Shot in the Dark...well, in the fog

[CapnDon]

One of my hardest problems to solve was shooting a target in the fog. From my experience, "light fog" in the weather report means no visibility beyond 500 yards. Well, what that actually means is that anything you can pick out in the fog beyond 500 yards won't lock in the TBT or Periscope (using L). However, since the torpedo firing calculation in the TDC does not require a lock, only accurate bearing, range, AOB, and speed, I spent some time working on my solutions.

I was 150 nm south of Tokyo Bay in light fog during daylight. Sound contact was gained to the south on a merchant moving north, towards me. Remaining on the surface I pointed the contact to begin tracking.

After plotting the sound bearings, I determined the contact was approximately on course 020 at about 12 knots. I dialed that into the TDC and continued tracking.

After tracking the contact for about a half hour, I refined the course to 018 at 12 knots. Remaining on the surface, with the thought that the target would never see me in the fog, I positioned about 800 yards to the west of the target's track and waited, cruising at about 3 knots.

I had determined that when the target reached a relative bearing of 345 it would be at 1000 yards and chose that as my firing bearing. Sure enough, the sound contact moved along that line and when I saw the loom of the target in the TBT, I tracked it until it reached bearing 345. I quickly set 1000 yards into the TDC and fired a single torpedo.

To my surprise, it hit and the target immediately blew up, sinking with only a single torpedo. The torpedo was set at 7 feet at high speed. I rarely sink ships with a single torpedo. I was ready to fire a second shot, but was able to hold off.