Wierdness in October, 1940

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

U-123 is out on patrol in October of 1940. Our return home will be to Lorient instead of Wilhelmshaven. There have been a lot of new things that have happened on this patrol, and maybe a sign of the changing times. Even so, there's a lot of wierdness packed into one stretch of time.

1 - Saw a destroyer do a half-raspberry for the first time
2 - Found a S-class cruising out on patrol in the North Atlantic (I used to just see them in convoy or parked at Lerwick).
3 - Found a convoy with ONE escort.
4 - The convoy had multiple nationalities.
5 - Outran a depthcharge attack at periscope depth, took no damage (my settings are for all damage).
6 - My first hit with a magnetic detonator, the Black Swan did not go down right away.
7- Caught up with the convoy, it didn't split up! Juicy targets with no escort!

1. In the AN grids above Lock Ewe, intercept a convoy. The lead escort is a C&D.
He cruises along in a straight line at 11 knots. I submerged at 2 knots. He speeds up 10 27 knots, comes at me, turns to port, now he's 120 aob to me. He slows to 2 knots, then 0. He waits there for 2 minutes, in an attempt to jump any u-boats jumping the gap in the screen. First time I'd seen this.

2. I am at periscope depth later, going southwest down western coast of UK. Sonarman picks up warship. I see its an S- class at 10 knots 30 degrees aob to port. I could set up an attack and get him, but I choose to go to 50 meters, silent running and let him pass. I had 2nd thoughts as that sub may ambush me later. This was done once in the war that I know of, but towards the end and mostly due to Ultra.

3. I find this convoy by radio heading northeast. I crank it out to Flank. Radio report shows he shifted east by northeast heading to the Irish Sea. I come up on him. I see all these juicy targets. 1 Large tanker, 2 Large Merchants, 3 Large Cargoes and small 2k ton boats. But no escorts! I set up an attack to go off 90 degrees aob at 2k meters for a large merchant then a large cargo. I make my attack run, when I spot a lone Black Sawn 4 k meters ahead of the convoy heading away from me.


4. Attacks go smooth. Run with decks awash, they dont see me 2 k meters away in the dark. Let off a torpedo, hit the large merchant, go to periscope depth. Knock out the Large Cargo too with two. Surface. I notice his flag. It's blue, white and red, horizontal stripes. I dont think its the French, but who is it? Did I sink a NUETRAL?? Oh NO! I get pelted by the Swan and search lights go up. I crash dive. Go to 120, with minor damage to hull, wait out the depth charge attack. I go periscope depth 10 minutes later. The Swan is 170 degrees behind me, at 1200 meters. I could shoot him, but I dont. The angle isnt right and my comfort zone hasnt left impact detonators. But if I sank the lone escort... I checked the manual, the flag belongs to Denmark, hit F1, they are an enemy of Germany. Good thing..They were darkened with British ships and I can see where ships from occupied lands would be in formation. Its a new thing, never saw it before.

5. Later do in a Large Cargo. One torpedo, pump 5 shots from deck gun into her and sink her. The DD is back. We cat and mouse it. He pings this time. Makes his run. I go to 100 meters. In his prop wash, I crank it to flank, do a 90. I lost him. So im feeling like going to periscope and shooting him. I do this, he comes up on my rear starboard quarter , starts pinging away. I go to flank, crash dive down to 100. He looses charges while I do a 90 the other way to the north. We repeat this again. 10 minutes later, I go to periscope depth. His keel depth is 3.7 meters. I set the torpedo to 4 meters on magnetic. He pings, makes his charge. This time I stay at periscope depth, have a torpedo set in the rear if the rear shot is there, one forward if forward shot is there. He makes is run. 150 degrees, 160,170...I crank to flank..180, 190, 210.. he looses one charge. Its loud but doesnt do damage. I dont know why, I thought I was pushing it. Maybe he thought I'd go deep. Maybe he needed to save his depth charges, since he's the lone ranger.

6. I pop up th scope. He is turning to starboard in firing range at 350 meters, at 11 knots. 20 degrees, 15, 10.. I shoot. The torpedo detonates underneath the keel to the rear. The soundman cheers. No secondaries, no explosions. The Swan is shooting at me. Oh NO! Did I do something wrong! But wait..he slows to 5, to 4 to 2 to 0 knots. His stern gets lower in the water. 2 minutes later he sinks. Wierd. On impact, they blow up and go down right away. This is just as effective and I figure gives me more options if I dont have that 90 degree aob shot. I guess they just go down different when they blow up under keel like that.

7. I haul to catch up to the convoy. They zig zag when they see me, but they dont split up! Wow!

[Schwuppes]

I've never seen convoys split up in SH3 or GWX... all they can do is zig zag, its a hard coded AI limitation as far as I know.

