Attacking enemy ships in rough weather

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by p.jakub88

Hello Napalm42,

i saw the End Around maneuver in one of the Let's Play videos of the user DangerDeadpan uploaded on Youtube. However, he played unmodded SH4.
I used this technique few times on lonely merchant ships with success.

There is no chance to overtake a fast moving enemy convoy while submerged - You will simply run out of batteries. So, when You fired Your first torpedo they will start evasive maneuvers and You will have usually all nearby escorts heading Your way (at least in TMO 2.5). Even catching up with surface merchant ships is hard. If they change the course on the last possible moment You will have very little time to react. So, setting up Your firing position too early could be a mistake. I am usually waiting when a ship is with 5 nm distance or less, but not so close that it could engage me with deck gun.

End around should NEVER be done submerged. Neither should patrolling during the daytime. The first principle of combat is that your batteries must always be fully charged, ready for a long combat.

So your end around must be done surfaced, at a range of at least six miles from the enemy. If your batteries are not fully charged during the end around you will lose at least a knot of speed, and that can spell the difference between getting a favorable position in front of the enemy and waving as they sail by. And you should get back to the target track out of sight of the enemy: at least six miles in front of them. If you have your tactics right, you're in that position so that they won't run over top of you until after sunset.

Then you have all night to decimate the convoy. Don't get greedy. Don't let the escorts pin you down. YOU are forcing them to play your game. NEVER play theirs. Hit and run all night.