Manual Targeting Failure

Zosimus · 06-18-14, 12:44 PM

So I've started playing with 100 percent realism (under a new name so I can preserve my old games, if I choose). I was out for a cruise in my fine U-boat when night fell and, as usual, I went underwater. I figure I might be able to find things visually by day but at night hydrophone is better.

A few hours into my cruise I was rewarded with a contact: Merchant, closing, long range, slow. A look at the map showed me that it was somewhere to my SSE and a quick measurement with the protractor soon had me heading 167º at 2 knots. A couple of minutes later another contact showed the ship heading west and so I set course 225º, zoomed in, and dropped a mark on the contact location. Another minute later and I had the apparent ship course of 75 to port, which I worked out to be 285 and a quick line showed its apparent course. I set course for 270º and surfaced the boat.

Once I woke the watchman up and got him on lookout I calculated a line that would intersect and set course at 10 knots. About 5 minutes later I had success: Ship spotted. So I zoomed in, and dropped a mark on its location and started the stopwatch. 3:15 later I placed another mark and measured: 0.7 heading 70º to port. A few minutes later I rechecked and found that the heading was closer to 69º and I drew a line across my map showing the merchant's course.

As I was already slightly ahead I picked some place up yonder and drew a perpendicular line and a circle with a radius of 0.6 and sent the ship gunning there at 14 knots. Along the way I thought better of that and sent the ship a little to the NE of that location with three waypoints leading me to my final location: The final two on the line of approach. As I drew close to my destination I slowed to 1 knot and maneuvered my way in quite slowly.

Despite my best efforts, I found that I drifted nearly 100m in towards the anticipated target, so I set the range at 500m, speed 7 knots, and raised the observation periscope a bit. The bearing was already at 0º and I set AOB 90º starboard and called for periscope depth. It takes awhile to get under when you are at all stop.

It was no more than a minute underwater and I got hydrophone contact and a line showing the merchant on the anticipated course. I raised the observation periscope and tried to find the ship, but I noticed the gyroangle wasn't updating. Worried, I returned the scope to 0º, hit F6 and rechecked my settings. Once done, I switched off of manual settings and went back to the observation periscope. At that point when I moved the scope I saw the gyroangle updating. Perfect!

All stop and waiting for the merchant to come into range everything seemed perfect. I lowered the observation scope and switched to the attack scope. I clearly saw the English flag and so I felt confident and when the gyroangle said 355 I flooded tube 1. At gyroangle 000 I clicked fire and hit F6. I watched proudly as my torpedo streamed out over the distance toward the target. It seemed perfect, at first, but the torpedo passed astern of the merchant.

I know you weren't there to see me, but any ideas what I might have done wrong?

06-18-14, 12:44 PM	#1
Zosimus XO Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Chorrillos, Lima, Peru Posts: 401 Downloads: 3 Uploads: 0	Manual Targeting Failure So I've started playing with 100 percent realism (under a new name so I can preserve my old games, if I choose). I was out for a cruise in my fine U-boat when night fell and, as usual, I went underwater. I figure I might be able to find things visually by day but at night hydrophone is better. A few hours into my cruise I was rewarded with a contact: Merchant, closing, long range, slow. A look at the map showed me that it was somewhere to my SSE and a quick measurement with the protractor soon had me heading 167º at 2 knots. A couple of minutes later another contact showed the ship heading west and so I set course 225º, zoomed in, and dropped a mark on the contact location. Another minute later and I had the apparent ship course of 75 to port, which I worked out to be 285 and a quick line showed its apparent course. I set course for 270º and surfaced the boat. Once I woke the watchman up and got him on lookout I calculated a line that would intersect and set course at 10 knots. About 5 minutes later I had success: Ship spotted. So I zoomed in, and dropped a mark on its location and started the stopwatch. 3:15 later I placed another mark and measured: 0.7 heading 70º to port. A few minutes later I rechecked and found that the heading was closer to 69º and I drew a line across my map showing the merchant's course. As I was already slightly ahead I picked some place up yonder and drew a perpendicular line and a circle with a radius of 0.6 and sent the ship gunning there at 14 knots. Along the way I thought better of that and sent the ship a little to the NE of that location with three waypoints leading me to my final location: The final two on the line of approach. As I drew close to my destination I slowed to 1 knot and maneuvered my way in quite slowly. Despite my best efforts, I found that I drifted nearly 100m in towards the anticipated target, so I set the range at 500m, speed 7 knots, and raised the observation periscope a bit. The bearing was already at 0º and I set AOB 90º starboard and called for periscope depth. It takes awhile to get under when you are at all stop. It was no more than a minute underwater and I got hydrophone contact and a line showing the merchant on the anticipated course. I raised the observation periscope and tried to find the ship, but I noticed the gyroangle wasn't updating. Worried, I returned the scope to 0º, hit F6 and rechecked my settings. Once done, I switched off of manual settings and went back to the observation periscope. At that point when I moved the scope I saw the gyroangle updating. Perfect! All stop and waiting for the merchant to come into range everything seemed perfect. I lowered the observation scope and switched to the attack scope. I clearly saw the English flag and so I felt confident and when the gyroangle said 355 I flooded tube 1. At gyroangle 000 I clicked fire and hit F6. I watched proudly as my torpedo streamed out over the distance toward the target. It seemed perfect, at first, but the torpedo passed astern of the merchant. I know you weren't there to see me, but any ideas what I might have done wrong?