Manual targeting is hard for me

[Pisces]

So basically you are saying let the ship pass directly in front of my sub (bearing 000)???? Don't you then miss the shot? Or do I then, now having the speed, have to go race in front of them again for a shot?

Yes, in such a situation you have figured out the speed, but too late to make use of it.

What Snestorm forgot to mention was that you can turn your uboat towards the target until the bow or tail is right infront of the target. Then with the periscope line at 0 (or 180) you do the time measurement. (now your speed won't influence the result because it's also along the periscope center-line) Afterwards when you're done you can turn back perpendicular to the target track. Depending on how close you are you may not have the time to do this. But you don't need to do this when close to the target track at all. (where his bearing changes quickly) You can do it whenever you see an AOB between 30 and 150 and are quite far away. Like during the time you are trying to get ahead of him. Just temporarily turn towards him.

As for the number crunching. It's pretty 'simple'. Just divide target length in meters, by time in seconds. Then times 2 and you have knots. The accurate m/s-to-knot conversion factor is 1.944, which is 3600 seconds divided by 1852 meters. But you'll appreciate the simplicity of a nice round number I'm sure.

Are you saying all I have to do is set AOB to 90, lock my TDC at 000 periscope bearing, then turn the periscope until I have a 000 gyroscope reading, and then shoot when the ship crosses the reticule?

Exactly!! You seem to know how to do the right thing, or know what's what. Speed is the most critical value. As it defines directly the amount of lead. The only situation where speed is not important is when you fire a down-the-throat or up-the-butt shot. You'll have to be ON the target track for that. However, as soon as the torpedo is spotted the target can evade by just a slight coursechange. So not very desirable.

Uncertainty of the other values (AOB and range) can be neutralised or migitated by firing with 0 gyro angle AND shooting perpendicular to the target track. (which means the sub should also be perpendicular to the track) But now uncertainty of the speed has the biggest impact on lead. That is the life of a Uboat Kaleun unfortunately. But luckily the above mentioned speed measurement method is quite accurate. And even in a historical sense. They had a moving line in the scope optics that was synchronised with the gyrocompass. Any slight turn and the line moved against it.

[maillemaker]

Since fixed wire method takes mere seconds instead of 3 minutes and 15 seconds,

OK, what is the "fixed wire method"?

nevermind, I see it.

Steve

[ryanglavin]

Originally Posted by maillemaker

OK, what is the "fixed wire method"?

nevermind, I see it.

Steve

To be honest, I don't usually use the fixed wire method, as getting the 3

minutes 15 seconds is easily attainable at ranges above 9000 M, so you can

angle yourself to get a perfect shot while attaining its speed. The issue I have

with the fixed wire method is I have to get speed then do an attack run,

instead of doing both at the same time.

[BillCar]

As I mentioned above, you can do an attack run while doing the fixed wire method. I do it all the time. It does not matter what angle the ship is relative to you, so you can travel towards it from the front (almost head on), do fixed wire, and make your shot. If you need to turn more towards its track, well, hit hard rudder until you're roughly on the right track, and then fire. That adds a couple seconds, at most.

When I do it this way, it is rare for me to take more than a few seconds between getting the speed and firing the torpedoes. It is done in one run.

If approaching from behind, you're going to have to overhaul the target anyway to shoot from 90 degrees, so I don't see how that takes any more time, either. Briefly turn towards the ship. Take speed bearing(60 seconds or less, often times 20 or less). Turn the U-boat back to parallel course. Finish overhauling. Turn U-boat one last time. Fire. You're going to overhaul and close distance anyway, might as well get some immediate, up-to-date information while doing it.

[Joe Bob]

The things that have made all the difference to me is the AOB tutorial mentioned earlier in the thread and making a Submarine attack course finder.
I shoot from such short ranges that distance doesn't seem to matter.

As far as speed goes if a convoy is slow then its going to be 6 or 7 knots. I put in 6.5 knots and do fine. Again the short range may help there.

It may not be perfect but I have found it very useful to be able to make snap shots like that, particularly in poor visibility. Printing that AOB tutorial as a reference doubled my accuracy.

[maillemaker]

I have installed the hitman optics.

Question:

How do you toggle manual TDC data entry without going F6?

Steve