Oiltanker of DOOM (or the immortal oiltanker strikes back)

[Skarek]

I'm getting a bit mad on an immortal Japanese Large Oil Tanker. If i remember right, torpedoes are supposed to sink ships and oil tanker shall sink really easilly. I have hit an large oiltanker with about 8 torpedos, maybe 10 times (loaded) and it never sink. Either it is the immortal ghost Oil Tanker or i do somthing terribly wrong.

So can someone please give me a tutorial "to how to sink an Oil tanker". Where shall you aim, how deep shall i shoot and where shall I hit. I thought i know how to do it, but maybe i have totally missunderstood somthing.

[Platapus]

Tough tankers are the norm, I am afraid.

Torpedoes sink cargo ships because the cargo ship's holds are normally filled with air/cargo which is lighter than the water the ship displaces and the torpedo lets in water which is the same weight as the surrounding water. Glub glub.

A tanker is not a ship filled with air, but a ship designed to float while full of liquid.

Unless the torpedo can make the specific liquid go boom, all you are doing is exchanging one liquid for another. To sink a tanker you have to break the ship's back. Tankers are also capable of moving liquid from one compartment to another. I don't know if this is modeled in the game or not, but in real life punching a hole in a tanker will be more harmful to the environment than the tanker itself.

Tankers filled with av gas are easy to sink not because of the torpedo but because of the resulting fire/explosion breaking the ship. A tanker filled with heavy oil won't burn nor explode (or will be much harder to get a good fire going.)

A Tanker traveling in ballast (no liquid filled compartments) may be very very hard to sink.

Under keel shots and or shots in the engine compartments are my guess at where to hit tankers. But punching holes in the liquid storage compartments may not be all the troubling to the tanker itself.

I hope this helped

[OneTinSoldier]

Dowly(a user on the forums here) had the same problem. He seemed to discover it was because he was using magnetic torps. I recommend not using those too much until later in the war when the problems with them were worked out(to some degree). Try using contact impact torpedoes for the pistol type. Remeber, magnetic is the default pistol type! So unless you change it to contact they will be shot as magnetic for the pistol type.

Hope that helps

[-Pv-]

There is a chart provided in the manual listing target types and how many torpedoes it takes to sink the ships. These are not hard (every-time) rules but a guide. On the targets I've attacked so far, I've found this general guide to be true.
-Pv-

[Dowly]

Yes, like OneTinSoldier said, I had the same problem. 6 magnetic fuse torps only caused the tanker to caugh on fire, but the #7 and #8 which used contact fuses finished the tanker in a ~10min.

The next time, when you use the magnetic fuse try hitting the ship (no keel shot), sometimes the torpedo explodes when the magnetic fuse is triggered, meaning that it doesnt hit the ship but blows up few inches from the hull = no hole, no water going onboard.

[Donner]

You have discovered exactly what Lieutenant Commander L.R. Daspit felt like.

While on its second patrol, USS Tinosa sighted the mammoth whale factory-to-tanker Tonan Maru No.3 on 24 July 1943. LtCdr. Daspit proceeded to fire 13 torpedoes into this behemoth with little or no results. The Tonan Maru No. 3 was damaged but not sunk.

Daspit saved his last torpedo for inspection at Pearl Harbor upon his return. This proved to be a decisive moment in the war. The Bureau of Ordance could no longer blame 'incompetent' skippers for the lack of results. The torpedo exploder faults were discovered and corrected thanks partly to the frustrations of Daspit and the crew of Tinosa.

[ReM]

Yes, like OneTinSoldier said, I had the same problem. 6 magnetic fuse torps only caused the tanker to caugh on fire, but the #7 and #8 which used contact fuses finished the tanker in a ~10min.

The next time, when you use the magnetic fuse try hitting the ship (no keel shot), sometimes the torpedo explodes when the magnetic fuse is triggered, meaning that it doesnt hit the ship but blows up few inches from the hull = no hole, no water going onboard.

Did you encounter premature detonations as well? I found two freighters in calm seas and I was gonna put one torp in each with impact - not magnetic- fuse.

