Wolfpack SOPs - Who’s In?

[derstosstrupp]

Stations

Stations While Surfaced (In Sight of Enemy):
C – Bridge (Watch) – full situational awareness up here. His station is at the front starboard corner of the bridge (by the RDF), covering the horizon from 0 deg to 90 deg. He also uses UZO to relay bearings to the navigator.
N – Tower (Plot) – Since his function is plotting at this stage, and he can read off exact bearing from the TDC, it makes sense for him to be down here collecting bearings for his plot (and getting rough ranges and AOB estimates from the commander on the bridge).
D – Control Room – Ready at the dive station.
R – Bridge (Stern Watch) – The receipt of radio messages is audible throughout the boat, and so he does not need to be in the radio shack on the surface (unless so desired if operating in a wolfpack where frequent important communication is expected). His station is near the tower hatch covering the stern horizon from 90 deg to 270 deg.
H – Bridge (Watch, Rudder) – Since there is a rudder station with compass on the bridge, he can steer from here and be a set of eyes too when no rudder orders are given, but he needs to keep an eye on the compass now and again to maintain course. His post is at the helm station and he covers the horizon from 270 deg to 0 deg.

Surface Battle Stations (When Carrying Out the Attack):
C – Bridge – full situational awareness to direct the attack.
N – Bridge/Deck Gun – At commander’s option, he could serve historical role of 1WO and conduct the attack on the UZO, directed by the commander (probably preferable for same reasons as real life – commander can focus on other sectors etc).
D – Control Room – Ready at the dive station.
R – Bridge – Same station but covering horizon away from the attack.
H – Tower – Manning TDC and, since right behind him, also the rudder when course changes are needed. Since most course changes ordered during the attack are rudder commands, he doesn’t need a compass. He can also assist with rangefinding at the attack scope.

At any one time, there is always one man in the tower on the surface (either the Navigator or the Helmsman). This man will always be the one to man the aft vents on the dive order. The dive procedures that follow assume the Navigator is in the tower, but it could just as well be the Helmsman in the case of a night attack. In that case, Navigator and Helmsman roles are temporarily reversed for the dive, as then Helmsman would go to Echolot and aft vents instead. I have included them in parentheses for the procedures where this would be reversed. Only real thing to remember is – the man in the tower will jump down on the aft vents!

Stations While Submerged:
C – Control Room – best situational awareness here.
N – Control Room – ready to perform duties as required, also plotting underwater movement.
D – Control Room – at planes maintaining depth.
R – Hydrophone – searching for contacts.
H – Control Room – at the rudder station.

Underwater Battle Stations:
C – Tower/Control Room – attack scope/obs scope
N – Tower – TDC and assisting with range tables, attack disc etc.
D - Control Room – at planes maintaining depth.
R – Hydrophone – searching for contacts.
H - Control Room – at rudder station.

[Pisces]

I like your suggestions. However a few I think differently about.

Originally Posted by derstosstrupp

Test (Routine) Dive
...
D – Switches to electric motors, great speed ahead, mans aft ballast vents, reports “aft vents ready, all vents ready”.

N – Marks current position on chart, gets depth under keel (reports), mans negative tank controls.

C – Shuts tower hatch, orders “Flood!”

R – Opens fwd ballast vents, reports “Forward open”. Mans diving station and sets fwd planes hard down, aft down 10, then mans hydrophone.

D – After about 5 seconds, opens aft ballast vents, reports “Aft open, vents are open”. Mans diving station.

D moves back to aft ballast vent, N to Negative valve, R to dive station. Seems like they all run crossing through eachother's path. Why not have D stay at diving station and negative, R only fwd ballast vents. And N to aft ballast vents. And their movement is as little as possible obstructed by the ladder/conningtower-base. I often got stuck or slowed my movement down.

Also, I would think that for each situation each crews movement should be the same as much as possible. So it becomes an automated reaction. Not in this situation to forward ballast vents, another to negative valves, then another situation to aft ballast vents. I can see that you gave it enough thought. But its a bit disorganized for my liking.

At 8-15 meters depth:
...
D – Reports depth in 10-meter increments, having established a down angle of 5-8 deg. Levels off 2-5 meters below ordered depth, sets planes fwd up 10, aft up 15 and approaches ordered depth from below.

