Too much eels on one boat, and a circular at last...

[commandosolo2009]

Hey skippers,

From the old boat of USS Triton, capt. commando is here to brief you on a rather twister type detour of events that brought about an emergency return to Pearl.

The year is 1942, March. On taking off from pearl (flyboys be quiet), ehem, we sailed close to 6000 kilometers right about Iwo Jima or close inland. Now comes a surprise from chief Ballinger (sorry Capt. Dick O'Kane, but I've been reading alot of the book, that the itch is beyond my control) on the horn that a propeller noise is up. Anyways, tracking party (:woot:) are in motion and hours later, we come up with 2 ships, a petty boat and a tanker. Brass' RoE dictate the latter be sent to the (bottom!! Sorry Kurt Jurgens).

So, 6 eels goes through that thing. And here it is! :nope: Merely crippled?

Ok, how about another 2 one fore and aft? OK! :nope: Dead in the water.

Ok, how about 4 more (6 + 2 + 4 =12 eels so far :shifty:), evenly spaced out? Cross yer fingers! :nope:

:down: Time out!!! One of them last 4 decides to go erratic and boom, I got whacked! (A Circular!!! YAAAAY!!! At last!!!)

So countless injuries among forward torpedo room crew, dozen of damaged systems, some hull destruction, and a bulkhead turned inside. :stare: No big deal....

Anyways, so my fore tubes are now empty, now we'll switch to the back tubes, reverse, right full rudder, give him our stinker.

And 4 eels away... YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEAAAArrrrrrrrr...NO!!!
NO NO!!!!

He's still up? I mean what did they do to it? Reactive armor? I mean c'mon!!!

Now I'm dead pissed, I decided to use the cannon. A few shots got things straight...

He's finally down. I'm going home.

____
END

So 20 eels, fired, 19 hits and 1 circular for breakfast on the 3rd patrol to East China Sea. Someone tell me what (the (#$(&) is going on here?

Am I doing something wrong? I saw 19 fish slam hard into that meek old rig and nothing? an entire (could-have-been-fruitful patrol turned around thanks to this guy)...

GRRRRRRR!!!!:damn:

[Dogfish40]

This is why I wish the Firing Officer would say somthing like ...For good ones: Torpedo running straight and normal and for others that are being bad fish somthing like..."Torpedo running not so straight and normal" or why would they call it out anyway. It would at least throw out a bone to chew on. You could then decide to slow or dive, reverse engines,..anything!
All we get is "Torpedo in the water" like the alternitive is "Torpedo in the air sir":O:.
Oh Well.
Good Hunting?!
D40

[Platapus]

You know for sure that you got 19 detonations at on the ship? Or where they hits with no detonation?

A tanker traveling in ballast can be very hard to sink, but if you truly got 19 contact detonations, it should have gone down ballast or not.

That stynks.

[WernherVonTrapp]

Helluvva story, I'll say that. Most I ever used for a large tanker was 6, but the tanker was docked. Never used more than 4 at sea, usually 3.
I think you may have set an unofficial record.:up:

[Daniel Prates]

This is why I wish the Firing Officer would say somthing like ...For good ones: Torpedo running straight and normal and for others that are being bad fish somthing like..."Torpedo running not so straight and normal" or why would they call it out anyway. It would at least throw out a bone to chew on. You could then decide to slow or dive, reverse engines,..anything!
All we get is "Torpedo in the water" like the alternitive is "Torpedo in the air sir"D40

Would also be good if he said "torpedo coming back at us."

[magic452]

:down: Time out!!! One of them last 4 decides to go erratic and boom, I got whacked! (A Circular!!! YAAAAY!!! At last!!!)
GRRRRRRR!!!!:damn:

That must be the new Japanese Ell repellant I've heard so much about.
Oh wait that was Shark repellant. :damn:

Magic

[Diopos]

Well the good thing about "rotten" torps is that they remain "rotten" even when they go circular. :D

How the heck did you survive a torpedo hit!?!

.

