Convoy Takedown

[mr chris]

Dodger01 welcome to subsim
Well i like to get in and out again then hit them hard untill all my torps are gone.
But of late i have taken to try and take out the escorts and then have my fun with the merchants. I killed one DD last night with a shot that went right under the length of the keel and the hit around the propellers. went up in a nice bang.

[TarJak]

I almost always leave the escorts alone and do repeated runs after sneaking of to reload. I favour firing as many torps at as many targets as I can line up shots for in each run. Between runs I usually sit about 4km off the outer escort just keeping him in view while I dash infront for another run using the time to get the external reserves inboard.

Most runs I've been able to on a single convoy is 4 before running out of eels. I managed to sink 6 ships in that series of attacks over a 12hr gametime period using GW1.1.

[Hybris]

Originally Posted by mr chris

Dodger01 welcome to subsim
Well i like to get in and out again then hit them hard untill all my torps are gone.
But of late i have taken to try and take out the escorts and then have my fun with the merchants. I killed one DD last night with a shot that went right under the length of the keel and the hit around the propellers. went up in a nice bang.

I once killed 3 DD's outside of Scapa that way at the time I didn't know how and I didn't care either.:rotfl:

[Biggles]

I remember my best convoy attack up to date.

Can't remember the date or year, can't even remember what sub I had, but I suppose it was sometime after 1941, because I ran into an american convoy. I was heading straight west to my grid when I got a radio message about a convoy heading east in exactly my path. I hit flank speed and went on, I didn't need to chance my course. After 4 hours I understood that they had to be very close now so I went to periscope depth and rigged for silent running.....what do you know......just a coupple of minutes later I spotter the first escorts away in front of me. After them came the convoy itself. I let them come real close, the escorts went by and I turned to get a clear shot at the ships from the sides, then turned again to take aim.

It was too long ago to give you the details of the main assault, but I sank 7 ships during that early morning somewhere in the Atlantic......

[Wulfmann]

Because I made the enemy sensors so strong I can not be near a late war convoy undetected unless I am not in a sonar sweep path and at full silent and at 1knot. I can now no longer reload at all or will be detected so I get 5 fish and dive deep under the merchants as close as I can stay then try and sneak away.
Because I have made the smallest number of escorts in any 5/43 on convoy 12 and as many as 20 sinking escorts just means hordes replacing them all pissed off like.
I only fire at them when I can not get in a convoy and they are chasing me down. reduces the number hunting my fleeing ars
I have tweaked this based on the historic accounts and finally feel (IMO) I have it as close as I can to duplicate reality. I will shortly go back and re-tweak early war but I was always getting to 1943 and being killed (DID) so have stayed with mid 43 to end to learn the hard part better. Frankly the early years just seem too easy now.

Wulfmann

[GT182]

In mid '43 the Allies have better equipment and can detect you so much easier.

Finding this out right now in June of 43. A total of 7 Destroyers, DEs, and Corvettes found us and have been relentless in chasing us down. I did manage to sink a River Destroyer, but only just by luck. The Convoy has been able to escape. We've evaded the other 6 escorts and snuck off after our deckgun was destroyed by DCs. Thank God for decoys, they are the only thing that has saved us on this patrol.

[ober lt lare]

well i took out almost an entire convoy on my 11th patrol

5 tankers
2 corvettes
1 v&w destroyer
5 medium cargo
1 large cargo
2 tramp steamer
for a total tonnage report of 82672 tons
damage to my uboat on returnt to st nazaire
was 97.21 percent
no crew losses ober lt lare(the destroyer killer)

[FIREWALL]

My best convoy attack is like the best beer... The next one...:rotfl:

[Hybris]

Its all a matter of perference, weather, date, escort strength, boat, crew, torps, and where you are when you meet them. I never thought there were so many varibles in Convoy hunting.

[bookworm_020]

Some of the early war convoys it's best to take down the escort/'s and then proceed on surface destroying anything you can find. But as time passes, and escorts increase in number and destructive power, I tend to do a submerged attack at close range, 1,200 - 900m, aiming at the most juicy of targets (tankers, transports and the rare as hen's teeth, passanger liners)