Quote:
From this it appears there was a time delay between programming the TDC and it being ready, but once ready updates by changing periscope angle are instantaneous - this would be akin to a 5 sec (for example) delay between selecting auto-update on the TDC and it being ready for use.
I understand that the real TDC had input for target course rather than AOB, and hence presumably the submarines' own heading would be fed in automatically from the gyrocompass - this would account for his statement that changes on own course would be automatically factored in.
This important functionality is missing from the SH3 TDC
however this line "The torpedo-officer gives the
order "Follow" to the attack-table. A lamp glows, and
the attack-table is now controlling the binoculars on
the bridge." confuses me.
|
Yes theer was a time delay. The TDC was, even if a hugely complicated, basically and analog computer. I.e. it worked like an old clock, with lots of wheels, springs and such. Therefore you entered data on the dials through the handwheels above and below the case (And never by moving the dial needle directly like we do in SH3
, they were too delicate for that) and then you switched it "on", allowing for some seconds calculation-then it gave the signal with the red lamp "ready".
What was fed in was the AOB, not the target's true course (Inversely to what the TDC on US subs admitted) and what Schäffer refers to as own course changes being unimportant is that the TDC allowed compensation of those changes, not of enemy course changes. But yes in SH3 if you change your own course, the solution gets screwed up.
As for the last sentence, when the lamp glows (It was a blue lamp) it meant "Lage folgend" (Following AOB) and it's the same as when you lock the TDC and the dials are updated by the movement of your optics. That is historically correct. I think that the reference to the TDC controlling the binoculars is an error in translation, I have seen that happen many times with books written originally in german when it comes to technical terms (Heck, I have even detect errors in the official US Navy translation of the german Submarine commander's handbook of 1943!!!
).