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

[DMB3428]

Originally Posted by Heretic

Oh cool! Does your crew react to depth charging too?

yeah i noticed they were falling over when i had a couple of depth charges dropped next to me and the sub was rocking, also the floor in the command area will flood

[Noren]

thats strange, I recall reading somewhere that some destroyers/escorts were reinforced to be able to ram uboat.

...or is that a hollywood phenomena? Just like hollywood 'invented' that gunmen get thrown back after being shot dead.

[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.

[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.

[malkuth74]

Well in SHIV and SHIII you would sink the dd. And suffer some damage.

Since SHV is just SHIII and SHIV with pretty graphics I bet its the same.

[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.

[CCIP]

Also on the topic of ramming...
http://uboat.net/boats/u222.htm

vs.

http://uboat.net/boats/u439.htm
http://uboat.net/boats/u659.htm

So even between two uboats, things often went very differently, yet often deadly.

The real issue for a sub is not its rigidity or how strong the ship that hits it is. The real problem is that a sub relies on operating at very close to negative buoyancy, and so unlike a surface ship almost any loss of buoyancy for it is a giant and easily fatal problem. Not always fatal, but can easily end that way.

[Turbografx]

Yet another issue unattended. Bring on the modders and settle down for the year long wait.

[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.

[jwilliams]

I was under the impression that ramming subs was a common tactic used by destroyers.

sure the destroyer would suffer damage, but that damage was off set by the fact that the sub would prob sink.

This is just my thoughts on the matter. i have done no research.