How to avoid trouble?

[Dissaray]

Droping 10m in a depth charge attack can actualy save you from some damage. I generaly go a bit more than 10 as I don't want to come up short and catch a charge on the tower and lose a scope, 15-20m is general sufficant in my experiance. Another trick I have learned for dodging depth charges is when you know they have just gone right over the top of you kick your engens in to flank speed and turn 25-45 degrees. When you are in their screws they can't hear you so being quiet isn't an issue and the speed and course change coupled with diving if needed can cause them to miss entierly, just remember to cut engens and run silent after the manuver or things will get tricky again.

As for not geting found out in the first place I always fall back on Elmer Fud's brilliant advice: "Be very, very, quite. I Hunting Allies." That along with being where you can't easely be seen and you are set.

[Jimbuna]

In addition to the excellent suggestions above and especially if your running SH3 Commander (which I highly recommend).....go as deep as possible and travel at a maximum speed of 1 knot.

Here's the trick....SH3 Commander randomly sets values for the ships sensors to simulate thermal layers.

[desirableroasted]

Originally Posted by Dissaray

Droping 10m in a depth charge attack can actualy save you from some damage...

Friend, if an escort is on me, I am not looking to "save some damage," I am looking to clear datum as quickly and a troublefree as I can. Which is why my mantra is "Depth and Distance are my friends!" If 10 meters more is good, 100 meters more is really good -- whether vertically, laterally or both.

I figure since my boat is designed to dive, I may as well take advantage of every benefit that affords me. The faster I lose the escorts, the faster I can get back on the job.

[RConch]

Get close-attack-go deep and silent and I head into the convoy to get lost in the noise of the merchants.
Prayer while doing this gives some comfort.

[Damo]

My priority early war is to get inside the convoys. I normally find 'em, plot 'em, join 'em. I try and take up a position in front and off to the side of the convoy, facing head on to the lead escort. Weather permitting I'll be at decks awash (between 7 -8 on the depth scale, click just below 8) and at ahead slow. I watch that lead escort like a hawk, he tends to weave about as he searches for submerged threats in front but as you're not submerged, he won't pick you up unless he rolls right over you on one of his weaves. It's a matter of timing and when there's a gap and he's heading away from you, you can afford to notch up to ahead one third to slip through unnoticed.

Now you're behind the lead escort and ahead of the merchants you can start identifying your targets. You have to be quick depending on the speed they're travelling but I try and place myself between the columns at 90 degrees to their course at peri depth (I have community units and some of them have guns onboard, even at the start of war). In my VII I try and set up so I can fire 2 torps at a ship 2 columns in front, 2 torps at the ship next to it in the first column in front and my rear torp at a ship in the column directly behind. This works well and allows you to get all your tubes emptied in one go.

As soon as they're away I turn into the direction of the convoy and start down, deep, to reload. One advantage of this is that the escorts, when things start going boom, have to navigate through the columns to get to you, which gives you a lot more time to weave about and that's if they find you at all. A lot of the time I hit flank as soon as the first torp hits (after that the other ships will be hard pushed to avoid the other torps) as this keeps me inside the convoy and matching their speed, if not going faster. I'm head on to the lead escort as he turns about and when he gets about 1000m away I go silent, 1-2 knots and 15 degrees right/left rudder (depending on where I am in the convoy, I want to stay inside it as long as possible). Once he goes over the top I'm silent running off, flank and back in the direction of the convoy.

The escort will again have trouble navigating around the ships and I may get a chance to come up to peri depth, find another large ship and if the seas allow, throw a magnetic under it from it's 180 degree position. This takes practice though as the ships will be weaving and it's a matter of timing and keeping the range as low as possible to be sure of getting a hit. At this point I'm looking around to see if the other escorts (if any) have joined the hunt. If not, I'll set up a rear torp at magnetic to waste the first destroyer that is probably coming at me from behind. This gives me a little extra time to hit some other merchants before needing to reload again, for which I go deep at flank and cut engines to check the hydrophones for my next destroyer nemesis. The outside escorts always take a while to get to you for the same reason as the first, they have to navigate through the convoy.

If they are still a way off, I'll come back up to 25m while reloading and get myself very close to the hull of a merchant, just in case I missed an escort on hydrophone I don't want to be in open water when he pounces. Normally, I can rinse and repeat until all torpedoes are spent and then go deep and silent to evade and move away, normally out the back of the convoy keeping any destroyers on my 180.

Later in the war when radar becomes a factor I follow the same route into the convoy but go deep and silent and back up to peri once the lead escort has passed, everything else follows the same procedure. Once things start getting real dicey in the later years I don't even attempt this and have to rely more and more on long shots from the side against convoys as the ASDIC is too good to get inside, but the newer torpedoes with a search pattern can wield good results if you plan out your shots well and luck is on your side. You better be running away as soon as the torps leave the tubes though as once they find you, they'll stick to you like poo on a blanket.

Ok, so it's not really a post on how to 'avoid' trouble, but it is a way of causing trouble and getting away with it.

[spaceman8888]

I have read all of it & cant think of how to thank for every sec of SH or any other activity you gave in to help & share so generously.. i deeply thank u all & especially to Gilbou, desirableroasted for digging deep

@Damo: what you wrote is in my opinion really exceptional strategy & which i might have tried myself but not that cleverly! Thank you really for sharing it & also for elaborating it that well

& I just read articles on SH tactics here : http://www.subsowespac.org/sh_tech.shtml & they add quite a few things to already excellent points talked here

I started this thread bcoz i hv already learnt a great deal /tactics/methods frm mny discussions here making me good at intercept/manual targeting & other phases but only missing link was : safety .. just was hoping to know what cookbook RL kapt'ns follow or rough guidelines they have in mind or what they hv learned frm trainning before they go about their first patrol.. like know/how to avoid unnecessary risk due to not knowing consequences of common actions etc..

so, if there is still somthing amiss here, pls reply

2 undying will to help I c here
.. almost quite frequently same/typical question pops frm newbie inbound but still they are answered

[Dissaray]

Originally Posted by desirableroasted

Friend, if an escort is on me, I am not looking to "save some damage," I am looking to clear datum as quickly and a troublefree as I can. Which is why my mantra is "Depth and Distance are my friends!" If 10 meters more is good, 100 meters more is really good -- whether vertically, laterally or both.

I figure since my boat is designed to dive, I may as well take advantage of every benefit that affords me. The faster I lose the escorts, the faster I can get back on the job.

I don't think you quite understand what I am geting at realy. If a depth charge explodes arond 10m away from your boat it won't hurt you, thus saving you some damages that you would otherwise suffer. The charges going off that close will rattle the boat but won't break any of your stuff. Being deep helps with evading attacks beacouse the charge has to get down that deep but the charges are set to go off on impact or at a preset depth they get from the ASDIC. Therefor if you are no longer at the depth the ASDIC told them or in the way of the depth charge you are at little risk of geting hit.

Obviously it would be better to not get depth charged in the first place but after the charges are off the racks it dosen't help much to say, "well I just won't get found by those guys up there" now dose it.