a bit to insinuate myself between lanes. I used the hydrophone and periscope to do that, but all I 'let myself see' with the periscope were shadowy blobs that at least let me estimate my position.

There was a huge ship right in the front, which sorta sucked as that meant the lead escort was pretty close, too. When I estimated the range to be under 1,000 meters I surfaced as I turned, and when I reached the bridge my main target (which turned out to be a large cargo ship! Whoo-hoo!) was 400 meters right in front of me and as close to 90 degrees AoB as to make no difference.

I fired off my last two fore tubes at her then looked behind me. A smaller merchant was just passing astern, so I aimed at her. Before I could really even start computing anything *Boom!* *Boom!* so I took a snapshot, called for a ninety degree course change taking me through the convoy and their rear and went to ahead flank.

Next thing I knew I had about 15 searchlights spotlighting me. And an upset Black Swan engaging me! Let me tell you, situations like those make me long for the halcyon days of my old VIIB, cuz crash-diving in an IXB seems to take forever!

End result was a sunk large cargo and a damaged medium cargo, and the escorts never did come close to me!

('Course, I somehow 'spect that, come late '42 and onwards, that ain't gonna be that easy no moh!)