[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

Yes! Night surface attacks became very common from 1917 -1918. According to Labourdette:

"From 1917 onwards, [daylight] torpedo attacks became rarer and were replaced with night attacks or at daybreak. On a dark night, the U-Boote operated on the surface or half submerged using direct sights and not the periscope, giving them an incontestable advantage over surface ships. At the end of September 1917, the British Admiralty wrote in its report:

"It is obvious that, despite a widespread feeling on ships carrying personnel or goods, the night does not bring safety against the German submarine threat. Our protective measures need to be as complete at night time as they are during the day. It is because these measures are not put into practice with all the care that they require that the success rate of U-Boote night attacks is 75% whereas in the day it drops to 50%."

This is a major reason why U-Boat warfare escalated and became much more deadly after 1916. From 1914 - 1916 there was still a pretty substantial effort to stick to the Prize Rules - boarding & investigating merchantmen in daylight, and allowing time to abandon ship if a ship was carrying supplies for the Entente war effort.

By 1917, U-Boat commanders and the Kaiserliche Marine were frustrated with defensive measures that made it more risky for submarines - thousands more merchantmen were armed, and several U-Boats had been sunk by Q-Ships while trying to play "by the rules" and give warning before attack. Thus, in the vicious Spring 1917 U-Boat offensive, attacks without warning became more common. And thus the death toll increased - if you check statistics from that date you will see more Allied merchant ship sinkings with heavy loss of life, or even with no survivors, because unrestricted torpedoings in the warzone were more acceptable to Germany.

Re: TBT - the most closely analogous thing was a primitive "computer" utilizing slide rulers to "lead" close range torpedo shots. Unfortunately I do not have any images of it:

http://www.subsim.site/phpBB_archive...ic.php?t=46289

Interesting. Thanks for the info.