Quote:
Originally Posted by derstosstrupp
Point of clarification here from a historical standpoint. The first watch officer delivered the values to the TDC operator (who was the chief bosun, there was no “weapons officer”) for surface attacks under the supervision of the commander, but for submerged attacks all of the data gathering and targeting was on the shoulders of the commander.
That said however, the data was usually gathered even for surface attacks even before the first watch officer or commander put his eyes to the optics. And that was done typically by matching course and speed (called “Ausdampfen”), and was a joint effort between the commander, the first watch officer and the navigator. When the first watch officer put his eyes to the UZO, he was simply refining the values at that point. Same for the commander at the scope when submerged.
So indeed a joint effort, but something the commander was directly involved in.
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Mungojerry, matching course and speed as mentioned is a big step and easy to do too via just your own eyes (binoculars, uzo assisted). Keep it simple, no need to make things a math/physics experiment. It only takes a short time to do. Even when it's not summertime.
Once you have course and speed, you're set for the attack.