Damnit damnit damnit

[Maserati]

So I finally broke down and picked up SH IV on Steam. A word to the wise: don't - it's not necessarily playable, UBI and Steam managed to screw up integrating the U-Boat Missions pack and it takes some fixin'.

But that's not what I'm upset about. I did get it working and I did just get in a patrol. Oh, it's pretty as all get out, no question about that, the engine is lovely.

But there I am, working my way out to Honshu and my patrol area and I start picking up sonar contacts. Oooh, a task force ! So I dive, evade an escort and am rewarded with shots at a cruiser and a battleship ! I'm running silent because there are destroyers all over the place.

And what do I see when I'm down to the rear tubes ?


Kido Freaking Butai. That's right, SIX carriers. Damnit damnit damnit. I did get a hit from the rear tubes - the Shokaku I think, but they're past before I can reload and set up.

Shoot, it was darn near Midway in 1941.

In a Type VII U Boat I'd have had two carriers at least, stupid American torpedoes.

[mcf1]

Must have been frustrating right?
I've been in similar situations quite often, but nevermind,head up
you'll get them next time:arrgh!:

[Rockin Robbins]

In a Type VII U-Boat you never would have seen a carrier bigger than a jeep carrier. Fleet Boats sank MUCH larger military targets than U-Boats did. Stick around and get familiar with the equipment. You'll have that chance again.

In the meantime it's damned frustrating trying to shoot targets as they steam by at 20 or 30 knots and a couple of duds is the difference between a bang-up celebration and drinking your sorrows away! Hey, that's what real life was like too.

Isn't it amazing that the democratic and open US was saddled by a bureaucratic military hamstrung by the inappropriate misuse of authority while totalitarian Germany had open lines of communication and placed great credence in the word of its front line sub captains? The Germans sorted out their torpedo problems quickly and without fuss. By mid 1940 they were good to go. The Americans mucked up the works and had lousy torpedoes until the middle of 1943. They both began with almost identical problems. That's not a coincidence because the American torpedo designs were copied from captured German torpedoes! They copied them so well they copied the defects too. War is a funny business.

[Sailor Steve]

Um, the Germans didn't solve their torpedo problems until mid-1942, and the proper magnetic heads weren't ready until December of that year. It took them almost twice as long as the Americans to solve the same problems.
http://www.uboat.net/history/torpedo_crisis.htm