Harbour Infiltration Tutorial

[Hambone26]

Before reading this or any other thread about harbor raiding, I made my first attempt last night. It took nearly all evening as I'm a very conservative game player in general (which is pretty well suited for a sub sim). In late 1940, I was ordered to patrol the waters north of Ireland and after chasing and sinking a couple cargo ships to the south, I decided to make a run into Loch Ewe. I made most of the approach at night in moderate seas, got very close to the shore, and went to periscope depth at first light. I had an average of 5m under my keel for the rest of the approach and always hugged the shore line. Before dark I sat and waited to study the patrol patterns of the defenses, never popping my periscope up to even identify which were DDs and which were just topedo boats. At dusk I started moving again and stayed well away from all the patrol boats, getting deep into the channel. Finally I put the periscope up to take a look and was almost immediately spotted by a DD. I got off an aft torpedo and to my amazement, sent it ablaze and to the bottom of the harbor. The light of it's flames illuminated a Figi CL hiding over in the shallows. I quickly put 2 into it, sinking it with no problem. Now I needed to get out.

To my surprise, no one was pursuing me. As I made my way out, I noticed that the other 3 patrol boats had all beached themselves on the banks of the channel - 1 trawler and 2 DDs. I put a torpedo in one of the DDs but was fairly amazed ease/stupidity of the AI. I raced out of there at standard speed and didn't see another ship until I was back to the north of Ireland.

What could explain this? If it's any help - I'm playing stock SHIII with the latest patches.

[Oneshot/Onekill]

Originally Posted by Hambone26

Before reading this or any other thread about harbor raiding, I made my first attempt last night. It took nearly all evening as I'm a very conservative game player in general (which is pretty well suited for a sub sim). In late 1940, I was ordered to patrol the waters north of Ireland and after chasing and sinking a couple cargo ships to the south, I decided to make a run into Loch Ewe. I made most of the approach at night in moderate seas, got very close to the shore, and went to periscope depth at first light. I had an average of 5m under my keel for the rest of the approach and always hugged the shore line. Before dark I sat and waited to study the patrol patterns of the defenses, never popping my periscope up to even identify which were DDs and which were just topedo boats. At dusk I started moving again and stayed well away from all the patrol boats, getting deep into the channel. Finally I put the periscope up to take a look and was almost immediately spotted by a DD. I got off an aft torpedo and to my amazement, sent it ablaze and to the bottom of the harbor. The light of it's flames illuminated a Figi CL hiding over in the shallows. I quickly put 2 into it, sinking it with no problem. Now I needed to get out.

To my surprise, no one was pursuing me. As I made my way out, I noticed that the other 3 patrol boats had all beached themselves on the banks of the channel - 1 trawler and 2 DDs. I put a torpedo in one of the DDs but was fairly amazed ease/stupidity of the AI. I raced out of there at standard speed and didn't see another ship until I was back to the north of Ireland.

What could explain this? If it's any help - I'm playing stock SHIII with the latest patches.

Hello Hambone, did you happen to save your game and come back to it within 50km of the harbour you were raiding? If you did than i can tell you that the harbour traffic has a tendency to run aground because of the limitations with the game engine and how it handles AI course plotting. Thats why if you get close to the shore line, or close to the harbour walls Ai ships that are pursuing you have a tendency to run into them.

[goggles]

one thing i might point out is that in shallow water most large ships dont actually sink as they would in deeper water they just flood til the settle on the bottom and dont count as destroyed (which makes sense if you think about it all the tommys have to do is patch the holes and pump out the water)

when i raid harbors i go for broke just hammer every ship with 2 or even 3 fish to ensure a kill either by simply running it out of hitpoints or dealing critical hits

which usually means limiting your targets to 2 or 3 ships or finding a secluded corner to reload your tubes

oh and some targets i heartily recommned

new york harbor(minmal defenses in 1941, rich with targets)

gibralter (best raided early war before sonar gets mean, usually lots of big warships here)

freetown (big juicy targets usually)

rejayvik (lots of big warships usually, weather can be uncooperative this far north however)

good luck all you wannabe Priens

[astak9]

Get yourself an IX and set sail for North America. Sneaking into the harbours of Halifax, New York an New Orleans are really good to give your renown a boost

To avoid mines and nets, raise your observationscope just a little, so you can see where your going

[Hambone26]

Hello Hambone, did you happen to save your game and come back to it within 50km of the harbour you were raiding? If you did than i can tell you that the harbour traffic has a tendency to run aground because of the limitations with the game engine and how it handles AI course plotting. Thats why if you get close to the shore line, or close to the harbour walls Ai ships that are pursuing you have a tendency to run into them.

