Critique my tactics

[predavolk]

To keep this going, I thought I'd add my recent encounter (March 1940) with a convoy leaving Gibraltar. The first time through it, I set myself up well ahead of the convoy, silent running (1kt), periscope depth. Calm waters, I get pinged by the lead destroyer and the hunt begins! Nutted, I dive down deep trying to lose him. Going below 100M and he still has me. This isn't going to work if I ever want to attack that convoy, so up ahead flank!

I come up to periscope depth and start playing "Dodge the destroyer", and soon after, "Fool the frigate". As the convoy steams towards me, I pick up a large warship in the middle. Oddly enough, it doesn't show up as anything in my scope or on my map. It's a ghost ship! Using the periscope above and under the water (clear water, but it is the Med), I'm able to dodge the depth charges. I manage to work my way into the convoy and try to ID the warship. It looks like a battleship. The Prince something or other! Sweet! Only, it's still not showing up as a target. I can see it, but the computer says nothing is there (map or scope).

Screw it, I get close (guess 500M or so), line up my boat, and send 3 torps at it through blind guestimated aiming. One hits! Boom! I sail under it, fire my rear torp, and it misses. So I dive deep (170m), go slow, and eventually the escorts leave me alone. I go back 2 hrs later and the ship is still there. Floating dead still. It's alive, as they shoot the stuffing out of my observation scope, but it's dead in the water, heeled to starboard. It's not sinking. Then the two escorts return and start attacking me again! So I just sit right beside the big ship and wait, wait, wait. I should've grabbed some easy screenshots. Long story short, the game freezes.

So, I decide to replay the game. I do three times, testing the response of the destroyers. I found that:

1- Going to 172 M and waiting for the lead escort to pass didn't help. They still detected me as I came up, slow, to attack the convoy. This seems a little too uber to me, even in clear waters. I was in the middle of the convoy, but the lead escort immediately heard me and turned to make a run. I tried some evasionary tactics, like hiding under merchants, without much success. Still not being able to ID or even plot, the big ship, I didn't fire at it. Instead, I decided to quit and try a different approach for learning's sake. Yes, I know that's not uber-realistic, but I want to learn here. This mission has been interrupted for a message from your public u-baot training service.

2- Sitting dead still at 60 M didn't work. Pinged and attacked. A bad (late) dodge gets me damaged by the destroyer, and for the hell of it, I decide to see what happens when you surface against a battleship. :p

3- Third time, I decide enough testing, back to action. I go deep, silent, 2kts, then make a conscious flank run up from the depths once the convoy is reasonably close. As in all three repetitions, the mystery big ship remains a mystery. I'm about 2000M out, and dodge four to five depth charge runs on my way in to the convoy. Once there, three forward torps, one hit! This time, I take more time aiming with my rear torp and sink it! (all torps 1M, impact, so I could watch them) Interestingly, I find out just before firing my rear torp that it's a light cruiser. What can I say, it looked like a freakin' battleship to me! Given that I only had those 4 torps in my VII, that was the end of it for me. I dove deep, 172M, and headed for the Atlantic. After a couple of hours, the escorts leave me alone. So I'm heading back to base, with a 10,000 ton warship added to my 16 merchants for a total of 65,000 tons! Not bad for a newbie's 3rd patrol! I realize again that it wasn't purely realistic (I should've attacked merchants too instead of the warship), but it was a great learning opportunity.

Granted, I cheated a little by experimenting with approaches, but my original approach would have at least resulted in me wounding the cruiser. So I don't feel all that bad.

Big lessons learned:

1- Diving deep, into the red, is a must. My earlier failed attempts must have been due to a damaged boat. Does anyone know where you can find the hull integrity %?
2- Destroyers and frigates are relatively easy to dodge at periscope depth. Stay on flank, immediately change depth and turn 90 degree to their path when they are within 100M.
3- You can still hit things firing blind. Big targets aren't that tough (especially with fast torps)
4- Cruisers can be disabled with one torp, sunk with two.
5- Clear, calm water offers no shelter against escorts above 150M, or even down to 172 M once detected. No matter what your speed unless you are completely stopped. 1kt is enough to give you away. This seems rather uber, but oh well.
6- You're pretty darn safe from depth charges below 150M at this stage in the war, so the combination of this, with #2, makes convoys much more manageable at this stage.
7- I don't know if this was just the two ships I was against, but the destroyer like to line up and attack along my axis from my 180. The frigate was more content to make more perpendicular attacks.

Now I'm heading back to port with a few rounds left in my 8.8cm hoping to maybe, just maybe, break 70K tons! I probably could have done that already if I targeted big merchants instead of the cruiser, but hey, it felt good to strike back. My next goal, and I'll do this in single missions or training (simulating blue-on-blue practice), will be to learn how to shoot attacking destoyers. If I can do that, convoys really aren't going to be so tough for the next year or so.

[Brag]

Good report,
Though remember: Overconfidence kills