Approaching from below, wasn't that only with a quick shallow dive? No need to come up from below at deep depths. As far as I can remember from the document. Unless real submariners have a different view.

Originally Posted by derstosstrupp

Stations

Stations While Surfaced:

H – Bridge (Watch, Rudder) – since there is a rudder station with compass on the bridge, and the game does not require the helmsman to concentrate on holding course, he can be a set of eyes too when no rudder orders are given, concentrating on the forward sector.

I have different experiences with unmanned rudder on the surface. After I turned and left the rudder amidship on a specific heading I still noticed the boat slowly turned a few degrees or so. It interfered a bit with my plotting. That is to say, I had to correct with my attackdisk too much for my liking. This was at max speed iirc. I'm sure that would not make the Navigator happy when this happens. Also when I move around a convoy I often do so with a special kind of intercept drawing and as such a specific course to get my relative motion pointed correctly w.r.t. a convoy member. With this sim I would really like to have a helmsman that stays awake on the job. (As opposed to SH3)

[derstosstrupp]

Originally Posted by Pisces

I like your suggestions. However a few I think differently about.

Thanks for taking the time to read through and commenting, Pisces, I appreciate the input and have always appreciated your posts. I hope you do join us on Friday!

Originally Posted by Pisces

D moves back to aft ballast vent, N to Negative valve, R to dive station. Seems like they all run crossing through eachother's path. Why not have D stay at diving station and negative, R only fwd ballast vents. And N to aft ballast vents. And their movement is as little as possible obstructed by the ladder/conningtower-base. I often got stuck or slowed my movement down.

My intent with having R and D on the vents is that they are already below. Having N go on vents I think may be too late - by the time flooding starts, his feet are probably just then hitting the control room floor from the bridge, it should happen that quickly. D can scoot on the starboard side of the attack scope well to get aft to the vents so as to not interfere with those coming below. R won't get in anyone's way since he just pops to the fwd ballast and then quickly sets planes and is out of the control room by the time D is back to diving station (D has already moved aft). If enough interest is shown for something like this, I intend to sketch out a schematic of how this all would look.

Originally Posted by Pisces

Also, I would think that for each situation each crews movement should be the same as much as possible. So it becomes an automated reaction. Not in this situation to forward ballast vents, another to negative valves, then another situation to aft ballast vents. I can see that you gave it enough thought. But its a bit disorganized for my liking.

This is a very valid point, I may need to look closely at that aspect. My thought process was strictly speed - who is where at what time and can do a transitional task while others are elsewhere, until the dust settles and each mans his true station.

Originally Posted by Pisces

Approaching from below, wasn't that only with a quick shallow dive? No need to come up from below at deep depths. As far as I can remember from the document. Unless real submariners have a different view.

Could very well be the case. This was the so-called "Durchpendeln", the reason for which was to tilt the boat a few degrees up and down in order to force air bubbles out of the ballast tanks that could cause problems with depth control (and make noise). Obviously not modeled in-game (but oh if it were..), but the practice does allow for a bit more leniency on the planes I feel since D doesn’t necessarily have to concentrate on “nailing” the depth on the way down.. Now as to whether this was done at all depths, that I would have to look into. Good point!

Originally Posted by Pisces

I have different experiences with unmanned rudder on the surface. After I turned and left the rudder amidship on a specific heading I still noticed the boat slowly turned a few degrees or so. It interfered a bit with my plotting. That is to say, I had to correct with my attackdisk too much for my liking. This was at max speed iirc. I'm sure that would not make the Navigator happy when this happens. Also when I move around a convoy I often do so with a special kind of intercept drawing and as such a specific course to get my relative motion pointed correctly w.r.t. a convoy member. With this sim I would really like to have a helmsman that stays awake on the job. (As opposed to SH3)

Very interesting, I never must've paid close enough attention - thanks for pointing that out. May need to rethink then (and I've edited OP), but then again the helmsman could throw a glance now an again down at the compass between scans of the horizon. I think the extra set of eyes on the bridge would still be an asset. Never will forget the sleepy helmsman of SH3. I tried the "real nav" trick for a while of hiding own sub and ctrl+clicking to get a "fix" a couple times a day, but then doing the helmsman's job for him was tiresome!

Again, appreciate the comments and I have modified OPs as a result.