Torpedoes in WWII ?

The US Navy also had problems with magnetic exploders, this time in the Pacific. Some of the senior sub force commanders refused to accept that they didn't work as late as the second half of 1943, and ordered their continued use.

 

Very true.


It was noted by some of the sub commanders that the torps tended to explode only when they hit at a certain angle, and they didnt when they went straight and true!!!

 

Yep. Turned out that the firing pin was too heavy; when it was replaced with one made from aluminum, the torpedoes exploded properly. Ironically enough, during the trials, the pin that finally worked was made from metal salvaged from a Japanese plane shot down during the Pearl Harbor attack!

 

Torpedoes

Can anybody tell me what happened to the American (EXPERTS?) who refused to believe the reports and ordered the continued use of the faulty torpedoes.I believe the Germans in the same situation were punishes severely.

 

Re: Torpedoes

Score one for the Nazi system. Knowing democracies the gobshite Experts probably got promoted, hell if they'd been British they probably would have got knighthoods. :-?

 

And a consultancy job being the key link-man between the Ministry of Defence and arms manufacturers...
:roll:

At worst they would have been shunted sideways - can you imagine a nation in the midst of WW2 committing the propaganda suicide that would be the effective outcome of a court-martial for issuing torpedoes that do not even explode?
They would not let this happen, purely for the 'morale of the Home Front'.

The Nazis, obviously, could do all this much quieter, if they wanted...

 

Re: Torpedoes

Quite likely nothing happened to them. Although it is to be hoped that maybe one or two heads rolled.

 

Well, the essential thing is that the torps were corrected!

 

Re: Torpedoes

They probably got sent to the US Navy Weather Station in the Gobi desert. There really was one.
Or the Aleutians.

 

Re: Torpedoes

One can only hope. The flaws in the American torpedoes could have, and should have, been corrected at least six months earlier than they were, if not sooner. Many American submariners risked their lives unnecessarily by going on war patrols with weapons more dangerous to them than they were to the enemy.

 

Which resulted in many disasters and near disasters.

 

The Brits still use WW2 torpedoes, The won that sank the Belgrano in 1982 was a WW2 torp fired from 30 miles (or there abouts).

 

30 miles?
Are you sure on that?

 

Sorry.

I meant 3 miles, however that may have been 3 kms.

 

I commented on this in another topic (naturally, I can't remember which...). The captain of HMS CONQUEROR, the submarine which killed the GENERAL BELGRANO, used the WW2 torpedoes because the cruiser was a WW2 ship, complete with antitorpedo bulges and the like, and he feared that the modern Tigerfish torpedoes might not sink her. She still took something over two hours to sink, IIRC, but the Argentine destroyers that might have rescued the crew had run off.