Hi Kurt,

The average for shots taken by U-boats may have been closer to 400 meters than 1000 meters unless you are talking only about the end of the war. The Japanese may have averaged 1,000 meters per shot though.

It may also depend on the commander (or IWO if it was a surfaced firing). I have looked at most torpedo firings by U-126 and shots of 1,000 meters were were not the average for him. Many were closer to the 400 meters they were trained to fire from. Most of the other KTBs I have reviewed are exactly the same too although Bauer did take some shots from over 1,000 meters. The torpedo that sank the SS Barbara just before my dad's ship was attacked was fired from an estimated 1,200 meters which turned out to actually be 1,100 meters. The next two he fired were at my dad's ship and they were fired from an estimated 400 meters (actually 500 meters according to the torpedo report) - and the ship was still able to outmaneuvered them both. The final shot was taken at a bit over 500 meters but the ship was stopped and already sinking from gunfire by then. The SS Lehigh was sunk from a much longer distance though.

Additionally the range is generally specified in the KTB. The U-boat commanders always estimated or tried to measure the distance to the target as it had to be input to the torpedo data computer. Although Herbert Ritschel seems to have omitted that info in his abbreviated KTBs I have generally found it in the full KTBs I have looked at (which really isn't that many though). For example: “Schuß. Vg 12 E 400, Tiefe 3, Lage 90” translates to “Torpedo fired, target speed 12 knots, distance to the target 400 meters, torpedo depth set for 3 meters, angle on the bow 90 degrees” in English. It is also included in the torpedo reports Eric has mentioned. In addition they timed the shot and included the time that the torpedo traveled in the torpedo reports so the actual distance could be calculated and compared to their estimate. Presumably U-boat commanders (or IWOs) that routinely missed at 400 meters might have some explaining to do as would those that fired at 4,000 meters if they could have gotten closer. This was covered in the debriefing after each war patrol. The tactic was to get as close as you could to ensure a hit without endangering your boat "excessively".

Later in the war they couldn't get as close to their target as they could earlier so the shots were necessarily at longer range - unless of course they were firing from inside a convoy. I would expect to see some very long shots under those circumstances. Also some of the shots fired at a closer target missed but hit a target at a longer range when shooting at a convoy so even the actual distance traveled by the torpedo can be misleading. The torpedo reports would be the most accurate documents to review for average distance to target information and I don't yet have all of them for U-126 though.

Regards,

Ken