i determine speed by raising the scope, looking at the ship and marking its position on the map. then i will start the time and lower the scope to reduce the odds of detectiion. nearing 1 or 2 or 3 minutes later depending on the time i have i raise the scope again and plot the ships position on the map. use the ruler tool to measure the distance between the two points... then you can tell how fast the ship is going by how much distance is between the two points vs the time it took for him to cover the distance. this is the speed value i put in the TDC.
furthermore you can extend the ruler line out several miles ahead of the target ship - as long as the line passes through the two points you draw on the map you can get a really good idea of the path he is taking assuming he continues in a straight line for several miles.
finally i take a last minute range and AOB calculation, and put that into the TDC and fire.
as a rule of thumb i try to almost always be 90 degrees to the target's path and within 1200 meters of the target for accuracy.
if it is a convoy i will try to target a ship that is about 1200 meters away, another that is about 800 away and a third that is about 400 meters away (approx)
i can take out 3 ships out of a large convoy using this method by firing at the furthest ship first, waiting about 15 seconds then firing the second ship, waiting a few seconds more and firing the third shots. the hits almost always strike all three ships within about 12 seconds from the first hit to the last hit so zig zagging error is reduced this way because they have little warning.
by this time the escorts have wised up and it is time to get deep and get away and try again the next night. if you make good use of your torpedos you can claim 10 to 12 ships from a large convoy over the course of 3 or 4 days of stalking - shooting - evading - reloading (internals and externals) - stalking - and shooting again.
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