(GFO) Help me make sense of this encounter

Zero Niner · 11-07-21, 12:01 AM

It's Feb 1943 and I encounter, for the first time, a tenacious DD off Saipan. He spots me, I dive deep to 250', rig for silent running and steer a course 60 deg away from my original heading. I creep away and I judge that I am far away enough to surface safely but he spots me and charges at me, forcing me to crash dive again. This time he keeps up with me even though I am deep, below the thermocline, running silent. I even stop and he does circles of 8 directly above me. When I creep away at 1 kt he follows me even though he is not using active sonar.
I finally manage to get away from him after almost 2 days underwater - batteries are low and CO2 levels high.

That was a thrilling encounter. Most other escorts I've come across are easy to shake off but not this one. I wonder why. Could there be certain units with AI programmed to be more difficult then normal? Did the IJN equip their warships with a more capable radar? What I found disturbing was that he seemed to know exactly where I was even as I was undetected. Throughout this 2 day encounter not one depth charge was dropped.

11-07-21, 12:01 AM	#1
Zero Niner Ace of the Deep Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,032 Downloads: 69 Uploads: 0	(GFO) Help me make sense of this encounter It's Feb 1943 and I encounter, for the first time, a tenacious DD off Saipan. He spots me, I dive deep to 250', rig for silent running and steer a course 60 deg away from my original heading. I creep away and I judge that I am far away enough to surface safely but he spots me and charges at me, forcing me to crash dive again. This time he keeps up with me even though I am deep, below the thermocline, running silent. I even stop and he does circles of 8 directly above me. When I creep away at 1 kt he follows me even though he is not using active sonar. I finally manage to get away from him after almost 2 days underwater - batteries are low and CO2 levels high. That was a thrilling encounter. Most other escorts I've come across are easy to shake off but not this one. I wonder why. Could there be certain units with AI programmed to be more difficult then normal? Did the IJN equip their warships with a more capable radar? What I found disturbing was that he seemed to know exactly where I was even as I was undetected. Throughout this 2 day encounter not one depth charge was dropped.