OneAlex mod, what is the ideal weather/enviroment for attacking?

[Nisse_thepear]

Just as the title reads, what is the best enviroment for attacking? On a sidenote, how viable are surfaced attacks?

[l02turner]

re: weather - I have found that when there are large waves, it is hard to attack. mostly because the waves keep hiding the target and the Lock is lost as is other targeting info. So a calm sea is very helpful when attacking. The milder the sea state, the better.

regarding surface attacking, in my experience, the escorts will see and destroy you. I don't know if they have a unfair advangage, but I have approached a convoy at a depth of 250-300' and before I was within 2000 yards of the targets, I had 7 escorts slowly circling my position! I have no idea how they located me, I was at all stop and deep, with the only thing not done is changed to Run Silent mode. I don't know how they did it, but I know I didn't make any noise to attract them, yet there they were. My plan had been to approach deep and get in or near the middle of the convoy where I would make an attack. But I never got the chance to do as I wanted. No matter what I do,my sub is always seen long before I am in an attack position.

[Hooston]

It all depends on the mods loaded, difficulty settings and the year of the war.
Early war the escorts are not very good but the torpedoes are very cranky (especially with the HSie mod installed) so you want fairly calm seas. All the torpedoes malfunction a lot in rough seas at the shallow settings needed for impact detonations. The early electrics have very unreliable magnetic fuses as well, so they are pretty useless in rough weather. In 1939/40 I tend to shadow the target until the weather improves.
Folks who use the super auto targeting from the weapons officer like to sink all the escorts then wipe out the convoy with the deck gun. This requires calm seas <7m/s. I can't see how this is possible with manual targeting.
Late war (1942 onwards) the escorts have radar, long range/wide angle ASDIC and excellent passive sonar. All these are degraded by rough weather. All the merchantmen are armed and the deck gun becomes very risky. However the torpedoes are much more reliable, especially if you set them for magnetic detonation to run 0.5m under the target. So you want some waves. 15m/s is still tricky.
Night surface attacks are very possible up to early 1941, but I find it hard to keep track of where the escorts are unless I turn on the map icons and I've never dared to actually go right into the convoy. This progressively becomes very risky from mid 1941 as merchants get armament and escorts get radar. All the great early war uboat aces attacked on the surface, and sailed right into the convoy, but many of them were lost in 1941.

[Aktungbby]

Hooston!

[Mad Mardigan]

Hooston!

[Hooston]

Originally Posted by l02turner

No matter what I do,my sub is always seen long before I am in an attack position.

There are lots of FAQs on this site, although the main one seems to be down at the moment. I also highly recommend Wolfpack345's type IX career on youtube.
Once the nearest escort is at "medium range" or less silent running and slow speed are your friends. Let the convoy come to you. Keep the periscope down as much as possible and use the hydrophone (H key) to track the escorts.

Active sonar/ASDIC will usually pick you up at around 1km in front of an escort down to at least 100m no matter how quiet you are. So stay away from the escorts. Without moving quickly. Sustained pings indicate they are on to you.

On the surface at night set depth to 6m, or "decks awash" and stay at ahead 1/3 or less. Look out for searchlights, starshells and woosh-bang or kerpling-kerpling noises as they indicate a sub-optimal situation.

[l02turner]

Thanks for the comments! I'll chaek out the links -
BTW, I never appproach on the surface, decks awash or at the min to use the diesels. I learned the escorts will all converge/attack, even at periscope depth. So I now do as you suggest and stay around 100' or deeper and wait til the escorts pass while I try to get in front of the targets to get in their midst. It works sometimes but not always. One reason I asked this question is because I wanted to attack as some of the most successful skippers did in WW2, which wasat night and on the surface, probably awash as you suggest. But I am 0% successful at attacking like this. thx again for the help

[derstosstrupp]

Just a word about decks awash - this was in reality a very unstable and dangerous position for a submarine to be in and it was rarely done. There is not enough freeboard to prevent severe listing if a large wave hit the boat, and the front deck served as a sort of hydroplane and the boat risked undercutting at speed. It was done in rare cases, but it was really a matter of weighing the benefits versus the risks. Very calm seas at any rate, and on electrics as the exhaust vents are underwater. A U-boat was practically invisible at night even when it was in normal surface trim. What was visible was the tower outline against the backdrop of the sea.