[magic452]

The only circle runner I've had in three years that hit me was a dud.
Sometimes duds are a good thing.:yeah:

Magic

[Armistead]

Sounds like bugged damaged zones.

The last circle runner I got I fired six at a carrier, 5 hit it, one hit me. Seems M18's cirlce run on me a lot. I took on a severe dive, fought it as I fought a few escorts, but finally blew tanks. The carrier sunk right before I died...

[deceptiboat]

I've had only two circle runner since i begin playing SH4, one passed above my sub(Submerged attack), and the other one passed below my sub(Surface Attack), lucky me :O:

[commandosolo2009]

This is why I wish the Firing Officer would say somthing like ...For good ones: Torpedo running straight and normal and for others that are being bad fish somthing like..."Torpedo running not so straight and normal" or why would they call it out anyway. It would at least throw out a bone to chew on. You could then decide to slow or dive, reverse engines,..anything!
All we get is "Torpedo in the water" like the alternitive is "Torpedo in the air sir":O:.
Oh Well.
Good Hunting?!
D40

Got back to pearl and fixed the boat. Got the victory cross too..

Not happy with BuOrd at the moment.

You know for sure that you got 19 detonations at on the ship? Or where they hits with no detonation?

A tanker traveling in ballast can be very hard to sink, but if you truly got 19 contact detonations, it should have gone down ballast or not.

That stynks.

Mate, the first 6 seen submerged, the remaining 13 topside. No they were 100% detonations... I think I picked my circular back at base. I was picking eels from pearl when I skipped one and chose the next one over it ;)

Helluvva story, I'll say that. Most I ever used for a large tanker was 6, but the tanker was docked. Never used more than 4 at sea, usually 3.
I think you may have set an unofficial record.:up:

I have a save file with replay. Dont know how to post here or where it is located though...

Would also be good if he said "torpedo coming back at us."

:(

That must be the new Japanese Ell repellant I've heard so much about.
Oh wait that was Shark repellant. :damn:

Magic

Well the good thing about "rotten" torps is that they remain "rotten" even when they go circular. :D

How the heck did you survive a torpedo hit!?!

.

Dont know mate, the best guess is that the forward portion got hit, sparing the batteries, the engines, and the rear dive planes... We sailed straight ahead surface all the way back to pearl..

The only circle runner I've had in three years that hit me was a dud.
Sometimes duds are a good thing.:yeah:

Magic

Sounds like bugged damaged zones.

The last circle runner I got I fired six at a carrier, 5 hit it, one hit me. Seems M18's cirlce run on me a lot. I took on a severe dive, fought it as I fought a few escorts, but finally blew tanks. The carrier sunk right before I died...

Interesting though. All were Mk14s (old grandpa).. For an Mk18, I'd double check the rudder and the fuse. I wish we had the SH5 luxury of moving about the boat. Would've been nice too with them fleet boats.

I've had only two circle runner since i begin playing SH4, one passed above my sub(Submerged attack), and the other one passed below my sub(Surface Attack), lucky me :O:

Indeed. Lucky YOU. :salute:

[Anthony W.]

My luck must suck. I had 7 circular runs on one patrol. And at one point I fired 26 torpedoes, and only 2 detonated.

Somebody's been sabotaging my eeeeeeelllllsss....

Interestingly enough, all circulars were Mk.18's, and the 26:2 detonation ratios were Mk.14's with a mix of contact and magnetic settings

[Cpt-Maxim]

commandosolo2009,

You didnt mention whether you set torps into the side of the tanker.. or to run below it and break it in half? Some ships will lift out of the water with only one torp cenetered properly and crack it like an egg.

It might make a difference if youre using mods - Im using NSM "natural sinking mechanics".

[TorpX]

So, 6 eels goes through that thing. And here it is! :nope: Merely crippled?

Ok, how about another 2 one fore and aft? OK! :nope: Dead in the water.

Ok, how about 4 more (6 + 2 + 4 =12 eels so far :shifty:), evenly spaced out? Cross yer fingers! :nope:


And 4 eels away... YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEAAAArrrrrrrrr...NO!!!
NO NO!!!!

