Almost sunk by my own torpedo!

cawimmer430 · 08-29-10, 04:24 AM

It's early May 1945. I had just completed a patrol in my IXC and was returning home via north of Scapa Flow. Halfway between Scapa Flow and Wilhelmshafen, during a particularly dark night with no moon, my crew makes out an enemy warship, a destroyer, patrolling at extremely low speed. An odd place for a warship to be all by itself. Nevertheless, I had one torpedo left - a Zaunkonig II, so I decide to use it on this ship. I go to flank speed on an interception course. A few kilometers in front of him, I go to periscope depth and wait for him to come near me. He's about a kilometer away when I fire my torpedo.

The destroyers passes me at a distance of about 800 meters and doesn't detect me. But neither does my torpedo hit him. As he cruises out of range, I surface the boat and go on a new course for home. All of a sudden there's a big explosion to my port side. I get the usual flooding messages as well as a few dead and wounded crew members. Both my sonar and radio operators are dead, weapons officer is dead and everyone else in the bridge compartment is wounded badly.

Since I have seven experienced petty officers with the repair qualification as well as an experienced commander, we quickly get the flooding under control. Nevertheless, sonar, hydrophone, forward and rear batteries, observation and attack scope and radio are destroyed. I can't travel submerged anymore. Great.

Still, I manage to make it back to Wilhemshaven and the war ends for me.

Man, almost sunk by my own torpedo. What a bummer that would have been to have survived the war and then be sunk by the last torpedo you're ever going to fire in this bloody war!

Synthfg · 08-29-10, 06:02 AM

Ouch

Almost had something similar the other day,
Early 44 SW of Ireland had a destroyer barrelling in on me at 28kts,
Fired a type V homing at around 1500m, it missed its first pass and turns to follow the warship.

Me sitting at PD to watch the fireworks now has a destroyer 500m away coming straight at me still at 28kts, with a type v following 100m behind,
hard turn and crash dive ordered,

fortunately the eel caught him 50m short of me

Brag · 08-29-10, 08:29 AM

Congratahoochies for surviving the war and Bernard.

HW3 · 08-29-10, 11:30 AM

The Zaunkonig II is an acoustic torpedo, meaning the target ship must be moving faster than 9-10kts for the torpedo to home in on it. If your sub makes more noise than the target ship, the torpedo will home in on you instead.

TabbyHunter · 08-30-10, 07:48 AM

Someone has a picture of their own torpedo circling around at them, veiwed from the periscope. Its a good pic. Personaly, this has happend to me once, in a XXI. I was testing the diferant torpedo types in a single mission, and had realism low so i could track the torp on the attack map. Going 5 knots, im fine, untill a DD picks me up, and i go flank. The torpedo turns on both of us, and i dive the boat. Switching to external, i watch the torp sail about a meter over the stern of my boat, and smack the Tribal for a dead center bow shot.

The next day i do this again, and forget to slow down. Abandon ship, though we did fight the flooding for a while.

K-61 · 08-30-10, 10:03 AM

Does GWX simulate Foxers? In real life the U-boats enjoyed an initial success against escorts using acoustic homing torpedoes but the Allies soon countered with the Foxer noise making apparatus and it was back to square one.

cawimmer430 · 08-31-10, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HW3

The Zaunkonig II is an acoustic torpedo, meaning the target ship must be moving faster than 9-10kts for the torpedo to home in on it. If your sub makes more noise than the target ship, the torpedo will home in on you instead.

Which is surprising why it hit me in the first place. At the end of the day it's a computer game we're playing, but I suppose the sounds my submarine was making, even at low speeds, attracted the attention of the ZK2.

cawimmer430 · 08-31-10, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brag

Congratahoochies for surviving the war and Bernard.

I "dumped" Bernard at sea very early in my career. Didn't want to take any risks!

cawimmer430 · 08-31-10, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synthfg

Ouch

Almost had something similar the other day,
Early 44 SW of Ireland had a destroyer barrelling in on me at 28kts,
Fired a type V homing at around 1500m, it missed its first pass and turns to follow the warship.

Me sitting at PD to watch the fireworks now has a destroyer 500m away coming straight at me still at 28kts, with a type v following 100m behind,
hard turn and crash dive ordered,

fortunately the eel caught him 50m short of me

That was close! But you made it!