Both torps exploded way before hitting their target (about halfway that is)...I was not in shallow waters and there were no whales reported.....

It might be modelled because american torps at the beginning of WW II were awful, just curious if someone else also experienced this.

[Dowly]

Yes, like OneTinSoldier said, I had the same problem. 6 magnetic fuse torps only caused the tanker to caugh on fire, but the #7 and #8 which used contact fuses finished the tanker in a ~10min.

The next time, when you use the magnetic fuse try hitting the ship (no keel shot), sometimes the torpedo explodes when the magnetic fuse is triggered, meaning that it doesnt hit the ship but blows up few inches from the hull = no hole, no water going onboard.
Did you encounter premature detonations as well? I found two freighters in calm seas and I was gonna put one torp in each with impact - not magnetic- fuse.

Both torps exploded way before hitting their target (about halfway that is)...I was not in shallow waters and there were no whales reported.....

It might be modelled because american torps at the beginning of WW II were awful, just curious if someone else also experienced this.

Nope, havent had any prem.´s yet, hopefully wont have any! ;)

@Donner

Thanks for the info, I´m pretty new with US subs and the whole Pacific battle, so every bit of info is new to me. :up:

[NefariousKoel]

Yes, like OneTinSoldier said, I had the same problem. 6 magnetic fuse torps only caused the tanker to caugh on fire, but the #7 and #8 which used contact fuses finished the tanker in a ~10min.

The next time, when you use the magnetic fuse try hitting the ship (no keel shot), sometimes the torpedo explodes when the magnetic fuse is triggered, meaning that it doesnt hit the ship but blows up few inches from the hull = no hole, no water going onboard.
Did you encounter premature detonations as well? I found two freighters in calm seas and I was gonna put one torp in each with impact - not magnetic- fuse.

Both torps exploded way before hitting their target (about halfway that is)...I was not in shallow waters and there were no whales reported.....

It might be modelled because american torps at the beginning of WW II were awful, just curious if someone else also experienced this.
You have to fire the torpedo quickly after switching to contact only. The switch will reset to influence after a very short time. Or if you change tubes.;)

[Lio]

the first torp i fired in the game left my tube, then circled 360 and was only a few feet away from hitting me :o
ive also experinced torpedos that exploded half way to there target.

now in my career mode where i play with 100% realism except for fuel, i cant help getting a little paronid when i fire torpedos.

[Shakermaker]

the first torp i fired in the game left my tube, then circled 360 and was only a few feet away from hitting me :o
ive also experinced torpedos that exploded half way to there target.

now in my career mode where i play with 100% realism except for fuel, i cant help getting a little paronid when i fire torpedos.

hahaha, I can imagine that. Maybe you loaded one of those Kamikaze mini-subs by mistake? ;)

[Lio]

hahaha, I can imagine that. Maybe you loaded one of those Kamikaze mini-subs by mistake? ;)

speaking of kamikaze, i lost my first career before i even got to my patrol zone. Some crazy jap pilot thought he might as well take me with him. Im not sure if it was his machine guns, or the fact that he actualy dived his plane right into my sub, but i went down asap.
And then i read in some post that the planes wasnt lethal :nope:

[ReM]

Yes, like OneTinSoldier said, I had the same problem. 6 magnetic fuse torps only caused the tanker to caugh on fire, but the #7 and #8 which used contact fuses finished the tanker in a ~10min.

The next time, when you use the magnetic fuse try hitting the ship (no keel shot), sometimes the torpedo explodes when the magnetic fuse is triggered, meaning that it doesnt hit the ship but blows up few inches from the hull = no hole, no water going onboard.
Did you encounter premature detonations as well? I found two freighters in calm seas and I was gonna put one torp in each with impact - not magnetic- fuse.

Both torps exploded way before hitting their target (about halfway that is)...I was not in shallow waters and there were no whales reported.....

It might be modelled because american torps at the beginning of WW II were awful, just curious if someone else also experienced this.
You have to fire the torpedo quickly after switching to contact only. The switch will reset to influence after a very short time. Or if you change tubes.;)

Another lesson learned!

Thanks!