Getting Inside a Convoy

[Zosimus]

I've been working on the best way to approach convoys for awhile. It's an interesting and difficult problem. I have divided it into four phases:

A) You're behind the convoy.
B) You're alongside the convoy.
C) You're ahead of the convoy, but not far enough ahead to dive and intercept.
D) You're underwater and maneuvering into position.

Excellent solutions at one visibility do not work well at other visibilities. It's a tricky problem and part of what makes the game enjoyable.

[maillemaker]

My optimal convoy attack approach is to get dead ahead of the convoy and then drive straight at them until I either see them or detect radar. Then I dive to periscope depth and go to silent running, less than 100 RPM. I aim head for the outer column, so as to avoid the lead escort. Sometimes I have to move at right angles to the convoy to get out of his way.

I try to stay more than 1500 meters from the lead escort, but have gotten away with much closer, especially in rough seas. You can never be sure what direction he's going to go in so it's always a gamble.

Once the lead escort passes by, I turn onto a track 90 degrees to the convoy's course, and adjust my speed until I get straddled by two columns.

Then I wait for them to cross my firing solution.

Early war, I suspend silent running as soon as I fire and get my crews reloading. Frequently you can get off two full salvos before the escorts find you. Then I dive full speed to 250 meters and go silent. Usually you can escape.

The later the war goes, the harder this becomes, until after 1943 it's usually not safe to attack convoys from within anymore. After that you have to be satisfied with Hail Mary shots from 5000+ meters outside the convoy.

Until you get homing torpedoes.

Then you can entice escorts to chase you and pick them off with ease.

Then return to the convoy and rip them to shreds.

Steve

[Zosimus]

Once I am in front of the convoy and proceeding in the direction of the convoy I calculate my net speed as (my true speed)-(the convoy speed) and use that number to figure out how far ahead I need to be to safely dive and intercept the convoy. If the convoy is going at 8 knots and I know my underwater speed is 2 knots, then I will need to be ahead by a ratio of 4:1

Once I am at the correct distance ahead I just dive, run silent, and turn to the right heading. At that point I am on a collision course with the lead ship. If, for some reason, the escort notices me, I can just dive and still pass directly under the lead ship. This generally causes the escort to have difficulties depth charging me effectively.

Once I pass under the lead ship I go scope up and take a look around. I can zoom in quite a bit and see the ships around me. Based on a rough look at the size, I choose my target and salvo it with a two-torpedo salvo at 3-4º and generally the ship will sink almost immediately.

As soon as I hit fire I also hit D for dive and go scope down. I simply dive while continuing blithely into the center of the convoy. I do not change course until I'm at least 70 meters under and perhaps as much as 100 meters or more. If I get pinged, I abandon silent running and go full speed ahead. Currently I find that about 179 meters eliminates any problems. I am willing to go deeper, I just have never found the need.

Assuming I'm not detected (the normal) once I'm 100 meters under I turn to the heading the convoy is taking and follow it underwater until I can safely surface and work my way back around again.

The method I use depends on the visibility and wind speed.

[RustySubmarine]

Thank you all for posting your comments on Convoy Attacking. Some very interesting tactics have been described. But as already has been said, it all depends on the circumstances regarding, distance, speeds, time and weather.

I find that night attacks can be more advantageous than day time attacks, but this is not always the case.

However, each situation can not always have the same outcome and this is where careful planning needs to be taken into consideration.

Any more comments on this topic will be appreciated, it's great to hear how different sub commanders deal with the situation, when confronted with close contact convoys.

[Zosimus]

Here's how I work out how to get around a convoy to the front.

First I locate the convoy and determine the convoy's speed and direction. Once that's done, I want to get far enough away from the convoy to surface and move to the front.

I draw a line parallel to the convoy showing its course. In this case the convoy is moving at 81ºP or Heading: 279º

Next I pick a point where the line crosses a gridline and consider that ground zero. From there I measure along the line proportional to the speed of the convoy. In this case the convoy is moving at 8 knots, therefore I measure 2.4, which is 3x the speed of the convoy.

After that I draw a circle at 3 times my surface speed. In this weather I can easily make 11 knots on the surface, so I draw 3.3 radius circle.



Next I measure a 90º angle from the point on the line that represents the speed of the convoy and draw a line until it crosses the circle that represents my surface speed. A line passing through ground zero and the point where the circle and the perpendicular line cross represents a good course to take. It is a course that will keep me from falling farther behind the convoy while getting me farther from the convoy as quickly as possible. In this case the number is 38ºP or Heading: 322º although I actually set my course for 320º so I would catch up slightly.



Once I'm a bit away from the convoy I can surface and try to move around the convoy. I simply parallel the convoy until I spot a ship, like this corvette.



To make my way around the corvette, I draw a line in the direction of the convoy through the ship I've spotted and I draw a circle from a point slightly ahead of the ship. I set my course tangent to the circle formed. Ideally this should keep me far enough away from the ship to keep from being spotted. The right radius for the circle depends on factors such as weather, your speed, the ship's speed. In this case 9.0 was too aggressive. I was spotted.

I guess next time I'll try 9.5.

[Gallimundo]

Invaluable info, have been a bit perplexed as a newb trying the convoy missions.

[Aktungbby]

Gallimundo!