Quote:
Originally posted by Anton
Why did they do thay crazy camo on the ships? What was the thinking behind it?
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When you launch a torpedo (even today), you don't launch it at where the ship is now, but at where the ship will be when the torpedo gets there.
To calculate this (Let's assume no radar/sonar) isn't trival, and you use something called a "Position Keeper" (Note: I've worked on one a little bit)
When you take a sighting of the target (Think about the movies you've seen) The captain gives a "Mark" - That is your Zero time - you take the following readings
1)The angle to the target from your heading (aka, which way the periscope was pointing from your own bow)
2)Your own heading
3)The estimated range to the target - this requires that you know the height of the target (why they have target books)
4)The estimated speed of the target
5)The Direction the target is going - called "Angle on the Bow" - if he's pointing right at you, the angle on the bow is 0 deg, and goes clockwise from the TARGETS perspective
from items 1 and 2, you can calculate where the ship is (bearing wise) from you in real terms. Item 3 allows you to plot it on the map
Items 4 and 5 then allow you to figure out where he will be when your torps get there
The thing is, usually when you saw your target the first time, you were not in a position you could shoot! The running time/target position were such that you could not hit the target, so you took a guess
You would then try to get to a place where you COULD shoot. In the mean time, the Position keeper was keeping track of your moves, and where it thinks the target is. You then take another sighting. You take readings 1-5 again, and re-enter the readings into the PK - it would take it's estimate, and your new readings, and integrate to correct your old readings! (refine your estimates) - you could keep entering as many of the different readings, and it would estimate the rest
Well, if you could throw of the Angle on the Bow reading by eaven a few degrees, and the subs skipper went the wrong way, he might never catch up (remember, you might run down your batteries, and subs were slow)