Quote:
Originally Posted by GJO
Although many of us think of the breaking waves that we may see at the sea shore or in shallow water, the long rollers of the North Atlantic are quite different. Here the length of the trough between wave crests may be more than sufficient to enable a torpedo to keep to a constant depth below the surface whilst following the shape of the wave - this would be especially true if the advice provided at Torpedo School was followed regarding positioning to enable the weapon to be fired at approximately 90 degrees to the wave direction.
ETA: In heavy seas, merchant ships (especially in the days of sail or steam) would choose to head into or away from waves rather than take them broadside on. Therefore, a torpedo fired at 90 AOB would be fired along the waves rather than against them.
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"...along the waves..." doesn't mean that they would be tucked safely in the belly of the wave. A torpedo is not a bullet. It takes 30-120 seconds to reach its target. During that time, the torpedo is going to be passed over by several swells and troughs. Amd, at 15 m/s wind speed, those are not going to be long, gentle rollers. There are going to be perturbing forces on the torpedo which are going to push it in different directions over time. Think of trying to hold a boat on course in beam winds and seas. Granted that the torpedo is below the surface, but the water within a wave height of the surface is moving in a churning circular flow pattern. And the torpedo is steered by a mechanical feedback loop that is prone to upset by impulsive inputs.
Again, it is your game and you are free to play it in any way that you enjoy. So turn off h.sie's Torpedo Failure Fix and go out and sink 'em in a howling gale. We all adjust the game to make it play the way we want. Personally, I object to the lack of crew assistance and am willing to accept some totally unrealistic compromises to avoid having to do things no R/L sub skipper ever had to do. YMMV
BTW, how do you line up a shot? Do you turn off No Stabilized View? Either on the surface or at periscope depth in 15 m/s met conditions, the
sub is liable to be moving around pretty well, maybe even broaching, and the peri or UZO under water much of the time. I can't even line up a shot under those conditions. What's your technique?