What happens when your uboat gets rammed by a destroyer ?

[ddrgn]

I got rammed and notice no difference from SH4

Originally Posted by ddrgn

I got rammed and notice no difference from SH4

oh well, im not surprised if this wasnt corrected


both the DD and the sub should get badly damaged in a collision


too often people think the DD shouldnt sink but thats not reality, ramming a sub was in fact likely to sink the destroyer or at least cause significant flooding because they were designed for speed and not as a battering ram

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Webster

ramming a sub was in fact likely to sink the destroyer or at least cause significant flooding

Got anything to back that up?

Ramming subs was very common in the reports on uboat.net, but no sinkings are listed for the DDs.

[CCIP]

Ramming was indeed a common and extremely deadly practice. SHIV+OM is the only place where I've seen the ramming effects work correctly...

[longam]

Have to agree, running aground on a reef can tear open your hull, so a steel hull sub would be worse.

[Letum]

Originally Posted by longam

Have to agree, running aground on a reef can tear open your hull, so a steel hull sub would be worse.

Ramming a sub and floundering on a reef are very, very different
experiences for a DD's hull.

I have never heard of a DD taking serious damage from ramming a ubat.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Letum

Ramming a sub and floundering on a reef are very, very different
experiences for a DD's hull.

I have never heard of a DD taking serious damage from ramming a ubat.

Donald MacIntyre (the man who captured Otto Kretschmer), in his book U-Boat Killer, does tell the story of one destroyer who rammed a u-boat at full speed, ran completely over it and ripped both propellors off. But no, it didn't sink, and I don't recall reading of any destroyer that sank after ramming a submarine either, except for USS Borie. In that case the two ships were locked together after the ramming, in a raging storm. They also fought a duel with small arms at close range. U-405 finally sank, and then Borie sank the next day.
http://www.destroyerhistory.org/flus...rie/index.html

But that was a rare case, not the norm. Destroyers almost never sink after a ramming. Part of the reason is the extreme compartmentation of a surface warship. They are designed to float even after losing the bow in a storm, and there was one British destroyer that survived having both bow and stern blown off by torpedoes.

[CCIP]

But reefs aren't 1" thick and filled with a lot of athmospheric-pressure air and meat, are they. Nor would reefs be pushed under water if something run over them. Nor are subs made of solid rock

There's no question that ramming would damage the attacker, but it was most definitely considered a worthy risk. The end result would normally be a crumpled bow, but not a sinking.

Nor was the outcome always fatal for the boat.

See this one:
http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/2236.html

On 6 Oct, 1942, U-333 fought an epic battle with HMS Crocus (K 49) about 60 miles southwest of Freetown. The U-boat was rammed twice and a gun duel was fought out on close distance. Both vessels suffered damage and sustained casualties. The boat lost three men dead (including the IWO) and several men wounded, including the commander. U-333 was heavily damaged and limped back to base with help from a replacement WO from the Milk Cow U-459. Cremer then spent three months in a hospital.

[longam]

Yes it would all depend on mass. If the object you strike would have more mass then your vessel, more damage would happen. It's like having a collision with an iceberg twice the mass of your ship, that would rip your hull!

So a u-boat would definitively be less weight then a destroyer, and I could see riding up over it because of the pressure hull design. I would just hope your propulsion would survive.

[kaa13]

http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-66.htm

[Sailor Steve]

The biggest problem for the u-boat is the pressure hull. No matter that it's thicker and tougher than the thin hull plates of a destroyer, 1200-to-2400 tons of ship making 12 knots or better has a fair chance of rupturing the pressure hull, and once that happens the u-boat is no longer a submarine - it's now a very big torpedo boat with only one cannon vs four or five.

Problem two is that the sub is at that point attempting to get crew out on deck to fight or get them below to dive. The hatches are open. No matter where the boat is struck, if it rolls over enough to get the bridge underwater even for a moment, the ocean is now running down the hatches and inside the sub. Bad news there.

In any case, it's always bad for a submarine to be rammed by a surface ship.