Periscope sighted! 2000m!

[Schwuppes]

As already mentioned you should really try the OLC Ubermod.... I have heard reports regarding this mod that, in 1939 - 1940 during night time surface attacks, it is possible to run circles around escorts at a range of 500 meters (!!) without being spotted.

Also decks awash helps alot too.

[Letum]

Originally Posted by d@rk51d3

Diving to PD might help a bit too.

To be honest, you won't even need radar to spot it is the scope is raised to 3000m.

[barkhorn45]

this is not entirely related but iwas attacking a escorted convoy when i was spotted so i dove and while i was trying to evade i heard the report"he's pinging us"it was oct'39 a bit early for asdic i believe.i'm running gwx 2.1

[d@rk51d3]

Originally Posted by barkhorn45

this is not entirely related but iwas attacking a escorted convoy when i was spotted so i dove and while i was trying to evade i heard the report"he's pinging us"it was oct'39 a bit early for asdic i believe.i'm running gwx 2.1

You're correct.

I raised this issue a while back, and it seems however that things were set this way in GWX to help balance things out.

So while most ASW / Destroyers did not get ASDIC for quite a while in real life, they left it in the game to make up for other in game discrepancies that swung things in favor of the U-boats too much...... if that makes sense.

[rob89]

Out of interest. How does one run with "decks awash"?
I've never been able to figure it out.

[d@rk51d3]

Click on the depth gauge between 7 and 8 metres.

The slower you go, the more "invisible" you are.

[Letum]

Originally Posted by rob89

Out of interest. How does one run with "decks awash"?
I've never been able to figure it out.

Set depth to 7.5m in GWX2.1

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by d@rk51d3

You're correct.

I raised this issue a while back, and it seems however that things were set this way in GWX to help balance things out.

So while most ASW / Destroyers did not get ASDIC for quite a while in real life, they left it in the game to make up for other in game discrepancies that swung things in favor of the U-boats too much...... if that makes sense.

I cannot be sure of the availability of ASDIC to the various units of the Royal Navy at the outbreak of WWII, but this article seems to imply that it had been in development since WWI and was widely available at the beginning of WWII:

"ASDIC

In 1916, under the British Board of Invention and Research, Canadian physicist Robert William Boyle took on the active sound detection project with A B Wood, producing a prototype for testing in mid-1917. This work, for the Anti-Submarine Division, was undertaken in utmost secrecy, and used quartz piezoelectric crystals to produce the world's first practical underwater active sound detection apparatus. To maintain secrecy no mention of sound experimentation or quartz was made - the word used to describe the early work ('supersonics') was changed to 'ASD'ics, and the quartz material 'ASD'ivite. From this came the British acronym ASDIC. In 1939, in response to a question from the Oxford English Dictionary, the Admiralty made up the story that the letters stood for 'Allied Submarine Detection Investigation Committee', and this is still widely believed, though no committee bearing this name has ever been found in the Admiralty archives.

By 1918, both the U.S. and Britain had built active systems, though the British were well in advance of the US. They tested their ASDIC on HMS Antrim in 1920, and started production in 1922. The 6th Destroyer Flotilla had ASDIC-equipped vessels in 1923. An anti-submarine school, HMS Osprey, and a training flotilla of four vessels were established on Portland in 1924. The U.S. Sonar QB set arrived in 1931.

By the outbreak of World War II, the Royal Navy had five sets for different surface ship classes, and others for submarines, incorporated into a complete anti-submarine attack system. The effectiveness of early ASDIC was limited by the use of the depth charge as an anti-submarine weapon. This required an attacking vessel to pass over a submerged contact before dropping charges over the stern, resulting in a loss of ASDIC contact in the moments prior to attack. The hunter was effectively firing blind, during which time a submarine commander was able to take evasive action. This situation was remedied by using several ships cooperating and by the adoption of "ahead throwing weapons", such as Hedgehog and later Squid, which projected warheads at a target ahead of the attacker and thus still in ASDIC contact. Developments during the war resulted in British ASDIC sets which used several different shapes of beam, continuously covering blind spots. Later, acoustic torpedoes were used.

At the start of World War II, British ASDIC technology was transferred for free to the United States. Research on ASDIC and underwater sound was expanded in the UK and in the US. Many new types of military sound detection were developed. These included sonobuoys, first developed by the British in 1944, dipping/dunking sonar and mine detection sonar. This work formed the basis for post war developments related to countering the nuclear submarine. Work on sonar had also been carried out in the Axis countries, notably in Germany, which included countermeasures. At the end of WWII this German work was assimilated by Britain and the US. Sonars have continued to be developed by many countries, including Russia, for both military and civil uses. In recent years the major military development has been the increasing interest in low frequency active systems."

Nemo

[Schwuppes]

This was also my impression... that ASDIC was being developed in WW1 but was too late to have an impact in that war.
But in WW2 almost all destroyers had the device right from the beginning.

[d@rk51d3]

Reading "U-Boat Killer", it was stated that very few boats were actually fitted with ASDIC, and of those that were, some were experimental, and not many knew how to use it.

[Captain Nemo]

Originally Posted by d@rk51d3

Reading "U-Boat Killer", it was stated that very few boats were actually fitted with ASDIC, and of those that were, some were experimental, and not many knew how to use it.

Here is an interesting article by someone who served on HMS Antelope which describes the use of ASDIC at the very beginning of the war http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/s...a1117964.shtml

I would hazard a guess that it was lack of training of the ASDIC operators rather than the lack of ASDIC sets that was the major drawback early in the war. The book you refer to was published in 1956, perhaps there were certain classified elements around the use of ASDIC during the war at this time, but again I am just guessing here.

Nemo

[d@rk51d3]

Originally Posted by Captain Nemo

The book you refer to was published in 1956, perhaps there were certain classified elements around the use of ASDIC during the war at this time, but again I am just guessing here.

Nemo

Could very well be the case, I hadn't thought of that.

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by Platapus

What you describe does seem a bit unrealistic though. Nighttime, slow speed, low scope should not be seen that easily.

If at all...:hmm:

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Stealth Hunter

If at all...:hmm:

Raaaaaaaaaaadaaaaaaaar

Radar, Radar, Radar!

mid/late war allied Radar should have no problem picking up scopes in flat
waters. Even the first airborne radar tests picked up scopes.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Letum

Raaaaaaaaaaadaaaaaaaar

Radar, Radar, Radar!

mid/late war allied Radar should have no problem picking up scopes in flat
waters. Even the first airborne radar tests picked up scopes.

Feb 41111111111111111

Feb 41, Feb 41 Feb, 41!

This was in the OP. Also it's not being detected that is my main peeve it is being shot square in the scope to the effect of "Observation Periscope Destroyed"

Try shooting a periscope with any direct-fire weapon from a relatively unstable naval firing platform, at night. Multiply that difficulty by 100 to achieve the impossibility of using ww2 radar to successfully attack and destroy a periscope that is extended only enough to breach the surface.

I could go on with examples of short-range blindspots and lack of crew experience and lack of radar equipment stories but I already feel bad for mocking your post.

It just seemed like a good reply. I appreciate the effort to help, however.