Atacking escorts

[tomoose]

"Attack escorts"?? I don't think I've received that message before. I'm using 1.4 with TMO and RSRD.

Personally I'd ignore that message and concentrate on the merchants. As RR stated above escorts should be avoided if possible (sometimes easier said than done, LOL).

[JonB]

Well, attacking escorts is working best during the night. The escorts are fast and can accelerate away from incoming torpedos wich they will spot early in daylight.

I usually set the torp about 0,5 metres below the draft and break them. I know some people have experienced problems with it but it has allways worked for me.


Orders or no orders, however I attack the escorts or not depends on how many they are comparing to the merchants.

A week ago a came across a convoy with about 9 merchants and only two escorts. I took the escorts out before surficing and then sunk the rest by deckgun and torps.
Compared to the 5 escorts and 4 merchants - situation I meantioned earlier in this thread...

[AngronIsAngry]

I am still one of the new guys around here and from what little I have seen, the best way to take down escorts is by Deck Gun ( at least in Stock 1.4 and given that you can avoid getting ganged up by the escorts).
The Natural Sinking Mod [NSM] has now cured me of such follies.

If you want to take a more "serious" approach than the Deck Gun, I consider stealth and decoys the most valuable tools and zero gyro torpedo shots the most helpful technique.

This worked for me in Stock 1.4 with NSM and Mk 14 Torps
Lets say you managed to take down the first escort with your method of choice(hint, from the side you might even be able to score on one or two additional merchies). With the first BOOOOOM! deploy a decoy and fix your speed at 1kn. If you haven't Rigged for Silence, do so now. Slowly creep away from the decoy as very soon, there'll be some hostiles circling it.
Try getting some 700-1000 yards of water filled space between yourself and the circlers. Get your TDC to think of a target with 0kn(speed dial) at either 000 or 180 bearing (stadimeter or sonar station).
Now the catch or tricky or fun part (depending on persnal opinion): Deciding on the Lead Angle
For me it is pretty much just guessing as you have to estimate the speed of a circling target and your relative position to it. Usually at a roughly 90° approach, a lead around 15° works (give or take 5°)
Once that worked you can repeat form "deploy a decoy" atop.

Staying at Periscope Depth or sink.... sry.... dive beneath the thermal layer is kinda a touch-and-go thing. For reloading I tend to leave a decoy just above the thermal layer and dive beneath it. Everytime the escorts get close, I drop a decoy and do a turn.

hope that helps
have fun

[Berinhardt]

I've had really good luck attacking escorts, although I'll try to limit the strategy to even the odds on heavily defended convoys, or a large merchant convoy with a few escorts traveling at night.

The typical escort pattern is one lead escort, one on each side and one pulling up the rear. When I get the initial sonar contact, I try to position my boat so that the convoy will roll right over me. My objective is to get the lead escort as close to my boat as possible (between 500-1000m) and cripple or sink him with the first torp.

Some caveats for the first escort:

