Know the enemy

[TempestScar]

Hello Captains,

I've been playing SHO for a few weeks now and I love it. WWII ships have always fascinated me so, early on, I began listing the ships I'd seen in the game, compiling data on them, and matching what I see through the periscope to vintage photos to see how well the game makers' have done their homework. I've been pleased to see they've done a pretty good job and would like to share what I have compiled to date. The data I have on the ships are ship type, armament for the warships, typical cargo for the merchants, min and max draft and GRT that i have seen for each so far, # of damage squares for a given ship in-game (length x width), and vintage photos of each. I've attached a table for escorts, warships, and merchants. I have found them to be a useful resource in-game and I hope you will enjoy them as well.

Please keep in mind the following:
- These tables are in no way complete. They are a work in progress. If there are more ship classes that are not represented here its because I have not yet seen them.
- Data fields such as draft or GRT typically show a min and max. If they contain one number its because so far I have only had a chance to record one of them
- Data fields with a ??? are data I have not yet recorded. If anyone has data or photos please feel free to send them to me and I will add to and re-post the tables.
- In my research I have found that there were two V&W destroyer conversions for WWII. A long range escort and a short range escort. Based on what I have see to date through the periscope I have only come across the short range escorts. I have not completed all phases of the game so I don't know for sure if the long range escorts will be represented. If anyone knows please share and I will update accordingly.

Best,
TempestScar

[KnightzVonCross]

hi TempestScar

Welcome and nice work

There are some more ships but I won't spoil the surprise ! because it's great when you see something for the first time that you were not expecting

Happy Hunting

[See_Wolf]

Ahoi, TempestScar.

Welcome in our midst.

It's nice when someone so interested and having fun doing, then it does the work and lets us share in his joy.

Gruß,
See_Wolf

[Astro-baarn]

nice, thanks

[AlbertRoss]

Hi TempestScar,

Lot of work there, and very interesting to see and read, thanks for sharing.

AlbertRoss.

[HammerheadShark]

- Data fields with a ??? are data I have not yet recorded.

Hi TempestScar,

nice idea of yours.

I´ve worked on our SHOWIKI several times (german site).
Feel free to look it up. Some further links are in english, because no proper german ones do exist.
Under "Wissenswertes" The history of battleships, sort of....
Most of the facts i gathered from Wikipedia sites and some books i own.

But i must admit :

The english Wikipedia is often way better than the german Wikipedia. There is much more information, pictures and links to other interesting sites.
So i browse in both "worlds" everytime ;-)

I tried to establish a similar site with historical facts about warships, etc..
As you, I didn´t find information about T4 Tanker and Transport Ships.

What the hell was a T4 Tanker ? There were only T2´s, or ? ... I searched like an idiot, but couldn´t find anything about them.
Transport Ships are too numerous to mention I guess. There s no specific information about our transport ships in SHO.
I can´t even recognise the silhouette of these transport ships. Type, data, manufacturer..... i won´t know.



But it is nice to see some people are interested in historical events or facts about ships/warships. Not only rockin´and shootin´ :-P



Greets from german naval base,

HammerheadShark

[TempestScar]

Wow! Thank you all for the warm greetings and support.

Hi TempestScar,

What the hell was a T4 Tanker ? There were only T2´s, or ? ... I searched like an idiot, but couldn´t find anything about them.
Transport Ships are too numerous to mention I guess. There s no specific information about our transport ships in SHO.
I can´t even recognise the silhouette of these transport ships. Type, data, manufacturer..... i won´t know.

HammerheadShark

Yeah! I don't feel so bad now. I dug and dug and found nothing on the T4 as a WWII ship. I've seen references to it in other silent hunter game sites but nowhere else. I found this link:

http://www.usmm.org/tankers.html

It lists all US merchant marine ships (6000 of them) used in WWII. Under tankers there are only T2 variants. Even the T3 (which is confusingly named) was a T2 variant. If there is a T4 I was thinking it was a European built T2 maybe...but if you have not found anything then perhaps Ubisoft invented it to increase their ship variety.

There are some more ships but I won't spoil the surprise ! because it's great when you see something for the first time that you were not expecting

Happy Hunting

Nice! Glad to hear it and thanks! I am looking forward to seeing an escort carrier if there is one...or m aybe I am not looking forward to that :/

Best,
TempestScar

[Bordegar]

Welcome to game TempestScar and nice thread rachann

Transport ships is a misnomer as the term "Transport" were vessels controlled by Transport Corp (US Army) An allotted troop ship or cargo came from War resource (Shipping Admin) and vessels assigned began at over 1000 GRT. These ships also included medical facilities like Hospital ships, support as in cable laying vessels, repair ships and like the Japanese, finishing facility ships. Also what must be noted is short charter ships from many sources that you need naval registers and insurance records to research from. The UK had Ministry of War transport ships and Troop carriers usually converted liners and mixed passenger cargo ships, these where separate from general cargo shipping.

T4 Tankers I would suspect is a category referring to plane and vital bulk chemical carrying tankers -- on this one it maybe developers had special missions planned though not implemented fully.

kind regards
Bordegar

[AlbertRoss]

Avoiding depth charges and hedgehogs, these tactics I have used successfully many times:

D/Cs:

These seem to usually be deployed or dropped by the rear of the escort, so avoid that area most of all.
Abeam (to the sides) of an escort appears to be the least dangerous place to be, it seems. (Directly underneath too, but that could badly wrong very quickly).
I have found that in general (and especially when too close to escort) that running in reverse helps to confuse escort and sonar, and most importantly, the accuracy of D/Cs - you have, of course, to use opposite navigation headings though.
In times of emergency, a burst of full reverse then back to slow with heading change can avert almost certain destruction.
They always seem to detonate at about the depth of the sub (grrr) but also appear less effective at greater depths (?).

Link to uboat.net>depthcharges

H/Hs:

These are fired ahead of the escort, so avoid this general area too.
They are a pattern spread (of 24 in a circle) and explode on contact, not by depth, so are extremely dangerous.

Link to uboat.net>hedgehogs

However, it is of course best to try and avoid being in these positions in the first place rather than to have to use these methods

Another tip that is useful - after completing a mission, and before leaving port, is to switch to Home Waters in order to avoid being jumped by 'planes, but ALWAYS go to Decks Awash and put up Flak as a matter of habit.

Hope you find this helpful.

AlbertRoss.