BB or Merchants. Which to (try and) take?

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

In reality, a sub captain would go for the merchants. I am assuming the battleships would travel at the center of the convoy and generally the most valuable ships were placed there. I read Convoy about HX-122 in 43, where the lower valued tramp-steamers and the like would be put on the outside. Therefore, it makes the probabilitylow that a torpedo would strike home on a target in the center of the convoy.

In GWX, 1939, ASW has not been fully developed in the Royal Navy yet, so you can get away with getting inside the convoy to loose off some shots at the battleship.
However, other posters are right, there are several opportunities to sink battleships, cruisers and troopships in Operation Weserabung, the German invasion of Norway.
Check out the GWX manual for Campaigns. The movements of task forces and groups will clue you in on where to intercept. This is very important as warships unencumbered by slow merchants are very fast - your window for a good intercept and a good shot are narrow. Good hunting

[Torplexed]

The battleships are put there to protect the merchants from German surface raiders. So if you sink the battleship you are making life easier for the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, Bismarck, et al. :p We are all one big happy fleet.

[BulSoldier]

It is really hard choice to make.On one hand you have tankers that are very valeuble (oh my that vodka distrupt my typing capability) with the fuel they carry.BUt on the other hand you have BB that take several years( or less it depends on the ship)to be build.

In moments like this i would like to see 2-3 more submarines and send the whole convoy to the bottom I would go for the tankers.No fuel, no BBs would patrol around Fatherland :hmm:

[JG10r_Bull]

i would go 4 the BB with a magnetic Detonation but sitting on the out side of the convoy and then pick of the out side merchants

[BulSoldier]

'39 magnetic pistols arent the most relaible triger of choice.

[Brag]

I know what Balz would have done: 2 torpedoes for the BB and one each for a tanker. But you must be pretty good at finding lethal spots for such an attack to succeed and calm enough seas for the torpedoes not to explode prematurely. Before April 40 torpedoes were terribly unreliable, so a spread of 4 against the BB, unless He also had perfect AOBs against the other targets.

Sounds like a shallow water operation--pretty suicidal.

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Originally Posted by Brag

I know what Balz would have done: 2 torpedoes for the BB and one each for a tanker. But you must be pretty good at finding lethal spots for such an attack to succeed and calm enough seas for the torpedoes not to explode prematurely. Before April 40 torpedoes were terribly unreliable, so a spread of 4 against the BB, unless He also had perfect AOBs against the other targets.

Sounds like a shallow water operation--pretty suicidal.

Brag is right about the shallow waters of the Irish Sea. There are sections of it, deeper than others. If you can help it, try to set your attack up in the darker blue sections. That way when the DDs come pinging you have depth and room to run away. Deeper is better. If you are stuck at 60, 70, or 90 meters, its not hopeless. Just hug the bottom, track them on the hydrophones, and know when to crank it and make a hard 90.

If I see them take a steady course closing on the phones, and I hear the screws turn faster, I crank it to ahead flank, make my 90. Then I coast to silent running fter bombs are done. When this happens again, on another depth charge run I will make turn in the opposite direction. It is possible to escape this undamaged. It may take an hour, may take 2 hours, but it will be your own rollercoaster.

[Oberon]

Hmmmm, tough call, but there's a few factors you have to fit in. For example, where's the other escorts? How many of them and what types?
Depth under keel, because if there are escorts and you sink their pride and joy, you're going to get a lot of angry ships with guns after you.
If there's no other escorts, then fire everything you have at the Revenge, surface and deck gun the merchies and then sail home to a heros welcome

If there are Destroyers in the area, it might be worth to try and slow down a couple of merchants before plugging the Revenge. Either way though you're going to get some good tonnage. Look up the Revenge class's weak spots too, the less torps you use on the BB, the more you'll have to hit the rest.

Lucky swine though, I've yet to come across a BB, just a couple of Cargo ships so far, two of whom have eaten a torpedo and carried on going

Did come across a small HK group of four or five destroyers but went deep and silent and they just wandered on by.