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Old 06-06-08, 02:39 PM   #6
Feltan
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Rockin Robbins,

I too viewd your video, and you did a very nice job -- I should have said thanks from the start.

What you are calling the Dick O'Kane method was referred to as the constant bearing attack by Morton. He learned it before the start of WWII in S boats. S boats did not have a TDC, so everything had to be done manually to include dialing in gyro angles on the physical torpedo. To do this, they had a tool called a banjo -- I don't know its official name.

What Morton did, I believe, was to use the TDC to set gyro angles for the torpedos instead of using a banjo, but to solve the rest of the firing solution in the same manner S boats (and in fact any pre-TDC boat) did. In essence, you just need to remember that the internal angles of a triangle always add to 180. If you have a 90 degree intercept point, and you know your bearing to the target -- the AOB is 180 minus the other two. Get range to and speed of the target, and you are essentially done.

What I think your instructional video did not take full account of was that by using the "updates on map" feature of SHIV, you are getting near-perfect location data on approaching targets. In real life this had to be done, the range and bearing, by stadiameter or other manual means. Using this method without "updates on map" is very different -- and points out the inaccuracy of the in-game stadiameter. Try comparing the automatically updated map location with manually generated range and bearing -- you will be shocked, and disappointed.

A fleet boat commander had an entire team to assist with tracking. So, I don't feel bad using the auto map updates -- it isn't cheating or gamey to me. However, it makes things pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

Regards,
Feltan
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