What did I do wrong in this twin gun boat engagement?

I wanted to ask the experts here. I am using GWX 2.0 and I was on my 2nd patrol in a VIIB East Northeast of Ireland. October 1939. It was dusk around 1650 and I was tailing a merchant and warship sound contact. They were moving away at 0 bearing and even flank speed submerged I was not catching them. I surfaced to try and catch up and never saw anything. Next thing I know 2 gun boats from Britian were headed at me guns blazing. I don't know what kind of boats they were but the were like little PT boats with machine guns fore and aft firing at me. I turn into them and we are going head to head. I pop off all 4 fore torpedos shallow in a salvo thinking I may get lucky or at least make them dance. I came close but I missed. So I have my deck gun pounding away and I crew the AA gun myself and we take out one PT boat fast. I shot the gunners personally as I was almost close enough to read name tags. Both boats are on fire and I have some moderate damage. No compartment more than yellow and my damage crew is on it. One boat down and the other one is a fireball about to be 100% dead. Then I hear "men down on the deck" and we all die??

I know I didn't handle this correctly. What should I have done? What killed me? I'm sure it wasn't a torpdeo as the boat has it's stern facing me at roughly a 270 bearing. I wanted to ask you experts for advice on how to handle this type of situation in the future.

Thanks in advance!

[BulSoldier]

I do not reccomend engaging anything armed with deck gun.Especialy warships,be it either Nelsons or ptboats,stay below the water.

As far as i know torpedos from AI ships arent modeled in GWX2.0.

Btw are you using gwx ?

Originally Posted by BulSoldier

Btw are you using gwx ?

Yes GWX 2.0

Originally Posted by BulSoldier

stay below the water.

Damn it was fun though blowing the crap out of their gunners with the AA gun! :p

[TomcatMVD]

"Contact! Seagull, long range, bearing 035, closing!"

"Ahead flank! Dive!"


See my point?

Originally Posted by TomcatMVD

"Contact! Seagull, long range, bearing 035, closing!"

"Ahead flank! Dive!"


See my point?

Yes, I'll think of this everytime I see a seagull now.

[BulSoldier]

Actually i managed to sink once a Clemson class destroyer by deck gun alone.

But on the other hand once i traveled the whole atlantic and was so badly damaged by a sing ptboat the i was forced to return to base.(because i wanted to destroy it with the deck gun)

[Brag]

Dive, dive dive.

There are bold Kaleuns, there are old Kaleuns. There aren't any old bold Kaleuns.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Flamingboat

I wanted to ask the experts here. I am using GWX 2.0 and I was on my 2nd patrol in a VIIB East Northeast of Ireland. October 1939. It was dusk around 1650 and I was tailing a merchant and warship sound contact. They were moving away at 0 bearing and even flank speed submerged I was not catching them. I surfaced to try and catch up and never saw anything. Next thing I know 2 gun boats from Britian were headed at me guns blazing. I don't know what kind of boats they were but the were like little PT boats with machine guns fore and aft firing at me. I turn into them and we are going head to head. I pop off all 4 fore torpedos shallow in a salvo thinking I may get lucky or at least make them dance. I came close but I missed. So I have my deck gun pounding away and I crew the AA gun myself and we take out one PT boat fast. I shot the gunners personally as I was almost close enough to read name tags. Both boats are on fire and I have some moderate damage. No compartment more than yellow and my damage crew is on it. One boat down and the other one is a fireball about to be 100% dead. Then I hear "men down on the deck" and we all die??

I know I didn't handle this correctly. What should I have done? What killed me? I'm sure it wasn't a torpdeo as the boat has it's stern facing me at roughly a 270 bearing. I wanted to ask you experts for advice on how to handle this type of situation in the future.

Thanks in advance!

PT boats have machine guns that can kill your deck crew quite quickly and ever so efficiently.
Your sub is a pressure hull and not an armoured warship. You will soon start taking damage that will only hinder your boats effectiveness at diving to safe depths.
Nor would I be wasting eels on tiny fish like these. Save them for the bigger merchants.
Are you sure an aircraft or even the escort has not jumped on you whilst you were otherwise indisposed ?
What was the weather like, were you in shallow water or had strayed into a mined area ? :hmm:

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Are you sure an aircraft or even the escort has not jumped on you whilst you were otherwise indisposed ?
What was the weather like, were you in shallow water or had strayed into a mined area ? :hmm:

It was night. I was way out in the middle of the water far away from land. I don't think it was a plane or escort. I had not even made visual contact with that boat I was after. Calm waters and a lot of starlight so I could see well enough. It was odd because one boat was dead and the other one was englufed in flames really bad. Think they got a lucky critical hit on my fuel tank?

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Didn't you come too close to a boat? Exploding ship can damage your U-Boot, even if allready went under the surface in flames.

[High Voltage]

I usually play at 134% realism and have succesfully sunk both the Nelson and Luisitania with my flak gun. Don't whine about yer bad luck or yer hurt feelings. Re-crew, re-load, re-launch!

[Graf Paper]

My own method of commanding a u-boat is a style I like to call "cautiously aggressive".

The only time I ever engage a warship or aircraft is as a last defense when running away is the more dangerous choice or if the warship is about to become intimate with my torpedoes as they're sailing along, ignorant of my presence. That second one is the preferred way of dealing with enemy warships, especially if they're sailing in the midst of a convoy (like that Revenge-class BB I sank on my last patrol) or a task force in the deep water (would love to find a carrier group like that).

Trying to duke it out with the flak and/or deck gun against a warship will leave your boat with some crippling battle scars, at the very least, making you into easier meat for the destroyers.

A wounded shark is a dead shark once the smell of blood is in the water.

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

Didn't you come too close to a boat? Exploding ship can damage your U-Boot, even if allready went under the surface in flames.

I think you figured it out. The first boat was a huge floating orange fireball on my port side about 50 meters away at most. I went hard to port so my deck gun would not be blocked by the con tower as the 2nd boat was heading aft on me and I wanted to keep it in a firing position. I had not so much as one casualty the whole fight which went only 90 seconds max from the time I spotted them until BOOM.

I play at 92% realism ( I just like the external view for theatrical purposes ) and I don't usually fight it out surfaced but these were two little wimpy speedboats more or less.

[papa_smurf]

I never engage any sort of Naval vessel with my deck gun, its just far too suicidal.