I was just in a situation where I had to make a hasty torpedo launch against a cruiser in the middle of a convoy. I had no accurate info on the speed and course of the convoy so I had to rely on last minute mast height, ship length and fixed wire speed estimations.
But... I couldn't see the cruiser properly as it was behind other ships. So what did I do... Shot 4 torpedoes with very rough guesses and got no hits.
What should I have done?
Exactly. Just measure any ship in the convoy for aob and speed and I would have gotten the course and speed of the cruiser too as it travelling inside the convoy...
The range I would have got from the cruiser's mast that I could have seen, but even if I hadn't seen that, I could have just measured the closest ship in the row and just add 2 times 500 - 600 meters to the range as the gaps in between the ships were probably something like that.
Do I feel silly now thinking about those 4 torpedoes
First manufactured in Germany, taken by train to St.Nazaire, then loaded to my boat with sweat and curses, then hauled to BE59 and then wasted due my sheer stupidity
Well, if there's one consolation: maybe you guys can learn from this and won't make the same mistake I did even once. I certainly won't make this one again - if BdU doesn't send me to the Eastern front.