First time depth charged?

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Bakkels

I make sure the destroyer knows where I am. I purposely keep my periscope up, so it'll see me, and I turn up the engines a bit. I change course so I'll either face the destroyer or (even better) I'm traveling away from it. Set a torpedo to magnetic, depth one meter under the destroyer's keel and fire. Early in the war, they're not that smart and the destroyer will come straight at you, so if you got your aiming right, you'll usually hit.

Ah, the old "let's play chicken" game. I've done this early in the war, but only with lone DDs. Always turn and run straight away from them and then if they're not very bright they try to run right up my stern.

The hard part is waiting for the perfect moment, when they're close enough that they don't have enough time to get out of the path of the torpedo but are still far enough away that it will have time to arm itself. Most of the time they do try to turn out of its path, but with the magnetic fuse and the short range - fuhgeddaboudit.

The first time I did it, it was almost as nerve-wracking as getting myself smack in the middle of a convoy and then getting out again. And almost as satisfying when it worked.