Oooops, there goes the promotion

[vietvettwo]

I've been assigned to patrol the Sulu Sea. From my prior trips to and through the area I'm not expecting much. Usually single ships that you can chew up with the deck guns. Not the most exciting area to be assigned to, but not awful either.

I'm heading towards the star, at night, on the surface. Radar contact, go to max range and the screen is full of targets. Odd, but exciting. Once I get a visual I find a nice task force and an invasion force moving with them.

Thanks to the radar I'm able to get into a great firing position. I've got a Tambor class (6 forward/ 4 aft tubes). By the time the dust settled the score was:

2 Hiryo Carriers
1 Shokaku Carrier
1 Modern Liner
1 Hugh Liner

All sunk, two torps each. So much for the unescorted single ships, and the escort commander can probably kiss his next promotion goodbye.

[vietvettwo]

I've been assigned to patrol the Sulu Sea. From my prior trips to and through the area I'm not expecting much. Usually single ships that you can chew up with the deck guns. Not the most exciting area to be assigned to, but not awful either.

I'm heading towards the star, at night, on the surface. Radar contact, go to max range and the screen is full of targets. Odd, but exciting. Once I get a visual I find a nice task force and an invasion force moving with them.

Thanks to the radar I'm able to get into a great firing position. I've got a Tambor class (6 forward/ 4 aft tubes). By the time the dust settled the score was:

2 Hiryo Carriers
1 Shokaku Carrier
1 Modern Liner
1 Hugh Liner

All sunk, two torps each. So much for the unescorted single ships, and the escort commander can probably kiss his next promotion goodbye.

[Starforce3]

looks like you still should have some torps left. Going to bag some cruisers? Or did you just go for the largest vessels and go on to the next convoy?

[Magikhairbrush]

Are you running TMO? Because that seems to have ridiclously easy sinkings which would explain the two hits per ship...bet that yielded a lovely tonnage though! For a simulator I find it odd that htis game permits sinkages from even a single torpedo...anyone else got the feeling from historical reports that that was just not the case?

[Starforce3]

I've gotten a one hit kill on a large euro liner stock 1.4. Not uneard of, but assuming each ship has a sweet spot he could get lucky.

[ElAurens]

The Lusitania was sunk with just one torpedo.

http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/16x16_smiley-wink.gif

http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/7294/rmslusitania02qs7.jpg

http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/194/deckplannk4.jpg

[Starforce3]

they've not proven that. It may have been a mine. Additionaly, I believe it was this one (or was it the olympia) that was traveling with all the portholes opened to air it out (hospial oders suck) thus sinking it faster than the titanic.

[ElAurens]

It was the Olympic in the Med that had the port holes open.

[Starforce3]

ahh. Maybe that was also the one with the torpedo/mine debate..

[vietvettwo]

Let me explain the two torps sinkings. My original thought was two torps on each to stop them or slow them down, let the convoy keep moving while I reload, then use the rest of the torpedoes to finish them off.

I'm using stock 1.4, all ships caught fire when hit, and all either came to a full stop or dropped down to 2 or 3 knots.

While I was stooging around waiting for the boys to re-load the tubes the fires got bigger, and they all sank. Keep in mind, that with the realistic reload option on, getting all the tubes back on line is at least a 30 minute deal.

I've noticed (and posted) before that since 1.4, when using the deck gun, if you see the fires getting bigger, you can probably stop shooting, cause that sucker is going under, seems to be true for torpedoes as well. Again, let me stress, all ships showed visible fire, and it did not happen quickly.

[Syxx_Killer_05]

It was the Britannic in the Med that had the portholes open. The Lusitania was most certainly torpedoed. The torpedo triggered a more powerful secondary explosion. Some still debate if it was coal dust or illegal munitions, but the fact is simple - it was a single torpedo. A lot of people still debate what sank Britannic as well. Was it a torpedo or mine? I subscribe to the mine theory. A U-Boat was reported to have been minelaying in the area, and the sub's log books confirm that. What sank Britannic faster than her famous sister was a number of things. The watertight doors weren't able to be closed. The crew was making a shift change and used the doors to go through. They were open at the time and the explosion must have jammed them. Like was already mentioned, the port holes were open. The nurses were airing out the ship at the time. This all added up to the Britannic sinking in only 56 minutes. Lusitania sank in 18. Another piece of irony is that the Britannic's captain at the time of sinking, Charles Bartlett, had a hand in designing the ship's double hull and other safety improvements after Titanic sank.

[Magikhairbrush]

Apparently the Arizona sank in Pearl for the exact same reason...portholes open (that and the fact the governement sent the warning of immenent japanese attack by mail *lol*)

[Achtungbaby1976]

The aircraft carrier Ark Royal was sunk by a single torpedo, so it was certainly possible.

[Starforce3]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Magikhairbrush:
Apparently the Arizona sank in Pearl for the exact same reason...portholes open (that and the fact the governement sent the warning of immenent japanese attack by mail *lol*) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The arizona was hit by a bomb that either went down the stack or hit the munitions. Plus wasn't it also blown in half?

A single shell from the bizmark got the hood the same way.

[Wolferz]

I'm not sure if those old ocean liners had a sea chest like the new ones do. If they did and a torpedo hit in the general vicinity of it, the ship would probably go down rapidly.

[tomory2007]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Magikhairbrush:
Are you running TMO? Because that seems to have ridiclously easy sinkings which would explain the two hits per ship...bet that yielded a lovely tonnage though! For a simulator I find it odd that htis game permits sinkages from even a single torpedo...anyone else got the feeling from historical reports that that was just not the case? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Smaller merchant ships could be, and often were, sunk by a single torpedo. Large passenger liners normally took two, but could be totally disabled by one. Destroyers sank from a single hit, larger warships could generally absorb multiple torpedoes, although cruisers were thin-skinned and even single "fish" did them a lot of damage and might sink them, if the "fish" hit in the engineroom.