avoiding escorts

[Hinrich Schwab]

Average visual range of escorts: ~8000m
Average hydrophone range: ~4000m
Average Active Sonar range ~4000m

Take advantage of distance, weather and thermoclines to avoid detection and escape, if needs be. Never let them see you.

[SubHunter88]

If there's only one or 2 screening a medium convoy, I'll take them down.

If there's a caggle of Destroyers- Or worse a cruiser or two, I do my best to avoid confronting them.

One such occasion i found a large convoy in the north Atlantic, A mess of cargo ships- But nothing big... Screened by 8 destroyers and a cruiser. I didnt engage at all. Risk/reward factor wasn't there for me. I'm not mixing it up with destroyers for small tonnage.

Tankers, Big troop transports, and large merchants in numbers.. worth while. A bunch of small fish with heavy defense? No.

[Tolkemec]

Never attack on shallow waters. Follow them untill you can deep dive. Just be patient and plan your attack carefully.

[SubHunter88]

This also.. Tho when ever possible I try to avoid operating close to shore.

it has a few benefits-

1. Less chance of D/F end
2. More vertical maneuvering room for evasion
3. less likelihood of nearby units intervening.

[misha1967]

Oh, and for the love of Bob, don't ever, ever stay at periscope depth to watch the carnage after you let slip the eels of war, no matter how satisfying the sight is.

Make up your firing solution, loose your eels, then dive like crazy if the convoy is escorted and run away from where you were when you let go. Flank until the escorts get close. This is your only opportunity to use that. Then wait 'em out. The ones who didn't sink you can pick off when the convoy and escorts move on.

As to "the ones who got away?" Forget about them. Your mission is to get away after the action to fight another day.

Keep in mind what sober said: Think like a skipper.

Your boat is an offensive weapon. On the defense, it's worthless. Don't even think about slugging it out with escorts, because you'll lose every time. Your only defense is your invisibility, and your only hope for survival is to not be where your enemy thinks you are when they start dropping depth charges. Because if they have a fix on you, you're in trouble.

Better to make a hundred "less than perfect attack runs" than to die in your first because you just can't resist the temptation to try something that your boat was never designed for.

Hit and run, even when your hit misses. Chalk it up to experience and know that you're still around to hit a second time.

[Dogfish40]

Here's some more stuff to try. If you're being actively pinged, lower your boats profile by steering into or away from the ship that's pinging. This should be easy as you want to get away anyhow, so your course should lower the amount of surface area for the sonar to bounce from. Anytime you start hearing pings and you know the source, steer directly away (or into) the source.
As far as passive sonar, three biggest rules are, Silent Running, Silent Running and if you want to get technical, Silent Running. Keep your Knots very low unless they've found you, then scurry away to port or starboard at Flank then get Silent again. If a certain amount of time goes by and they can't reaquire you they will leave.
All the rest has been said by these other fine Kaluens especially to watch out for the shallows as they are sure death. At some point we all get Decoys and they will help as well.
Good Hunting Herr MidnightRider1818

[Hinrich Schwab]

Originally Posted by misha1967

Your boat is an offensive weapon. On the defense, it's worthless.

This is putting it mildly.

U-boats and fleet boats are glass cannons. Best rule of thumb to remember is that any and all hits are potentially fatal. One depth charge is enough. It may not kill you outright, but the damage is enough to ensure doom. This is because, the damage must be repaired. Damage control is not silent, marking you for the hovering death the destroyer is more than happy to share with you.

Think like a pirate. Old-school pirates did everything they could to avoid the old war frigates or, god forbid, a Ship-of-the-Line, for obvious reasons. Think the same way and fight another day.

[SubHunter88]

If it's a Single escort.. Doesn't it make more tactical sense to take him out?

I often see this with Smaller convoys in vanilla .. A single DD out way ahead. Since i use MOBO to plot intercepts i consistently get way ahead and 'wait' for them silently.

With the element of supprise, I can let the DD get quite close and often do him in with a single shot.. Tho i always use 2 just incase :P

This leaves me to obliterate the trailing convoy with relative impunity.