I don't know if this is simulated in the game, but early in the war the warheads were TNT. I'm not sure which year (2-3?) they started using Torpex and ships would break in half with one hit.
-Pv-

I haven't seen this at all. Hopefully the devs have modelled the tendency for US torps to detonate a short distance from the target, making the skipper believed it was a direct hit.

However, on the flip side, I have read posters boasting of sinking Yamatos and Kongos with 2-3 torps. I don't believe I care for that one iota. (Yeah, I know Kongo was sunk by only two shots form Sealion, but that must have been the exception, not the rule).

Also, ships sink waaay too fast. We need a GWX/NYGM style damage mod as soon as possible!

Use keel shots, by using magnetic detonators, set the torp to run under the keel by about 50cm, and you're sorted. Ive sunk Fuso class BS's in 3 torps... you wanna break its back. Using side impacts you oly create a hole, and youve got to rely on water to do the damage slowly, which the AI crew can counter act with pumping.

Use a keel shot and break its back and the whole ship twists itself apart, huge leaks everywhere, no pump can stop that kinda flooding.

Be careful though, US torps werent as accurate as german ones, they run deeper than set, if you've got a ship with a draft of 9m, you wanna set it to run about 7ish, then she rips open the keel nicely.

Should minimize your torp useage for merchants.

I try and take out the screws, the escorts more often than not leave the cripple behind, then you can surface and finish it off with the deck gun rather than wasting more torps.

Several Tips:

1) Use magnetic detonaters, and set depth 1~2 meters below draft (depending on weather) :D

2) Fire at different positions so that rate of flooding can be increased
(fire at middle to detonate the fuels, stern to jam the rudder and propeller...) :oops:

3) I'm not sure whether the DEVs have put the cargo carried when putting flooding rate (i.e. sinking time) into account. Had they did so, that cargo might be carring timber, making it difficult to sink) :doh:

Good luck, Captain :|\\

zones.cfg is my guess.

Early in WW II U.S. Torpedos had big problems with magnetic pistols. Sub drivers waged a long and loud war with the Navy brass before the torps were re-tested and it was discovered that U.S. torpedos ran deeper than they were set to run, and that the magnetic pistol was FUBAR in any case.
Before and during the war with the brass, sub drivers had stopped using magnetic pistols, setting the torps to explode on impact.
When the brass found out about that they were miffed indeed. After the re-testing, the brass were in the "Silent Service".
The Germans had a very similar problem earlier in the war.
My copy of the game has not yet arrived, but it may be that problem is being modeled here.

Fair winds and a following sea
Old Dog

I have had much success in sinking these medium merchants.

First shot is set to contact exploder and aimed right for the midsection which usually results in a gaping hole in the keel.

second shot is aimed for this mid section and is a magnetic exploder set under the keel.. i would say 70% of the time they split in two.

I'll second Old Dogs theory, Ive found, using the contact/magnetic setting (with duds disabled), rather than setting the depth to run just under the draft, I set it about 2-2.5m ABOVE the keel line so it nicely scrapes the underside of the keel (depth setting aquired through trial and error mainly, with a lot of misses :( ).

However I'm not sure if this is the contact detonator or the magnetic working here, since it appears, on the magnetic option, both detonators are active. Historically, the nose detonator shouldnt work at such a shallow angle, so I'm thinking it might the magnetic detonator.

How this will work with destroyers I'm not sure, their draft is very close to the min limit for the torp anyways, and they are effected a great deal more by swell.

So, I'm leaning towards the theory that the "run deeper than set" error has been coded it, devs said they wanted to keep things historically accurate, I wouldnt be surprised if it has been added....

In Edward L Beach's book "Submarine!" he states that this problem was in fact opposite to the German one: The contact fuze mechanism of USN torpedoes early in the war was apt to jam when striking the target at a 90° angle instead of a lower one, cause the force was too high in that case. So, German contact fuzes were not sensible enough, while USN ones were too sensible. Until this was found out - amongst the other problems - it caused much confusion with the skippers and often they were not believed when reporting perfect shot setups with no results.

That is indeed what seems to happen. I had 3 torps set to impact only and 1 missed and 2 hit but did not put a Hole in the ship at all. They seemed to just blow up and not even damage the ship.

Then I fired 2 torps with Mags on and both torps blew holes into the ship and that was that.

I've not tried the under keel method , but I have been dropping my torps lower, to within a couple of meters of draft = 7.5 , I put my torps at 5 and they seem to be, if not sinking ships slowing them down a great deal or stopping them dead in the water.

I then mark there postion and go back later after the DDs have moved on and put them down with my deck gun.

But I will give under the keel a go ..

Thanks for the info .

I found aiming with the periscope midships, FWD and Aft putting at least 3 fish into a medium freighter was much more successfull. I use contact fuses (as long as I remember to change it). And 4 into the large tankers spread along the hull.

I was reading though, that putting a second torpedo in an already hit location didn't have an affect as the area was already destroyed in most cases, ie already flooded.