Cant Attack Docked Harbor Units

[bill clarke]

Well I am on my first patrol in a type IIA after having to do a complete reinstall after an agonising upgrade.
So I have snuck in to Hartlepool harbour and there is a C2, docked, a small merchant anchored at the mouth of the harbour, and a T3 docked. Well I wanted to get the T3, so I manouvered around to line up a shot. I was sailing on a roughly 90 degree course to the position that the T3 was docked in and I fired a eel at him, at about 500 mts, set to impact, worked perfectly the eel exploded just behind the bridge starting a fire, but no sinking. So I launched a second eel at the tanker, this time it hit home forward of the bridge, but without sinking it....

So expecting the V&W that was patrolling nearby to come after me I set course out of the harbour, but as I left I put my 3rd eel in to the small merchant, sinking him.

So can the docked ships be sunk ? surley 2 eels should have done the job..

[Hondo314]

Originally Posted by bill clarke

So I have snuck in to Hartlepool harbour and there is a C2, docked, a small merchant anchored at the mouth of the harbour, and a T3 docked. Well I wanted to get the T3, so I manouvered around to line up a shot. I was sailing on a roughly 90 degree course to the position that the T3 was docked in and I fired a eel at him, at about 500 mts, set to impact, worked perfectly the eel exploded just behind the bridge starting a fire, but no sinking. So I launched a second eel at the tanker, this time it hit home forward of the bridge, but without sinking it....

So expecting the V&W that was patrolling nearby to come after me I set course out of the harbour, but as I left I put my 3rd eel in to the small merchant, sinking him.

So can the docked ships be sunk ? surley 2 eels should have done the job..

Bill:

I too have had difficulty sinking tankers in port in my IID with minimal numbers of eels. Following a shot to the engine room with impact pistol which creates the secondary explosion you described, the stern hits bottom preventing sinking. After much experimentation, I have had the best luck as follows. Firing one eel at 10 m (1/2 m below keel) under the aft edge of the forward superstructure (forward of midships) breaks the back 30% of the time. The 1/2 m is important b/c with 1 m below keel depth, the back doesn't break as often (I didn't finish the calculation once I saw the probability was less than 30%). If the back doesn't break, a second eel set to impact hitting the engine room increases the probability of sinking by 30% (60% probability with 2 fish).

I was hoping a single eel on impact to the engine room would be sufficient in deeper water, and I am in the middle of attacking a convoy just departing Southend. Even in deep water , one eel to the engine room with impact pistol complete with secondary explosions still didn't sink a T2. It was dead in the water and I finished it with a second fish (no deck gun on my IID) at 10 m and magnetic pistol under the forward half of the forward superstructure.

There are many posts reporting 90% sink probabilities for T2s with one fish, but I can't duplicate those results. I don't know how much GWX, convoy mods, or ship model mods may be affecting the results. I'm using 1.4b patched vanilla right now before switching to GWX so I can appreciate the difference.

Anyone else perfected the one-eel technique for tankers? Please include torp depth, location of detonation (as accurately as possible, but tough to see when evading escorts), and mods.

[TarJak]

Try using some of the techniques in this tutorial. It might help...

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=96843

[Hondo314]

Originally Posted by TarJak

Try using some of the techniques in this tutorial. It might help...

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=96843

Thanks. Good tutorial by the way. I read and posted in that thread already. I'm okay with the infiltration part. I don't have the trouble with C2's that many people do. It's those tankers that are scarfing down my eels. In deep water with a VII or IX, I can just hit the engine room to disable them and finish with a deck gun at my leisure, but that's not possible in port with my canoe. Maybe a 30% single-eel rate is as good as it gets.:hmm:

[TarJak]

Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice!