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Listing successful Nazi submarine attacks against US destroyers, this answer and the other feedback on that page, defies the presumption that "U-Boat attacks on naval vessels (especially destroyers) [were] such a rare occurrence".

It may have been rare, but it happened.

Wikipedia lists 5 Destroyers torpedoed by German U-Boats. I don't see a claim of 'unrealistic' can stand up in the face of confirmed proof.

Of note

And those are only the attacks that resulted in the ship being sunk.

I am generalizing this quesiton to all Axis attacks on Allied destroyers. See https://history.stackexchange.com/a/64283

At least 9 US destroyers or destroyer escorts were sunk by German submarines and at least 8 sunk by Japanese submarines (including midgets and Kaitens). These can be found in the easiest format here. Wiki - US Navy Losses.

And see Did a submarine ever torpedo and sink a destroyer?

From the German side, Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II lists the destroyers HMS Cossack, HMS Crusader, HMS Daring, USS Borie, USS Branch, USS Bristol, and USS Buck among other warships.

I would like to hear the other side of the story. Notwithstanding all these advantages of destroyers below, why did U-boats still attempt to torpedo destroyers?

There's big difference between merchant ships in a convoy and navy ships:

  • Merchant ships run at fixed and usually low speed; the speed of the slowest ship. The speed varied per convoy type.

  • Destroyers can dart around at 36 knots. Merchant ships couldn't quickly turn, the escorts could. (Flower class corvettes could do 16 knots, slightly slower than a surfaced Type VII sub.

  • Escorts (and most navy ships in general) have the means to sink a submarine. It was simply too dangerous for U-Boats to attack willy-nilly escorts ships.

  • Destroyers can turn on a dime, and present a small frontal target. You had to be a very brave U boat captain to target an approaching destroyer.

  • There is a big difference between corvettes and destroyers. A corvette was a 'just enough' solution: a converted whaler design that, as a stop gap, would be just enough to protect convoys. It was slower than U-Boats, had limited weaponry (certainly in the beginning of the war), and was better suite to keep U-Boats away rather than hunt them.

  • Destroyers were much (about twice) faster, heavily armed, much better equipped to find submarines. But they were also much more expensive to build, and building took more time. Hence the Flower class as stop gap solution.

Torpedoes are expensive. Better use them on merchant ships rather than elusive and dangerous escorts. U-boats could easily avoid them. They presented themselves small targets. At night an U-boat on the surface was almost invisible for other ships (the convoy).

That changed during the war when radar became more accurate and more available. When that happened U-Boats had no choice but to defend themselves or be sunk. Many of them were sunk that way.

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  • Another dimension might also be anger/emotion. U-Boats had to survive really grueling depth charge attacks over multiple hours after attacking merchantmen. There must have been a temptation at times to strike back, especially if the tactical situation favored doing so (in contrast the final combat sequence in Tom Hank's Greyhound scuttles the whole movie which had been pretty good until then). Commented 2 days ago

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It was not entirely advisable for a submarine to deliberately take on a destroyer. However, it did occur, for any number of reasons: late identification of each other, mis-identification, poor visibility, and sometimes it was deliberate. Submarines were hunting, and often that meant nosing around and getting surprised by what they found.

For example, on Wahoo's third patrol, she famously engaged a destroyer while investigating the islands on the north shore of New Guinea (vicinity of Kairiru and Mushu Islands).

In the process of Commander Morton's investigation of these islands and the anchorage of Victoria Bay, his boat was becoming confined within the group of islands. Morton decided to attack a ship at anchor that appeared to be a tender with small vessels alongside, with the attack being made at about 3000 yards. This placed the Wahoo in deep water for egress.

As the attack was being prepared, the tender turned into the destroyer Harusame and it was underway. By now, Wahoo was committed to the engagement in order to secure its escape. A first and second spread missed as the destroyer was accelerating, and the fan of torpedoes pointed back to Wahoo's position.

Older submarine doctrine advised that if a destroyer was on an attack track of within 20 degrees, go deep and fire on sound. Range was gated, however: at greater than 1200 yards, the destroyer would have time to see and evade the torpedo. Under 700 yards, the torpedo was un-armed. That gate would be traversed by a fast-running destroyer in 30 seconds.

In Wahoo's engagement, the destroyer charged the periscope and offered no angles to the Wahoo's torpedo solution, and a last-ditch shot by Wahoo disabled the destroyer before it could make its depth charge run.

In this instance, it was not Morton's intent to engage destroyers, but he was aggressive enough to attack merchants in proximity to destroyers. Here, he was forced to engage one through mis-identification and then needing to clear his escape.

Self-defense was also a factor to be considered, especially if a valuable target was attacked in the midst of escorting destroyers. In May of 1944, U-549 successfully attacked CVE-21 Block Island, but was then being hunted by the escort screen. U-549 managed to blow the stern off the escorting destroyer USS Barr (although that ship survived), but the remaining escorts sank U-549 in the end.

That last cruise of the Block Island was notable for another submarine-destroyer action. Here, U-66 was spotted on the surface while recharging batteries by aircraft from Block Island, who directed USS Buckley to the scene. U-66 was charged down, rammed and sunk.

Sources:

Wahoo. By Richard O'Kane. Presidio Press, 1987. Account of destroyer engagement: 136-140.

Accounts of U-549 and U-66: from my grandfather's materials and recollections, being a sailor on CVE-21. Included pictures of the survivors of U-66.

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You are right in an encounter of a submarine and destroyer(s), destroyers usually win.

As long as a submarine remains hidden from a destroyer, it probably would not attack. But once its presence is detected and a destroyer attacks, it can certainly try to defend itself, or at least to damage/sink a destroyer.

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