Both Germans and Americans used the one error mitigation tool that works every time. Get DAMNED close.
The Germans, with an inferior targeting system, did that better than Americans, who early in the war, insisted in taking long shots just because the torpedoes could. The torpedo defects cancel out. The Mark XIV was such a perfect copy of the German torpedo that they even copied the defects. Even the American engineers of the 1930's labored under the myth of German superiority.
But the German command structure, much more decentralized, giving commanders in the field much more latitude, was far better able to react to and correct the torpedo problems. Where American sub commanders paid terrible prices for reporting the defects, German sub skippers were rewarded, listened to and trusted.
But the Germans were more conscious of the error magnitudes of a visual system but realized that they could be miles off and still hit the target. They just needed to close the range to extreme levels.
Although that will cost you some submarines, it works very, very well.
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