%*#$%@ Sunderlands

[kiwi_2005]

Hey sacs good to see another kiwi I was thinking this guys mad as a headless chicken, then i saw New Zealand so i was right

Welcome to subsim

Originally Posted by Sacs

Aircraft spotted!

Man the AA.

Deadly mistake

Ill never try to fight airplanes...

[Sacs]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

Deadly mistake

Ill never try to fight airplanes...

Errr. Yes. Greed though! The chance to put a couple of 88's into the nearly dead T3 was fatally attractive.

[Sacs]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

Hey sacs good to see another kiwi I was thinking this guys mad as a headless chicken, then i saw New Zealand so i was right

Welcome to subsim

At least we won the Super 14! Mind you, the conditions reminded me of the typical Altantic weather....

(For those of you for whom rugby is not a religion (super 14 = NZ + Aussy + Sth Africa), we had the final in such a fog that you couldn't see across the width of the stadium)

[lonehawknz]

hey, guess what? here's another one fellas...

stuck in the "mother country" I may well be but born in Glenfield, North Shore.

[joea]

Originally Posted by lonehawknz

That's exactly what they did. Don't forget they had Norden bombsights and so could effectively do an early version of CCIP (predicted point of impact).

VLR Liberators finally closed the air-cover gap that the U-Boats enjoyed in the Atlantic in 1944. Horrible flamin things... grrrr....

The U-Flak configuration kicks their arse usually though, but only because (unrealistically) your skilled, specially qualified gunners, have laser sights for eyes...

Really? I am sure the Nordens were only good for hitting stationary targets...ie factories and the like. Pretty sure they did it by eye. They did indeed clsoe the gap though.

[lonehawknz]

Fair enough!

A U-boat on the surface probably seems stationary to a Liberator travelling at 250 knots! But I expect you're right!!!

[Saintaw]

They had a hard time hitting factories sized targets with the norden, and level bombing was quickly abandoned due to the minimal hits on targets such as CV groups... i doubt very much a B24 would toss out & hit a target as small as a Uboot. So...I'll put a BS flag on that one.

[Khayman]

Originally Posted by Saintaw

They had a hard time hitting factories sized targets with the norden, and level bombing was quickly abandoned due to the minimal hits on targets such as CV groups... i doubt very much a B24 would toss out & hit a target as small as a Uboot. So...I'll put a BS flag on that one.

They attacked from low level, about 50 feet above the water. They also sank or assisted in the sinking of 72 U-Boats;

http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/uboats/uboatspg2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-24

Definitely an aircraft to avoid!

Also the Norden Bombsight was designed specifically for high-altitude use; no Liberator on anti-sub duty ever carried one.

The common British practice once they aquired the B-24 was to seal off the forward bomb bay doors and install a fixed forward firing gun pack with 4 20mm guns-very deadly.

[U-Dog]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Also the Norden Bombsight was designed specifically for high-altitude use; no Liberator on anti-sub duty ever carried one.

The common British practice once they aquired the B-24 was to seal off the forward bomb bay doors and install a fixed forward firing gun pack with 4 20mm guns-very deadly.

4 X 20 mms. Ouch!

just horrible the Sunderland's took your gun off. Cruel bastages.

Originally Posted by Cerberus

April '42 whilst crossing the Bay of Biscay - I was attacked by NINE Sunderlands!

What the &*()'s going on?

U-boats hunt in packs, but not Sunderlands.

If you have that many aircraft in operation at one time you spread them out & assign each a patrol area - you don't have the whole bl@@dy lot swarm together like flies round a dead dog's tail.

It quite spoilt my afternoon nap.

In real life they attacked in groups of 1. The Airpower mod goes some way to fix this (fewer but tougher bombers), but I don't think anyone has actually come up with a fix that makes it real. One Sunderland should be more than enough to do the job, and diving should be your only option.

[squigian]

^ If they make a mod like that, they should also remove AA guns from the game completely and add more deckgun options.

[CybrSlydr]

Ok - so, why didn't Uboat crews use the AA guns and shoot down more enemy aircraft? Fer cryin out loud - later in the war, you can have freakin 4 20mm canons and 2 37mm canons - MORE than enough to easily dispatch one freakin airplane.

Just because they didn't shoot them down didn't mean they couldn't or it was such an insane problem!

Please, educate me!

Real life isn't a videogame. It's very hard to hit a moving target. The Allies developed airborne radar, and could be on a surfaced u-boat before they could man the flak guns. The U-Flak boats proved to be a lesson in futility; all they did was tempt the crews to stay surfaced and die.

On our destroyer we conducted excercises against live aircraft. You have no idea how difficult it is.

http://www.uboat.net/history/aircraft_losses.htm

http://www.uboat.net/fates/losses/cause.htm