Staying alive in English waters? ....

[Viduka]

I'm fairly new at the game and have been coasting along quite well so far, but as my career progresses and I get sent further and further abroad on patrols, i'm finding myself in understandably much trickier conditions.

On my last patrol, my very first outing in a VIIC, I died for the first time, at the hands of a group of destroyers/patrol boats just off the south coast of England - pinging me with sonar and then depth charging me.

My question is - what is the best way to stay alive in this situation?

As I understand it, sonar will be tracking me using the shape of my boat so going along silently isn't going to help terribly once i've been detected?

From reading this topic - http://www.subsim.com/phpBB/viewtopi...er=asc&start=0 (which was quite helpful) it seems that the enemy use sound (hydrophones) to find you in the first place and then sonar to narrow down your position so they can launch DC's at you?

Judging by the differentiating veiws of tactics in the above thread link it seems it is no simple matter in keeping my sub from becoming an iron tomb on the bottom of the ocean floor