• Position your boat, Turn off engines, rig for silent running. Set your topedoes to high speed, depth to shallow, and open your torpedo tubes early, as the esocrt will hear them open at the close range. Aim for the bow, as the escort will speed up as soon as you fire.
• Use the sonar to determine when the escort is in the right position, raise periscope, and fire 1-2 torps)
• Go to Battlestations, secure from silent running, turn in the direction the convoy was heading, so your aft tubes face the oncoming convoy.
• As soon as the torpedo hits the lead escort, the convoy will scatter, turing Left and Right, with their broadsides to you. The advantage is, they are right on top of you and should now be within 1,000 yards, with limited room to manuever.
• Fire all aft tubes at target(s) of your choice. The side escorts will be heading for you full steam at the area where you fired your topedoes from. Head for the thermal layer and move forward at 2-3 knots while the crew reloads the tubes.
• The scattered convoy will start to overtake you while the ecorts circle the last known area. The propellor wash from the convoy ships should help mask your subs noise as well as limite their mobility.
• Once the convoy is slightly ahead of you, Use sonar contacts to position your boat.
• Once the first half of convoy is a few hundered meters ahead of you, start a rise to periscope depth. On the way, set all fore torps to high speed, depth appropriate for expected targets (15ft). If aft tubes are loaded, set depth to 0-5 feet
• Once at periscope depth, open all tube doors to enable rapid firing.
• Raise scope, aim quickly and fire forward tubes. Once fired, launch decoys and increase speed.
• The side escorts will race directly towards your location. when they are within 800 yards, lauch aft torpedoes at the bow. The toprs will arm at 300m and the escorts will have covered 300-400m in that time. At flank speed thay will run right into them.
• The rear escort will now start coming into range. The center and tail of the convoy should be right over the top of you. As forward tubes reload, you can decide to turn and face the last escort and use the same strategy as above, or fire at the remaining convoy members and evade him. At night, I find it more efficient to kill the last escort and finish off the convoy stragglers and wounded with the deck gun.

Happy hunting

[Soundman]

Originally Posted by Berinhardt

I've had really good luck attacking escorts, although I'll try to limit the strategy to even the odds on heavily defended convoys, or a large merchant convoy with a few escorts traveling at night.

The typical escort pattern is one lead escort, one on each side and one pulling up the rear. When I get the initial sonar contact, I try to position my boat so that the convoy will roll right over me. My objective is to get the lead escort as close to my boat as possible (between 500-1000m) and cripple or sink him with the first torp.

Some caveats for the first escort:

• Position your boat, Turn off engines, rig for silent running. Set your topedoes to high speed, depth to shallow, and open your torpedo tubes early, as the esocrt will hear them open at the close range. Aim for the bow, as the escort will speed up as soon as you fire.
• Use the sonar to determine when the escort is in the right position, raise periscope, and fire 1-2 torps)
• Go to Battlestations, secure from silent running, turn in the direction the convoy was heading, so your aft tubes face the oncoming convoy.
• As soon as the torpedo hits the lead escort, the convoy will scatter, turing Left and Right, with their broadsides to you. The advantage is, they are right on top of you and should now be within 1,000 yards, with limited room to manuever.
• Fire all aft tubes at target(s) of your choice. The side escorts will be heading for you full steam at the area where you fired your topedoes from. Head for the thermal layer and move forward at 2-3 knots while the crew reloads the tubes.
• The scattered convoy will start to overtake you while the ecorts circle the last known area. The propellor wash from the convoy ships should help mask your subs noise as well as limite their mobility.
• Once the convoy is slightly ahead of you, Use sonar contacts to position your boat.
• Once the first half of convoy is a few hundered meters ahead of you, start a rise to periscope depth. On the way, set all fore torps to high speed, depth appropriate for expected targets (15ft). If aft tubes are loaded, set depth to 0-5 feet
• Once at periscope depth, open all tube doors to enable rapid firing.
• Raise scope, aim quickly and fire forward tubes. Once fired, launch decoys and increase speed.
• The side escorts will race directly towards your location. when they are within 800 yards, lauch aft torpedoes at the bow. The toprs will arm at 300m and the escorts will have covered 300-400m in that time. At flank speed thay will run right into them.
• The rear escort will now start coming into range. The center and tail of the convoy should be right over the top of you. As forward tubes reload, you can decide to turn and face the last escort and use the same strategy as above, or fire at the remaining convoy members and evade him. At night, I find it more efficient to kill the last escort and finish off the convoy stragglers and wounded with the deck gun.

Happy hunting

That sounds like a daring, yet interesting approach. I think I may give it a try next time. I have often headed underneath a convoy to mask detection, just as you mention, but I've never really thought of positioning myself for them to come on top of me. :hmm: This should work well for me, as I often use a "down the throat" attack on the DDs anyway.