Am I being too timid?

[the.terrabyte.pirate]

I'm having difficulty avoiding convoy escorts, and usually end up sunk after two escorts team together.

Immediately after I fire my eels, I hit a deep depth, and move at ahead slow so as not to give away my position. Unfortunately this means that when by eels hit, I'm usually only 30-40m deep, and really not that far away from my firing point. Escorts quickly arrive on the scene, one or two active pings later, and I'm busted.

I'm doing what I can to lose them. Manually setting the speed at less than one knot. Silent running. But to no avail.

If I go any faster, they hear me. If I don't go faster, they ping me. I can't get my boat end on to them quickly enough to minimise my sonar return. I can't even avoid one on a depth charge run by ordering flank ahead and a hard turn in one direction, as the other escort is following me on it's hydrophones.

The only tactic I haven't tried is to flank ahead as soon as I've fired my eels, but I don't see the point in advertising my presence earlier than need be.

Any advise or guidance would be appreciated. This is damn frustrating.