Destroyer

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous campaign of the Second World War, and the destroyer was its central combatant. Night after night, destroyer escorts hunted German U-boats through the North Atlantic, armed with ASDIC sonar, depth-charge throwers, and Hedgehog ahead-throwing mortars. A single U-boat kill required patience, coordination, and luck: submarines could dive faster than a destroyer could turn, and depth charges had to be set for exactly the right depth to be lethal. When the escorts failed — as they often did in the brutal winter crossings of 1941 and 1942 — convoy ships went down in the dark, taking their cargoes of food, fuel, and ammunition to the bottom. The destroyer's own fragility was well understood: a single torpedo hit could break its thin hull in seconds. In the game it specializes in anti-submarine warfare and convoy escort, deadly against submarines and light vessels, but overwhelmed by capital ships.