One Torpedo, One Ship?

[Deep Dive]

If i remember well this was the moto of "Silent" Otto Kretschmer
Torpedoes were generally powerful enough to bring most ships down in most cases
There were many "duds" of course especially in the first years
Both Americans and Germans experienced various similar problems

[Sailor Steve]

American policy was to fire three torpedoes at most targets. Of course they carried 24 torpedoes, so they were ready for that.

Read Uboat.net's accounts of how many ships were hit by one German torpedoe and sailed away to tell about it. Also there are many accounts of one torpedo stopping the ship, and the u-boat giving it a 'coup-de-gras' several hours later. Or sank it with the deck gun. Or tried that and then delivered a second eel. And sometimes a third.

'One ship, one torpedo' makes a nice saying, but the German torpedoes didn't fare any better than the American ones did.

[Galanti]

It's an ironclad rule on U-56 right now in my Operation Monsun career, but only because she only carries five of them. I go for magnetic keel shots as much as possible.

In my RFB campaign, Christ, I'll empty the whole bow at one little Maru to compensate for deep-runners, duds and my general ineptness.

I think Steve's right, plenty of ships went down to one fish, but it was by no means the majority.

On the other hand, we'll never know how many went down to multiple fish where just one would have sufficed.

[Jimbuna]

http://www.modelshipmaster.com/produ...rines/U-99.htm

In the first four patrols of the U-99, Kretschmer started striking convoys at night on the surface, taking down merchant ships with highly accurate shots, using only one torpedo per target ship in order to save ammunition, and the quote "One torpedo ... one ship" is attributed to Kretschmer from around this time.

[Bubblehead1980]

Thanks for the replies.One thing I hope is possible in SH 5 is to be able to get inside the convoys as real U boats did.I never played SH 3, was this possible?

[ReFaN]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Thanks for the replies.One thing I hope is possible in SH 5 is to be able to get inside the convoys as real U boats did.I never played SH 3, was this possible?

done it once or twice, but after you hit something you would probably die very quick from the Merchants guns :P

[Snow White Sorrow]

Originally Posted by ReFaN

done it once or twice, but after you hit something you would probably die very quick from the Merchants guns :P

I love to slip in at night, stormy seas, or bad weather and fire torpedoes literally in all directions at once.

In those conditions (<600 yards visibility) the game does not allow auto target tracking so its pure manual TDC work, and draw your own paper plot.

Skulk around, plot convoy formation (hope they don't zigzag or you'll likely get rammed without warning), fire on bearing beyond visual range.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Thanks for the replies.One thing I hope is possible in SH 5 is to be able to get inside the convoys as real U boats did.I never played SH 3, was this possible?

Under ideal nightime conditions (certainly in GWX3.0 anyway) it was possible, but because of the close proximity of the merchants and escorts it was best practice to dive deep as soon as you emptied your tubes.

[Méo]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Under ideal nightime conditions (certainly in GWX3.0 anyway) it was possible, but because of the close proximity of the merchants and escorts it was best practice to dive deep as soon as you emptied your tubes.

Maybe, but if we are back to the ''one torpedo, one ship'' seems to me like this motto was almost impossible to achieve in GWX 3.0.