This might help you , but you need an accurate estimate of the target speed. It would help very much if you placed yourself in a firing position so that your own course is 90 degrees to the target's track.
1) on a piece of paper, plot the location of your boat, pointing north.
2) draw a line at 90 degrees to your own track representing the track of the target.
3) assume your torpedo will hit the target when the target is directly in front of your boat, which would be at the intersection of your course and the target's track.
4) Range is NOT important here, but you must calculate how far the target will travel along its track in the time required for the torpedo to hit. Using whatever scale you decide to use, mark the point on the target's track where the target will be at the time of firing the torpedo. For example, if the intersection of your course and the target's track is 1,500 yds from your boat,your torpedo has a speed of 1,553 yds per minute ( 46 knots)
It will take your torpedo ..9653 minutes to travel the 1,500 yds to point of impact. In that period of time, your target travelling at 6 knots will travel 195yds.
On your sheet of paper, mark the spot on the target's course where the target will be, working backwards, at point of firing the torpedo.
5) Draw a line from your boat to the target. Then calculate the angle formed by the line of sight to the target and the line formed by the torpedo track, in other words, when the target is at the precise point that you calculated along its track, how many degrees of lead to you have to put on your torpedo to get a hit? In this example I came up with an angle of 7 deg.
ONce you determine that angle, it works no matter what the range is. So if the range is 500 yds, 1,000 yds, 1,500 yds, or 2,500 yds, if you have an angle on the bow of approx. 90 degrees, and the target is travelling at six knots, and you lead the target by 7 degrees, you will get a hit.
Once you work this out for the various target speeds you are likely to encounter, all you need to do is get an accurate target speed calculation and get into a firing position at 90 degrees to the target's track. Range becomed irrelevant at that point.
I hope this helps!
Joe S
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