Attacking a British convoy

Not sure Cromwell: If there are 6 Destroyers, how many U-Boats do we expect to get away?
Maybe engaging from distance is a better idea, but then if 2 of those Destroyers get within torpedo range!
Am sure I would not chose 2 Cruisers.
I think whichever option we take, we are unlikely to get more than 2 cargo ships.

I picked the battleship. I don’t think that the escorts mentioned would be able to do a whole lot against the long range heavy guns of a battleship. So I’d happily sink whatever I could from a distance, and be out of there at the first sign of stronger opposition, or when the convoy came within range of land based planes. But given the circumstances described here, I imagine I’d have a few days to sink a whole lot of them, starting out with any destroyer I might spot.

In the scenario you’re describing, the “pocket battleship” option would give a situation similar to the battle involving Convoy HX-84 – but with the odds much more heavily stacked against the Germans.  In the HX-84 action, the convoy only had a single auxiliary cruiser protecting it (the Jervis Bay) when it was attacked by a single pocket battleship (the Admiral Scheer).  The Jervis Bay ordered his transport ships (37 of them) to scatter, then took on the Scheer single-handed to give the other vessels time to escape (which all of them did successfully).  The Jervis Bay was sunk in this gallant, self-sacrificing action against an enemy which hopelessly outgunned her.

In the scenario you’re describing, I imagine the convoy commander might likewise order his ships to scatter, or might keep them together in view of the fact that (in contrast with the HX-84 action) he’d have one additional auxiliary cruiser plus six destroyers.  The pocket battleship would be facing a total of eight escorts rather than one.  So I think the “pocket battleship” option wouldn’t be the best choice.  The “four U-boat” option sounds much better, particularly if this were in the period from 1939 to 1941 or 1942 (which is what it sounds like, given the lineup of ships you’ve described).  Prior to the widespread introduction of centimetric radar around the middle of the war, British escorts were at a considerable disadvantage against U-boats when subs attacked convoys on the surface at night: the subs couldn’t be seen very well, and they were not detectable by ASDIC (which only worked against submerged U-boats) or by early long-wavelength radar (which had trouble distinguishing a surfaced U-boat from waves and other surface clutter).  A single U-boat could do a lot of damage under those conditions, to say nothing of what four U-boats could do.

I would use the Night,

Sub A is sneaking inbetween the Convoy, while Sub B is the nearest right next to the Convoy.
Sub C and D are getting in shooting distance and start torpedoing the Convoy.
When the first Hits are on Target , Sub B and then Sub A will open fire as well.
Sub B now starts to sneak right into the convoy formation to reload there weapons ,so does Sub A.
The trick from now on is to stay in the convoy but most of the time it is impossible because the Convoy now takes speed as ther advantage and stops with the Zig Zag routing. and the Destroyers will have now easy play with the remaining subs.

But as I said, I would try at night and hope the surface ships are blind and I could try to march on surface speed right next to the convoy with at least one Sub (A or B) to get another chunk out of the vessels.

A victory for the Subs would be getting 6 to 10 ships hacked out of the Convoy with minimal ,0 to 1 Subs lost to them.

I think 6 to 7 Subs would do a fine job and even sinking two to three Destroyers or Cruisers IMO.

@CWO:

The Jervis Bay ordered his transport ships (37 of them) to scatter, then took on the Scheer single-handed to give the other vessels time to escape (which all of them did successfully).

The Wikipedia article on convoy HX-84 states that five merchant ships were sunk and one was damaged. Also, the confrontation took place late in the afternoon, and the impending darkness helped the convoy escape. There would likely have been more casualties if the Admiral Scheer had reached the convoy earlier that day.

I have to concede that I rather misread “pocket battleship” though, and was thinking of a full battleship like the Bismarck or the Tirpitz. The Hipper class cruiser would have been the better choice then, because that class was the successor to the pocket battleships similar to the Admiral Scheer (Deutschland class).
The subs…. I don’t know. It depends on how you’d value survival of the attacking force I suppose. Four U-boats worked very well against convoy HX-72, but that was rather lightly guarded (by the very same Jervis Bay, incidentally). I think it would have been much harder to achieve such a success against the lineup described here, and the risk would have been very high. I’d think that more than four subs would indeed be needed, as already stated by aequitas et veritas.

Yes, I think the subs at night would be an option. If all I had was a pocket battleship then I would attempt to time the attack from long range in heavy weather. Then after inflicting what damage I could do with 11in. guns I would run. The destroyers could not maintain my speed in the rough seas. So only the cruisers would be able to pursue. If the cruisers continued to pursue then I would try to contact those subs and direct them to the convoy. If the cruisers quit following and turned back then I would turn 90 degrees and give them a full broadside while in range just for fun. Remember the typical cruiser only has 8in. guns. I would make all my attacks keeping the saftey of my ship and crew in mind. Take the least risks that give the best rewards. No use blundering into range of all the enemy. If damage were done to my ship then I would have to return to port. I could not accomplish much that way.

@ShadowHAwk:

Pocket battleship for sure.

They where designed to destroy anything up to battleships and outrun the battleships themself.
Nice that a convoy is faster then a submarine but they cant outrun you and the escorts can attack you but basicaly commit suicide.

Only problem is that they can scatter in which case you only get a handfull of merchant ships and the rest is made volnerable to any Uboat in the area.

O Bismark was actualy a pocket battleship, remember what happened to the Hood :D

The Bismarck was not a pocket battleship…

Pocket Battleships were a term to describe larger warships that were listed as light enough to qualify for the requirements under Versailles treaty. Of course, they exceeded the requirements. Bismarck was created after Germany officially tore up the treaty.