You can learn a lot from a dummy

[Platapus]

And I am just the dummy to teach it to you.

Let me recap my latest mission so that, perhaps, some of our less experienced Captains can learn what not to do.

There I was, no Shi.... well this is a true story.

Patrolling near the East China sea. Saw nothing. Not even a seagull.

Decided to patrol a little more south closer to the Philippines. Always some traffic down there.

Detect “small convoy”. Great Probably some fishing boats. I plot an intercept course. Soon my lookouts see two ships. Some convoy! Almost guaranteed to be two fishing boats.

Soon I can see through the binoculars that these are two merchant ships steaming at about 15 knots. My keen rapier combat honed mind quickly determines that these are not fishing boats.

I try to set up an end run to set up a fast 90 attack.

Now every one knows that if you are tracking merchant ships it is advisable to keep the merchant ships in view, confident that while you can see them, they won’t see you. This way you can work out a very accurate speed and course calculation.

So naturally, I set up my dog leg to where I lose visual contact. First mistake: Lose sight, lose the fight

Since I lost track of my targets I have only a rough estimate of speed and course. This makes the Fast 90 a bit more dicey.

Finally get in to what I hope is a good position and look at my targets.

Fast 90 not set up. Angle is wrong, my sub is still turning, ships are very close.

So what would a smart Captain do when he/she still has the element of surprise but is in a poor firing position? Well what a smart Captain would do is not important. What I did is hurry my shot.

Second mistake: If you still have the element of surprise and are in a bad position, don’t hurry your shot. Maintain surprise and regroup.

Well I blow four torpedoes on what I identified as a Large European Liner. OMG 18,000 tons right in front of me! And the escort behind it? That was a Medium Modern Passenger Liner 6,000 tons. Yup, I gots about 25,000 tons in front of me with no escort.

And I just blew the approach.

Well at least I can pump in a few worthless gun rounds to at least make me feel better. So I order surface and flank speed.

Gun crew starts throwing spit balls at the 18K tonner. shocker, they don’t seem to do much. But as I am slowly overtaking it, I am able to get a good solid plot. I fire two aft torpedoes at an extreme gyro angle and one hits.

Nice! Passenger liners don’t do well with torpedo holes, so I might have a chance of sinking this sucker. I continue to overtake and get a good set up for the last two aft torpedoes. I fire two torpedoes and one hits. Now this whale has two torpedo holes and about 100 mosquito bites from the deck gun. She is slowing down and already listing. This may take a while, but I think she is doomed.

Now to the second target.

Hmm where is the second target. Oh there it is, at about 270 relative about 2,000 yards away. By this time I have two torpedoes loaded up front, let’s see what we can do.

Range Mark 2700 yards, Bearing mark 285 degrees, AoB 0.

Let’s pause here for a pop quiz

Your target ship is at close range and has an AoB of zero. What should you be doing?

a. Plotting the torpedo attack
b. Evading

Times up. The correct answer is b.

When your target’s AoB is zero and it is at close range it is going to ram you!!!!

Of course at the time, I chose “a”.

Third mistake: When AoB = zero, consider evasive maneuvers.

6,000 tons of passenger liner traveling at about 16 knots imparts a considerable force when it impacts a 1,500 ton submarine trying to turn.

I did learn one interesting fact. The Gato hull was still intact when I passed 1,500 feet.

So I am issuing all the Captains a virtual WWPD bracelet for them to wear. When in a combat situation, you can always turn to me. Ask yourself: What Would Platapus Do ..... and do the opposite.

I have got to be the dumbest Captain in SH4. A sweet convoy and the results?

Sighted Sub, Sank Same.

[WarlordATF]

Great Post!

We always hear what we should do, but in alot of cases we don't know what we should'nt do.

I have made my fair share of mistakes also so don't be so hard on yourself.

Since you fessed up to that one, i'll have to share my story about how i was leaving pearl on my first patrol of a new campaign and went to periscope depth and drug the sub along the bottom of the channel and ended up fetching coffee for the Admiral for the rest of my career.

[Armistead]

I take it you're playing with contacts and cams off, but don't understand the out of sight problem. When I have them off I can track fine with radar out of sight and set up... Most the time I have to track almost out of radar range because escorts with radar or picking up my transmissions will come a calling fast. If I have a 0 AOB...I may risk a DTT if range is right....Not sure I understand you. If no radar, I just use sonar from out of sight until I get in front, then I'll get in closer to take a peek to correct tracking.

[Diopos]

A bit over confident, or over enthousiastic, or greedy and down you go ...

This is not a game, it's a "character builder"....





.

[tomoose]

You are not alone in making mistakes. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, LOL.
Hello, my name is Tomoose, I'm a (virtual) sub-driver, it has been two (virtual) weeks since my last sinking!
My embarassing story is sprinting ahead for an end run, getting carried away in getting into position, sitting waiting for my nice fat target only to check sonar many minutes later and realize the bugger is behind me (I cut the angle too quick, dove and sat there thinking he's still going to cross my bow when I've actually cut across his bow underwater and passed him............d'oh).

[les green01]

i have done that myself i start cussing myself even worst wasnt watching what i was doing and ran aground twice perfect carrerr right down the sink