Silent Hunter CE and the escorts from hell

[Freiwillige]

Hopped in my trusty S boat out of Manila and headed north to fend of the Japanese invasion. sunk a few san pans and hit a harbor sinking a destroyer and three merchants there but my luck was soon to run out.

100 miles north east of the tip of Luzon I came across a Battleship and three destroyers making 23 knot's. They zigged right into an intercept coarse and I closed to within 1,200 yards of the beast. I let loose a spread of three Torpedo's and all three found their mark to no effect.

I dove to 240 feet and went silent but nothing I did could shake these two destroyers that pounded me relentlessly for over three hours. Everytime I was close to slipping away they would find me and hit me again and again and again. Needless to say it got old and the boat got leaky and with flooding I could no longer hold my depth, the batterys were damaged the pressure hull was leaking in half the compartments so I blew to the surface and found out that my deck gun was out of service! No final stand here, Surender was the only option

The thing that gets me is that anytime I have been able to get below 200 feet the Jap's could never reach me and I always escaped with ease. These guys were getting consistent hits on me at 250!

Emporer's finest!

Still a great sim!

[aanker]

I really like the Escorts in SH1 too and I've always enjoyed starting my career in a sugar boat in Dec 1941.

Because of their limited diving depth I use my shallow water Yellow Sea technique which is to fire from a long distance and use the S-Boat underwater speed advantage to move off from my firing position before the torpedoes impact; knowing that the DD's seem to be able to backtrack to my firing position. Night attacks also work best for me because they probably can't see the torpedo trail - (translation) but mostly because the game engine probably gives them a night handicap.

Happy Hunting!

Art

[TorpX]

Originally Posted by Freiwillige

Hopped in my trusty S boat out of Manila and headed north to fend of the Japanese invasion. sunk a few san pans and hit a harbor sinking a destroyer and three merchants there but my luck was soon to run out.

100 miles north east of the tip of Luzon I came across a Battleship and three destroyers making 23 knot's. They zigged right into an intercept coarse and I closed to within 1,200 yards of the beast. I let loose a spread of three Torpedo's and all three found their mark to no effect.

I dove to 240 feet and went silent but nothing I did could shake these two destroyers that pounded me relentlessly for over three hours. Everytime I was close to slipping away they would find me and hit me again and again and again. Needless to say it got old and the boat got leaky and with flooding I could no longer hold my depth, the batterys were damaged the pressure hull was leaking in half the compartments so I blew to the surface and found out that my deck gun was out of service! No final stand here, Surender was the only option

The thing that gets me is that anytime I have been able to get below 200 feet the Jap's could never reach me and I always escaped with ease. These guys were getting consistent hits on me at 250!

Emporer's finest!

Still a great sim!

As I recall, in SHCE, often in an S-boat, it was a very uncertain business. Sometimes I evaded the escorts with ease, sometimes they were on me like white on rice. I remember feeling great relief when I was able to get below the thermal layer. It seemed to make all the difference.

Once, I encountered a large IJN task force. I was making a submerged approach in daylight and had gotten close, when out of the blue there was an explosion close aboard. I realized I had been spotted from the air, and had to go deep ASAP. DD's and ashcans followed quickly, and I suffered damadge right away. I had hull damadge, flooding and the stearing gear was smashed. I could not stay deep, nor could I turn (not at all). With few options, I decided to fire two torpedos in the direction of the enemy ships, at a large gyro angle. My only hope was that the Jap tin cans would focus on the torpedo tracks and leave me alone. I went to flank, fired the torps and kept going. It must have worked, since the attacks subsided, and we were able to repair the leaks. Later, I surfaced to finish repairs and charge the battery. The stearing gear was beyond repair, however. All I could do, was return to base, very lucky to have survived this episode. (I consider myself fortunate, that the game allowed me to get back to port).