With Werner's permission, I am attaching this tutorial to the thread in hopes that it will help some skippers fill out their collection of strategies to fit different attack situations. The Dick O'Kane technique is best suited to an ambush situation, but I have used against convoys to take out successive ships in line-ahead formation without changing the setup except for target speed changes. In this tutorial I did fire 11º before I should have. In practice, you should fire closer to the zero bearing, but the results of my defective attack speak for themselves and should give confidence that this technique has the one characteristic that puts more enemy ships on the bottom than any other:error tolerance. Thank you Werner, for allowing me to post in YOUR thread. We join the Dick O'Kane tactics class of the WernerSobe Submarine Attack Strategy School, in progress...
---------------------------------------------
I want to thank all you captains for attending today's seminar on the Dick O'Kane attack method. I'm really honored to be the one standing up here addressing the finest submarine tacticians in the United States Navy. Many of you guys could be up here doing a better job than I and I have learned something important that might save the skins of my crew and myself from each of you. So don't get any bright ideas that I'm a holier than thou Captain Perfect. I'm just returning the favor y'all have done me. OK?
Aaronblood! Keep it down back there! I don't mind if you play cards, but not there, OK?
OK, Captain donut, first slide please...
Here's the Redfin. We've acquired a target on course 95º, seven knots at a distance of 8 nm. Immediately upon detection, we started refining his course and measuring the speed using the radar. Well before he's within 5 nm we have already set the angle on the bow to 90º starboard and speed to 7 kt. Those won't change unless the target changes speed. In the slide, he's within 5 nm and we've assumed a flooded down condition to continue to use the radar undetected. Normally we'd be at radar depth, but it's a little rough tonight and the antenna kept getting washed out.
I want y'all to remember the strengths of the Dick O'Kane attack method. You do not take time misidentifying the target. You do not fiddle with the stadimeter trying to measure the wrong range. You do not forget to engage the PK and miss your target because we're not using it. Keep the damn thing off.
Donut, next slide please...
Here's our initial test of our sighting. I've pointed the periscope at zero degrees and punched the send range/bearing button. We're looking at the attack screen, F6 if you use Trigger Maru. You can see the projected torpedo track just about to bearing 9º. The target is coming from the left, so our lead is already built in. So all settings check good. Captain, next slide please...
We're continuing to track the target on radar. Here's the target at about 4 nm distance. You can see his course line (the track) and you can see my position at right angles to the track 800 yards off. You can read the range on the readout there. As we are in our desired position, we've throttled back to ½ kt. We'll monitor the target for deviations in course and speed. Question gutted? You may go to the bathroom after the presentation. Captain donut, next slide, please.
We've gone to periscope depth. He's very close now, on bearing 324º. Here's the procedure. We can fire any time between bearing 345º and 15º. We'll do it pretty close to zero for best accuracy. With the target unlocked we'll sight ahead of the target by about 1/3 of its length and hit the bearing/range send button (make a note to have the TDC already set with that available ahead of time). Without touching the aiming of the periscope and with target still unlocked, we'll just send a couple of friendly fish his way as juicy parts of the target pass the crosshairs. Ready?
Hey, I noticed the card game stopped back there! Good show guys! Next slide please, donut...
Fire one! We're aiming just after the first crane. Next...
Fire two! Captains, notice no spread is necessary here in the normal way of thinking about a spread. Every shot is aimed at a specific part of the target. One shot, one hit is the motto of the Redfin and it can be yours too. I'm not about to claim we have no misses. If you don't have misses you're not taking enough shots and you're losing tonnage. But we're damn proud of the Redfin and I'm damn proud of my crew. I get to stand up here because of their sacrifice and dedication. OK, let's see how we did. Captain donut, next slide...
Hit number one! We're looking at the attack map. Notice that both torpedoes are taking the exact same track to the target. You can actually see the second torpedo out about 325 yards on its way to the target. Their aiming points are different only because of the target's speed. You can see from the plot that we've hit near the bow of the target and by the inset you can see that our impact point was within 5 yards of the aiming point. Pretty good shooting! Next slide donut...
Hit number two! You can see the target slowed down slightly because of a little water intake near the bow, causing our torpedo to hit a couple of yards toward the bow from where we aimed. But captains, this kind of precision is just not possible using conventional setup and inputting spread angles to the TDC. We're doing precise surgery on the enemy with the Dick O'Kane attack technique, keeping it simple to eliminate mistakes, getting damn close to our targets and building artificial reefs to do our part for the environment.
