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Originally Posted by Steeltrap
It's interesting to me that O'Kane followed a method (actually it was Moreton starting it on Wahoo) that, in essence, turns the USA TDC into a German fire control method i.e. disable the PK and 'tell' the TDC where the target is such that the torps will go where the scope is pointed. Clearly O'Kane felt this was the best way to go, and his hit rate and rate of sinkings (1 ship per 11.5 days of patrol - twice as good as the next ranked boat in this measure) indicate he was probably correct.
It's true the USA's TDC was the most advanced, but interesting that this doesn't necessarily translate to superior performance in the field. O'Kane seems to have used its advanced capabilities to develop firing data (PK and angle-solver capacity very good for that), but then 'disabled' it when it came to the actual firing. Intriguing!
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O'Kane had the advantage that he survived the war
and was Plato to Morton's Socrates. Everything we know about Morton (except for Forrest Stirling's "Wake of the Wahoo") comes from O'Kane. Both of those guys were TDC wizards. Don't think that they perverted and short-circuited its use sometimes because they didn't have the ability or desire to use it the way they were trained. They used it "right" lots of times, and were considered the best in the fleet.
Their genius was that they studied the careers and methods of the U-Boat skippers and sought to understand alternate methods of submarine operation. Morton was a real hothead and would rush into any situation. O'Kane kept his head screwed on straight and kept Morton (and the rest of the crew:p) alive until they were separated. They realized that tactics must change to meet situations, not the other way around.
I'm finding that I can use his technique to aim the torpedoes and set up the angles in the TDC a half hour before the action. Unlike the U-Boat tactic the torpedoes DO NOT go where the periscope is aimed. You aim the torpedoes ahead of time for a chosen bearing and then look all over the place without ruining your shot. When I get close all I'm concerned about is the target's speed and course, helpfully provided by radar before I ever see him. Then I can play poker for a half hour, look up and shoot. Ho hum! Another unfortunate accident for a Sorry Maru.
I should make another tutorial with my newest wrinkles, but even though I blew the attack on the existing tutorial and shot 10º too soon, I still hit the exact spots on the target ship that I aimed for. That didn't stop aaronblood from tearing my technique apart in a PM, and he was right. That means more precision would be wasted. I just like to be precise even when it means nothing. Not a fatal defect.
And really that's the advantage of the O'Kane method. It allows for a wide margin of error. Conventional targeting demands much more precision to get hits. O'Kane's hit ratio proves that once and for all.