Is there a trick for using the FLAK guns?

[fastfed]

In my IX boat, I have 2 C/38's mounted for light flak and 1 3.7 M42 heavy flak..

I have 4 guys with Flak qualifications, and 1 officer on the tower with a Flak qualification... Basically the skill level is maxed out as well as the guns themselves..

For kicks I sometimes like to see my guys shoot down a plane, so instead of crash diving, I let them play.. Well, its no fun.. They will go through an entire supply of ammo and not shoot down the "1" liberator or any plane for that matter.

It seems most of them shoot a little above the target.. I tried telling the officer to only shoot incoming targets as well as any target..

They almost NEVER hit the darn plane.. I say almost because out of the 10 times I tried this, twice, we were lucky..

Now I understand its not easy, but with all this gun power I would think it would be a little easier than what I call impossible..

Should I come to a stop? I never tried that, usually just flank speed or full speed.

Any other tricks? Or do the flak gunners just suck, regardless of their skills?

Anything I can edit?

[Legionary74]

Well, you should aim in front of the planes, range depending on their speed and your movement, and then fire

[Gerald]

By default, the rate of fire, or RPM, that is, firing rate lower in stocksh3 and GWX than in the realistic relationship, I have not usually problems with the Aircraft, but of course there are exceptions

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by fastfed

In my IX boat, I have 2 C/38's mounted for light flak and 1 3.7 M42 heavy flak..

I have 4 guys with Flak qualifications, and 1 officer on the tower with a Flak qualification... Basically the skill level is maxed out as well as the guns themselves..

For kicks I sometimes like to see my guys shoot down a plane, so instead of crash diving, I let them play.. Well, its no fun.. They will go through an entire supply of ammo and not shoot down the "1" liberator or any plane for that matter.

It seems most of them shoot a little above the target.. I tried telling the officer to only shoot incoming targets as well as any target..

They almost NEVER hit the darn plane.. I say almost because out of the 10 times I tried this, twice, we were lucky..

Now I understand its not easy, but with all this gun power I would think it would be a little easier than what I call impossible..

Should I come to a stop? I never tried that, usually just flank speed or full speed.

Any other tricks? Or do the flak gunners just suck, regardless of their skills?

Anything I can edit?

Are you playing GWX3.0?

If yes then please be advised that the damage files on the aircraft have been 'youghened up' a little to better reflect the fact that in a U-boat v Aircraft duel the U-boat lost in the majority of occasions.

It was far too easy (in the opinions of The Grey Wolves) and unrealistic in the stock game to shoot the aircraft down.

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by fastfed

In my IX boat, I have 2 C/38's mounted for light flak and 1 3.7 M42 heavy flak..

I have 4 guys with Flak qualifications, and 1 officer on the tower with a Flak qualification... Basically the skill level is maxed out as well as the guns themselves..

For kicks I sometimes like to see my guys shoot down a plane, so instead of crash diving, I let them play.. Well, its no fun.. They will go through an entire supply of ammo and not shoot down the "1" liberator or any plane for that matter.

It seems most of them shoot a little above the target.. I tried telling the officer to only shoot incoming targets as well as any target..

They almost NEVER hit the darn plane.. I say almost because out of the 10 times I tried this, twice, we were lucky..

Now I understand its not easy, but with all this gun power I would think it would be a little easier than what I call impossible..

Should I come to a stop? I never tried that, usually just flank speed or full speed.

Any other tricks? Or do the flak gunners just suck, regardless of their skills?

Anything I can edit?

The larger/faster guns that the type IX's can mount are pigs with ammo, I always seemed to run out of ammo on those really fast while only shooting down a couple of planes. Last patrol with the standard issue flak on a VIIB my crewman (basic sailor) managed to shoot down 20 swordfish (as unrealistic as it sounds, I was appauled at his accuracy and ability to handle 2 or 3 planes simultaneously) until he ran out of ammo. Somehow even a RK doesn't seem enough for such an epic and suicidal situations I put him into.