[Jimbuna]

A convoy will always follow it's scripted waypoint. The only deviation will be to zig zag......but always on the same mean course

[Keelbuster]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

A convoy will always follow it's scripted waypoint. The only deviation will be to zig zag......but always on the same mean course

Hmm. There was one time where I found a convoy with a two escorts. I got them both, and then went deckgun hunting on the unarmed merchants. First, the convoy 'scattered', in that the ships went in different directions - not the usual simple zig zagging. They may have still attempted to maintain an overall mean course, but it was fairly scattered in the meantime. Secondly, when it was down to two ships left, if I remember right, they did scatter. Like, they became two independents - one when in one direction, one went in the other. I got them both, however.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Keelbuster

Hmm. There was one time where I found a convoy with a two escorts. I got them both, and then went deckgun hunting on the unarmed merchants. First, the convoy 'scattered', in that the ships went in different directions - not the usual simple zig zagging. They may have still attempted to maintain an overall mean course, but it was fairly scattered in the meantime. Secondly, when it was down to two ships left, if I remember right, they did scatter. Like, they became two independents - one when in one direction, one went in the other. I got them both, however.

I think what you've witnessed is ships trying to avoid each other as damaged ships in the formation start to slow down.
If you submerge and watch with the external view I think you'll find everything returns to normal........eventually

[Abd_von_Mumit]

Originally Posted by UnterseeBoogeyMan

6. I pop up th scope. He is turning to starboard in firing range at 350 meters, at 11 knots. 20 degrees, 15, 10.. I shoot. The torpedo detonates underneath the keel to the rear. The soundman cheers. No secondaries, no explosions. The Swan is shooting at me. Oh NO! Did I do something wrong! But wait..he slows to 5, to 4 to 2 to 0 knots. His stern gets lower in the water. 2 minutes later he sinks. Wierd. On impact, they blow up and go down right away. This is just as effective and I figure gives me more options if I dont have that 90 degree aob shot. I guess they just go down different when they blow up under keel like that.

They can even survive being hit, so it's not a rule they blow up to kingdom come. In my last two careers (the only two with GWX 2.0) I only once dared to attack a DD, hit it (impact, 2 m) in the very bow, and didn't do much damage, the ship went her with with the convoy, I finally lost contact.

[Brag]

I don't see the above described events as weirdnesses.

[Graf Paper]

I agree, Brag (congrats on your new book!).

Sounds more like a very interesting and exciting patrol!

More than I can say, thus far, for my ninth patrol. Only ship I've even seen, since leaving my home waters, has been a 300 ton small coal tender!

I'm seriously thinking of breaking out Balz's "Songs fur Hooching ze Woochie" and starting up my own choir just to break the boredom!

Forget shell-shock. If things don't pick up soon, I'm going to start growing "boot-goofy"!

[Brag]

Originally Posted by Graf Paper

I agree, Brag (congrats on your new book!).

Sounds more like a very interesting and exciting patrol!

Forget shell-shock. If things don't pick up soon, I'm going to start growing "boot-goofy"!

Thanks, Graf -- It is like an exciting patrol but to torpedo the nefarious underworld of international politics and big business interests.

Better luck in your future patrols. GWX is full of interesting stuff. Carp does happen. Lots of it.

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Originally Posted by Abd_von_Mumit

They can even survive being hit, so it's not a rule they blow up to kingdom come. In my last two careers (the only two with GWX 2.0) I only once dared to attack a DD, hit it (impact, 2 m) in the very bow, and didn't do much damage, the ship went her with with the convoy, I finally lost contact.

What gets me is how long it took for the DD to sink and the nature of the impact was different too. Two minutes for a 2k ton ship to go down. Then the explosion doesnt touch off any secondaries or create fires the way impact does. Swans aren't big so it isnt like they have the mass and hull plating to absorb a hit like a Nelson could. I intend to use magnetics more as it provides more tactical flexibility, so I should hang loose and wait to see what results I get. I do have the etting turned on where the results aren't instantaneous.

Given that magnetics explosion under the keel now, I wonder if my aiming should change too. Such as, always aim just ahead of the screws or directly under the smokestack. A rupture in the keel, all that water pouring into the boilers...see you later!

Any other ideas from the group on how they do magnetic shots?

[Sledgehammer427]

check draft. fire torpedo at a slight diagonal angle(because the magnets take a while to go Hey theres a ship here). and PRAY!
i usually do it on stationary targets or destroyers coming-bow on at me...snapshots are fun too. no point in firing a spread on a ship thats not moving.
besides, it gives you time to think

[UnterseeBoogeyMan]

Originally Posted by Sledgehammer427

check draft. fire torpedo at a slight diagonal angle(because the magnets take a while to go Hey theres a ship here). and PRAY!
i usually do it on stationary targets or destroyers coming-bow on at me...snapshots are fun too. no point in firing a spread on a ship thats not moving.
besides, it gives you time to think

I understand completely! I fired 3 shots at a large cargo. 1 hit + 1 miss + 1 hit. The miss was the torpedo grazing the hull and it went dud on me. The water was slightly choppy. I can see using these on a glass smooth ocean but not with any wind whatsoever. On a day with a little swell I used 1 meter past the keel depth and even then I had one miss! But if this works, I dont need the 90 degree aob, i can go diagonal like you said. That will open the ability to take down 2 or 3 ships in one salvo, and the run. I can see that happening later in the war when I wont have the luxury of chugging on surface for a 2nd attack. Probbaly at that point, too many planes and too many HK groups.