[mmm...Dönitz]

Well, when I first started this thread I was pretty rubbish at getting any decent data into the TDC using the notepad. Ffirstly I was identifying the ships wrongly (apart from the really obvious ones) as the descriptions changed after GWX was installed. I found that by getting a solution from the periscope station I could then nip down to TDC and check that it looked sensible (asking my WO for confirmation, if you will ) If it was totally bonkers, rather then going back up for another look I slipped intot he habit of tweaking the solution from the TDC station.

Your link to the SH3 community manual doesn't work, but I think that now I may be doing the Full Manual Targetting thing. Now what I do is pop up the scope and take a look around until the nearest ships appear on the navigation map. I then put trhe scope down and place markers on each ship before hey fade away. I then start to manouver towards my attack position at persicope depth. After a minute or so I raise the scope again, place new markers on the map and lower it. Based on how far the target has moved and its course I then pick a location for my attack well ahead of the target's current location. At this stage it all goes a bit wrong if I can't outrun the target while submerged, so I try to be ahead of the target by the time I've taken the second sigting.

I use the protractor tool to run a line through the two markers, extending out to where the ship will be when I want to attack, then I construct a second line at 90 deg from than point to where I want my sub to end up when I shoot (if that makes sense). With this construction on the map I set course for my chosen firing point. When I get there I turn 90deg to the target's course and stop engines. En route I set an AOB of 90deg into the TDC.

I raise the scope to take a third sighting and to check that the ship is on course. I can also now use the distance markers on the nav map to measure the range, which I also put into the TDC. The only missing bit of info is the target speed, so I go through the normal manual targetting process once quickly to get this figure, but I don't click the tick mark to send the data to the TDC. Once I have the speed the scope goes down again.

Back at TDC I set the range using the distance markers from the nav map, the AOB to 90deg, and the speed from the reading taken at the scope, and the other torpedo settings. Then I turn manual data entry off again to lock the gyro angle adjustment to the 'scope bearing.

Then its just a case of raising the scope and waiting for the target to pass in front of me. Sounds long-winded writing it all down but I'm getting quite fast at it, provided that I can get far enough in front of a target.

I'm happy that what I am doing is "real" enough because for the initial observations to get the points on the map I can pretend that my #1 is doing the spotting while I plot the markers on the nav map. Getting into firing position is all down to me, plus I have to make at least one manual TDC calculation to get the speed, even if I enter all data into the TDC manually.