How do you feel about those homing torpedoes?

[ricardo]

So I just got those sonar tracking torpedoes. I found a convoy who's escorts were busy with some other uboat. I lined up shots on four ships, aiming at the farthest first to get a near simultaneous hit on 3 or 4 of them. Usually 1 torp is enough, and it feels good to do things by the numbers.

So I fired all my torps, and was very surprised to see them ALL go toward the closest ship! I thought these guys would fudge their aim a little if it was a near miss, but they won't even let you aim at anything else but the closest ship.

So I hit the one little merchant ship with 2 of the torpedoes, then once it sunk the others changed course to go after the other ships! That's some sci fi stuff right there.

Is this adjustable? I'm not sure I can use these, or at least Ill have to do it very differently. What do you think about them?

[Mouse Rat]

Ridiculously overpowered.
Drive my sub at forward 1 INTO the convoy at 50m deep.
Use a speed zero TDC setting while sending them manually from the TDC on the sound bearing on the nearest tankers, or merchants.
Make sure your optic isn't linked to the TDC or you have to rotate the optic to the relative bearing even if you are 50m deep, if it's unlinked you just have to mouse wheel over the bearing dial.

One by one. Wait for the explosion. Send the next.

If i get pinged drop a decoy and keep shooting till i run out of torps.

Then hide and wait out the defenders, when i can't hear them close, i go periscope depth, then surface and use the engineer perks to blow the surfaced wrecks or the gun.

By hearing them close i mean literally from the sub view, you can hear them if they are close, then confirm with the hydro stations ranges button once you can't hear them directly from the sub.

Some of them rush back to defend and try to kill you , if you get greedy with surfacing to early.

Feels a little bit cheaty.

[grei209ks]

I usually use “acoustic” torpedoes (which I usually keep in the aft compartment) to hit corvettes and destroyers when I have to fight them off in a desperate situation.
Once I was making a torpedo attack at periscope depth and for quite a long time. A destroyer was coming up fast behind me, which I fired an “acoustic” torpedo at, and then suddenly found a merchant ship coming straight at me, ready to crush me. Instead of diving, I “throttled up”. I put it in “full throttle” and started to move away from a possible collision. So, my “acoustic” torpedo turned and aimed at me. Not the ship in question, but me. I saved myself by going deep enough. It turned out that the merchant ship had been hit by me earlier, and the ship (which was no longer making any noise) was simply carried by the current towards me.

[grei209ks]

And there was also the time I hit (accidentally) a friendly submarine with my “acoustic” torpedo. Afterwards, when I returned to port, my submarine, along with all the innocent crew, was shot from coastal guns.
My point is that one should be careful and prudent in handling “acoustic” torpedoes.

[wolf310ii]

Originally posted by ricardo:

So I hit the one little merchant ship with 2 of the torpedoes, then once it sunk the others changed course to go after the other ships! That's some sci fi stuff right there.

No, the scifi stuff is that you think the acoustic torpedos were so sophisticated that they lock on preselected specific targets, like an AGM 65 Maverick or AIM 9 Sidewinder, and do calculate intercept courses on their own.

After the hydrophone is activated, they go after the first/loudest noise they pick up, they dont calculate the distance or the speed of the target, all they they do is, they use hard left and right rudder to keep the noise in the center until the magnetic or contact fuse is triggered

[Feltan]

I kind of like them. In fact, I'll go to sea with, say, 12 of 16 torpedoes as the T5 model ... with a few T1/T3's to handle stationary/damaged targets. Seems to work well late in the war when even getting close to a convoy is a challenge.

[grei209ks]

Originally posted by Feltan:

I kind of like them. In fact, I'll go to sea with, say, 12 of 16 torpedoes as the T5 model ... with a few T1/T3's to handle stationary/damaged targets. Seems to work well late in the war when even getting close to a convoy is a challenge.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe it was long before the end of the war that the British learned how to counteract acoustic torpedoes. They tied a rope with “irritants” to the stern, which caused the torpedo to act prematurely. So by the end of the war, acoustic torpedoes would no longer be relevant.