08-29-10, 04:24 AM	#1
cawimmer430 Torpedoman Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 114 Downloads: 3 Uploads: 0	Almost sunk by my own torpedo! It's early May 1945. I had just completed a patrol in my IXC and was returning home via north of Scapa Flow. Halfway between Scapa Flow and Wilhelmshafen, during a particularly dark night with no moon, my crew makes out an enemy warship, a destroyer, patrolling at extremely low speed. An odd place for a warship to be all by itself. Nevertheless, I had one torpedo left - a Zaunkonig II, so I decide to use it on this ship. I go to flank speed on an interception course. A few kilometers in front of him, I go to periscope depth and wait for him to come near me. He's about a kilometer away when I fire my torpedo. The destroyers passes me at a distance of about 800 meters and doesn't detect me. But neither does my torpedo hit him. As he cruises out of range, I surface the boat and go on a new course for home. All of a sudden there's a big explosion to my port side. I get the usual flooding messages as well as a few dead and wounded crew members. Both my sonar and radio operators are dead, weapons officer is dead and everyone else in the bridge compartment is wounded badly. Since I have seven experienced petty officers with the repair qualification as well as an experienced commander, we quickly get the flooding under control. Nevertheless, sonar, hydrophone, forward and rear batteries, observation and attack scope and radio are destroyed. I can't travel submerged anymore. Great. Still, I manage to make it back to Wilhemshaven and the war ends for me. Man, almost sunk by my own torpedo. What a bummer that would have been to have survived the war and then be sunk by the last torpedo you're ever going to fire in this bloody war!

08-29-10, 08:29 AM	#3
Brag Navy Seal Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Docked on a Russian pond Posts: 7,072 Downloads: 2 Uploads: 0	Congratahoochies for surviving the war and Bernard. __________________ Espionage, adventure, suspense, are just a click away Click here to look inside Brag's book: Amazon.com: Kingmaker: Alexey Braguine: Books Order Kingmaker here: http://www.subsim.com/store.html For Tactics visit:http://www.freewebs.com/kielman/

08-29-10, 11:30 AM	#4
HW3 Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Gresham Oregon Posts: 6,574 Downloads: 458 Uploads: 0	The Zaunkonig II is an acoustic torpedo, meaning the target ship must be moving faster than 9-10kts for the torpedo to home in on it. If your sub makes more noise than the target ship, the torpedo will home in on you instead. __________________ "Some ships are designed to sink...others require our assistance." Nathan Zelk

08-30-10, 10:03 AM	#6
K-61 Grey Wolf Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Ontario Posts: 795 Downloads: 39 Uploads: 0	Does GWX simulate Foxers? In real life the U-boats enjoyed an initial success against escorts using acoustic homing torpedoes but the Allies soon countered with the Foxer noise making apparatus and it was back to square one. __________________

08-29-10, 06:02 AM	#2
Synthfg Sparky Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 154 Downloads: 64 Uploads: 0	Ouch Almost had something similar the other day, Early 44 SW of Ireland had a destroyer barrelling in on me at 28kts, Fired a type V homing at around 1500m, it missed its first pass and turns to follow the warship. Me sitting at PD to watch the fireworks now has a destroyer 500m away coming straight at me still at 28kts, with a type v following 100m behind, hard turn and crash dive ordered, fortunately the eel caught him 50m short of me

08-30-10, 07:48 AM	#5
TabbyHunter Ensign Join Date: May 2010 Location: Pandora. Not the blue cat people Pandora... Posts: 227 Downloads: 52 Uploads: 0	Someone has a picture of their own torpedo circling around at them, veiwed from the periscope. Its a good pic. Personaly, this has happend to me once, in a XXI. I was testing the diferant torpedo types in a single mission, and had realism low so i could track the torp on the attack map. Going 5 knots, im fine, untill a DD picks me up, and i go flank. The torpedo turns on both of us, and i dive the boat. Switching to external, i watch the torp sail about a meter over the stern of my boat, and smack the Tribal for a dead center bow shot. The next day i do this again, and forget to slow down. Abandon ship, though we did fight the flooding for a while.