HELP!

[Obersteuermann]

July 6th, 1943. Grid BE33.

You are the captain of U-964, a Type VIIC operating from Bergen. Two days ago, as a nice present for American Independence day, you sank a Bogue escort carrier NNW of Ireland. After reaching your assigned grid square you found a large convoy and moved to attack. However, three of the escorts heard you on their soundgear and now have your scent.

They're determined. Some of their cans have already damaged your boat: both your periscopes have been destroyed, along with the Wintergarten and your radio antenna, and the propellers have taken such a beating that you have to maintain at least 3 knots just to hold your depth - any slower and she sinks like a stone. Running at silent speed, she barely makes 1 knot through dead calm seas. The boat's good for about 150 metres but you dare not take her deeper than that.

There are three escorts. All of them have hedgehogs, but you suspect one - possibly two - has run out of cans to drop astern. They've been chasing you for about 12 hours now. Their convoy was making about 7-8 knots in the opposite direction to your current course but the escorts show no signs of returning to it. You're 1,350km from Brest, the nearest friendly port. You've ~80% battery life left and oxygen levels are about 75%.


Fellow Kaleuns, what would you do to lose the escorts?

(this situation may or may not be related to my present one )

[U777]

Reactor 1 would be placed in stdby mode while all steam from reactor 2 will be utilized for..........whoops forgot we are diesel boats lol

I would simply give up the convoy and just keep on creeping in the opposite direction, once batteries get down to 25% we stop and maintain depth with compressed air. With any luck the escorts will have to rejoin the convoy at some point unless they have permission to not return or they were relived by other units.

[HW3]

3 DD's and you can't go lower than 150M? You are toast. The DD's will stay on you, and keep making passes, even when they run out of depth charges. They will not leave until you are forced to the surface and killed, or are blown to bits by depth charges, sorry to say.

[papa_smurf]

3 DD's and you can't go lower than 150M? You are toast. The DD's will stay on you, and keep making passes, even when they run out of depth charges. They will not leave until you are forced to the surface and killed, or are blown to bits by depth charges, sorry to say.

You are brown bread (i.e dead)

[xarel]

Originally Posted by Obersteuermann

July 6th, 1943. Grid BE33.
Fellow Kaleuns, what would you do to lose the escorts?

Since you managed to survive 3 escorts for 12 hours now, I guess you know the usual strategies to escape depth charges.
IMHO there is not much you can do. Right now, you are the prey, not the hunter. Forget about the convoy, think about it again after you escaped the escorts. Now it's only about surviving the situation.
It doesn't matter which direction relative to the convoy you go. With your 1-3 knots speed, it's at the end of the world right now.
The situation of a real U-Boat in 1943 is simulated very well here. Being depth charged for 24 hours and more was normal and all the boat could hope for was to survive.
With the escorts most probably having radar, surfacing fast at night and trying to escape in the darkness with max speed is no option, too.
Try to survive until they give up, and consider yourself lucky and heroic if you do. The 50 people under your command will certainly feel that way about you. Once you have surfaced under safe conditions, maximize the crew for damage repair and try to reload torps while chasing the convoy at full speed. The escorts will go full speed to reach the convoy too, but corvettes might be outrunned.
Good luck, captain.

[Jimbuna]

The escorts will not stop hunting you and return to the convoy until a pre-set time since they last had contact with you has elapsed (IIRC it's something like 25-40 game time).....one hell of a long time to remain undetected with such a damaged boat).

I suspect your future will be a short lived one.

[Synthfg]

Be more aggresive

You could try positioning yourself to encourage one of the destroyers to ram another one,

You could try popping up and firing a spread towards one of the DD's give them something to think about, especialy if you have any pattern runners

as has been noted they have you to rights in your current condition, may as well go down swinging

[JEuler]

It looks like the war is over for you !

You can try to evade them until you have enough oxygen, deploy a decoy and they maybe loose you,but it looks like a totally hopeless situation.
So since you have nothing to loose I suggest to go to periscope depth and try take out at least one of them,this could slightly increase the chance of survival.

[raymond6751]

Originally Posted by JEuler

It looks like the war is over for you !

You can try to evade them until you have enough oxygen, deploy a decoy and they maybe loose you,but it looks like a totally hopeless situation.
So since you have nothing to loose I suggest to go to periscope depth and try take out at least one of them,this could slightly increase the chance of survival.

I'd say prepare and fire torps at both escorts in the same attack. If that is possible, it is your only hope. Lady luck may let you hit one or both.

I'd also use a 5-10 degree constant turn while trying to evade. The enemy seems to have trouble pinpointing your position if it is constantly turning. I vary my turn from side to side about every 5 minutes. The turns need to be at the high degree marks until you get the course altered, then back to low degree turns.

Good luck.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Stay low, stay slow, and cross your fingers


Onkel Karl will write to your widow and tell her how great you were, and that she can be proud...

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Onkel Karl will write to your widow and tell her how great you were, and that she can be proud...

And I'll be sure to pay her a courtesy visit.

[Obersteuermann]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

And I'll be sure to pay her a courtesy visit.

I'm sure you'll, ah, "comfort" her after telling her I died bravely!

At odds of a million to one, a torpedo launched blind (no scopes, remember - just my trusty hydrophone man) hit and sank one escort ... then I got rammed by another one while trying to get away from periscope depth. The flooding took the boat down past crush depth and that was that.

Thanks for the help guys, I guess it was one of those situations beyond redemption.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Obersteuermann

I'm sure you'll, ah, "comfort" her after telling her I died bravely!

At odds of a million to one, a torpedo launched blind (no scopes, remember - just my trusty hydrophone man) hit and sank one escort ... then I got rammed by another one while trying to get away from periscope depth. The flooding took the boat down past crush depth and that was that.

Thanks for the help guys, I guess it was one of those situations beyond redemption.

RIP, and at least you took one with you.



I'm sure Steve would be here to offer you his condolences as well, but you know how it is. He's got to get his suit pressed.

[Jimbuna]

[Herr-Berbunch]