[dbond1]

This was Foxer, a device towed behind the ship to make even louder cavitation noise to attract acoustic homing torpedoes.

[a_baby]

I use the acoustic torps for unique situation...
Use them as "fire and forget" (on the right target of course)
Fast moving Merchies (they'll catch up)
Fog and Rain (can't see the target, no problem)

I often use them in coordination with non-acoustic torps...target and fire an acoustic torp at a target, then also fire a non-acoustic. If timed right the acoustic torp will disable the ship's engine (slowing it down) so the non-acoustic torp can do it's thing.

Acoustic torps, due to their engine room targeting will very often also start a fire which then sinks the ship...only use one torp.

It seems like ships over about 5k GRT usually take 2 torps to sink reliably. Using the acoustic torp, due to its fire-igniting capabilities often only takes 1 torp. on these same ships.

Ships under 5k usually only take 1 torp to sink...using acoustic torps to target smaller ships assures a sunk merchie. (fire and forget)

Weather...this is where the acoustic torp really shines...in fog-bound solo ships & convoys. you only need to get the settings for acoustic torps "close enough" to head in the right direction until its internal hydrophone takes over and locates the target...range, bearing and speed don't matter nearly as much with acoustic torps.

I've always got 3-4 in the sub and load/Fire them when I want to use them. I never use them in the rear tubes though.

[grei209ks]

Originally posted by dbond1:

This was Foxer, a device towed behind the ship to make even louder cavitation noise to attract acoustic homing torpedoes.

Uh, thank you.
That's exactly what I was gonna say.

[ricardo]

So what I"m hearing is, they are great in certain situations, but really complicate some things. I think I like the idea of putting them in the back.

Originally posted by grei209ks:

So, my “acoustic” torpedo turned and aimed at me. Not the ship in question, but me. I saved myself by going deep enough. It turned out that the merchant ship had been hit by me earlier, and the ship (which was no longer making any noise) was simply carried by the current towards me.

The original Aces of the Deep game from the nineties had an interview with Otto Kretschmer, and he talked about always having to dive after releasing torpedoes, because of what he called 'circle runners'. Torpedoes would loop around and hit your boat sometimes, and boats were lost that way.

[Cryosis]

They are good, but I hate them. They turn nearly instantly, can perfectly lock onto any acoustic target within nearly a 180 degree arc in front of them, and they basically can't be evaded.

[grei209ks]

Originally posted by Cryosis:

They are good, but I hate them. They turn nearly instantly, can perfectly lock onto any acoustic target within nearly a 180 degree arc in front of them, and they basically can't be evaded.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. They're good. And you can only dodge them if you're at a safe distance and have enough time for the necessary maneuver. And experience is important, of course.

[El Rushbo]

Standard procedure was to fire then immediately dive deep and kill your engines. Without a visual reference, confirming sinkings was difficult. It was estimated to have about a 33% effectiveness. Let's see if they'll have it the other way around when the Yankees start dropping FIDOs on us.

[wolf310ii]

Originally posted by grei209ks:

They tied a rope with “irritants” to the stern, which caused the torpedo to act prematurely. So by the end of the war, acoustic torpedoes would no longer be relevant.

It didnt made the T5 irrelevant, because the Foxer had two big flaws.
It couldnt be deployed quickly, so it had already to be deployed befor the T5 was in the water, and because it was so loud, u-boats could detect convoys from much further away.
It also slowed down the towing destroyer and made it less manouverable.

[El Rushbo]

Originally posted by wolf310ii:

Originally posted by grei209ks:

They tied a rope with “irritants” to the stern, which caused the torpedo to act prematurely. So by the end of the war, acoustic torpedoes would no longer be relevant.

It didnt made the T5 irrelevant, because the Foxer had two big flaws.
It couldnt be deployed quickly, so it had already to be deployed befor the T5 was in the water, and because it was so loud, u-boats could detect convoys from much further away.
It also slowed down the towing destroyer and made it less manouverable.

By that stage in the war though, the U-boat threat was mostly neutralized. They still went out and sank some ships, but their impact on the war effort was completely mitigated.