Night attack suggestions

[Crannogman]

Originally Posted by Tshark

Hi Gang,

Looking for some suggestions here. I am in an early career mode and have found a convoy to attack. The problem I have is that during the day I have heavy fog that cuts down visual range too close to arm torpedoes. At night the fog lifts so that I can visually get an outline of the ships, but I do have heavy seas making a periscope attack almost impossible. I have tried a surface attack with TBT, but found that the TBT will not lock on a target (even though I can identify it well enough to match the identification manual). Hence, I can't get a range/speed and there are no range updates on the chart to do a three minute plot. By the time I get close enough for range/speed on target they are too close to attack. I figured I would try a sonar attack, but apparently my early year sub is only equipped with hydrophones. Every time I try to get a range I get the message "no target selected". Without a range I can't plot speed so an underwater sound attack appears out of the question.

Any suggestions on how to attack this convoy?

You could shadow it until the weather improves...

To ping, as you said, you first need to select a target. You can tell your sonarman to follow the closest contact, then tell him to get the range

[Tshark]

Thanks for the quick replies guys! I did watch RR's "Dick O'Kane Sonar attack" video a couple times and made some attempts before posting. The problem was that the video shows range info available at 9000+ yards. I kept getting no ping return and "no target selected". So I increased time and when I finally did get a sonar range it was around 1100 yards. It just wasn't enough time to take the shot. I decided to back off the time acceleration, leaving it "1". I now get sonar range info just below 4400 yards. Still close, but certainly workable now. I don't know if this difference in range from the video is due to the bad weather topside, multiple contacts, an earlier model boat, or maybe a mod.

In any case my first attack with sonar range at around 4000 yds allowed me to setup and score two hits, one dud, and one miss. So to RR, your method works great, there are just some differences in distances and time available for the shoot.

[merc4ulfate]

I ran into a similar situation. I know the active sonar should work and I would ping like mad on a single merchant and even at 400 yards I never got a reply on range. It was weird. I knew it was there , it was clear skies and yet I could never get an echo on the closer vessel.