I definietly saved my progress every once in a while, but I never left and returned to them. I snuck into the harbor uninterrupted, killed my prey, then started heading back out with the DDs up against the shore. I had definitely been in shallow water, but none of the hunters were anywhere close to me when they ran aground. One was even outside of the harbor. I guess I will just consider myself lucky.

Ultimately though, I don't find Harbor raiding all that appealing. It's time-consuming and not necessarily worth the danger. I think I will head to Norfolk by December 8, 1941 just so I can see what might be there at the time. Has anyone else ever snuck into Norfolk? Anything good there?

[timwatson]

Originally Posted by andy_311

Sound advice, I usually do as discribed above apart from 1 exception I tend to forget to lower my scope (I do a lot of harbour bashing).
However there is one port the above will not work and that's Portsmouth harbour you got harbour defence guns in place on the Isle of White pointing to the harbour entrance defence guns at the harbour entrance,scores of dd's patrolling outside the entrance,and the depth into the harbour being only 4m.rendering a sneak infiltratration of the harbour impossible.

The secret to Portsmouth is bad weather. Heavy fog, along with rain reducing visiblity to less than 400m... Also, the straight up SH3 shorline shown for the narrow entrance channel is roughly 50m too far east, so keep a eye on bottom contours rather than the game mapping, and mark your inbound course so it's easier to repeat the exact track when departing. Usually there is a nice T 2 awaiting at dock. PS beware DD's at dock nearby the T 2!

[timwatson]

Originally Posted by Graf Paper

One of the most fun (and tense) patrols I ever had was the time I decided to raid the harbor at Scapa Flow.

My sub being U-47, a Type VIIB, just like Prien's, was my inspiration to give it a try.

I approached from the western straits with decks awash but submerged to periscope depth once I was past the blockades and sub nets to avoid detection by the shore batteries. Piece of advice here is to blow your ballast (using the 'E' key) just as you're crossing over the sub net. If you do it right, that extra bit of buoyancy will float you right over the net with little, if any, damage. The sub net may still scrape your keel and make a loud racket inside your boat but it shouldn't do any damage.

It was a very successful raid.



One interesting additional note...

I later found a copy of Gunther Prien's account of his mission to raid Scapa, complete with his hand-drawn maps, and it was a great suprise to discover I had taken the exact same course as he had done when I infiltrated the harbor and then made my escape.

Your Prien adventure sounds great. What did you sink?
I've hung out in Scapa several times, alas to no avail! When is the Home Fleet ever home! I'm on a new carreer and headed there now in a Type II A. Arrival date: early September. When should I show up to find the fleet at anchorage?

[timwatson]

Originally Posted by orengreen

Thanks TarJak,
I'll apply your knowledge today when I attempt to infiltrate (GWX) Scapa Flow!

I'm in a Type IIA using the GWX mod. I've visited this anchorage in earlier missions using straight SH3 gaming, only to find no Home Fleet units!

Could you help me understand how best to time arrivals which are productive?

Good hunting!!

TW

[timwatson]

Any Gunther Preins out there?

I've visited Scapa several times using SH3. Other than a tugboat, nothing flying the King's navy flag (other than DD's of course) was to be found.

I'm in GWX and SH3 Commander now, and would like to give it another go.
However, when is the Home Fleet spawned at Scapa? And if I sit there for a few weeks, does my proximity to the HF anchorage prevent the generation of major ships?

Treading water,

TW

[goggles]

i have to agree on the absence of big targets in scapa it seems odd that such a critical military port is essentially abandoned 99% of the time

gibralter is the same way only once have i encountered a bb there you except it to be stocked full of big warships

same goes for other big military ports firth of forth, liverpool, newport etc etc

when big ships are not on patrol does gwx actually model them at thier respective ports?

i want a bit more reward for my hard infiltration work