Now I know that this isn't the ONLY attack method that works, and I know even more than that that this one won't be the best to use all the time. This is only one more trick in our bags of tricks we use to defeat the enemy. Don't forget and stop using what you already know. Just try the Dick O'Kane attack method next time a good opportunity pops up. You'll be amazed at how stress-free, accurate and deadly to the Nips it is!
If there are no questions, or even if there are, let's talk about them or anything else in the officers' club. Dismissed! Thank you donut. Thank you aaronblood and Gutted, WernerSobe and most of all Neal Stevens for Subsim!
Edit: some have asked for a drier, step by step update. The following has differences with the above seminar that reflects a couple of months using the Dick O'Kane technique. Consider this a refinement!
1. check TDC to ensure PK is off.
2. Set distance on the TDC manually to the largest possible amount, about 1400 yards. You do this by dragging the triangular hairline window down as far as it will bo and pressing the send button. The exact distance entered is not important as distance cancels out of our targeting solution!
3. Plot two positions of your target 3 minutes apart if you are working in imperial measurements or 3 min 15 sec apart if you are working in metric. Use your ruler or compass to measure the distance. Whatever the units, the distance in yards/meters divided by 100 = speed in knots. 900 meters = 9 knots. 900 yards = 900 knots. Enter that in the TDC and press the send button.
4. It's time to aim your torpedo. We're going to set up a course at right angles to the target's track. Once we get there, our target is going to approach from the right or left. Because you know where he is and where you are, you know what's the easiest to set up. Let's pretend the target will pass from left to right.
4½. Set your AoB. It will be 90º minus our shooting angle from zero, which is 10º in this case = 80º either starboard (for target passing left to right) or port (for target passing right to left). Set it on the TDC and press the send button.
5. Point your periscope at bearing zero (you can do this under water to avoid detection). Now, for a high speed steam torpedo, move the scope 10º in the direction the target will come from. You will be pointing at 350 for a target coming left to right, 10º for a target moving right to left. You're shooting 10º before he gets to zero bearing. Clear? Leave the scope pointing at your planned shoot bearing and press the send range/bearing button. YOU DON"T MESS WITH THE CURSED STADIMETER! Sorry, I feel better now. Don't touch the PK either. Leave it off and save watts.
6. Guess what? Your shot is all lined up! Time to put the sub in position.
7. On your nav map, using your ruler, connect the two plotted positions and extend the line as far as seems good in the direction of the target's movement. Then with help on (open the little hand compass tool) you can use the compass rose on the ruler to measure the target's course.
5. Determine what your course will be at 90º to the track. I usually don't calculate anything. I use the protractor. Click up the track, draw the line to the point you guess will intersect with the right angle course and click a second time. Then draw the other side of the angle toward your sub. You'll see the angle at the vertex. Adjust until it says 90, make sure the line extends beside your sub and click a third time. This line is your course at right angles to the track. You can read the number using the compass rose on the ruler tool like you did earlier.
6. Take the course and get in about 700 yards from the track well before you have to shoot. No sense making this a pressure filled activity, we're all cool on this boat. Throttle down to 1 know when you are close enough to shoot.
7. You can just sit there with the scope down listening to your sonar tech read off the bearings. When he gets to about 340, raise the scope, preset to 350. If he's coming from the other way, when he gets to about 20, raise the scope, preset to 10. Yeah, I know you're going to peek before that to make sure he doesn't get squirrely on you. That's OK, just keep periscope exposure minimal.
8. Open two or three torpedo doors. Your scope is pointed at your shoot bearing, not locked on the ship. Shoot torpedoes as juicy parts of the ship are in the crosshairs. That is precisely where they will hit.
9. Enjoy the results.
Any questions? Anything I left out? There will be a test!
Fast-90 U-Boat Targeting
1. Your goal is to shoot from a course 90º from the target track, from a range of 1000 yards or meters or less. For a medium (9 knot) target, we'll be shooting 10º before they reach the zero bearing with steam torpedoes on fast. For electrics we'll shoot 20º before they reach the zero bearing straight in front of us. This will allow the torpedoes to hit pretty squarely and close to a 90º angle. Also, the closer to a 90º strike angle you get, the more error forgiving the process is. I need to insert cool illustration right here.
Oh well.
