Are small ships worth torpedoing?

[Biggles]

Yeah I did the same thing once! It flew away (no it really did ) crashed in the water some 50 meters away, flew up again, down,up down and
stayed down:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I was just outside Cuba

Let's just hope I didn't sink Ernest

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by STEED

Are small ships worth torpedoing?

NO, but on saying that I must admit I sunk a coastal vessel in the Med after eight days of dreadful weather. I suspect I did it out of boredom.

Ditto,

After weeks at sea and seeing not much more than a tug boat those lil flower corvettes look like an ocean liner :p

[Jimbuna]

I would sink em if the patrol was tedious...but looking at what youv'e already sunk I would be tempted to look for bigger prey

[SkvyWvr]

SINK THEM ALL!!!

[Rose]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Ditto,

After weeks at sea and seeing not much more than a tug boat those lil flower corvettes look like an ocean liner :p

I call this phenomena "long-patrol goggles."

[Yahoshua]

I remember when I sank my first C2 cargo.......I was in the English channel at night in a type II sub.

I had 1 torp left and so I took a chance on magnetic det. under her keel.

It blew her in half and a great fireworks display ensued.

It was glorious.

[catar M]

All I want to know how the hell did you sunk 9 ships and still have torps left:hmm:

[Redbear]

I'd have to agree with the majority of replies so far. You have valid targets in sight, so sink them. Early in the war, if you have a deck gun, you can use it on small ships in hopes of finding a bigger target later for torpedos. Later in the war the deck gun is basically useless, and targets are harder to find, so I don't think and Kaleu would pass on anything because it is 'too small'.

[Eichenlaub]

So far I've played at 79% realism, and have passed up smaller targets in favour of bigger ones, but when I start playing at 100% DID, the game will be different: I shall no longer pass up smaller ships (except perhaps coastal vessels) for the real U-boat commanders did not enjoy the luxury of continuing patrols until better targets appeared. Considering that the majority of U-boat commanders did not achieve a sinking, partly because of the difficulties of finding targets, passing ships up really isn't realistic or correct from a military view point.

And another thing: in reality, Germany had a chance to win the war by U-boats because of their ability to vastly reduce English imports, for which every ship was important. A ship sunk in 1940 counts more heavily towards the general war effort than one in 1944 due to the fact that early in the war, Britain had to rely on her own merchant marine.

So sink those ships!

Kind regards,

Eichenlaub

[U-104]

As BDU says over and over and over and over again, "BE MORE AGRESSIVE"!

[Jimbuna]

As somebody or other once said: "Little fish are sweet!"

[STEED]

Originally Posted by U-104

As BDU says over and over and over and over again, "BE MORE AGRESSIVE"!

I am, I ram fishing boats to the bottom.

[Takeda Shingen]

I always sink the merchants, regarless of size. For a real captain, he would have to answer to BdU for passing up targets in search of 'better' options. This means that you may not get 80k tons in every patrol (what boat had those kinds of numbers?), but you will be acting in accordance to operational reality.

In the same vein, I leave fishing boats, trawlers, coastal boats and escorts unmolested, as per Kriegsmarine standing orders. The only variant to these operations is in the late war, where the T-V was instituted specifically as an escort-killer. Then, and only then will I attack a destroyer or corvette.

[The_Blockade_Runner]

Its hard for me to let any enemy target pass by. Weather it is a coastal merchant, fishing boat or tug boat, I will usually kill it, unless DD's are in the area

[graybeard]

I feel really guilty...heck, I torpedoed a tug boat in really bad weather. I couldn't man my deck guns because of the weather.