Getting Inside a Convoy

[GJO]

Originally Posted by maillemaker

You can do it, but you had best do it pre-1941 when the merchants are unarmed. Because they will light you up otherwise.

I find that once you've gone to the trouble to penetrate the convoy it is just as easy to stay submerged. The only exception to this is in extremely poor visibility when you have to move to find targets in the soup. But then the problem is by the time you see them often you are inside torpedo arming range.

Steve

In the early war years the chances of being damaged or even detected, when on the surface, are relatively slim in 'poor' visibility but beware of those battleships and cruisers that can sometimes be found right at the centre of a convoy.

My preferred method for dealing with poor visibility (only with slow convoys) is to manoeuvre onto a parallel course right inside the convoy - because this is where the juiciest targets are usually found. Either on the surface or at periscope depth, having picked and matched my speed to the target I stay on a parallel course at a range of about 450 metres and set up a shot at a 90 degree giro angle. With faster targets coming on a parallel course from astern of me I can sometimes get them with a stern shot but this requires much more precision. I have successfully sunk battleships and cruisers with this method - with big targets like battleships I usually fire a salvo of four torpedoes at a three degree spread angle - one of the four will often fail but three hits (especially if one hits near the propellers) can be enough to stop a battleship and if it hasn't sunk by the time that the convoy has moved on (and the escorts have lost interest), it will just sit there as an easy target.

Later in the war, when reliable and superior electric torpedoes are available, the merchants are all too often armed and the escorts have such sensitive listening skills that getting in close becomes just too hazardous but at least they won't see your torpedo tracks.