Zig Zag-ing ships ..

[gevers1]

Aye aye. Yesterday, on our way back home to Kiel I spotted a wee tugboat off the Dutch coast. I had one torp left, so I thought I might as well put it to good use. I did the usual routing of plotting a course that put me ahead of the target, lined myself up at a 90 degree angle some 1.5km from the target path, all engines stopped, submerged and waited ... ....

Eventually the chug-chug-chugging of the tug came through the hydrophone, clear as a bell, precisely where I predicted he'd be. I start taking range, speed and AoB measurements and all is going to plan. Until ... for some reason, the tug starts veering all over the shop. He's zig-zagging across the surface like a drunk sailor on shoreleave and my measurements are all to p(l)ot. I followed him around for a while but it was hard to figure out where he was going to be from one minute to the next. So rather than waste an expensive torp, I called off the attack and went home.

So, my question then - how to deal with ships that rather unhelpfully do not sail in straight line ..?

the old beck gun is the best idea. or wait for perfect timing. depends on the year of the attack

[gevers1]

Originally Posted by magicsub2

the old beck gun is the best idea. or wait for perfect timing. depends on the year of the attack

I did think that too, but it's early in the war and my U-boat has no gun on it!

[Lanzfeld]

Are you saying he saw you and started the standard zig zag or something else?

[A Very Super Market]

The tugboat was proably patrolling for submarines. Obviously, he hadn't spotted you, but his randomn turning around means that he is on a standard coastal lookout, like the destroyers off of England.

[Keelbuster]

Zigzagging isn't such a big deal. The ships average course doesn't change, they just zag along that course. So your TDC solution is basically still correct. They do slow down a little bit I think (like half a knot), so you might adjust this in the TDC. However, the big thing with zagging is that the torpedo will probably not hit on a 90 degree angle anymore, so it might bounce off. In this case I set my torps to 1m under the keeldepth, going for the magnetic pistol keelbuster shot. That is, unless i'm so close that I know the torp will hit at approx 90.

[gevers1]

Originally Posted by Lanzfeld

Are you saying he saw you and started the standard zig zag or something else?

I'm not sure he saw me, i made sure to stay about 5km away from him while I was getting into position. For the 'base leg' (can you tell I also play Flight Sim a lot!) i submerged and approached at full speed. Mind you, it was daylight and a flat sea so ..

s.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Your periscope will leave a fairly noticable wake if you're running at flank speed. :hmm: Sounds like the good old Eyeball Mk I was put to good use.

[Piggy]

Originally Posted by gevers1

For the 'base leg' (can you tell I also play Flight Sim a lot!) i submerged and approached at full speed. Mind you, it was daylight and a flat sea so ..

s.

That was probably it, flat sea's, daylight and flank speed make it easy to spot that scope...

If he wasnt zigging prior to this at all then its safe to say he spotted you.

You should have kept the scope down and used an "ILS" approach...

[Jimbuna]

You should have taken your chances with a keel shot....better than returning with an unused eel :hmm:

[Laufen zum Ziel]

My tactic for zig-zaggers (100% sunk). I come in from
behind surfaced. At about 1000m I line up a AOB of
178=183 and at 600m fire a salvo of two with a very slight o/o
of seperation. 4 out of 4 sunk. Not sure that I would
waste a torp on a tug though. Most of mine have been
empire class freighters.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Empire freighters make much nicer targets than tugboats.


I hope to one day see one.

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