What did I do wrong ? (if anything)

[Jethro13]

Hey there,

Please let me know if I did anything wrong or if I just got unlucky.

I spotted a C2 Cargo, went to periscope depth and closed in slowly until I could let one of my torpedoes go, which I did and scored a direct hit square in the middle of the ship.
I followed it around for about an hour (game time) and saw it wouldn't go down, it had only slowed down quite a bit and was running low in the water. So I closed in again and hit it with a second torpedo, on the other side of the ship from the first hit, but this time closer to the engines (I was trying to hit the fuel tank). Missed the fuel tank, but still registered a direct hit below the water line. I followed it once more and saw to my dismay that it wouldn't sink despite the TWO hits it had taken. By then I was out of torpedoes and left with no other options then to go home. (no deck gun on my sub)

What the heck happened ? Could I have rammed it to make it sink ? If it had sunk later on during my trip home, would I have been made aware of it and collected the tonage ?

Thanks for the help.

[AVGWarhawk]

Attempt to hit two different areas of the ship. These ships had water tight bulkheads and this would keep them afloat. So repeating the same hit area does not help. Probably one more would have done her in. I know you hit it on the other side but more than likely it was the same compartment that is flooded already. I have left many afloat because I'm out of ammo/torps:nope:

Ramming only screws up your boat.
You have to be in proximity of the ship when it sinks to get credit.

[Morts]

well you could have stayed around for a bit waiting for it to sink from flooding

i always do that, fire 1 torpedo and wait for a bit to observe the effect, if it wont go down....i open fire with the deck gun (in your case fire a new torpedo and wait to see if it goes down)

and no you wouldn get the renown for it, if you just sailed away from it unless you where within 20 kilometers(?) of it or something

hope this helps:up:

*edit*
aww AVGwarhawk you beat me by a few seconds:rotfl:

[Albrecht Von Hesse]

What they said. :p

Also, it sometimes pays to just shadow the ship for a while, too. I've had ones take up to six hours to go down, and as long as I remain in the immediate area I get credit for it. But if I up and depart the scene, if it finally does go down I won't get the credit for it.

[mookiemookie]

I wouldn't have hit it on each side of the ship. It's much better to hit them on the same side.

In a book I'm reading (Torpedoes in the Gulf: Galveston and the U-boats 1942-1943...I highly recommend it) there's a part where one of the workers at the Galveston shipyard describes a tanker that took three Japanese torpedoes and managed to stay afloat and make it to port. He said since the shots were on different sides of the ship, it managed to even out the listing to the side from the first torpedo and brought her back upright, saving the ship.

[Jethro13]

Alright then, I taught I was being smart by hitting the other side of the ship but maybe it wasn't such a hot idea after all...

Ok, next time I'll hammer her on the same side a second time and shadow her a few hours, hoping she goes down. I could of used the tonage too since I only had sank two coastal merchs before spotting her, even lost a torpedo on one of them when it turned out to be a dud...(very frustrating, I could of used that torpedo.)

[AVGWarhawk]

Just remember, hit more than one spot along the water line. What I do is send out two torpedos in a tight spread. I use the tight spread if I'm with in 2000m. This will usually yield two hits one at the bow and one at the stearn. Play around with it until you get the feel of it. Go to the naval academy for torpedos and just keep trying different things. This is what I did.

Also, food for thought. You will lock you scope/UZO on the target....this will aim the torpedo for that spot. If you unlock it and place the crosshairs over another part of the ship, hit the check mark for the update to the weapons officer and this is were the torpedo will be aimed. With that in mind, you can send torpedos into any compartment. Give it a try. Next time you have a vessel dead in the water, get to about 1000m and put the crosshairs on the spot you want to hit. Update using the check mark on the pad and watch it work:rock:

[The Munster]

You could've also stayed in the area and increased time compression until it sank. I haven't tried this but it can be done as some people on the Forum can testify.

[AVGWarhawk]

You could've also stayed in the area and increased time compression until it sank. I haven't tried this but it can be done as some people on the Forum can testify.

This works on TC but I often find the ship will not sink and keeps motor on. I stop TC and move my boat over to it then start again with TC. Once I TC'd for 10 hours and she never sank. Sometimes you just have to throw in the towel, go get more torps and find a better hunting spot for the big game;)