He's still up? I mean what did they do to it? Reactive armor? I mean c'mon!!!


So 20 eels, fired, 19 hits and 1 circular for breakfast on the 3rd patrol to East China Sea. Someone tell me what (the (#$(&) is going on here?

Am I doing something wrong? I saw 19 fish slam hard into that meek old rig and nothing? an entire (could-have-been-fruitful patrol turned around thanks to this guy)...

GRRRRRRR!!!!:damn:

What mods did you say you were using?


Was it the Indestructable Imperial Japanese Navy mod? :)

[Daniel Prates]

Well I say, chaps! This forum is great. Not only we get a lot of sailor stories, but also quite a bit of fisherman's tales too. Two for the price of one.

[Thrair]

A while back I was taking a risk and attacking a task force in calm weather and fairly shallow water. I fired 6 hastily aimed shots at a kongo. One hit an escorting light cruiser, one was a dud, and 3 were solid hits that left the kongo dead in the water. The other appeared to be a miss.

While trying to evade a DD that got on top of me much faster than I anticipated, there was a massive explosion that split the Destroyer in half. Turns out the "miss" was a circular that was swimmingly along above me when the destroyer was making a run. :arrgh!:



Sometimes circulars are useful. Most of the time, they suck.

*EDIT* Still lost the sub that patrol. I'd managed to slink away from the main group and was turning on a little TC when a trailing escort I'd not noticed came back towards the task force and happened to run my butt over with depth charges.

[magic452]

You should have fired another circle runner at it. :know: :06: :D
The convoys almost always leave on escort behind.
Trails at about 7 miles.

Magic

[commandosolo2009]

You should have fired another circle runner at it. :know: :06: :D
The convoys almost always leave on escort behind.
Trails at about 7 miles.

Magic

Yeah, tell me about it...

But even with hot straight and normal, you need visual proof of the detonation.

[Daniel Prates]

But even with hot straight and normal, you need visual proof of the detonation.

A welcome improvement for SH4 would be the need of confirmation so that you could score a kill. I mean, you are left in the blind as to deep runners, circlers etc (and fairly so, since that's the way it worked in Real Life) but when a ship is destroyed, you get that message saying "enemy unit destroyed!" Come on!

[Platapus]

You are right. If your crew is going to report torpedo in the water, why not have them tell you whether it is hot straight and normal.

Now, during WWII, what could the crew know about the torpedo after it left the tube?

[Diopos]

You are right. If your crew is going to report torpedo in the water, why not have them tell you whether it is hot straight and normal.

That is a question for Ubisoft actually! :yep:

Now, during WWII, what could the crew know about the torpedo after it left the tube?

They could track it via hydrophones. From the firing solution they knew the bearing the torpedo should be. Any deviation from it would indicate a problem. Also if the characteristics of the torps sound signal (frequency/pitch and its general "timber") deviated from the normal that would be considered another indication of something going wrong.

Well, me thinks at least :hmmm:

.

[TorpX]

You are right. If your crew is going to report torpedo in the water, why not have them tell you whether it is hot straight and normal.

Now, during WWII, what could the crew know about the torpedo after it left the tube?

They could and did track torpedos in WWII. O'Kane describes how his soundman tracked both the target and the torp, alternating between each as they moved closer together. It certainly could be done, but I'm sure there were limitations to this approach. Throw in multiple targets and torps and it would become very difficult. In any case, I'm not sure how much warning your sound operator would be able to give you.

BTW, I've read that the Navy could have had a mechanical safeguard against circle runners, but for obscure reasons chose not to.

[Daniel Prates]

Well, me thinks at least :hmmm:

.

I am pretty sure that the 'funkmann' in u-boats would listen the torpedo. If the sound is dissipating and the sonar is directed ahead, the torpedo is clearly going straight. If the sound dos not diminish and the sonarman has to rotate the sonar scope to keep hearing the torpedo, than it was clearly a circular. I am sure of this since because of one of those interviews included in good old 'aces of the deep'. Now, if american skippers had the habit of doing the same, I dont know, but it was possible.