US ASW

[daft]

I'm having a bit of a trouble finishing off the Japanese subs lying outside Noumea in wait for my warships to depart/arrive. Two ASW TF's have been sent after them, resulting in damage to one I-class submarine and the sinking of no less than 5 DD's and 12(!)SC's. Need some serious help.

[Subchaser]

First of all, transfer 2-3 bomber units to Noumea for ASW, let them patrol on different altitude from 1000ft up to 5000ft.

ASW TFs. Such heavy losses indicates that your sailors do not have any valuable experience to deal with sub menace right now, train them before using in ASW patrols. Only vessels with experience over 50 have chances to drop some depth charges onto sub. Those ships with exp. less 50 must be used only as convoy escorts, it is the only way for them to counter the subs, if you have more than 10 escorts in your convoy the chance that sub will be detected before the actual attack dramatically increases, this will save your ships but the sub most probably will survive also, experience always matters.

Right now, when you do not have many cracked ASW vessels, try to use decoy tactics, this is especially effective if you’re playing with sub doctrine off, create a couple of ordinary transport TFs with only 1 transport (should be small craft of low value) and 5-8 ASW crafts. Subs will treat them as just a transport TFs and will concentrate on freighters, giving your ASW ships chance to counterattack. Of course this doesn’t always work and you have to lose some of your small transports, but this defiantly decreases your losses from subs.

Btw if you have CVs which are free for ASW support, don’t hesitate use them also.

[frizt]

The best AWS are LRBs with 75+ Experience. If you notice a gathering area of enemy Subs, then gather the best LBRs and put them into ASW at 1000 feet. If you got enough Bombers and high exp, there is absolutely no escape for the sub.

[Drex]

SBDs are good at attacking also and even if they don't hit, the sub will soon run out of fuel and have to return home.

[daft]

Thanks for the responses! A couple of months into scenario 16 I managed to get a handle on things. I know have a 4DD ASW TF on constant alert at Noumea, all of them with 55+ night exp. In addition, two squadrons of B-17's are patrolling the skies at all times, and so far I seem to have chased the IJN subs away.

[Mike_B20]

I have found 100 feet a good altitude for anti sub ops, at least for hitting them.
Maybe 1000 feet is better for spotting them.

[crsutton]

If your carriers are parked safely in Noumea then set all your SBDs and TBFs to ASW at varying altitudes. This will put about 100 extra planes (usually with good experience) in the air and you will see those subs start to take a butt whacking. A good player will not leave a bunch of subs lurking around major ports for this very reason.