[Fidd]

34. Damageable internal equipment/effects from DC attacks.

I remain ever hopeful that at some point depth charge attacks will become much more protracted, with greatly reduced lethality, absent hedge-hog attacks. I'd like to see the following effects of DC near-misses:

Broken glass items, eg any gauge, be it electrical or pressure related, with physically larger gauges being the most vulnerable. Loss of Papenburg and/or tilt metre. Need to use standby gauges if they are undamaged, with even these standby gauges being possibly lost in prolonged DC attacks. Sounds of broken-glass underfoot. Possible intermediate "cracked" state for non-pressure instruments between working normal and unusably damaged?

Minor leaks, fixable by operating isolation valves.

Medium leaks, fixable by (machinist only??) tightening flanges/using blocks of wood, the latter creating noise of hammering. (need not be represented by avatars, could simply a sound effect?)

Major leaks, requiring surfacing to initiate repairs as a precondition. Bilge fills in meantime. May result in inability to rise to surface once all tanks, bilge and trims are blown, and air exhausted.

Leaks most severe when at depth, the deeper the worse the leak.

Fire in e-motor room or diesel room or in circuit breaker cupboards, or, in the radio room, or hydrophone room. (in order of likelihood). Fire may be extinguished by crew by picking up an extinguisher. Duration and severity of fire may reduce effectiveness of electric services, or, render them inoperable.

Cracked batteries resulting in lower battery current, and reduced overall charge held. As more and more cells are cracked, the bilge water becomes increasingly acidic. If bilge water rises to a certain point (3m3?) and battery damage has occurred, chlorine has starts to fill the submarine if ventilator hull-valves are closed. This produced coughing crew sound effects, and necessitates surfacing and ventilation before a lethal concentration is reached. Bridging cells may be undertaken and continued whenever bilge water is less than 1m3? Bridging cells is something the captain can order which will work, unless the bilge water exceeds 1m3, at which point he may longer do this, and surfacing is the only possibility. Ability for chief to obtain a reading of number of cells cracked and bilge acidity.

Loss of instrumentation lights, both for back-lit electrical instruments, and internally lit pressure instruments.

Loss of gyros for gyro compass. Captain has the ability to determine approx position and heading from stars or sextant use. (figural) IMPLEMENTED - sort of!

Crew wounding - broken arms/shoulders or head-wounds. Once dressed by another crewman, if arm broken, then controls operation is slower and more awkward. Head-wound reduce vision/hearing. Visible slings or bandages on wounded crew, so that players may wish to replace (say) a Helmsman or Dive officer who can longer easily control their station.

Damage to one of more tubes, rendering one/some unusable. Minor but persistent leaking of one or more tubes, (when flooded).

Damage to radio or hydrophone gear, deck and flak gun. Possible to repair when surfaced.

Damage to optics of Periscopes, but not UZO. Cracking of lens, or complete dislocation of a mirror or lens within. Not repairable (in less than 3 hours)

Creation of "mess" throughout the boat, clothes/blankets on the floor in front torpedo room, books or other personal items in two crew compartments, food, tins (rolling about?) kitchen utensils in kitchen; opened locker doors in any compartment with them. Broken tables where they exist.

Damaged main-ballast tanks, creating oil trail an escort may follow in daylight. inability to blow a given tank completely, requiring compensating blowing of negative or trim tanks.

Feel free to add your own!