Doubt about the G7e
 

Hello,

Just attacked a merchant. 3 of the torpedoes I threw at him either ran low or the magnetic pistol didn't activate. They were set at depths of 1m or less deeper than the draft of the ship, according to the diagram under the tubes selection window. The fourth one I sent much shallower with the impact pistol, but turned out to be a dud. The sea was almost flat, my target was around 40° off my bow with an AoB of around 120°, range between 2000-800m. I know the attack geometry was by far not ideal. Date November 1939.

Is this normal for the G7e? Is there a prefered depth for the magnetic pistol? Was it because of the attack geometry?

The game does attempt to simulate the German torpedo crisis, which was similar in nature to the US torpedo crisis. Uboat dot net has a small article:

Die Torpedokrise

If you like reading graduate school papers, here is one by David Habersham Wright, which is interesting:

WOLVES WITHOUT TEETH

What you encountered would be par for the course... unfortunately. Sometimes worse, sometimes better. The US, when they obtained a German G7e from the British, brought it home, and copied it verbatim, including the defects... sigh...

Okay that's just too funny... :D

1. Develop a groundbreaking but defective weapon.
2. Wait until your enemies steal it.
3. Remove defects.
4. Profit!

Awesome, it was really frustrating but I guess that's the point. Would you recommend using the G7a instead?

Not really... lol - Same head, same exploder, same basic controllers, so same basic troubles. The US knew they had issues with the Mark 14 torpedo prior to issuing their version of the G7e (the Mark 18), and the issues of erratic running, poor depth keeping, and the steering fins locking full port or starboard and then coming after the shooting submarine (or ship or plane) were with the US basically for the duration. Most of the Mark 14 issues were "mostly fixed" by 1944, but the 18 continued to sink the shooting subs to the end of the war. Why not install vane "limiters", to where the torpedo couldn't do a tight 360? Read those articles a little though, and it is befuddling and beyond belief what happened to the submarines and crews and who were initially blamed for the "crisis"... Kind of like having this expensive, pretty rifle, that has a rotating barrel that is warped. You just never really knew where it would shoot... or if maybe the torpedo wouldn't just drop straight to the sea floor, maybe run hot in the tube and just not launch, or the best one - detonate upon leaving the tube and causing damage to the shooting boat. Some skippers were relieved of command over their vociferous opinion of the torpedoes... Both German and US navies had very similar problems, and very similar reactions from their respective bureaus of ordinance. "It wasn't me! I didn't do it!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSxvE_c5AvY

Just in an attempt to answer your post, it is always possible that the ship is not fully loaded, or rough seas make the ship dance in the water, as a reason why the torpedo does pass underneath or doesn't explode. It is just too far underneath to activate the magnetic detonator. I always take 1-2 m off the draft and that usually does the trick. Also what happens is that you get the message it is a dud but the torpedo does explode on impact. If it passes too far below it falls to the bottom and explodes there. That happens a lot with these torpedoes. I followed them to see what happened with them