2. The reason we're doing this is that when you are approaching the target at 90º from his course, the range doesn't even need to be considered. Even the distance from the track is only important to make the shot more accurate. If you're shooting at a nice juicy BB or T3 Tanker, 2000 yards off the track is a very easily hittable shot. Shoot two, hit two and watch 'em sink.
3. Targets can be coming from the left or right. Let's use one coming from the left, because that is slightly more difficult because you have to subtract.
(Higher math! Run!!!!!!!!!) OK our target is coming left to right. We're shooting a high speed steam torpedo so we're going to shoot 10º before he gets to zero bearing straight in front of us. So go to the attack screen (F6 for those of us with the Trigger Maru superior keyboard layout
, fish it out of the menu bars otherwise) This is where the German TDC is kept. You'll see 4 dials along the bottom of the screen and a button to the right of them. This button does two things: it turns manual TDC input on and off. When manual input is on the lights for the dials turn on. Let's set up the TDC for an attack we'll be doing in about a half hour. (You like this already!)
Turn manual input on. Hit F3 and point your scope at the zero bearing, then return to the attack screen. That first dial on the left side is your shoot bearing, also the periscope bearing when the TDC and periscope are linked later. Unlike the American TDC where bearings are 0 to 359, the German system uses bearing right and bearing left (Bug Links und Bug Rechts). Set that puppy for zero, straight ahead.
Second dial from the left is range in hundreds of meters (or yards). 10 means 1000 meters or 1 km. Set this one to an estimate of the range you'll be shooting from the track. You can double it if you're not sure. This range has nothing to do with the accuracy of your shot. It just puts a torpedo track on the attack map so you can see if your shot makes sense. Don't fret over getting anything perfect here! I told you this was cool!
Third dial from the left is angle on the bow. This guy is always going to be set at 90º. All we have to do is figure out whether it should be right or left. Think of this as "what side of the target am I looking at." Our guy is coming left to right, so we're looking at his starboard (right or recht side). Now if you're a boater, you know green is starboard and red is port (port wine is red), but if you're not, just look over at the bearing dial which says "bug recht" on the green side. This is just like the old multiple guess test in school. Half the answers are in the other questions. Set this needle to 90º right. (If he were coming from the right, we'd set it to 90º left. But he's not so we're not.) Done! This is too easy. Are you sure we can DO THIS????
Fourth dial is speed. Do Quillian's three minute distance thing for imperial. Use three minutes, 15 seconds for metric because a meter is 3.37 inches longer than a yard. Now measure the distance between the points in the unit of your choice. The speed is the number of hundreds of units you find. 700 meters/yards equals seven knots. Point the needle at the speed.
On the right side of your attack screen in a vertical configuration are the torpedo parameters. They're all labeled. If you're using steam torpedoes, make sure you use the fast setting. Set pistol to magnetic. This will detonate on contact also. Depth should be just about the draft of the target.
If you identify the target with the target manual you can find the draft. If not, a depth of 7 meters will blow up just about anything. I like to get under the keel of large targets because the German torpedoes are no more powerful than American ones and don't exactly impress me. I want all the destructive power I can bring to bear. That means an explosion as far below the water as I can arrange.
Ignore spread angle, we don't waste torpedoes!
Press that red button and the lights to the TDC input dials go off. Your periscope is still pointed at zero and the bearing dial is at zero. We're synchronized. Lets kill something!!!!!
Plot the course of the targets. Then figure a course 90º from that where you will be pointed right at the track at a right angle. We want to get to 1000 yards/meters from the track, slow down to 1 knot and wait for our targets to get to that 10º (or so) before the zero bearing. We'll never lock the target at all. In the U-Boat, the torpedoes will go exactly where we point the scope! (As long as we have linked the scope to the TDC by turning manual input off. The test is "are the dial lights off?" Yes means we're ready) Our scope is continuously updating our TDC with new bearing and AoB, so we can shoot any time we want! I'd shoot sometime between 20º before zero and zero, but it's pretty accurate outside of that too!
Lets do it the way we DIDN'T plan. We're too impatient. The target is only at 345º, 15º left bearing and we have to go to the bathroom. I gotta shoot now! Piece of cake. Open two doors. Point the scope at that front crane, about 1/4 of the way back from the bow. Shoot. Point about 1/4 of the way forward of the stern. Select the second tube and shoot. Go to the bathroom, you've got two hits on order!
So no spreads, no misses, no hurry, no panic, no fuss, no muss. Fast-90. Coolers!!!!!!!