[fastfed]

Yes its GWX and I understand it should be hard.. But I feel in real life, you give me a flak gun like the one used and have a 4 engine plane come at me, at 200mph, less than 500 feet, I would be able to shoot the darn thing myself ( and I never fired a flak gun, lol )

From the reading I read, I thought it was hard, because the planes would POP out of no where, at night, basically they wouldn't see them until it was to late.

I like the idea in this game, that sometimes it seems if I have a tired or less qualified crewman on the sonar and radio controls, the "radar detected" signal gets to be close, real close.. To the point that I don't have time to Crash dive and in that case, man the guns and take my chances.. Its just annoying as Tessa says he shot down 20 planes and my A.I. guys cannot shoot one?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by fastfed

I like the idea in this game, that sometimes it seems if I have a tired or less qualified crewman on the sonar and radio controls, the "radar detected" signal gets to be close, real close.. To the point that I don't have time to Crash dive and in that case, man the guns and take my chances.. Its just annoying as Tessa says he shot down 20 planes and my A.I. guys cannot shoot one?

Well...in RL I doubt any flak gunner shot down 20 planes but I'll wager the majority shot down none

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Well...in RL I doubt any flak gunner shot down 20 planes but I'll wager the majority shot down none

I believe IRL only 1 plane was ever shot down by a u-boat, not sure if that was from a normal one or one of the experimental flak boats they tried out for awhile.

My AI gunner must've been born to kill, even in stock I've never seen a gunner with such good aim (also has 2 catalinas to his name as well). First time I've put a RK around a sailor's neck

[desirableroasted]

Originally Posted by Tessa

I believe IRL only 1 plane was ever shot down by a u-boat

http://uboat.net/history/aircraft_losses.htm

Rare, but it happened over 100 times.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by fastfed

Yes its GWX and I understand it should be hard.. But I feel in real life, you give me a flak gun like the one used and have a 4 engine plane come at me, at 200mph, less than 500 feet, I would be able to shoot the darn thing myself ( and I never fired a flak gun, lol )

You really think so? In real life aircraft were a submarine's worst nightmare. More than twice as many u-boats were sunk by aircraft as aircraft were shot down by u-boats. Another factor is that one hole in the pressure hull and your u-boat is now a fairly slow surface gunboat, with nowhere to hide.
http://uboat.net/allies/aircraft/index.html

Trust me, doing it in a game is nothing like doing it in real life.

[Draka]

Hitting a moving target while that target is shooting back is definitely not on the "easy" list .... one of the hardest things to teach new recruits in BASIC. I also tell my gunners to prioritize bombers on an attack run - slower, larger targets at minimum deflection angles - but it is still not an easy task from the deck on a rolling craft. In anything but a dead calm, you have to take into account not only HIS motion but your own.

[K-61]

My crew shot down a Catalina in my last patrol. I have two twin 37's and one quad 20. They finally managed to shoot it down on the third pass.

[Gerald]

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_20mm-65_c30.htm

http://www.uboatarchive.net/KTBNotesArmament.htm

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

You really think so? In real life aircraft were a submarine's worst nightmare. More than twice as many u-boats were sunk by aircraft as aircraft were shot down by u-boats. Another factor is that one hole in the pressure hull and your u-boat is now a fairly slow surface gunboat, with nowhere to hide.
http://uboat.net/allies/aircraft/index.html

Trust me, doing it in a game is nothing like doing it in real life.

A u-boat only had armor on the bridge (little more than 1/2") and no dedicated hull armor to protect the pressure hull. Planes could take a pretty severe beating (even large bombers) and still make it back to the airfield and land.

I think you mean that twice as many u-boats were sunk by aircraft than by surface ships?

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Tessa

I think you mean that twice as many u-boats were sunk by aircraft than by surface ships?

No, I meant exactly what I wrote. U-boat.net says that U-boats shot down 118 aircraft, and airplanes sank 249 u-boats. That's better than 2-to-1, or twice as many u-boats lost to aircraft as aircraft lost to u-boats.