Ofcourse, the tools are allways the cause of screw-ups. I don't understand why we use them anyway. Let me adress some of the points where I think you fool... erhm, tools got jammed.
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Originally Posted by Antiacus
When he gets up to about 3km i point my bow at him and establish 10kt speed. I'm all set! Easy pickins!
reset my bow to 90 degrees to his course, double check his course, make a tiny adjustment to get back to 1km range and i'm all set.
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Not really the cause of the miss probably, but why bother. The target is allready comming near right in front of you, right? No need to go closer. Just make sure you are close (1 km or so) to his track. Take a chill and wait. Let go of those nerves. 10 kts makes noise and makes you visible. A merchant may not notice, but a near DD might.
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Originally Posted by Antiacus
When he gets to 0 degrees on my scope i unlock, set one loose just a little forward, and one just a tad aft.
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This is probably the point where it goes wrong. You let the target in the scope pass 0 degrees before you fire. This means the TDC needs to aim the torpedo further ahead of the target (which is now right in front of you), and that makes the aim less accurate. Best would have been to fire when the gyro angle indicator is 0 degrees. This means the scope is looking some 5-15 degrees before crossing the bow (or stern for an rear-shot, and depends on target and torpedo speed mostly). This way the torpedo's do not need to turn after being fired.
Second, you aim ahead and aft of the target. Why not ON the target? A 3rd or 4th of the lenght from the bow and stern if you want to spread. But on it for sure. If you entered the propper values in the dials, the TDC is going to aim correctly so the torpedo's will hit where intended. Really, the TDC works perfect, as long as you know "garbage input"="garbage output". Simply
do not fire until you are sure of the target course and speed. Range is less important. By aiming infront and behind you purpously ruined your aim. Not intended ofcourse, but you made the chances of a miss higher than a hit.
Then there is the fact that the torpedo doors need to be opened before being fired. If you don't, they will open automatically but the gyro angle will not be correct when the torpedo leave the tube (about 4 second old).
There is also the possibility you set the AOB to the wrong side. (you didn't mention direction) Point the dial in the direction the target crosses your scope. (red if "from right to left", green if "from left to right")
I hope that helps figure out what went wrong. I also hope I wasn't to harsh. TDC workings are tricky to understand. Mistakes are very understandable