torpedo loadout

[Catfish]

Hi there,
now that is what i am talking about the whole time !

When you read the books of the commanders or crew (and there are some) you immediately realize how they were able to wreak havoc on convoys in the first years of the war.

1 out of 10 destroyers had radar until 1941 and it was not much better until 1942, a convoy usually had some 3 escorts at all first, maybe one destroyer, a corvette and a derelict vessel pressed into service. If there was a "new" Flower class corvette its top speed was 16 knots, and the boats just outran them - if they were seen at all. They could see their enemy much better from close from the water surface, than vice versa.


Doenitz had told his men again and again :

"Go in surfaced as fast as possible, but also keep the wake as small as possible in moonlit nights, keep your silhouette low (from the front or rear), attack against the moon so the enemy stands out against the light ! [...]
Your low silhouette will not be spotted from the elevated deck of an escort or a freighter against the dark sea.
If you spot an escort they will only spot you minutes later, if at all. They will sometimes not see you at 50 meters running alongside -
GO IN, you will NOT BE SEEN ! ..."

And they did. They went through the destroyer "screens", often ran parallel within the convoy at the same speed, unseen by merchants or escorts, carefully picking out targets, course and speed, and even leaving the convoy surfaced again. In unescorted convoys they ran with the ships, taking them out with the deck gun. There are hundreds of reports in the early war of doing exactly that. If they got in real trouble they dived, but only then. Even if someone saw them they would just run at the other side of a merchant, blocking the escort's sight until it vanished in the night again.
And one word about the guns installed on merchant ships: Exactly two U-boats were damaged by merchant guns, in the whole war. One of it was scuttled.

The british had their ASDIC, but they were completely overrun by torpedo boats attacking with 18 knots at the surface, their ASDIC did not help them at all.
And again: Not much radar, inferior systems and sometimes none at all. Repair lists of 39 show how often the few radar-equipped ships were in dock with their radar unusable, due to storm damage, electrical failures and generally poor design in the early war.


Those conditions certainly changed during the war, but when the odds turned against the U-boats in late 1942, they found themselves new hunting grounds before the US coast in 1943.

And SH5 ?
I just happened to again experience the destroyers in october 1939, 8 (EIGHT!) full-blown destroyers for an 8-ship "convoy", all with radar also working under 1000 meters (in reality the radar beam would be useless from ownship to 1000 meters), but with me surfaced in fog and storm (!) with a visibility of 50 meters ALL destroyers were at my exact location within 5 minutes. All, at the spot. They also kept firing "blind" through the fog from some 200 meters away, only that every shell hits.
MY visibility was 50 meters, but theirs was 20 kilometers. I even received messages from merchants that obviously had spotted me without me never seeing them. It was the other way round, and the way it is now this is ridiculous, even in 1945.

Ok, it's a game

Greetings,
Catfish