I was reading a book last night,
War in the Boats, by William Ruhe, who served on S-37 during the war. He specifically mentioned the "speed plus three" rule as being used.
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Tex read the bearing from the top of the scope, looked at the Is-Was, and announced to the captain, "I'm using ten knots for target speed. We'll use thirteen degrees for the lead-angle for our zero-gyro-angle fish." Tex had craftily applied the old thumb rule of "speed plus three" to get a workable lead-angle."
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The target was sunk.
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When I asked the captain he range and speed of the targets he said that he'd estimated the range as about 2,500 yards to the big target and it's speed as no more than nine knots. He had used the speed-plus-three thumb rule and corrected the 37's course to lead the target by twelve degrees so as to have straight bow shots for both torpedoes. the targets, he felt, were broadside-to when the torpedoes were fired and the they would produce a spread across the big ship of about fifty yards.
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Two hits are reported.
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Originally Posted by james_nix
Eight seconds between shots!!
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Ruhe also reports this timing between torpedoes.